GENDER REPRESENTATION IN AFRICAN PLAYS: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF FEMI OSOFISAN’S ALTINE’S WRATH AND JOHN KOLOSA KARGBO’S LET ME DIE ALONE

Abstract

This article undertakes a critical examination of gender representation in African drama, with specific focus on Femi Osofisan’s Altine’s Wrath and John Kolosa Kargbo’s Let Me Die Alone. Employing feminist literary theory, including both foundational Anglo-American frameworks and African feminist scholarship, as its analytical architecture, the study explores how these plays portray, contest, and in some instances inadvertently reproduce traditional gender roles, stereotypes, and asymmetrical power dynamics in African societies. Through close textual analysis supplemented by contextual and ideological reading, the article examines five thematic categories of gendered representation: the sexual objectification of women, patriarchal authority and its social enforcement, feminist consciousness and women’s self-empowerment, misogynist masculinity, and the instrumentalisation of marriage, culture, and religion in the subordination of women. Situating these themes within postcolonial and African feminist debates, the analysis reveals that while both playwrights deploy their dramatic craft to critique patriarchal dominance, their works also reflect the contradictions and tensions inherent in representing gender from within societies and literary traditions that bear the imprint of colonial and indigenous patriarchal ideologies. The findings affirm the significance of African theatre as a site of social commentary and ideological contestation, and contribute to ongoing scholarly conversations in African theatre studies, postcolonial theory, and gender criticism.