Sandra L. Richards 
 
 
     Thus, the issue of the artist's responsibility to society is lodged

within a framework which seemingly devalues its significance. Having 
articulated major positions on an on-going literary debate in Nigeria, 
Osofisan simply abandons the topic entirely. No specific mention of the 
issues raised by this marital infidelity is made again; nor do subsequent

events provide a resolution by validating either position. The 
interchange exists as a discrete entity within a series of stories about

the clash between tradition and modernity, and the audience must 
assign its own value to this disjunctive, dramatic sequence. 
     Similarly, the re-enactment of the folktale of The Most Handsome 
Stranger seems to represent another issue abandoned in midstream 
once its obvious purpose as theatrical spectacle has been served. 
Offered as an explanation of the mother's disapproval of the proposed 
marriage, the story is narrated by a babalawo, who functions as the 
voice of Ifa, the repository of received wisdom among the Yoruba. The 
couple's decision to disregard the oracle has potentially profound 
ramifications for their future happiness. In that this love story also 
functions on the level of political metaphor, the couple's choice has 
problematic implications for the possibility of national unity in Nigeria.

     Briefly stated, the folktale concerns a young woman's inability to 
see beyond a stranger's handsome exterior. Despite all warnings from 
family, friends, and the Stranger himself, she follows the man who 
transforms himself into a crocodile and consumes her. Because the 
thrust of the tale's moral is clear from the outset and its specific content

is familiar to Nigerians,20 audiences may maintain a more objective 
stance to the story's enactment, focusing upon - and hopefully 
delighting in - the skill with which an illusion is created. in addition,

Osofisan's interjection of modern elements into the traditional tale 
startles observers, for although the Stranger's enticing physical 
attributes are described in temporally neutral terms, his actual 
pronouncements locate him in the specific context of neo-colonialism. 
     The potential relevance of traditional folklore to contemporary 
social realities is further emphasized through the device of repetition,

when the mother offers a secular explanation for her objections to her 
daughter's proposed marriage. Her tale of the government official who 
promises agricultural miracles but leaves only dissension and death in 
his wake approximates the earlier story. Both stories describe a 
community willing to accept alien values without any critical reflection;

as such, both raise questions concerning issues at the heart of African 
and Third World development. 
    That these stories are dramatized in a manner which encourages 
the creation of spectacle suggests one of two possibilities concerning 
what Alain Ricard has termed "the pragmatics of performance" as
a 
shaper of meaning.21 The distancing or alienating devices described 
above may work effectively, thereby stimulating audiences to reflect 
upon the explicit social critique. But there exists the alternate 
possibility that sensual delight in the ingeniousness of the theatrical 
spectacle overtakes a critical sensibility. Particularly in the story of
the 
Stranger's transformation into a crocodile is this possibility likely: 
Because the spectacle relates primarily to the supernatural, western- 
 
 
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