Gendered analyses of two Nigerian protest plays

Studies on gender roles in Nigerian drama predominantly depict women as fragile, and men as authoritarian or dominant. This rigid demarcation of social roles portrays men and women as homogeneous within their groups. Deviating from existing studies, I examine how protest can stimulate fluid gender performances in characters. Adopting a textual analysis approach, I interpret the key characters in Emeka Nwabueze’s The Dragon’s Funeral and Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo’s Hands That Crush Stone, applying Judith Butler’s theory of gender performativity. This analytical approach facilitates the interpretation of the perceptions, shared assumptions, and gendered activities of the dramatic personae. The characters, especially the protagonists and antagonists, exhibit diverse gender performances during protest. Thus, I conclude that the rigid classification of roles along the man/woman binary in Nigerian protest plays is incongruous with the characters’ performances in these plays. The study concludes that gender enactments are context-sensitive and determined by changing conditions such as protest.