ABSTRACT
The content of the plays we are going to consider in this chapter comes from history rather than from myth and legend. The plays are a direct reworking of the chosen events into drama, and not a reworking of older plays which have already reworked the source of the story into a dramatic form. The chapter considers plays in which the way colonialism is normally thought about is being challenged by the playwrights. The discussion on the plays in this chapter should indicate some of these paradoxes and contradictions. The plays are: Ovonramwen Nogbaisi, by Ola Rotimi, the author of The Gods are not to Blame; Kinjeketile, by Ebrahim Hussein, a Tanzanian who writes in English and Swahili; The Trial of Dedan Kimathi, by the Kenyans Ngugi wa Thiong’o and Micere Mugo; and the Black Mamba Plays (Black Mamba One, Two and Three) by the Zambian playwright Kabwe Kasoma.
