Giants on stage

Authors

Wole Soyinka
Keywords: Giants, Scene, Kamini, Gunema, Kasko, Tuboum

Synopsis

Giants on Stage shows a static picture in which the 'giants' of the title, Kamini, Gunema, Kasko and Tuboum - slightly disguised representations of Idi Amin Macias Nguema, Jean-Bedel Bokassa and Mobutu Sese Seko, respectively - are presented as constituents of the post-colonial products of the Western superpowers. Kamini, for example, is put into power by the British, financed by the Americans, militarily armed by the Soviets and ultimately abandoned by all when the services of an insane dictator is no longer convenient to them. Giants on Stage is thus a surreal fantasy of international poetic justice in which the economic and political support systems of Western governments respond catastrophically, in their own time and at their own whim, to the monsters they have created and consequently lost control over.In this play, Soyinka manages to bring together in one place all the infamous dictators of Africa. The Secretary General of the United Nations and two delegates, from Russia and the United States, are the other personalities who give Giants on Stage its international character. The pretext for such an encounter is a meeting of the United Nations. As the play unfolds, we witness the role the superpowers play in sustaining the dictators in power and at the same time the true nature of these African dictators - their confusions, sexual perversions, their misconceptions of power and its complexities.

Author Biography

Wole Soyinka

Wole Soyinka (b.1934)
Nigerian playwright, poet laureate, essayist, thinker, critic, political activist, he is one of the greatest English-speaking African writers. His work intersects, in an exemplary but also controversial way, histories of the contemporary world. Political prisoner for almost the entire period of the Nigerian civil war, he wrote the famous sentence "Justice is the first condition of humanity". He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986 and dedicated it to Nelson Mandela. He was nominated by UNESCO as Goodwill Ambassador between 1994 and 2009. His dramatic works include A Dance of the Forests, Death and the King's Horseman, A Play of Giants and From Zia with Love. He is recognised for his mastery of a tragic language that is both African and European, and for being an author who embraces the universality of human experience. The recipient of several literary prizes and an honorary doctorate from various universities around the world, in recent months he has devoted his frequent speeches, articles and interviews to pointing out the failure of President Goodluck Jonathan in the fight against Boko Haram.

Gigantes em cena
Published
December 28, 2020

Details about the available publication format: PDF

PDF
ISBN-13 (15)
978-989-26-1998-9
doi
10.14195/978-989-26-1998-9

Details about the available publication format: Amazon

Amazon
Physical Dimensions