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Sophocles's Antigone and Osofisan's Tegonni: A Comparative Analysis

Article in Imbizo · August 2022

DOI: 10.25159/2663-6565/9708

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 Article

Sophocles’s Antigone and Osofisan’s Tegonni: A

Comparative Analysis
Clement Olujide Ajidahun
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9429-4817
Adekunle Ajasin University, Nigeria
jideajidahun@gmail.com

Abstract
This article is an intertextual study of Sophocles’s Antigone and Femi
Osofisan’s Tegonni: An African Antigone. The article critically interrogates the
ideological stance of both playwrights by discussing their historical
backgrounds. The prevalence of and justification for intertextual studies and
adaptations of classical plays by modern African playwrights are well
articulated in the article. The theoretical framework of the article is based on
postcolonial theory, which is essentially concerned with the influence and the
consequences of colonialism on the colonised. The article notes that
Sophocles’s Antigone promotes social injustice and the oppression of the poor,
which is exemplified in the tragedy of Antigone who symbolises the proletariat,
while Osofisan’s Tegonni presents a daring revolutionary whose duty is to fight
against the oppression of the poor and champion the liberation of the
downtrodden. The article notes, therefore, that the drama of Sophocles endorses
the theatre of the oppressor, while Osofisan promotes the theatre of the
oppressed in line with Augusto Boal’s concept of the theatre of the oppressed.

Keywords: adaptation; intertextuality; drama; Sophocles; Osofisan

Introduction
The reinterpretation and reconstruction of literary texts to speak to contemporary
societies have been the preoccupation of many African playwrights, such as Efua
Sutherland in Edufa (1967), Ola Rotimi in The Gods Are Not to Blame (1968), and Wole
Soyinka in The Bacchae of Euripides (1973). The emergence of Greek drama in Athens
and its overwhelming influence on drama globally have engendered the writing and
production of some modern West African plays. For instance, Femi Osofisan’s Who’s
Afraid of Solarin? (1978) is an adaptation of Nikolai Gogol’s Government Inspector
([1836] 1980) to reflect the contemporary sociopolitical issues bedevilling the Nigerian
society, which are akin to the issues of corruption and moral degradation that Gogol

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 Ajidahun

tackles in Communist Russia. The resemblance between the social problems in

Communist Russia and Nigeria is usually an exciting dramatic concern for
contemporary dramatists, which tends to give credence to the belief by scholars of
comparative studies that there are common areas of interest in literatures from different
locations (Jeyifo and Osofisan 2013).

Similarly, Osofisan’s Women of Owu (2009) is a scholarly adaptation of Euripides’s The

Trojan Women (2002). Both tragic plays present the horrors of war and the destruction
that accompanies it, while showing that women are most vulnerable because of their
gendered positioning as fragile, weak and defenceless people. Both plays share similar
mythological, ideological and thematic concerns even though their settings are different.
In the same vein, Osofisan’s Midnight Hotel (1985), which is a critique of the
sociopolitical decadence that characterised the Second Republic in Nigeria between
1979 and 1983 under President Shehu Shagari, is an adaptation of L’Hotel du Libre
Exchange (Hotel of Free Exchange) (Feydeau and Desvallieres 1984), a bedroom farce
written by George Feydeau, a French playwright, which pitches naivety against intrigue.
The play has been described as a comic opera. Osofisan has also adapted Shakespearian
plays such as Hamlet and The Merchant of Venice to make them socially and politically
relevant to the contemporary realities of Nigerian society. The myth of Antigone, the
history of colonialism and the contemporary democratic events in Nigeria influenced
Osofisan in writing Tegonni: An African Antigone (1999a).

This article is a comparative study of Sophocles’s Antigone and Femi Osofisan’s

Tegonni: An African Antigone. The article reads Tegonni as an adaptation of Antigone
and interprets it from the perspective of postcolonial theory, which is essentially
concerned with the influence and the consequences of colonialism for the colonised.

Synopses of Antigone and Tegonni

The play Antigone by Sophocles begins before the Palace of Thebes where Antigone
informs her sister, Ismene, of the order of Creon that Polynices, their brother, should
neither be mourned nor buried and whoever defies this order will be stoned to death.
Antigone solicits the support of Ismene to give Polynices a befitting burial in defiance
of the order of Creon, but Ismene refuses and explains why both of them should not
defy the order of Creon:

Now we two left; and what will be the end of us,

If we transgress the law and defy our king?
O think, Antigone; we are women; it is not for us
To fight against men; our rulers are stronger than we,
And we must obey in this, or in worse than this
May the dead forgive me, I can do no other
But as I am commanded; to do more is madness.
(Sophocles 1947, 128)

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In spite of Ismene’s words cautioning Antigone against provoking the anger of the
patriarchal powers in control of their lives, Antigone dares the consequences. She is
prepared to demonstrate her unwavering love for her dead brother even in the grave
because, according to her, the love for the dead should surpass love for the living
because eternity is the place of all mortals.

