Zulu Sofola

Nwazuluwa Onuekwuke "Zulu" Sofola (22 June 1935 – 5 September 1995)^[1] was the first published female Nigerian playwright and dramatist.^[2] Sofola was also a university teacher and became the first female Professor of Theater Arts in Africa.^[3]

Zulu Sofola
Other names	Nwazuluwa Onuekwuke

Biography

Nwazuluwa Onuekwuke Sofola^[4] was born in the former Bendel State to Nwaugbade Okwumabua and Chief Ogana Okwumabua who were Igbo from Issele-Uku, Aniocha North Local Government Area, presently Delta State in the south-southern region of Nigeria. She attended Federal Government Primary School in Asaba and the Baptist Girls High School in Agbor all in Delta State.^{[citation needed]} Due to her outstanding performance in school, she was awarded a scholarship to complete her high school education in Nashville, Tennessee.^{[5][failed verification]} Spending her adolescence and early womanhood in the US, she studied at Southern Baptist Seminary, earned a BA in English at Virginia Union University in Richmond, Virginia in 1959.^{[citation needed]} She obtained her MA in Drama (Play writing and Production) from The Catholic University of America in Washington DC in the year 1965.^[1] She returned to Nigeria in 1966, and became a lecturer in the Department of Theatre Arts at the University of Ibadan, Oyo State, where she obtained a PhD in Theatre Arts (Tragic Theory) in 1977.^[6]

Career

Her plays "range from historical tragedy to domestic comedy and use both traditional and modern African setting".^[7] She uses "elements of magic, myth and ritual to examine conflicts between traditionalism and modernism in which male supremacy persists."^[8] She was considered one of the most distinguished women in Nigerian literature.^[9] She remains a source of inspiration to young African writers. Sofola's most frequently performed plays are Wedlock of the Gods (1972) and The Sweet Trap (1977).^[8] She died in 1995 at the age of 60.

Achievements

• Scholarly awards and distinctions both nationally and internationally.^[10]
• Recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship.^[11]
• Represented Nigeria at the first International Women Playwrights Conference.^[12]

Selected works

• The Deer Hunter and The Hunter's Pearl (1969), London: Evans Brothers.^[13]
• The Disturbed Peace of Christmas (1971), Ibadan: Daystar Press.^[13][14]
• Wedlock of the Gods (1972), Ibadan: Evans.^[15]
• The Operators, Ibadan: Ibadan University, 1973.^{[citation needed]}
• King Emene: Tragedy of a Rebellion (1974), Heinemann Educational Books. ISBN 0-435-92860-0
• The Wizard of Law (1975), Evans Bros. ISBN 0-237-49951-7
• The Sweet Trap (1977); Ibadan: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-575386-0
• Old Wines Are Tasty (1981), Ibadan: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-154-499-6
• Memories in the Moonlight (1986), Ibadan: Evans Brothers.^[16]
• Queen Omu-ako of Oligbo, Buffalo: Paul Robeson Theatre, 1989.^[17]
• Eclipso and the Fantasia, Illorin, Nigeria: 1990.^[18]
• The Showers, Illorin, Nigeria: 1991.^[19]
• Song of a Maiden: A Play, Illorin, Nigeria: Heinemann, 1992.^{[citation needed]}
• Lost Dreams and Other Plays, Ibadan: Heinemann, 1992.^[19]

Further reading

• Ezenwamadu, Nkechi Judith, and Chinyere Theodora Ojiakor. "Proverbs and Postproverbial Stance in Selected Plays of Emeka Nwabueze and Zulu Sofola." Matatu 51, no. 2 (2020): 432–447.
• Gikandi, Simon (2002), Encyclopedia of African Literature, Routledge. ISBN 0-415-23019-5 - p. 502
• Gilbert, H. (1996), Post-Colonial Drama: Theory, Practice, Politics, Routledge. ISBN 0-415-09024-5 - p. 183 (on Sofola's use of proverbs).
• Kolawole, M. E. M. (1999), Zulu Sofola: her life & her works, Caltop Publications (Nigeria). ISBN 978-33187-9-9
• http://www.critical-stages.org/15/nigeria-the-challenge-of-and-for-the-female-playwright/