Intellectuals and African Development: Pretension and Resistance in African Politics (Africa in the New Millennium)

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.Intellectuals and African DevelopmentPretension and Resistance in African PoliticsBy Björn Beckman, Gbemisola Adeoti Zed Books LtdCopyright © 2006 CODESRIAAll rights reserved.ISBN: 978-1-84277-764-0ContentsPredicament and response: an introduction BJÖRN BECKMAN AND GBEMISOLA ADEOTI, 1,one | Intellectuals, writers and soldiers,1 Psychopaths in power: the collapse of the African dream in A Play of Giants OLUSEGUN ADEKOYA, 11,2 Re-establishing the basis of social order in Africa: a reflection on Achebe's reformist agenda and Ngugi's Marxist aesthetics M. S. C. OKOLO, 31,3 Narrating the green gods: the (auto) biographies of Nigerian military rulers GBEMISOLA ADEOTI, 49,two | Students, youths and people,4 Ambiguous transitions: mediating citizenship among youth in Cameroon JUDE FOKWANG, 69,5 Student radicalism and the national project: the Nigerian student movement BJÖRN BECKMAN, 98,6 Transnational governance and the pacification of youth: civic education and disempowerment in Malawi HARRI ENGLUND, 124,7 Identity and knowledge production in the fourth generation NANA AKUA ANYIDOHO, 156,Contributors, 171,Index, 173,CHAPTER 1Psychopaths in power: the collapse of the African dream in A Play of GiantsOLUSEGUN ADEKOYAA critical investigation of Wole Soyinka's A Play of Giants (1984), this chapter discusses what the playwright himself calls the 'Aminian theme', that is, African leaders' obsession with power, a seductive drive that breeds moral corruption, dictatorship, delusions, economic distortions and ruination, megalomania, perversion and desecration of all that is good in African traditions. The problem leads to the evaporation of all dreams of greatness, nationalism, liberation from colonial thraldom, disease, ignorance and poverty, and of pan-Africanism nursed in the heady days of independence celebrations. The four despots caricatured in the play are Field-Marshal Kamini (late Idi Amin, deposed President of Uganda), Emperor Kasco (Jean-Bedel Bokassa, former Emperor of the Central African Republic), Benefacio Gunema (late President Macias Nguema of Equatorial Guinea) and General Barra Tuboum (late President Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo).Although in real life the four giants have been removed from office and divested of power, either forcibly and ignominiously by rebels or naturally by the inexorable force of senescence and death, the ravages of their misrule and profligacy are still felt by the beleaguered peoples of their respective countries. The economies remain in the doldrums and ethnic conflicts generated by suspicion of political marginalization and military coups continue to cause confusion and social upheaval and destabilize the polity. Thus, A Play of Giants is still of immediate sociopolitical relevance to African peoples. Besides, some of the countries are still struggling to throw off the yoke of military dictatorship and establish democratic rule, while others already on the road of democracy are yet to assimilate its principles and live the culture.In discussing the topic, this chapter examines such elements of drama as setting, plot, action, character and language, which are used by the playwright to elicit the sordid dimensions of despotism in the African political landscape. Dramaturgic devices employed by the author to signify the horrors of despotism are highlighted and discussed.The 'giants' are in New York to attend the General Assembly of the United Nations. In response to the request of the organization's Secretary-General for a representative work of art from each member nation, say, a miniaturized bust of the president, they sit for a life-size group sculpture, at Kamini's suggestion, in what appears to be a vivid demonstration of the old African spirit of communalism but which, as events later show, is its outright bastardization. In reality, the suggestion stems from Kamini's megal