Creon is later informed by Sentry that Antigone has buried Polynices. Consequently,
Creon orders the death of Antigone. Antigone accepts her fate in a most pitiable
condition as she states: “[I] must go the way that lies before me. No funeral hymn; no
marriage-music; no sun from this day forth, no light, no friend to weep at my departing
… never a bride, never a mother, unfriendly, condemned alive to solitary death …
because I honoured those things to which honour truly belongs” (149–51). The play
ends on a tragic note with the suicidal death of Haemon, the son of Creon, who is also
the fiancé of Antigone, as well as the death of Eurydice, the wife of Creon, by suicide.
Eurydice dies as a result of the death of her son, Haemon. Creon, in utter regret, admits
his wrongs at the end of the play when he says: “My hands have done amiss, my head
is bowed with fate too heavy for me” (162).

In Tegonni by Osofisan, the dramatic actions of the play begin from part one with the
unfolding of Yemoja, the river goddess, in a boat with her female attendants to the bridal
procession, its interruption by the soldiers and the consequences of it. The tradition of
Oke-Osun demands that Tegonni as the daughter of the late king must salute the grave
of the late king on her wedding day. As the wedding procession continues with Tegonni
in high spirits, certain soldiers arrive claiming to be acting on instruction from Governor
Carter-Ross to stop the procession. The soldiers have been told to prevent anybody from
going near the corpse of Oyekunle, Tegonni’s brother, who died in his bid to succeed
his father. In the battle between Oyekunle and his brother, Adeloro, Oyekunle was
killed, and his corpse lies on the ground unburied on the order of the Governor.
Governor Carter-Ross has ordered that Prince Adeloro, the younger brother, be buried
with full honours while Oyekunle, the declared rebel, should be left in the public square
unburied. Anyone who attempts to bury him will be executed without trial. Yet, Tegonni
must pass through the same route and salute her father’s grave.

Tegonni defies the Governor’s orders and covers her brother’s corpse with earth. With
this step, the tension in the play rises. On the order of the Governor, Tegonni is arrested
along with her friends and detained without trial. With the intervention of the elders of
the town and the revolt of the women, Tegonni is released and thus the tyranny of
Governor Carter-Ross is brought to an end.

The Context of Tegonni

In writing Tegonni, Osofisan was deeply concerned about the obnoxious apartheid
regime in South Africa and the various acts of terrorism, intra-ethnic conflicts and inter-
ethnic violence in many African nations tacitly supported by some Western countries
for business and political interests (Osofisan 1999a, 8). The playwright was greatly
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concerned by the clampdown on pro-democracy activities by military dictators in

Nigeria to keep themselves in office while the poor masses continue to languish in abject
poverty (Osofisan 1999a, 10).

The playwright was also conscious of the British annexation of Lagos in the 19th century
and the invasion of Ijebu, a Yoruba kingdom in the South West geopolitical zone in
Nigeria. With this conquest, it became very easy for the British to capture other Yoruba
territories without shooting a bullet. Osofisan in an interview with Jeyifo (Jeyifo and
Osofisan 2013, 36–37) notes that the invasion of the hinterland by the British was

a response to massive pressure from the local population itself, from the Lagos
merchants and the Christian missionaries in places like Abeokuta and Ijaye. … These
traders believed that the decline in their business was primarily a result of the internecine
wars … hence the call was for the British to send in an army to “pacify’ Yorubaland,
and so restore their trading sources. … So, the colonization which eventually resulted
was, at least, in part, a consequence of these local collusions. … It seems to me then, an
urgent task to remind ourselves of the past, of the historical precedents behind us, if we
are to prevent history from tragically repeating itself. It is necessary to remind ourselves
of what happened once upon a time and how such helpless despair and blind trust once
led us into colonial subjugation, whose end is not yet in sight.

It is this British annexation of Yorubaland, with the collusion and full support of the
Yoruba people during the period of British colonialism, that Osofisan dramatises as a
strange relationship with the story of Tegonni, a Yoruba princess who wants to marry a
British officer. For Osofisan, it is like dining with the devil. It is this strange romance
between the colonial masters and the indigenous African people that is packaged as a
parable in Tegonni for Africans.

