Abstract

The aim of this presentation is to buttress the fact that the artists have through their writings and performances in various forms propagated the   struggles for identity, liberation and survival of the African descent within the continent and in the diaspora. The paper adopts literary and descriptive approaches as methodology in an effort to establish how the artist champions and sustains the cause of the African through their works. The paper reveals that an artist like Femi Osofisan in many of his plays, especially Richard Lander and the Travelling Polygamist and Ajayi Crowther: The Triumphs and Travails of a Legend, rewrites the continent’s history with a view to giving voice to the hitherto subdued indigenous peoples. In these two plays, Osofisan re-presents the story of the forays of the Lander brothers in the establishment of the British exploration in Nigeria. It is noted that the rewritings as undertaken by Osofisan in his theatre will be a useful tool in the effort to correct the mistakes of the past where foreigners dominated the African space in opinion formulation and character formation. Therefore, it is recommended that Africans within and in the diaspora should remain conscious of their identity as well as endeavor to work hard through their own writings and  performances to correct the misinformation and misinterpretation of the “African” as written by foreigners and thus define themselves in their own way as Africans.

Keywords: African identity, Artist champions, Osofisan, Lander brother, diaspora