“Oh, Friends, Do Look at Kweku Ananse’s Amazing Ways”: The Song as a Subtext in Efua Sutherland’s Edufa (1967) and The Marriage of Anansewa (1975)

Abstract

A rich body of scholarship exists on Efua Sutherland's Edufa and The Marriage of Anansewa; however, previous studies have largely concentrated on the thematic and ideological dimensions of these texts, leaving the function of songs as subtextual devices considerably underexplored. This is a notable gap, given the prominence of songs within the narrative architecture of both plays. The present paper addresses this lacuna by examining how songs in the selected plays operate as subtexts in the construction of meaning and narrative. The central argument advanced here is that songs in these texts function not merely as ornamental embellishments but as integral components of the dramatic structure, carrying significant narrative, thematic, and ideological weight in their own right.