One other very significant story that greatly influenced Osofisan was the annulment of
the 12 June 1993 presidential election in Nigeria by General Ibrahim Badamasi
Babangida, the then Nigerian military dictator, and its attendant consequences. The
election was widely believed to have been won by Chief Moshood Abiola. With brute
force, the military clamped down on all anti-12 June protests. The most touching aspect
of the whole process is captured in the statement made by the playwright when he said:

Painfully, the world looks on or looks away. Black Africa’s largest nation descends into
tragic darkness, in the same decade when, paradoxically, democracy seems to be the
loudest cry. Britain, France, and Germany democratic nations themselves—openly sell
their conscience and lend support to military dictatorship, just as long as their vast
economic interest in oil exploration, telecommunication, the construction industry, and
so forth are protected. (Osofisan 1999a, 9)

The aim of Tegonni, according to Osofisan, is therefore to capture

the story of the British colonisation of Nigeria and the defeat of my ancestors. And I
remembered the valiant story of Antigone. The two events—one from history, the other

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from myth—would help me add my voice to the millions of other small voices in Africa,
all shouting unheard and pleading to be set free—voices that are waiting desperately for
help from friends in the free world. (Osofisan 1999a, 10)

According to Osofisan, the story of Tegonni is sourced from both the history of
colonisation in Nigeria and the Greek myth of Antigone, and the aim is to provoke
African leaders to learn from the historical antecedents to prevent a recurrence of
colonial subterfuge. The play deals essentially with the themes of colonialism and
racism. The Greek version has been completely decolonised to make it suitable for the
playwright’s contemporary audience and also in alignment with his ideological position.

Postcolonial Discourse in Tegonni

Postcolonial theory is entrenched in the history of imperialism, which has several
narratives. According to Habib (2005, 738), the first motive behind imperialism was
purely economic in which the indigenous home merchants and entrepreneurs were
compelled to allow their markets to be subjugated by foreign investors. Second,
imperialism is believed, according to some Marxists, to be an extension of capitalism,
which was one of the core principles and teachings of Karl Marx (Habib 2005, 738). It
was a dogma that pitched the proletariat against the bourgeoisie because the former is
regarded as the labour machine of the latter that controls the economy of society. The
third motive behind imperialism was in line with the evolutionary theory of Charles
Darwin and the versions of Social Darwinism of Machiavelli, Bacon and Hitler, which
are based on the survival of the fittest, and lastly the need to enlighten the colonised
states on the grounds that African states are nationless, uncultured, uncivilised and
unenlightened (Habib 2011, 271).

Postcolonialism is concerned with the dethronement of all forms of internal colonisation

among ethnic groups in Africa considered either as minor or major groups. It addresses
subjugation, imperialism, racism and colonialism, and the need for revolution as a
means of liberating the oppressed from the hands of the oppressors. Sophocles’s Creon,
who is the imperial god, enslaves Antigone and makes his laws immutable in the spirit
of imperialism, whereas Osofisan’s Tegonni is a revolutionary protest against the
enslavement and oppression of the poor that Tegonni symbolises. The freedom of
Tegonni and the tragic end of Carter-Ross, the imperial companion of Creon, justifies
the position of postcolonial critics.

Osofisan, like many other African playwrights, was deeply concerned about the
agonising experiences of Africans during the colonial era. The playwright is primarily
concerned about the issue of freedom for the oppressed peoples of Africa, which is the
thrust and concept of postcolonialism in African literature. That is why Osofisan in the
interview with Jeyifo (Jeyifo and Osofisan 2013, 32) cited earlier expressed his motive
for writing Tegonni when he said: “my primary concern lies with the issue of individual
and collective freedom on our continent and elsewhere.”

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In the view of the playwright, “the failure of political independence in Africa, the rise
of political charlatans to power … where many loud voices are now calling for direct
intervention by western powers” will take us back to another colonial servitude (Jeyifo
and Osofisan 2013, 36). Tegonni is a bold attempt by Osofisan “to remind ourselves of
the past, of the historical precedents behind us, if we are to prevent history from
tragically repeating itself” (Jeyifo and Osofisan 2013, 36). That is why Jeyifo (2013,
35) states that Tegonni is a “vigorous contestation of colonial authority.” Young (2002,
616) is right then when he says that “postcolonial theory is an extension of anticolonial
movements in the ‘Third World.’” Similarly, Adeyemi (2009, 222) opines that Osofisan
employs Tegonni “to echo the Pan-African sentiment of the colonial and post-colonial
period … which later became a major movement.” According to Osofisan (Jeyifo and
Osofisan 2013, 32), Tegonni is his tool for re-inventing rather than discovering history
in order to educate the African peoples and shield them “from the menace of present
terrors, from the unruly, armed bullies currently at loose in the corridors of power on
the continent.”

