Perspectives on Sango: A comparative study of Duro Ladipo’s oba koso (The king did not hang) and Femi Osofisan’s many colours make the thunder king

Abstract

This article interrogates the writers' tendencies to represent and re-present history in order to break stereotypes, create new identities, map out a unique style of writing for themselves or try to create new identity for the historical personage. It examines the concept of Sango in Yoruba cosmology and its manifestation in the opera of Duro Ladipo's Oba ko so (The King did not hang) and Femi Osofisan's Many colours make the thunder king, with a view to presenting the comparative analysis of the two texts. Various perspectives on Sango's personality are examined. Emphasis is placed on the re-presentation of the Sango myth in the marxist-humanistic world of Osofisan's theatre. The paper explains points of convergence and divergence noticed when two different dramatists present the same story.