Defining the African Writer’s Duties—Efo Kodjo Mawugbe’s Grave Yard People

Abstract

Over the years, the duty of the African writer has clearly been a cause of many debates. Whereas one school of thought believes that the writer has whatever duty he or she creates or chooses, another school of thought believes that even the tag, ‘African writer,’ should not even be used as a form of identification in any platform. However, this paper does not seek to debunk or argue out any of these reasons. It rather highlights how the works of writers map out certain duties that they as writers perform consciously or unconsciously within their creative works. In order to achieve this, Efo Kodjo Mawugbe’s play, Grave Yard People, is used as the main reference point to identify and discuss the roles of the African writer as a historian, grass-root activist and entertainer. In order to prove that this assertion is not only identifiable with Mawugbe’s work, other writers within and outside Africa whose works showcase these varied duties are also discussed. In the conclusion of this paper, it is proven that the duties of African writers are not static but metamorphose with trends and developments of emerging societies. The words—African writers and storytellers are used interchangeably to refer to African writers.

Keywords: African writers, Storytellers, Duty of African writers, Grass-root activist, Historian, Entertainer

DOI: 10.7176/RHSS/10-10-04

Publication date:May 31^st 2020