As noted earlier, Osofisan’s Tegonni is an adaptation of Sophocles’s Antigone. The play

combines Antigone’s myth and the contemporary history of colonialism in Africa. In
the Programme Notes from the Playwright/Director, Osofisan (1999a, 11) states his
preoccupation in the play categorically:

I have constructed a play that re-examines the issue of race relations and personal
courage. But above all, my concern is also to look at the problem of political freedom
against the background of the present turmoil in Nigeria—my country where various
military governments have continued for decades now to thwart the people’s desire for
democracy, happiness, and good government.

Thus, Osofisan’s primary aim in this play is to interrogate the absence of political
freedom in postcolonial Nigeria.

The play is divided into six parts, with a Prologue and an Epilogue as we find in two of
Osofisan’s other plays, The Chattering and the Song (1976) and Yungba-Yungba and
the Dance Contest (1993), which use the presentational style. In the Prologue, the play
is introduced to the audience and the actors dress up in front of the audience, which is
similar to what happens in Once Upon Four Robbers (Osofisan 1980). Roles are given
out to the various actors and actresses right there in front of the audience.

The play is written in the form of a parable for Nigeria using the common Sophoclean
format. Again, Osofisan deplores tyranny, dictatorship and oppression. Even though
Tegonni is a princess, she represents the oppressed class together with her sisters and
friends such as Kunbi, Yemisi and Faderera, while Carter-Ross, the Governor, and his
Aide-De-Camp (ADC) stand for the oppressors. Since postcolonial theory looks at how
society is stratified into the oppressors and the oppressed, or the bourgeoisie and the
proletariat, this play can rightly be said to be a postcolonial text through which Osofisan
decries the political and socio-economic inequalities that characterise contemporary
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Nigerian society. In the play, elders like Bayo and Isokun serve as mediators or elder
statesmen, while Antigone serves as the representation of courage and optimism against
imperialism. That is why Adeyemi (2009, 224) states that “Osofisan’s argument in
Tegonni centres on the dialectics of power play between the oppressed and the
oppressor: the ruled and the ruler, the female aggressor and the male colonialist in an
imperial context.”

From the outset of the play, Osofisan presents Tegonni as a victim of the oppressive and
dictatorial regime of Carter-Ross. She has no freedom to choose a vocation of her own.
She has no freedom to determine whom to marry. All her freedoms are dependent upon
certain variables that are considered aberrations. Because she is a princess, she is not
allowed to be a bronze caster and a sculptor as she wishes. The tradition of the land is
totally against her choice of career. This is decried by postcolonial feminist Omolara
Ogundipe-Leslie (in Davies 2013, 562) as feudalistic and a mountain sitting on the backs
of African women. That is why Aihevba and Odia (2020, 368) note that Osofisan’s
Tegonni “is a uniquely pan African play designed to confront the ideology of slavery
and oppression.” According to Osofisan (Jeyifo and Osofisan 2013, 32), this
contemporaneous imperialistic tendency is captured “in the wailings of Tegonni, an
echo of familiar lamentations.”

As shown in Osofisan’s play, imperialism breeds division among African peoples. That
is why Asipa, Tegonni’s former fiancé, breaks his relationship with her, and even when
she decides to marry the D.O., Allan Jones, the people also frown upon it, to the extent
that Chief Isokun, the official town poet and chief diviner to the palace, refuses to throw
his support behind the wedding in spite of persuasion from Tegonni’s friends. Isokun
believes in a man’s freedom to choose but to him that freedom is not absolute. He tells
Kunbi that “everyone should have a right to whatever career they want, provided it’s
honest” (Osofisan 1999a, 22), and Kunbi replies: “But not to the spouses they want, is
that it?” According to Aihevba and Odia (2020, 363), this is the spirit of colonialism
where freedom is curtailed, a condition that postcolonialism describes as an “imperial
domination and bondage.” The planned interracial marriage between Tegonni and the
D.O., which Jeyifo (Jeyifo and Osofisan 2013, 40) describes as “a deeply problematic
metaphor,” suggests an unequal relationship between the coloniser and the colonised.
However, according to Osofisan (Jeyifo and Osofisan 2013, 42), the marriage should
not be seen as “an emblem of racial interiorisation, but rather as what it essentially is, a
matter of an individual’s personal choice.” Even though Osofisan (Jeyifo and Osofisan
2013, 42) admits that the interracial marriage is a major fault in the play, he is of the
view that in postcolonial Africa, “colonialism was not always seen as clearly as it is
nowadays—in its full negative impact.”

