CAPITALISM AND THE MARXIST IDEALS—A DISCUSSION OF E. T. SUTHERLAND’S THE MARRIAGE OF ANANSEWA

Abstract

Ananse is popularly known in Akan tradition as a trickster because he is cunning, crafty, deceptive, among many other negative accolades. In conformity with other trickster characters around the world, Ananse has an anthropomorphic nature. His anthropomorphic nature makes him suitable not only for fireside stories, but for the stage as well. The playwright, Efua Theodora Sutherland, adapts Ananse’s anthropomorphic nature, as well as Akan traditional storytelling conventions, and creates a theatrical movement which she calls, Anansegoro. Based on the theatrical conventions of Anansegoro, Efua T. Sutherland creates her play—The marriage of Anansewa. As such, this qualitative study uses a textual analysis approach to explore Ananse’s motivation for deceiving his victims in E. T. Sutherland’s The marriage of Anansewa. The style Ananse adopts to trick his victims in the play is also discussed. The study is carried out using Marxist literary criticism as its main theoretical framework for the analysis and interpretation of the play. Marxism is chosen because it serves as one of the main critique ideologies which oppose the economic systems of capitalism. The researchers discover through the play that capitalism provides the exposure for people to become greedy, and that Ananse’s deceptive operation on his victims is highly motivated by capitalist ideology and its material realities. Based on the initial discovery, the researchers further argue that it is the capitalist system that directly motivates Ananse to deceive his victims in the play. The study concludes that E. T. Sutherland uses her theatrical movement, Anansegoro, to satirize the economic system of capitalism, as well as those who subscribe to this individualistic property-owning ideology.

Keywords: Ananse, Anansegoro, Anansesem, Capitalism, Marxism.

DOI: 10.7176/JLLL/106-02

Publication date: June 30^th 2025