Music and ideology in selected plays of Femi Osofisan: an inquiry into the meaning of life

Abstract

Femi Osofisan's plays have become the most performed on Nigerian stages by both amateur and professional troupes. This is due mainly to the fact that his plays have socially relevant concerns. As a welfarism Osofisan is concerned with the well-being of the masses and he fights the cause of the downtrodden. However, it is not just the relevance of the plays to society alone that makes Osofisan such an engaging playwright. The means also by which he presents his materials is delectable. One of the means by which Osofisan instructs and delights is music: both vocal and instrumental. Therefore, in this essay, we shall show that Osofisan employs music to perform ideological function. We shall use Esu and the Vagabond Minstrels (Esu) and other plays as our illustrative texts.