Zulu Sofola

On 5 September 1995, Nigerian playwright and dramatist Zulu Sofola died at the age of 60. Sofola was also a university teacher and became the first female Professor of Theatre Arts in Africa.

Nwazuluwa Onuekwuke Sofola was born on 22 June 1935 in Issele-Uku, Delta State. Due to her outstanding performance in school, she was awarded a scholarship to complete her high school education in Nashville, Tennessee, USA. Spending her adolescence and early womanhood in the US, she studied at Southern Baptist Seminary, earned a BA in English at Virginia Union University in Richmond, Virginia in 1959 and a MA in Drama (Play writing and Production) from The Catholic University of America in Washington DC in the year 1965. She returned to Nigeria in 1966, and became a lecturer in the Department of Theatre Arts at the University of Ibadan, Oyo State, where she obtained a PhD in Theatre Arts (Tragic Theory) in 1977.

Her plays range from historical tragedy to domestic comedy and use both traditional and modern African setting. She uses elements of magic, myth and ritual to examine conflicts between traditionalism and modernism in which male supremacy persists. Sofola's most frequently performed plays are Wedlock of the Gods (1972) and The Sweet Trap (1977).

Source: Wikipedia

Selected publications

About Zulu Sofola and her works

Nigerian female dramatists : expression, resistance, agency / Bosede Ademilua-Afolayan. - Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2021

Proverbs and postproverbial stance in selected plays of Emeka Nwabueze and Zulu Sofola / Nkechi Judith Ezenwamadu; Chinyere Theodora Ojiakor.
In: Matatu, vol.51 (2), p.432-447, 2020

Zulu Sofola and the Nigerian Theatre Influences and Traditions / Kenneth Efakponana Eni
In: Creative Artist: A Journal of Theatre and Media Studies, vol. 2, no. 1, pages 154–169, 2009
https://www.ajol.info/index.php/cajtms/article/view/76629

Zulu Sofola : her life & her works / Mary Ebun Modupe Kolawole. - Ibadan : Caltop Publications, 1999

African feminism and the theatres of Zulu Sofola and Tess Onwueme : a celebration / I.I. Uko.
In: Africana Marburgensia , Sonderh. 16, p. 4-10, 1996

Twentieth-century Caribbean and black African writers : third series / Bernth Lindfors; Reinhard Sander. - Detroit [etc.] : Gale Research, cop. 1996
Dictionary of literary biography vol. 157

In their own voices : African women writers talk / Adeola James. - London : Currey [etc.] ; Portsmouth, N.H. : Heinemann, 1990

By Zulu Sofola

Old wines are tasty : a play / Zulu Sofola. - Ibadan [etc.] : University Press [etc.], 1981

The theater in the search for African authenticity / Zulu Sofola.
In: African theology en route / ed. by Kofi Appiah-Kubi and S. Torres , p. 126-136, 1979

Wedlock of the gods / Zulu Sofola. - London [etc.] : Evans Brothers, 1972

Wedlock of the gods, Jos Repertory Theatre, via YouTube

Zulu Sofola's Wedlock of the Gods was performed at the 12th Jos International Festival of Theatre in 2019 and virtually on Saturday, March 21 2021. See also YouTube for more performances of Sofola's plays.

Timeline of Nigerian dramatists and playwrights via Wikidata and DBpedia