The Significance of Modern Arabo-Islamic Drama in Nigeria: The Case of Alabi’s Almajaa (Starvation)

Abstract

Drama Continues to be a tool used for projecting the image and historical antecedents of a people and as well used for the unveiling the socio-economic and political ills of a society. It brings out the realities of negative and positive acts of the society. The evil acts perpetrated by some undesirable elements in the society. The medium which has the capacity to inform and address these social ills is the modern Drama and theatre, because it mirrors every phase of life and embraces every strata of Society. It is against this backdrop that this study set to examine the predicaments of civil servants in some states in Nigeria through the modern Arabo-Islamic Drama. The paper looks at how the playwright AbdulganiyiAlabi has captured the challenges of civil servants in our society. The paper adopted case study and content analysis approaches of the qualitative research method. The paper therefore suggest that Arabic and Islamic playwrights in Nigeria should focus more on contemporary social matters by using Drama to educate, inform and correct socio-economic ills. The study concludes that the learning of Drama should be given more priority in the syllabus and curriculum of Arabic literature in Nigeria right from primary school to the tertiary institution.