Analysis of Wole Soyinka’s The Trials of Brother Jero in Relation to Ghanaian Religious Discourse.

Abstract

One of the roles of Literature is its aesthetic value. Aside from that literary works serve as important tools that are used to comment on issues of society since most writers base their writings on their societal occurrences. While agreeing with the reflectionist theory of art that Literature reflects the society from which it emerges, this paper underscores that through writing, literary works have often sought to correct the ills of society. Wole Soyinka’s The Trials of Brother Jero satirizes the work of the clergy. The paper analyzes selected reports in the Ghanaian media in relation to the clergy and identifies how Wole Soyinka’s theme is reflected in these papers. The presence of Soyinka’s theme in these reports is a reaffirmation that literary writers do not only present fiction but also express pertinent realities. This study seeks to examine the extent to which themes in Soyinka’s Trials of Brother Jero play out in religious discourses in Ghana. The global nature of the issues problematized by Wole Soyinka also comes out through this study as the work set in Nigeria is analyzed in relation to the selected articles set in Ghana. The paper relies on a content analysis of The Trials of Brother Jero and similar themes presented in the selected articles and makes a few recommendations on how these religious issues could be partially, if not wholly, resolved in Ghana.