Trauma Response in Wole Soyinka’s Kongi’s Haarvest: the Exegesis of Mourning, Grieving, and the Sequelae of Disquieting Events

Abstract

Many literary texts reflect trauma theory as well as psychoanalytical concepts. Different interpretations have been given to those texts in terms of the features that reflect traumatic situations. There are important aspects we can follow in terms of fragmented encounters to achieve the purpose of a traumatic event. In this framework, one can witness traumatic situations in Wole Soyinka's drama, especially where political power is used to traumatise the populace. There may be temporal-structure trauma, but traumatic experience may put someone in a compelling, disquieting nightmare in terms of political tyranny. In Kongi’s Harvest, there is a kind of dark encounter in which Soyinka presents the plight of the people both symbolically and emotionally in the hands of a despot. In this view, the pang of trauma becomes preponderant over the psyches of the populace due to the fact that the political dictator turns himself into a monster who devours the mind and rights of the people. As the people collectively experience a traumatic nightmare, the idea of the pathos with which the political despot has refused to consider the plight of the people is reflected. Kongi, the protagonist of the play, makes himself the messiah of pain and terror; he intrudes into the people’s culture without considering the implication of its sacredness. His sacrilegeous behaviour creates enormous pain for the people he claims to rule over. This paper therefore addresses how political power is used to create trauma for the people. Thus, the events of the traumatic encounter unfold from the beginning of the play until the end, when it eventually collapses.

Keywords

• Trauma
• Afrocentric instances
• political power
• African despots
• Kongi

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