Social Movement Strategy, Reflectionism and Modern African Drama

Abstract

Critics of modern African plays that appropriate social movement strategy have concentrated on the revolutionary ethos and functionality of them without particular attention paid to how these plays use social movement strategy to reflect and examine the various socio-political problems in Africa. This paper interrogates how modern African drama employs social movement strategy to reflects and reflect upon the socio-economic problems in Africa. Bereket Habte Selassie's The Devil in God's Land is used to explicate this trend. It is discovered that the appropriation of social movement strategy enables the play to interrogate the socio-political problems in more revolutionary manner; that the play reflects the socio-political problems in Eritrea and that the literary elements and techniques used assist in the reinforcement of the social movement adopted. The paper concludes that the appropriation of social movement strategy in African drama would serve as a conscientization process that can jostle African people to work together to create a just and developed continent.