INTRIGUE, FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS AND MILITANCY IN AHMED YERIMA’S HARD GROUND AND IPOMU

ABSTRACT

This study investigates the interplay of intrigue, family relationships and militancy in Ahmed Yerima’s Hard Ground and Ipomu. It also looks at the various choices of conflict resolution strategies adopted in the plays. The two plays were read closely and analysed qualitatively through the application of the theoretical framework of Literary Darwinism developed by Charles Darwin. The study shows that Yerima’s Hard Ground and Ipomu are intriguing demonstrations of the ways in which youths often defy their families and take up militancy as a struggle for existence and for power. Yerima takes a stance that speaks for the recognition and inclusion of the people in the equitable distribution of the nation’s wealth rather than shutting them out and away from the yields of their lands through his characterisation technique. This is tendered by the playwright as a panacea for the militancy in the Niger Delta.