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AWEJ for Translation & Literary Studies, Volume3, Number2.May 2019                                    Pp. 165-176

Drama, History, and Postcolonial Résistance in Northern Nigeria: A Review of Ahmed Yerima’s Attahiru

Faculty of Languages and Communication, Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin
21300 Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia

Mohd Nazri Latiff Azmi

Faculty of Languages and Communication, Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin
21300 Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia

Mubarak Ibrahim Lawan

Department of English and Literary Studies, Al-Qalam University Katsina, Nigeria 

Habibu Awais Abubakar

Kano State College of Education and Preliminary Studies, Nigeria

Abstract:

Abstract PDF

The relationship between history proper and African historical plays drew much attention of researchers in recent years. Many theatre scholars and playwrights argue that the value of these plays, which were primarily regarded as fiction or imaginative reconstruction of the past, may prevail over history. Theatre, which is considered the most symbolic form of art, can be historically educative and evocatively accurate. Based on the aforesaid arguments, this study aims to explore the dramaturgicals, theatricals or thespians used in Yerima’s Attahiru (1999) in order to repudiate and resist the distorted versions of the colonial history of Sokoto Caliphate in an effective and affective way. To achieve this aim, textual analysis is used by combining its important approaches: author-oriented approach and context-oriented approach. This analysis is significant because the researchers investigated the colonial resistance captured in the play through postcolonial theory. In addition, this paper explores the attitudes of the colonialist and the colonised reproduced in the play and how the play helps in the decolonisation process, as well as how the images of the damaged heroes are reconstructed in the play in order to restore national pride and integrity. The play reconstructs and corrects a seriously damaged and awfully misrepresented African spiritual leader, Caliph Attahiru of the old Sokoto Caliphate in Northern Nigeria.

Cite as:

Hassan, I. Azmi, M.N.L. Lawan, M.I., & Abubakar, H. A. (2019). Drama, History, and Postcolonial Résistance in Northern Nigeria: A Review of Ahmed Yerima’s Attahiru. Arab World English Journal for Translation & Literary Studies, 3 (2). 165-176

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Dr. Isyaku Hassan is a Post-Doctoral Researcher in the Faculty of Languages and
Communication, Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin, Malaysia. Isyaku holds a Bachelor of Science in
Mass Communication, an MA in English/Communication and a PhD in Communication. His area
of research interest includes Communication and Literature. c

Dr. Mohd Nazri Latiff Azmi is an Assoc. Prof. of English Language at Universiti Sultan Zainal
Abidin (UniSZA), Malaysia. He is a former Dean and Head of English Department in the Faculty of Languages and Communication, UniSZA. Nazri specializes in Literacy and Comparative
Literature Studies.

Mubarak Ibrahim Lawan works at Al-Qalam University Katsina, Department of English and
Literary Studies. He previously worked at Kano State College of Arts, Science and Remedial
Studies, Nigeria. He holds an MA in English Literature.

Habibu Awais Abubakar is a Principal Lecturer in the Department of English and European
Languages, Kano State College of Education and Preliminary Studies. He holds BA and MA
degrees in English and currently pursuing his PhD at Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin, Malaysia