REPRESENTATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATION AND REDRESS IN SELECTED YORÙBÁ WRITTEN PLAYS

Abstract

Human rights violation and redress are dominant issues in literary works from the colonial to the post-colonial Nigeria. Previous studies on Yoruba written plays have focused largely on socio-cultural affairs, with little attention paid to the depiction of human rights. This study was, therefore, designed to examine the representation of human rights and their violation, with a view to determining human rights violation contributory factors and the existing redress systems. Marxist’s Sociology of literary study was adopted as the framework. The interpretive research design was used. Ten Yoruba written plays were purposively selected owing to their thematic - relevance. Akínwùmí Ìṣọ̀lá’s Ẹfúnṣetán Aníwúrà (EA); Adébáyọ̀ Faleti’s Baṣọ̀run Gáà (BG) and Wọ́n rò pé wèrè ni (WRPWN); Láwuyì Ògúnnìran’s Ààrẹ-Àgò Aríkúye̩rí (AA); Ọládiípọ̀ Ajíbóyè’s Èéfín Nìwà (EN); Adésọlá O̩láté̩jú’s Iná Ràn (IR); Olú Owólabí’s Líṣ̣àbí Agbòngbò Àkàlà (LAA), T.A.A Ládélé’s Ìgbà ló dé (ILD), Ọládẹ̀jọ Òkédìjí’s Rẹ́rẹ́ Rún (RR) and Agboọlá Àyándìran’s Ààrò Wọ̀rọ̀kọ̀ (AW). The texts were subjected to literary analysis. The human rights themes identified across the texts are rights to life, dignity of human person, work and commensurable payment, private family life, education, fair hearing, movement, franchise, holding public office, peaceful assembly, child’s right, freedom from torture, discrimination, slavery and unlawful arrest. The violated rights are rights to life, dignity of human person, and freedom from torture are the most dominant in AA, ILD, WRPWN, AW and EA. Rights to fair hearing, freedom of expression, association, freedom from discrimination and unlawful imprisonment are predominant in LAA and BG, while violation of rights to education, religion, movement, work and commensurable compensation, and right to vote is common in RR, EN and BG. Three groups of contributory factors are identified: socio-political, economic and psychological. Sociopolitical factors manifest as oppression, arson, mounting human beings and verbal abuse are prominent in BG, shooting and poisoning in AA; affray and unlawful arrest in ILD and IN; bombing in AW, while public disturbance is demonstrated in IN, LAA and AW. Economic factors, such as money rituals, kidnapping and baby factory, are peculiar to BG, AW and WRPWN; Psychological factors of annoyance and envy are peculiar to AA, while revenge is observed in EN. Violators, mostly adults, irrespective of gender and religion hardly violate rights of their relations, while victims cut across age and gender. Rights violation cuts across the nobles and peasant in the plays. Three kinds of redress systems emerge: traditional, legal and jungle. Traditional redress like settlement of disputes in palaces as in Ògúnrìndé’s case in AA, and Gáà’s case in BG, legal redress, as found in Bàbá Ramá’s case in court in WRPWN, Bùkóyè’s case in AW, Adékọ́lá’s case in EN, while jungle involving murder in public places, like market, secretariat as in ILD, IN and LAA cutting across precolonial, colonial and postcolonial era. There is no form of redress in RR. Yorùbá written plays portray graphically the predisposing factors of human right violation and corrective measures. They could be relevant for socio-reengineering and promotion of an egalitarian society.