The Unconscious, History and Power in Ahmed Yerima’s Mojagbe

Human obsessive inclination for power is depicted in Ahmed Yerima's Mojagbe, a historical play that interrogates human callousness and intrigues through the use of the unconscious - dream's patterns. Existing scholarly engagements on historical plays and power have focused on the socio-economic predicaments resulting from the unscrupulousness and lackadaisical attitudes of some leaders especially in African society, sometimes ignoring the dramatic technique engaged by the dramatist to address the thematic affiliation. This study aligns with this untoward, however, it examines the use of the unconscious as the playwright's dramatic technique in order to investigate the psychic context of the characters and privilege the psychic context above the historical content. The major focus is to examine the various patterns of the unconscious in the text and relate them with socio-political realities of its time. The play is subjected to critical analysis that is influenced by psychoanalysis as the theoretical framework. It is discovered that the patterns of the unconscious used in the play are nightmare are daydreaming. They are used as technique of flashback and foreshadowing to both the physical and psychological conflicts in the play. They also serve as the signifiers of the protagonist's traumas and autocratic and callous behaviors. The unconscious, therefore, is the significant strategic technique in Ahmed Yerima's reconstruction of history.