Staging Patriarchy: Gendered Power and Female Devaluation in Alex Roy Omoni’s Morontonu

Abstract

This study interrogates the dramatic representation of patriarchal authority and female devaluation in Alex Roy-Omoni’s Morontonu through the theoretical lens of African Feminism, supplemented by insights from Radical Feminism. While African Feminism provides a culturally grounded framework for examining gender relations within indigenous social structures, Radical Feminism sharpens the critique of patriarchy as a system of institutionalized male dominance. The paper argues that the play stages patriarchy not merely as a background social condition but as an active organizing principle that regulates power, worth and identity within the polygamous household. Through dialogue, characterization and domestic conflict, male authority is normalized, while female value is measured in relation to obedience, fertility and competition for masculine validation. The study further contends that polygamy functions in the play as a dramatic site where jealousy, rivalry and betrayal are not accidental moral failings but structural consequences of gendered hierarchy. By exposing how women internalize and reproduce patriarchal logic even as they suffer under it, the play reveals the cyclical nature of female marginalization within culturally sanctioned systems. In essence, this paper demonstrates that Morontonu offers a critical theatrical interrogation of gendered power, making visible the cultural mechanisms that sustain female subordination in traditional African society.