The Unconscious and Socio-Political Implications on Contemporary African States: Satiric Reflections from Two African Plays

Some playwrights have shown affection to the use of the unconscious in their plays throughout the ages to explicate the phenomenon and nature of collective unconsciousness in dramatic literature in order to show the interface between human psyches and realities. However, existing critical studies on the unconscious and dramas have focused on the investigation of characters’ unconscious motives and conflicts, sometimes ignoring the employment of the unconscious as a technique for satiric reflections. This paper, therefore, examines the unconscious as a technique for interrogating the characters’ psychic contexts in order to highlight their predicaments and the attendant socio-political imbroglios in their society. The study adopts Sigmund Freud’s model of psychoanalysis as the theoretical framework which allows for the investigation into characters’ psyches and behaviours and appraisal of the link between the characters’ motives and the realities in their society. Two African plays were purposively selected: No Pennies for Mama and Tuti, they are subjected to critical textual analysis. It is discovered that the patterns of the unconscious that provide the psychic context for the plays are dream and hallucination. They serve as signifiers of the characters’ traumas, which are precipitated by their naïve behaviours on the one hand and revelations of their family and societal realities on the other. Dream and hallucination have been used not only as mere patterns of the unconscious but also as a technique to engage satiric reflections and realities.

Keywords: Cultural Dream, Hallucination, The unconscious, Satire, Socio-political realities.