English Dept, Edo University, Iyamho, adopts Ebhohon’s ‘The Great Delusion’
By Editor
THE Department of English, Edo University, Iyamho, Edo State, has adopted The Great Delusion, a prize-winning play by Nigerian dramatist, Majekodunmi Oseriemen Ebhohon, for formal undergraduate studies. The adoption follows an expanding body of scholarship surrounding the text, which examines racial justice, epistemic theft, and the historic contributions of Africans to science and technology.
The play, which won the 2025 Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) Prize for Drama, has increasingly drawn cross-disciplinary attention from historians and literary theorists for its confrontation and contestations of the biases of white supremacy.
Writing in the foreword, a professor of History at the University of Central Florida, US, Dr. Vibert Issa White, acknowledged the play’s pedagogical and sociological necessity. “It drags into the light the unsung Black inventors whose genius shaped the ancient and modern worlds, and forces the audience to confront why their names were ever forgotten,” White observed, noting that for Black children, the work is “nothing short of an intellectual resurrection.”
This perspective aligns with a critical review by an eminent scholar of African literature, Professor G.G. Darah, who remarked that The Great Delusion actively “reignites many of the debates and discourses about the place and fate of African people in world history,” challenging readers to examine the long-term historical memory erasure resulting from centuries of colonial exploitation.
Professor Solomon Awuzie, representing the Department of English at Edo University, Iyamho, stated that the thematic layers that undergird the play provide undergraduates with substantial material for rigorous textual analysis and critical exegesis. He added that the department remains committed to ensuring coursework reflects vital developments within contemporary African literature.
Acknowledging the decision, Ebhohon expressed appreciation for the department’s academic assessment of his work. The playwright noted his anticipation that the text’s adoption would foster critical classroom discourse and prompt new analytical frameworks regarding African contributions to global development among Africa students, who often stand in awe of western espitemology that many African scholars lavishly promote at the detriment of critical self-evaluation of what is possible within African scholarly contexts.
Ebhohon’s The Great Delusion calls for a stronger critique of what is possible when Africans apply themselves in scientific innovations, as slavery forced African-Americans in the New World to be innovative in their new environments. This would give birth to many world-defining innovations that are at the heart of western civilization today although the African inventors are largely unacknowledged till date, occupying mere footnote recognition for their exceptional brilliance that the play celebrates.