Comparing Tegonni to Antigone, one notes that Creon in Sophocles’s Antigone forbids
anybody from burying Polynices, Antigone’s brother. This dictatorial attitude of Creon
and the arrest of Tegonni and her friends without trial by Governor Carter-Ross, which
are reminiscent of the injustices and barbarity perpetrated by the Western imperialists,

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are decried by postcolonial scholars because they are seen as a form of internal
imperialism. For instance, Ngũgĩ (2013b, 163) describes Western imperialism as “a
repressive machine that shuts off all venues of democratic expression.” Ngũgĩ (2013a,
481) further states that “we must join the proletarian and the poor peasant struggles
against the parasitism of the comprador bourgeois, the landlords and chiefs, the big
business African classes that at the same time act in unison and concert with foreign
interests.” Irele (2013, 601) also calls for “a new determination, a new spirit fired by a
modern imagination: a new state of mind and active confrontation” with the oppressors
to transform society. Consequently, the struggle for freedom in Osofisan’s Tegonni,
unlike in Sophocles’s Antigone, becomes inevitable.

Kunbi, Yemisi and Faderera form the freedom agitation group bent on bringing
revolution to their society against tyranny and injustice. This agitation group is similar
to the Yungba-Yungba group led by Ayoka against the tyranny and dictatorship of
Iyeneri in Yungba-Yungba and the Dance Contest (1993). Iyeneri has remained in office
as priestess for 10 years. She has changed the rules of competing for the post of the
priestess in order to hinder others from contesting the position. This behaviour is typical
of most African leaders who perpetuate themselves in office without observing the
principles of democracy. The freedom agitation group in Tegonni can also be compared
with the Farmer’s Movement in The Chattering and the Song (1976). The Farmer’s
Movement aims at wiping out oppression and the tyranny of Alafin Abiodun by raising
the revolutionary consciousness of the masses against social injustice and dictatorship.
Tegonni herself gives us foreknowledge of the impending revolution when she states:
“However bad it may seem, something tells me it’s only a passing phase of our history.
That our people will rise again, one day” (Osofisan 1999a, 93). This is in agreement
with the revolution predicted by Karl Marx and supported by the postcolonial theory
that the proletariat would rise against the bourgeoisie in the future and liberate
themselves from their oppression. According to Ritzer and Stepnisky (2014, 63), “in the
end, Marx foresaw a situation in which society would be characterised by a tiny number
of exploitative capitalists and a huge mass of proletariats and members of the industrial
reserve army. By reducing so many people to this condition, capitalism creates the
masses that will lead to its own overthrow.” Osofisan (in Osakwe 2018, 162) notes that
“violence is inevitable in certain situations, to displace oppression, and assert one’s
freedom. Because oppressors and rulers never surrender their hegemony without a
fight.” This underscores the inevitability of uprising against the oppressors by the
oppressed.

In Sophocles’s Antigone, even before the arrest of Antigone, the Chorus confirms the
immutability of the order of Creon. For instance, Ismene tells Antigone, “But I cannot
act against the State” (Sophocles 1947, 128). After Creon has passed his death penalty
on whoever defies his order, the Chorus simply submits to his order and says, “Your
will is law … This law is immutable. For mortals greatly to live is greatly to suffer”
(143). Moreover, the Chorus confirms “Creon, the son of Menoeceus, whom the gods
have appointed for us” (130). The word of the king is law because Creon is appointed

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by the gods. In contrast to Sophocles, Osofisan in his play believes that the gods, who
are metaphors for the rulers, can be demystified. There is no agitation for the release of
Antigone as she faces death according to the will of the gods. This, according to
Osofisan, is the spirit of imperialism. For Osofisan, Sophocles’s Antigone supports the
triumph of the oppressors. Osofisan creates the agitation for freedom for Tegonni in
Tegonni to make his version relevant to the sociopolitical realities in postcolonial
African countries where there are agitations against imperialism and all forms of
injustice against the masses. Referring to Tegonni, Osofisan (Jeyifo and Osofisan 2013,
32) states that “through her stubborn, resolute and eloquent articulation of the will to
freedom, you would not have failed to hear the chords of similar resistance in our
country and elsewhere against these ‘leaders’ who are currently holding our people
hostage.”

In Tegonni, Osofisan satirises the military and brands it as an aberration. The soldiers
in the play find no fulfilment in their jobs. They are all demoralised. All they do is
terrorise the people. That is the hallmark of their profession. The following conversation
sheds light on the deteriorating condition of the military:

ANTIGONE: You’re tired of being soldiers?

