CONFLICT RESOLUTION FROM THE SUBALTERN: NIGERIAN PLAYWRIGHTS AND THE RE-VISIONING OF JUSTICE IN POSTCOLONIAL NIGERIA

Abstract

Conflict resolution and peace building in contemporary Nigeria are largely centred on the state and its agencies to the exclusion of the ordinary people. In many dialogues on peace, the marginalisation of the subalterns is a recurring practice. This study, however, engages how Esiaba Irobi (2011) and Ojo Rasaki-Bakare (2004) deploy the element of character in Hangmen Also Die and Drums of War respectively to propose alternative conflict resolution strategies that empower the common people to participate in peace dialogues and actions. Using the Zulu philosophy of Ubuntu and Gayatri Spivak’s idea of subaltern as the theoretical framework, the study contends that Irobi and Bakare interrogate and destabilise the dominant practice that often privileges the ruling elite as the final arbiter in communal dispute adjudications. The two Nigerian playwrights show that, apart from the exclusion of the ordinary people from their immediate communal/cultural matters, they are often misrepresented in resource distribution by state actors who often claim to speak and act on their behalf. Thus, Irobi and Bakare repudiate a unicentric proxy conflict resolution model that often undermines the common people’s voices. As depicted in the two plays, inclusive representations and equitable wealth distribution, among other solutions, are the prerequisites for effective conflict resolution and positive peace building in the post colony. In its conclusion, the study submits that the insights that the two Nigerian playwrights offer on conflict resolution call for broad-based governance and restorative justice as means of resolving the recurring socio-political discontents in Nigeria.