Political Repression in East African Drama: The Potency of Silent Protest in Ruganda’s Echoes of Silence

: The East African region has, since independence, been largely characterised by political intolerance. Dissenting political voices have, in past, been censured. This has negatively impacted on the people’s faith, and participation, in political activities. Their political consciousness has been dwarfed, in a number of instances, culminating in apathy, inaction, silence and disillusionment. There are, however, notable attempts to reawaken political consciousness in the region. Literature has played a great role in this respect and it is within this framework that this research project seeks to explore the manufacturing of acts (verbal and nonverbal) of dissent in postcolonial Africa. Protest and resistance have been established as the new forms of power negotiation and the expression of popular emancipation in democratic societies. In fact, resistance to established oppressive orders and social injustice has always characterised the history of humanity, as the oppressed have never achieved freedom without protest, resistance and even bloody battles. This study seeks to appreciate the rise of political consciousness in East African drama. Of specific interest in this paper is the potency of silent protests. The objective of this study is to explore the representation of subtle protest in reawakening political consciousness in Ruganda’s Echoes of silence . This study relies on the tenets, ideas and arguments of Marxist and postcolonial literary theorists – Eagleton (1976); Said (1978); Bhabha (1994) and Fanon (1967) - in the reading of the selected text. Principles, such as the construction of new occidental and oriental space, the language of those in power, and of subjects, the new third space, cultural hegemony and othering, false consciousness, class struggle, economic determinism and dialectical materialism guide this study. The study takes an analytic research design. Ruganda’s Echoes of silence has been purposively sampled. Ruganda’s Echoes of Silence has a particularly loud title and it is Ruganda’s only text that appears to be largely set in Kenya making it relevant to our study. We have thematically and inferentially analysed and discussed data from this play. The study concludes that silence, like other subtle modes of political expressions represented in Ruganda’s Echoes of silence , is a powerful form of political protest in contemporary East African societies. By deploying this strategy, Ruganda’s succeeds in developing political consciousness and calling for political action. The paper is significant because it encourages and promotes further research on the power of drama (and literature in general) to cause social and political change.