4TH SOL: Demoralized. All we do is carry corpses
2ND SOL: Or build execution platforms—
1ST SOL: Or terrorize people—
2ND SOL: Burn and Plunder houses—
4TH SOL: Collect bribes!
3RD SOL: We’re so ashamed! Is this all that Soldiers do in this country?
2ND SOL: Not even one act you could call humane?
ANTIGONE: I know what you mean, but it’s the times we’ve come into, my
friends. It just happens that the soldiers here are trained to look
upon their own people as enemies. As fair game to practice their
weapons on.
(Osofisan 1999a, 74–75)

As is evident in this quotation, the soldiers are tired and frustrated. They now want new
roles assigned to them. They are made to join the elders. The soldiers therefore represent
the military in Nigeria. Under General Abacha’s administration, the level of terrorism
and brutality that the Nigerian army unleashed on ordinary citizens in the country was
beyond description. According to history, the soldiers came under various fanciful
names such as Operation Sweep, Operation Gbale, and Operation Checkmate (Yake
2019, 442). They used the machinery of their offices to harass and terrorise the public
and extort money from poor citizens (The Guardian 2021).

Therefore, the call for the military to go back to the barracks is becoming stronger today
in Nigeria. Why? Tegonni provides us with an answer while standing before Carter-
Ross when she says: “The army occupying us now is not interested in our happiness,
only in power and its benefits. They will loot all our resources and further enslave us”

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(Osofisan 1999a, 135). For Osofisan, the play Tegonni, which is set in the colonial era,
is a warning and also an attempt to raise the consciousness among African peoples in a
postcolonial era to be vigilant when asking for Western intervention into their affairs as
this “would lead to a further erosion of liberty” (37).

Osofisan (1999b) berates the military in one of his publications entitled “Satan’s
Angels” (A letter to Jemibewon) published in The Comet of Sunday, 12 December 1999.
He states the following:

As far as public perception goes, the law enforcement agency has long turned into a
crime-endorsement outfit, where the only laws that are enforced are the law of extortion,
intimidation, and grab-by-force. The growing feeling in the air is that the same
searchlight that has been turned so far on the military should now be beamed on the
police establishment too, in order that our democracy may advance on a clean slate.
(1999b, 8)

The above quotation gives credence to the complicity of the military and other law
enforcement agencies in the perpetuation of crimes in society. The soldiers who ought
to protect the citizens turn out to be terrorists. That is why the soldiers in the play are
frustrated and ashamed of the roles assigned to them as oppressors of the people instead
of defenders of justice.

To secure Tegonni’s release, the elders of the town comprising Bayo, Isokun and the
soldiers who have now assumed new roles constitute themselves into a group to plead
for the release of Tegonni and her friends. This committee of elders is similar to the
National Reconciliation Committee headed by Chief Alex Akinyele, set up under the
Abacha government to negotiate the release of Chief M.K.O. Abiola and other political
detainees. Without the release of the detainees who were believed to have been detained
unjustly, revolution was inevitable in line with postcolonial postulations of the
oppressed rising up against the oppressor. According to Ritzer and Stepnisky (2014,
64), “the exploited proletariats are the very people who will bring an end to capitalism
through their revolt.” Similarly, while referring to Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth
(1963) as a work that deals with “the ravages of colonialism and neo-colonialism,”
Rodney (2009, xix) “calls for a break with the exploiting ravaging system in order to
move forward and create a new order.” Fanon (1963, 240) describes the postcolonial
nationalist literature as a “literature of combat because it calls on the whole people to
fight for their existence.” So, the detention of Tegonni is an act of injustice and the
negotiation for her release is to prevent a revolution by the masses. Osofisan, as a
postcolonial writer, is of the view that violence is a “new-colonial divisive phenomenon
which will make social change impossible” (Ajidahun 2020, 75). Not to promote the
coloniser’s weapon of violence, Osofisan promotes dialogue instead. As Ajidahun
(2020, 75) notes, “literature must first be made to humanise society and to create the
tradition of dialogue and negotiation.”

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In most cases, the elders are not always sincere. They are agents of the government.
They simply yield to government directives. Isokun, for instance, is a traitor. Kunbi
indicts him when she says:

All your life, baba, even before you joined the Oba’s Council, you’ve always stood for
progress! For change when the old ways proved to be outmoded. So how can you forsake
Tegonni today? (Osofisan 1999a, 21)

On another occasion, Kunbi insults Isokun and accuses him of betrayal: “No more, with
all due respects, baba! That’s how we’ve been trusting you men all along, and see what
you’ve made of our land!” (103).

