Satire and Social Consciousness in Wole Soyinka's Alapata Apata

Abstract

This paper examines Wole Soyinkas use of satire to create a social consciousness in Alapata Apata. It demonstrates that the use of satire in the play is not merely as an instrument of condemnation, but as a tool of reawakening social consciousness that may necessarily lead to positive social re-engineering. Relying on Post Colonial literary approach to criticism and a qualitative analysis of the text, Alapata Apata, this paper finds that a total neglect of the ideologies behind cultural practices, individual avarice and an unwholesome embrace of western ideologies have led to the abysmal functioning of society and its institutions. An examination of failings in the areas of marriage, religion, poor leadership and western hypocrisy in Nigeria leads to the affirmation that satirical depictions in Alapata Apata are aimed at a re-awakening of the social consciousness of the people to the end that society can function properly and achieve its purpose of existence if this consciousness is acted upon.