“On Duality”

ABSTRACT

We know, thanks to Chinua Achebe, that "where one thing stands, another stands beside it." This proverb, which we find re-articulated in Marx and Brecht, holds a key to Biodun Jeyifo's keen thought and writing as a cultural and literary critic and as a journalist. This essay is a reflection on the place of duality in Biodun Jeyifo's lively writing, the texture and perhaps even the playfulness that derive from it.

KEYWORDS:

• Clapperton
• Jeyifo
• ancient Oyo
• theatre
• drama

Acknowledgments

My thanks to Akin Adesokan and Teju Olaniyan for organizing the series of panels in honor of Biodun Jeyifo at the 2016 annual meeting of the ALA, at which this paper was presented.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Chinua Achebe, quoted in Neher, William W., and Paul J. Sandin. Communicating Ethically: Character, Duties, Consequences, and Relationships. 2nd ed. New York: Routledge, 2017. 50. Print.

2. Achebe, Chinua. Arrow of God. London: Heinemann, 1986. 46. Print.

3. Brecht, Bertolt, and John Willett. Brecht on Theatre: The Development of an Aesthetic. New York: Hill and Wang, 1966. 47. Print. 

4. Chinua Achebe, quoted in Moyers, Bill. A World of Ideas. London: Doubleday, 1989. 333. Print.

5. Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. “The Danger of a Single Story.” TED. July 2009. Lecture. Web. 14 Jan. 2018. <https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story>.

6. See Lévi-Strauss, Claude. Race et Histoire. Paris: UNESCO, 1952. Print.

7. Jeyifo, Biodun. “Preface.” Modern African Drama. New York: Norton, 2002. vii–xii. Print.

8. Clapperton, Hugh. Journal of a Second Expedition into the Interior of Africa, from the Bight of Benin to Soccatoo. To Which Is Added: The Journal of Richard Lander from Kano to the Sea-Coast by a More Eastern Route. London: John Murray, 1829. Print.

9. Jeyifo notes that some years after the 1826 performance, when Oyo became part of the Nigerian colony of the British imperial system, a new mask appeared: the coupled figure of the white colonial district commissioner and his wife, which became as popular as the masks of “local” foreigners. Might this coupled figure also be a source for Wole Soyinka's Simon Pilkings and Jane (Death and the King's Horseman, New York: Hill and Wang, 1975. Print.)?

10. In this claim of Jeyifo's, I hear Paul Gilroy's assertion that “where racist, nationalist, or ethnically absolutist discourses orchestrate political relationships so that these identities appear to be mutually exclusive, occupying the space between them or trying to demonstrate their continuity has been viewed as a provocative and even oppositional act of political insubordination” (1). The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double-Consciousness. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1993. Print.

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Notes on contributors

Eileen Julien

Eileen Julien is a professor of comparative literature, French, and African studies, and director of the Institute for Advanced Study at Indiana University Bloomington. Her publications include African Novels and the Question of Orality, Travels with Mae: Scenes from a New Orleans Girlhood, and The Locations and Dislocations of African Literature: A Dialogue Between Humanities and Social Science Scholars, which she co-edited with Biodun Jeyifo. She is the Africa regional coordinator for the forthcoming four-volume Literature: A World History. She has served as president of the African Literature Association (1990–91) and founding director of the West African Research Center (Dakar, 1993–95) and was co-founder of the New Orleans Afrikan Film and Arts Festival (2008–12).