Voice, Silence, and Gendered Power: A Postcolonial Feminist Critique of Contemporary Theatre in Nigeria and South Sudan

This study examines the intersections of voice, silence, and gendered power in contemporary Nigerian and South Sudanese theatre through a postcolonial feminist lens. It explores how selected dramatic texts and performance traditions from both contexts represent women’s experiences of marginalisation, resistance, and agency within societies shaped by patriarchy, colonial legacies, political instability, and, in the case of South Sudan, prolonged conflict and displacement. Grounded in postcolonial feminist theory, the study draws on the works of scholars such as Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Oyèrónkẹ́ Oyěwùmí, and bell hooks to interrogate the construction and contestation of gendered power relations in theatrical representation. Methodologically, the research adopts a qualitative textual approach based on close readings of selected plays by Nigerian dramatists such as Tess Onwueme, Zulu Sofola, and Femi Osofisan, alongside South Sudanese theatrical and performance narratives rooted in oral traditions and conflict-related experiences. The analysis focuses on themes including patriarchal authority, silence as trauma and resistance, voice as empowerment, gender-based violence, cultural identity, and nation formation.The findings reveal that Nigerian theatre often foregrounds explicit verbal resistance and symbolic confrontation with patriarchal structures, whereas South Sudanese performance traditions are more deeply shaped by war, displacement, and survival, where silence frequently functions as both a manifestation of trauma and a strategic mode of resistance. Despite these contextual differences, both traditions demonstrate that women’s voices and silence operate as politically charged mechanisms through which gendered power is negotiated, challenged, and reimagined. The study concludes that contemporary African theatre constitutes a critical space for exposing the interconnected forces of patriarchy, colonial history, conflict, and cultural ideology, while simultaneously creating imaginative possibilities for female agency and resistance. By foregrounding underexplored South Sudanese performance traditions alongside Nigerian feminist drama, the research contributes to African theatre scholarship through a comparative postcolonial feminist perspective on gender, performance, and power.