SEARCHING FOR THE SOUL OF THE NATION IN HENRY BELLBELL-GAM’S THE HIDDEN TREASURE AND AHMED YERIMA’S HARD GROUND, WHO DARES: ETHNICITY, POLITICS OR RELIGION?

Abstract

From time immemorial, ethnicity, politics and religion have stood as archenemies to any supposedly progressive nation. This has given credence to Karl Marx’s religious maxim. Ethnicity, politics and religion and their attendant misunderstandings and misapplications have been the subject of numerous academic and social discourses, yet, there is nothing concrete to report. The shape of national politics that once worked and the scholarly projections therein are progressively becoming non-operational and have subsequently transformed into contemporary ideological standpoints which on daily basis are struggling to remain afloat. There is the need to constantly engage the nation in academic postulations in order to curb what has kept the nation restless, pontificating in different intellectual round-tables without remarkable achievements. This paper reflects on the prism of searching for the soul of the nation as the only adequate mirror in concretely reflecting the society the way it is and proffering solutions. This paper anchors its analysis on Henry Bell-Gam’s the Hidden Treasure and Ahmed Yerima’s Hard Ground with the characters of Eze Omasi and Nimi on the centre of magnetism. Oscar Lewis’ Culture of Poverty theory plays a significant role in this paper. The consideration shows how these playwrights interrogate and reflect the modern-day Nigerian society with her pockets of agitations, criminality, insurgencies, insurrections, political ineptitude thereof. The paper recommends that for the society to gear towards real development that will subdue the issue of criminalities, et al, ethnicity, religion and politics should be played with human face: sincerity, honesty and love.