Drama and Politics: A Study of Bate Besong’s "Beasts of No Nation" (1990)
BY Kelvin Ngong Toh
Drama is one genre in Literature whose functionality in society cannot be under estimated. It is an active and practical genre because; there is harmony and a practical relationship between the audience and the dramatis personae. It thus imitates its society at best. From this, it is difficult to separate drama from politics; politics being a science that deals with the state and the condition of the human society.
Bate Besong is one of the most renown Cameroonian playwright of English expression, besides Bole Butake, Victor Epie Ngome and John Nkemngong, who is of the younger generation of Cameroonian playwrights in English. Even then, Bate Besong’s plays have not gained impetus in the eyes of critics. But examining the content and form of Beasts of no Nations, a play he published in 1990, one can rightly conclude that Bate Besong is an experimentalist playwright and a reformer.
That is, one who uses art with the hope of changing the state of affairs in his ailing Cameroonian society. It is in this light that he becomes a political writer.
I defend the hypothesis here that drama and politics are inseparable. Drama does not only mirror society but plays the role of a conscientizing, since man is only a political being and not a political genius. My goal in this paper will be to assess the relationship that exists between drama and politics and its results in society.
The sociological approach would be used to analyse the relationship between drama and politics in Batae Besong’s play. This approach is based on the assumption that literary works are reflections of society. Critics of the approach hold that the understanding of the actual society is very important in the understanding of the textual society. In this case a literary work becomes the product of the community. ....
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"The only way to solve the anglophone problem is to return to the Foumban 1961 constitution"...... Bate Besong addressing the Canadian High Commissioner to Cameroon on a visit to the University of Buea
Dr Bate Besong is one unsual sought of a writer in Cameroon who has contributed imensely to the flourishing of a new literature which has drawn sustanence from both traditional oral literature and from the present and rapidly changing society.
He is a force that can be reckon only with minds like Albert Chinualumogu Achebe of Nigeria, Wole Soyinka of Nigeria, as well as Ngugi Wa Thiong'o and Ngugi Wa Mirii of Kenya.
He is not the one who can be shaken even an iota by fright and intimidation. He manifested his courage and brave heart even as a child. I remember him recount a story of how he wrote a letter to the Prime Minister while in Form two in St Bedes College Ashingkom complaining about segregation between boys and girls by the reverend sisters. George Ngwane described him as "an Obassinjom warrior, not with the brawns of wrestler but with the brains of an intellectual, not with the gun of a fighter but with the guts of a writter".
His only missile is the pen. He can do so much with the pen. His writting to newspapers and contribution in the literary world caused his kidnap and detention in the last quater of the month of May in the year 1991.
Doc, I will always remain indebted to you because you nautured the first seeds of an honest observer in me
Posted by: Uche Eze Nkatta Idika | July 31, 2004 at 06:00 AM