Authorial verdicts against moral maladies in soyinka’s selected dramas: a pragmatics-nurtured criticism

In contemporary Africa, selfishness and megalomania are persistent and incremental social evils. Just like in a Darwinian contest for survival, roughly everybody is turning a predator striving mercilessly for preserving their individualistic interests. Thence, in the full frenzy of their racing for self assertion, people no longer mind trampling over their alter ego. Carefree from moral requirements, they indulge in corruption, embezzlement, theft, abortion, and even assassination; all of which absolutely impede the socioeconomic prosperity of any community. Though reactions against such plagues abound in the universe of literature, the dull notice goes gaining momentum. Thus, leaning on the pretence that most readers fail to grab accurately writers’ goals, this article aims at setting into the fore Soyinka’s contributions to the combat against social scourges. Description and interpretation of selected sequences have led us to the conclusion that Soyinka is an adamant social welfare fighter striving hard for exorcising our continent from any such maladies.