"THE GODS ARE NOT TO BLAME" - OLA ROTIMI'S VERSION OF THE OEDIPUS MYTH

Abstract

One of the interesting aspects of modern African drama is the fact that traces of the influence of Greek tragedy can clearly be discerned. This is especially noticeable in Nigerian drama where dramatists like Wole Soyinka, Efua Sutherland and Ola Rotimi have adapted Greek plays. There seems to be a special affinity between ancient Greek culture and the Yoruba culture of Western Nigeria. In discussing Soyinka's version of Euripides' Bacchae Andr~ Lefevere (1986:1210) makes the following interesting remarks: "After all; not so long ago the Yoruba formed a conglomeration of small, pre-industrial, mutually competing city states, as did ancient Attica ... Much of classical Greek drama derived from pre-existing oral traditions dealing with religious mythology and mythified history, and so does much of the literary and theatrical output of the Yoruba, whether in English or their own language. The extraordinary vitality of Yoruba beliefs and myths is further evidenced by the fact that they have spread through large segments of the black Diaspora, especially in Brazil and the West Indies, somewhat in the same way as Greek myths and legends have provided literary inspiration throughout the Western world to this very day. Soyinka's version of the Bacchae, therefore, should not be viewed in isolation; it is just one indication of some not yet unravelled deep kinship between ancient Greece and modern Africa - an indication to which scholars might profitably give more attention•.