Nature, nurture in women-centred theatre

Nature and nurture are twin words essentially associated with the developmental process of human beings. While nature emphasises the innate and inherited qualities of the individual, nurture engages the human behaviour as determined by the environment and other acquired personal experiences. The notion that humans acquire all or almost all their behavioural traits from “nurture” was termed tabula rasa(“blank slate”) by John Locke in 1690. Nature and nurture have been open to intensive debate on their roles in human development but in recent time, both are now factors found to contribute substantially, often in an extricable manner, to human development. In their 2014 survey of scientists, Alison Gopnik and Edge submit that many respondents wrote that the dichotomy of nature versus nurture has outlived its usefulness, and should be retired. The reason is that in many fields of research, close feedback loops have been found in which “nature” and “nurture” influence one another constantly (as in self-domestication), while in other fields, the dividing line between an inherited and an acquired trait becomes unclear (as in the field of epigenetics or in fetal development). (Edge.org and Gopnik).
It is now being realised that nature is every bit as important as nurture. Genetic influences, brain chemistry, and neurological development contribute strongly to who we are as children and what we become as adults. While each child is born with his or her own distinct genetic potential for physical, social, emotional and cognitive development, the possibilities for reaching that potential remain tied to early life experiences and the parent-child relationship within the family. The route through childhood is shaped by many forces, and it differs for each of us. Our biological inheritance, the temperament with which we are born, the care we receive, our family relationships, the place where we grow up, the schools we attend, the culture in which we participate, and the historical period in which we live; all these affect the paths we take through childhood and condition the remainder of our lives. Genes and family may determine the foundation of the house, but time and place determine its form. We are all therefore what nature and nurture have made us.
The Nigerian theatre has its evolutionary history located in our innate culture and has grown acquiring values of entertainment forms of other world cultures to sustain and reinvent itself. Like a plant, with its distinct nature, it has enjoyed the nurturing of many hands, values, ideas, experimentations, traditions, and the constantly changing socio-historical realities of our existence. Women-centred drama, theatre and performance are part of the nature of Nigerian theatre. It is from this larger context one can appreciates the unique contributions of women in the nurturing of Nigerian theatre, the growth of women-centred drama, theatre and performance, as well as the role of men at the centre of that creative development. In Nigeria women-centred drama can be broadly categorised into two: One, Male dramatists on women and Two, Women dramatists on women. The first category subsumes the creative output of male dramatists on women and issues that concern them, while the second category similarly deals with the drama by women dramatists on women and womencentred matters. The first category expectedly constitute early Nigerian dramatists who are mainly male (D.O. Oyedele, Hubert Ogunde, James Ene Henshaw, Wole Soyinka, J.P. Clark, Ola Rotimi, Wale Ogunyemi, etc.) before the appearance of Zulu Sofola as the first female Nigerian published playwright in 1972 with her Wedlock of the Gods. The content of the drama of this phase of Nigerian theatre on women are hitherto ordinarily interpreted as creative works meant to capture the reality of that historical period and the Nigeria cultural values. Themes were ostensibly raised to address disturbing social issues like prostitution, divorce, marital deceit, erosion of cultural values, ills of western civilization, adultery, corruption, etc. Even the early plays of Zulu Sofola fall into this category too. However, the second category is essentially an offshoot of recent feminist reading of the works of these male dramatists, which has come to the conclusion that the imaging of women in their works is unfair and uncomplimentary (Harrow 170, Palmer 38, Salami 43). This notion of female misrepresentation in male-written drama probably accounts for the sharp division that has come to underline the vigour and tenacity with which the Nigerian female dramatists also now try to address men and men-centred issues with uncomplimentary remarks, while projecting positive image of women. In Jeremiah Methuselah’s contention, women dramatists have overreacted by portraying men as sexist; they completely obliterate anything good in their male characters; choosing to make more of caricatures of them whereas,
a critical consideration of these plays put up to ‘combat’ these false images of women are themselves questionable given their exaggerated content of the brutish, intolerant, insensitive and uncaring male and the overemphasis of the woman as a super perfect person.
In his view,
Apart from the plays of Zulu Sofola and Tess Onwueme, most of the later female playwrights like Stella Oyedepo, Julie Okoh, Irene Salami, Tracie Chimah Utoh- Ezeajugh and so on have in one way or the other portrayed an exaggerated image of the woman in most of their plays.
He concludes that
The implications of this, in our opinion, is that women playwrights, in their attempt at subverting patriarchy, have ended up worse purveyors of this ‘crime’ than men in this gender ‘war’ within the literary intellectual ferment (Methuselah).
My take on these arguments is that these creative products by our men and women are propelled by the issues they set out to address and not necessarily to deliberately deride women or men as the case may be. If our women are perceived to have over projected womanhood, I ask, what is seriously wrong with that? Absolutely nothing in my own view. It only further confirms that women are the master artist is the art of cosmetic applications; it is a call for attention and I think they are getting it.
…to be continued.