Representations of the Conflict between Christianity and African Traditional Religion in Selected Nigerian Plays
This study examines the representation of the conflict between Christianity and African Traditional Religion (ATR) in Anigala’s The Living Dead and Soyinka’s Death and the King’s Horseman. Drawing on Postcolonial Theory, the study investigates how both playwrights portray religious conflict as a reflection of the cultural and ideological tensions created by colonialism. Adopting a qualitative approach based on comparative textual analysis, the study closely examines characterization, dialogue, symbolism, ritual, and setting as dramatic techniques through which the two plays construct competing religious worldviews. The findings show that it is represented not only as a system of faith but as a cultural force that is closely linked with colonial influence and the displacement of indigenous traditions. African traditional religion is portrayed as a storehouse of cultural memory, communal identity, and moral values that is resistant to cultural erasure despite pressures of colonialism and religious conversion of the people. The study utilizes dramatic techniques to confront colonial representations of African spirituality while affirming the resilience and relevance of African religious traditions. A comparative analysis of The Living Dead and Death and the King’s Horseman contributes to the intellectual discourse on Nigerian drama by showing that religious conflicts in the selected plays constitute not only a thematic concern but also a literary representation of struggles over cultural identity, historical memory, and post-colonial self-definition.
Keywords: African traditional religion, Christianity, Nigerian drama, Post-colonial Theory, Religious conflict.
