SOURCE: "The Plays of John Pepper Clark," in English Studies in Africa, Vol. 18, No. 1, March, 1975, pp. 31-40.

In the following essay, McLaughlin examines the role of the hero in Song of a Goat, The Masquerade, The Raft, and Ozidi and compares and contrasts these plays with Greek myth and Shakespearean drama.

John Pepper Clark's early plays show the influence of established European literary forms, yet Nigerian myths and cultural attitudes have so asserted themselves in his most recent play, Ozidi, that his artistic manner has changed considerably. His fascination for the Ijaw saga of Ozidi has an odd sense of culmination for a writer who has spent his dramatic career turning back to his cultural roots: odd because he has integrated his formal educational influences with his more local traditional influences at a comparatively early age, Ozidi having been published when he was only 31.

The interesting point about...