Wole Soyinka, Requiem for a Futurologist

Craig McLuckie (Okanagan College)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 8.2.3: Anglophone African Writing and Culture: Subsaharan.
Vol. editors: Helen Rachel Cousins (Birmingham Newman University), David Firth (University of Manchester)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1983

Places

Nigeria (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Play

Resources

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The only problem which we all face is one which besets not only writers but citizens in Nigeria: the problem of our unbelievable and unacceptable socio-political situation, which gets more and more reactionary and inhuman with every succeeding regime. (Soyinka, in Wilkinson 91)

Requiem for a Futurologist is Wole Soyinka’s use of the stage farce as provocative witnessing. It makes the audience painfully aware that chaos (penkelemes: “peculiar mess”) governs, that one slip can bring this society down. The ‘hero’ is a trickster figure (like Jero in The Trials of Brother Jero and Jero’s Metamorphosis) who delights in his ability to turn a material profit, to accumulate political power. In pungent and demonstrative language Soyinka stresses, in an interview with John Agetua,

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2096 words

Citation: McLuckie, Craig. "Requiem for a Futurologist". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 02 February 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=12840, accessed 24 April 2024.]

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