The African Playwright as a Social Commentator: A Critical Examination of West African Dramatic Traditions

This paper critically examines the role of the West African playwright as a social commentator, analysing how selected dramatists from Nigeria and Ghana deploy drama to address pressing social, political, economic, and cultural concerns. Drawing on postcolonial theory and Marxist literary criticism as complementary frameworks, and employing a qualitative, purposive textual analysis, the study focuses on works by Wole Soyinka, Femi Osofisan, Ama Ata Aidoo, Efua Sutherland, Ola Rotimi, and Tess Onwueme. The findings are organised around four thematic domains of political corruption and leadership failure; colonial legacy and neocolonial critique; gender and patriarchy; and class struggle and economic inequality. The analysis demonstrates that West African playwrights consistently mobilise satire, allegory, myth, folklore, and Brechtian techniques to interrogate power and stimulate critical consciousness. The study's contribution lies in its cross-national comparative framework, which reveals a shared dramaturgical logic underpinning diverse national traditions. It concludes by arguing that this tradition constitutes a West African dramaturgy of commitment, offering a rich repertoire of strategies for community theatre performance in contemporary African contexts.