The elders finally meet Carter-Ross and plead for the release of Tegonni and her friends.
The Governor agrees that all should be released except Tegonni. The attitude of the
Governor here shows him as a complete tyrant. The Governor tells the 2nd Elder
emphatically: “I am back in control, and I mean to maintain discipline here” (36). Even
Allan Jones, the fiancé of Tegonni, visits the Governor and pleads for Tegonni. The
Governor sees himself as the embodiment of the law just as Creon sees his word as the
law. He tells Allan Jones, “Mr. Romeo, I am the law” (120). When the news that the
girls have escaped from detention gets to the Governor, he simply gives the order: “I
want them back, whatever it takes! Even if you raze the whole town down! You hear
that Lieutenant? I want them back! This afternoon” (114). The Governor represents a
typical African tyrant who is obsessed with power and toys with the lives of the people
since he has no human feeling. Tegonni, according to Aihevba and Odia (2020, 366),
“represents the will of the African to fight against oppression, dehumanisation and
imperial domination.”

The tyranny of Governor Carter-Ross in Tegonni compares with the dictatorship of

Gunema in Wole Soyinka’s A Play of Giants (1984). Gunema is a man who uses his
power to torture, kill and hang innocent citizens daily. Yet, he feels that he is enjoying
a superficial power. Because of his lust for absolute power, he acquires more magic and
witchcraft powers to be used against the people while his colleague, President Kamini,
rules with superstitious beliefs. Anyone who steps into his room when he has just
finished his dinner is pronounced guilty of a plot against his regime. Like Gunema,
Governor Carter-Ross is unyielding. Since the Governor has refused to grant the request
of the elders, the stage is set for rebellion against his administration. Meanwhile, Allan
Jones has been ordered to go back to England.

In the story of the Tiger and the Frog in Tegonni, which is a parable for usurpers and
tyrants, Osofisan predicts the fall of usurpers and tyrants. The lesson of the story is
simple:

The one who was swallowed gained a throne, while the one who usurped power fell to
disgrace—oh yes, that is always the end of those who come to rule by force, when the

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light of freedom shines again, and the people regain their rights! And it will surely be
the fate of those who have seized power over us. (Osofisan 1999a, 100)

To Tegonni, “freedom is an undying faith, the force which underwrites our presence
here on earth, as human beings, when we lose faith, we die” (127). Antigone finds
encouragement in Tegonni’s statement, and she becomes excited and jubilant. She has
now found a contemporary revolutionary. Tegonni has now been converted as a true
disciple of Antigone. Antigone is sure that oppression and tyranny will be completely
overthrown:

And now I find you’re a true believer, like me! Yes, it is true that many tyrants have
marched through history. That for a while, people have been deprived of their freedom.
But oppression can never last. Again and again it will be overthrown, and people will
reclaim their right to be free! That is the lesson of history, the only one worth learning!
… Many tyrants will still arise, furious to inscribe their nightmares and their horrors on
the patient face of history. But again and again, as many times as such abortions creep
up, as many times will others come up who will challenge them and chase them away
into oblivion. Ozymandias will arise again! But so will Antigone! Wherever the call for
freedom is heard! (127–28)

In postcolonial African nations, many tyrants will arise just as the masses will equally
arise to challenge them. According to Armah (2013, 499), the masses, who are “the
bringers of revolution,” have nothing to lose but their chains if they can unite and
confront their oppressors, just as Governor Carter-Ross is confronted and defeated in
Tegonni.

Tegonni finds courage and strength from these revolutionary words of Antigone as she
confronts Governor Carter-Ross:

But neither today, nor anytime for ever and ever! Never, as long, as I live, will I be sorry
for having done my duty to my brother. Let the governor kill me! I am proud that I
buried my brother. And for my marriage, I will never renounce that either! I married
Allan because I loved him. And even though he’s been sent away, I still love him and I
am his wife wherever he may be. (Osofisan 1999a, 137)

The Governor is provoked by the response of Tegonni and therefore orders that she
should be sold into slavery instead of being executed. This is followed by a protest from
the women. There is confusion as the women begin to chant wildly and pronounce
terrible curses on the land. In the midst of the confusion, the Governor tumbles and the
women begin to rejoice over his fall:

Rejoice with us
Rejoice heartily with us

Who gives The tyrant wicked orders

We have conquered him

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 Ajidahun

Oh yes, we have beaten him

We have seen his back! (140)

Meanwhile, Allan Jones has been shot and later Tegonni tumbles as a result of gunshots
from the Governor’s soldiers. In a symbolic dance, Antigone comes and wakes Tegonni
and leads her to the boat where both of them kneel before Yemoja and they are each
rewarded with a crystal fan and a dazzling blue necklace. This is in recognition of their
bravery and courage.

