African Drama As a Humanizing Agent: Esiaba Irobi's Hangmen Also Die and The Other Side of the Mask

Abstract

Drama which triumphs in imitating human actions as well as telling a story through human actions and speeches is a humanizing agent. This is because it constantly invites us to enter imaginatively into the lives of others, so that we might understand their aspirations and motivations. It helps us also to affirm the human nature of others. Moreover, it helps us to recognize the inalienable humanity of other individuals and including those individuals in our moral considerations. African drama, in particular, reflects on human condition, furnishing us with insights into the precarious nature of our existence. This calls for support and collaboration. It calls for a deeper understanding of each other and what can make us to be strong together. Moreover, it calls for a deeper reflection on the foibles of human nature, which we must collectively rise to fight against for a continual existence of our human society. Esiaba Irobi's Hangmen Also Die and The Other Side of the Mask appreciate in totality the full import of this humanizing role of art, particularly the need to x-ray the dilapidating structure of our society and to offer us a keen insight into the steps to take towards the amelioration of our human sufferings. In both dramatic texts under study, Irobi aspires to unearth the social dislocation and decadence of our society with the principal vision of initiating social conscienctisation, edification and mass action for social change. This paper, therefore, holds strongly that African dramatists should emulate the dramatic tradition of humanizing the actions of the dispossessed and socially emasculated people in our society, which Irobi champions and demonstrates through Hangmen Also 
Die and The Other Side of the Mask.