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The text discusses how real-life power figures can become models for dramatic monsters, and argues that monsters persist in power long after being exposed. It reflects on ignorance as willed rather than accidental, how “power calls to power,” and why some people relish domination and even “disappearance” as statecraft. ",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":15,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/literature/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/a-play-of-giants/330567/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/a-play-of-giants/330567.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Theodora","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-22","2026-09-21",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":44},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"Where does the action take place in A Play of Giants?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"The action takes place at the Bugaran Embassy to the United Nations, New York.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"What time period is described for the play’s action?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"The time is a few years before the present.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"What does the introduction suggest about how “monsters” remain in power?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"It suggests that subjects succeed in staying entrenched in power long after they have been unambiguously exposed, with ignorance described as often willed rather than fortuitous.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},330567,1790340710,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":14,"category_name":15,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":44,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145},687197207919,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/a000253d6f5f7c60be?x-image-process=image/resize,m_fixed,w_180,h_180&k=1779446848396160552","Wole Soyinka  \nA PLAY OF GIANTS  \nMETHUEN · LONDON AND NEW YORK  \nCHARACTERS  \nBEFGENEFMPERIELDENER-AOMACIRALO GUNEMAKASCORSHAL KAMBARRA TUBINIOUM I African heads ofstate  \nGUDRUM, a Scandinavian journalist CHAIRMAN OF THE BUGARA CENTRAL BANK SCULPTOR  \nBUGARAN AMBASSADOR MAYOR OF HYACOMBE PROFESSOR BATEY  \nTWO RUSSIAN DELEGATES TWO AMERICAN DELEGATES TASK FORCE SPECIALS GUARDS  \nSECRETARY-GENERAL OF THE UNITED NATIONS  \nThe action takes place at the Bugaran Embassy to the United Nations, New York. The time is a few years before the present.  \nOn the Heroes of our Time: some penonal notes  \nNo serious effort is made here to hide the identities of the real life actors who have served as models forA Play ofGiants. They are none other than: President for Life Macias Nguema (late) of EquitoriaJ Guinea; Emperor for Life (ex) Jean-Baptiste Bokassa of the Central African Republic; Life President Moburu Sese Koko etc, of Congo Kinshasa (just hanging on); and-the HERO OF HEROES in the person of Life President (ex) the Field-Marshal El-Haji Dr Idi Amin of Uganda, DSc, DSO, VC etc, etc, who still dreams, according to latest reports, of being recalled to be the Saviour of Uganda once again.  \nIt is obvious that no single play should even attempt to contain such a gallery of Supermen. I therefore shift the blame for this act of hubris to Jean Genet (The Balcony) who suggested the idea, that is, provided a model of form which might possibly attempt the feat. Naturally I absolve Genet of the short-comings in execution.  \nUnlike many commentators on power and politics, I do not know how monsters come to be, only that they are, and in defiance of place, time and pundits. According to some of these last, our grotesqueries are the product of specific socio-economic histories, yet no one has ever satisfactorily explained why near identical socio-economic conditions (including a similar colonial experience) should produce on the one hand, a Julius Nyerere and on the other, an Idi Amin. What we are able to observe more confidendy (in addition to their mechanisms for first acquiring power) is how our subjects succeed in remaining entrenched in power long after they have been unambiguously exposed for what they are. Moburu , to take our surviving example, should have received his coup de grace at least a decade ago but for the resolute interests of the Western  \nvi A PLAY OF GIANTS  \npowers-Belgium, France and West Germany most directly.  \nSuch a seemingly straight-forward identification of interests fails to apply however when we come to the figure of Idi Amin. This cenified psychopath was sustained in power at various periods by group interests and ideologies as varied as those of Great Britain (which installed him in power in the first place), the United States, the Soviet Union, the Organisation of African Unity, Cuba, Libya, the PLO and Israel, not to mention the vociferous support accorded him by the cheer-leaders among the intelligentsia ·of the African continent and the Black Caqcuses of the United States.  \nThat genuine ignorance accounted for pan of this phenomenon is not to be denied. As Secretary-General of the Union of Writers of the African Peoples and the editor of a journal both of which organs were mobilised to confront the tyranny of Amin's regime, I did however have the opportunity of engaging, at first hand, politicians, intellectuals and even Heads of State in the effort to expose the truth about Uganda under Idi Amin. My experience in the majority of cases was that such ignorance was willed, not fortuitous. The tone, the varied disguises of their 'ignorance' left me with the confirma· tion of a long held suspicion that power calls to power, that the brutality of power (its most strident self-manifestation) evokes a conspiratorial craving for the phenomenon of 'success' which cuts across all human occupations. This may be one of the many explanations why some of the most brilliant men of science and the humanities bend their skil","cbCaipJvyp3s8AJY","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaipJvyp3s8AJY","pdf",1314567,81,"English","# Characters\n## Setting\n## On the Heroes of our Time","[{\"question\":\"Where does the action take place in A Play of Giants?\",\"answer\":\"The action takes place at the Bugaran Embassy to the United Nations, New York.\"},{\"question\":\"What time period is described for the play’s action?\",\"answer\":\"The time is a few years before the present.\"},{\"question\":\"What does the introduction suggest about how “monsters” remain in power?\",\"answer\":\"It suggests that subjects succeed in staying entrenched in power long after they have been unambiguously exposed, with ignorance described as often willed rather than fortuitous.\"}]","A PLAY OF GIANTS | PDF",1789989436,125]