The tyranny of Governor Carter-Ross is thus brought to an end. “The Song of the Many
Wives of a Ruler” in The Album of the Midnight Blackout becomes relevant here:

The ruler, he may put to sleep …

He may charm with sweet, seductive smiles
He may have the lure and the magic
To swindle the lead with rhetoric But
there’s no tryst yet without an end … Oh
someday, let the tyrants beware:
The blind will see, and the deaf will hear
The sleep will fade from the people’s eyes
The doped will waken to consciousness
For tyrants have their obituaries
The people’s song will outlast decrees.
(Osofisan 1994, 111)

The beauty of the play Tegonni: An African Antigone lies in the triumph of the oppressed
over the forces of oppression. That is Osofisan’s idea of what theatre should seek to
achieve.

In Sophocles’s Antigone, Antigone the oppressed pays with her life for defying the law
of Creon, although Creon suffers some calamities as predicted by Tiresias, the blind
priest and prophet, as Haemon his son and Eurydice his wife both commit suicide. The
play ends with Creon in a state of grief as he loses his wife and son. Sophocles’s Creon,
the epitome of oppression, lives on in Antigone. By contrast, Osofisan’s Governor
Carter-Ross, who epitomises the oppressor, dies, while Tegonni and the freedom
agitators (Kunbi, Yemisi and Faderera) survive. This is a triumph for the oppressed
while Sophocles’s Antigone can be seen as a triumph of the oppressor. The contrast in
the endings of the two plays brings to mind a statement by Augusto Boal (1979, 155):

The poetics of the oppressed is essentially the poetic of liberation: the spectator no
longer delegates power to the characters either to think or to act in his place. The
spectator frees himself, he thinks and acts for himself! Theatre is action! Perhaps the
theatre is not revolutionary in itself, but have no doubts, it is a rehearsal of revolution!

Osofisan advocates the liberation of the oppressed through a revolution that Karl Marx
envisioned. According to Obafemi (2006, 55), the message of Osofisan in Tegonni is a

13
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call on “the ‘wretched of the earth’ to liberate his/her consciousness in readiness for the
imminent and inexorable struggle for regeneration and social rebirth.” This is a major
area of difference between classical theatre and modern dramatic art.

The major deficiency in Tegonni, as pointed out by Jeyifo (Jeyifo and Osofisan 2013,
40), is in relation to Tegonni’s marriage to the D.O., Capt. Allan Jones, in which

all the opposition is one side … and no African character or group shows any opposition
to the union. In addition to that, we don’t get a sense for what things really attract the
lovers to each other and how these attractions might play off against the dialect of
colonial over-lordship and anticolonial slippage of the yoke.

Such a relationship between Allan Jones, a white man, and Tegonni, a black woman
whom Governor Carter-Ross describes as “a nigger woman” (Osofisan 1999a, 120), is
an unnecessary romance. Although Allan Jones has been sent away, Tegonni vows to
marry him because she loves him. The reason for her insistence on marrying a white
man is not captured by the playwright. However, this weakness does not in any way mar
the dramaturgical aesthetics of the play.

Conclusion
This article agrees with Olasope (2013, 20) that “Tegonni is an embodiment of feminine
resistance to colonial oppression and patriarchy.” In a patriarchal society, the hostility
of men to women is unimaginable because women are to be seen and not to be heard.
That is why they suffer several indignities in society, especially from men. While
Antigone promotes patriarchy, women’s oppression and subjugation, the inviolability
of the gods and the immutability of their laws regardless of whether they are inimical to
the growth of society, Tegonni is drama that protests against sociopolitical injustice in
society and advocates the fight for freedom and the enthronement of democracy in state
politics. The oppressed Antigone in Sophocles’s Antigone and the revolutionary
Tegonni in Osofisan’s Tegonni form a good contrast in the two plays.

In addition, Antigone endorses imperialism and terrorism depicted through the character
of Creon, the symbol of imperialism. By contrast, Tegonni opposes racism and
imperialism. That is why Carter-Ross, the symbol of imperialism, racism and
oppression, is demystified as his reign of terror is terminated. Antigone predicts doom
and hopelessness for the oppressed, while Tegonni gives hope for the oppressed and
predicts doom for the oppressor. Osofisan joins his voice to other voices in Africa
calling for the emancipation of the oppressed, the dethronement of imperialism and the
decolonisation of African literature so that its literature can reflect African cultural
heritage in the true spirit of Negritude and Afrocentricity.

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