N°21_Vol.6_05

Introduction: Conflict has become a recurring problem in West Africa and remains one of the major obstacles to national development. As Brown (1996) argues, “violent conflict destroys the foundations of development by weakening institutions, displacing populations, and reducing economic productivity.” Political instability, ethnic tensions, civil wars, and social injustice continue to affect many African societies. These conflicts slow down economic growth, weaken social cohesion, destroy infrastructure, and negatively affect education and human welfare. According to Stewart (2004, p. 261), “war and civil violence reduce investment, damage infrastructure, and create long-term barriers to human development.” In such a context, literature plays an important role in examining the causes and consequences of conflicts in West African societies.

Femi Osofisan is an African playwright whose works address issues such as war, oppression, injustice, and resistance. Through his plays, he exposes the realities of African societies and denounces the suffering caused by violence and political domination. In Morountodun, published in 1982, Osofisan dramatizes the Agbekoya farmers’ revolt and presents the conflict between the ruling class and the oppressed masses. The play highlights exploitation, inequality, and social resistance. In Women of Owu, published in 2006, the playwright focuses on the tragic consequences of war through the suffering of women and children after the destruction of Owu. This goes in the same line of idea with, Deng (1996) who notes that “armed conflicts often affect women and children disproportionately, leaving deep social and psychological scars on communities.”

Previous studies have examined Femi Osofisan’s plays from different perspectives. Among them, Chukwu-Okoronkwo (2015) focuses on Osofisan’s “Revolutionary Philosophy and Revolutionary Aestheticism in Morountodun and The Chattering and the Song”, showing how the playwright promotes resistance against oppression. Nelson Obasi and Aloysius Orjinta (2013) argue that Osofisan’s Marxism is limited because his plays sometimes favor compromise rather than total revolution. Augustine Obiajulu EZIECHINE (2025), on the other hand, studies the representation of women in Morountodun and Women of Owu, presenting women as agents of social change and resistance.

Although previous studies have investigated Osofisan’s plays from Marxist feminist, and revolutionary perspectives, little attention has been paid to the relationship between conflict and national development in the two plays. They do not examine how war, oppression, political violence, and social injustice hinder sustainable development in West Africa. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP, 2005) emphasizes that “without peace and social stability, sustainable development remains impossible.” Therefore, this study seeks to fill this gap by analyzing how Osofisan portrays conflict as a major obstacle to national development while promoting peace, justice, dialogue, and reconciliation as essential conditions for sustainable development in West Africa. In fact, the two plays portray the different forms of conflict that shape West African societies and examine their destructive effects on social stability and national development. Through the experiences of the fictional characters, Osofisan reveals how violence, oppression, war, and injustice contribute to poverty, displacement, trauma, and the destruction of human and material resources in society.

The study seeks to answer the following questions: How do Femi Osofisan’s plays portray the manifestations of conflicts in West African societies, and how do these conflicts constitute obstacles to national development? This study argues that Osofisan’s plays show conflict as more than politics and economics. They also show class oppression, gender violence, and social breakdown. These are lasting obstacles to national development. In Morountodun, the ruling elite keeps peasants poor and powerless. This weakens trust in government and slows progress. In Women of Owu, war’s cost falls hardest on women. They face displacement, loss, slavery, and sexual violence. This destroys the human resources a nation needs to rebuild. The two plays show different conflicts, one about class, one about war between peoples. But Osofisan offers the same solution in both. He presents dialogue and reconciliation as the path to peace and development.

It contends that these interconnected forms of conflict constitute significant obstacles to sustainable national development. This research is grounded in Marxist criticism, which examines class struggle, exploitation, and the oppression of the masses by the ruling class. According to Paolo Abis (1987, p. 45), “Viewed from the Marxist perspective, the literary works of a period would, then, reveal the state of the struggle between classes in a historical place and moment.” Marxist criticism therefore provides an appropriate framework for analyzing how Osofisan exposes social inequality, political domination, and the suffering of the oppressed masses in the plays. ….