Nwazuluwa Onuekwuke Sofola
- 1935 to 1995

Nigeria’s first published female playwright and dramatist, Prof. Nwazuluwa Onuekwuke Sofola, fondly known as Zulu by her family, friends and in the professional circle, was born in Issele-Uku, Delta State of Nigeria in 1935 to the Okwumabua family of Ogbeutu quarters.

At the time when most parents discouraged their female children from receiving formal education; afraid that their female children risked rejection by future potential suitors, Zulu’s parents broke with tradition and sent her to school. Zulu attended secondary school at Mary Mount College Agbor, in Delta State before being sent off to the United States to pursue higher education in a land far away from her parents.

She was educated at Virginia Union University where she received her B.A. degree in 1960 and the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. where she received the M.A. degree in 1965. She later got married to Prof. Johnson Adeyemi Sofola, whom she met in the United States. Both returned to Nigeria in 1966 and started their professional teaching careers at Nigeria’s Ivy League college, the University of Ibadan. While she was teaching at the University of Ibadan, Zulu enrolled at the same school where she taught and later received her Ph.D. in theater arts in 1977. She also taught at the University of Ilorin where she was appointed chairperson of the Department of Theater Arts.

Prof. Zulu Sofola became the first female Nigerian playwright and dramatist and one of the most prolific writers on the African continent. Record has it that she was also a very accomplished musician and theater director. She was a producer of plays for stage and television.

In 1988, she represented Nigeria in the first International Women Playwrights conference sponsored by the University of Buffalo, in New York. After the end of the first conference, the International Center for Women playwrights was established.

Zulu Sofola had about fourteen playwrights to her credit, including the following:

Lost Dreams and Other Plays. Ibadan, Nigeria: Heinemann, 1992.

Song of a Maiden: A Play. Illorin, Nigeria: Heinemann, 1992.

The Showers. Illorin, Nigeria: 1991.

Eclipso and the Fantasia. Illorin, Nigeria: 1990.

Queen Omu-ako of Oligbo. Buffalo: Paul Robeson Theatre, 1989.

Memories in the Moonlight. Ibadan, Nigeria: Evans Brothers, 1986.

Old Wines are Tasty: A Play. Ibadan, Nigeria: University Press, 1981.

The Sweet Trap. Ibadan, Nigeria: Oxford University Press, 1977.

The Wizard of Law. Ibadan, Nigeria: Evans Brothers, 1975.

King Emene: Tragedy of a Rebellion. London: Heinemann Educational, 1974.

Wedlock of the Gods. Ibadan, Nigeria: Evans Brothers, 1973.

The Operators. Ibadan, Nigeria: Ibadan University, 1973.

The Disturbed Peace of Christmas. Ibadan, Nigeria: Daystar Press, 1971.

The Deer Hunter and the Hunter’s Pearl. London: Evans Brothers, 1969.

Zulu Sofola used some of her plays to criticize the mistreatment of females in our society within the contest of social injustice. Some of her social critics portrayed her as “a liberal feminist” but credited her as a writer who sought justice for all. In her play, “Wedlock of the Gods”, Sofola questions the outstanding tradition that reduces women to chattels, the view that “a man’s daughter is his source of wealth”. Other social ills that Sofola addressed through satire includes the political savagery of military dictatorship that tries to clean up corruption among the population without first, cleaning up itself. Although Sofola spent most of her life writing against social injustice, she was not the hard core “feminist” who preached women’s independence from men or the bra burning approach to demonstrate women’s freedom from men’s oppression in society, rather, she was paradoxical in her beliefs in the “conceptual approach that a person be treated not on the basis of gender but purely as a human being worthy of respect”. Above all, Sofola espoused some of the African and Christian family values like humility, and wives honoring their husbands.

Zulu Sofola’s writing style is simplistic and her knowledge of self and pride in her heritage is demonstrated in her plays, some of which portrayed Issele-Uku culture and names. For example, Sofola used her native icon like “mother Mkpitime”, and several indigenous Issele-Uku names like, Adigwu, Akuagwu, Diokpa, Jigide, Odu, Olinzele, Odibei, Ogoli, Onowu, Ogbelani, Okeibunor, Omu, Ojei etc. This is not to suggest that the social ills Sofala criticized in her plays is peculiar to her native town, rather, it is her style of bringing the images of her characters closer to her audience. Zulu Sofola’s plays are read worldwide and her message of fair treatment to all human beings is the battle cry for human rights advocates and for human dignity everywhere. She left an indelible mark in contemporary playwrights and social justice.

Sources:
African Quarterly on the Arts, Vol. 11, No. 3
Oral Source: Ogi Okwumabua, Ph.D