BEYOND THE DRAMATIC CULTURE OF STREET PROTEST: MORAL PERSUASION FOR THE PARTICIPATION OF TRADITIONAL RULERS IN PROTEST PERFORMANCE.

Whilst there is a wealth of literature globally that explores the trajectories of street protest, there are however other issues that are yet to be discussed. In Nigeria and Africa at large, despite the vast research on the status of protesters, little is known about the perspective of traditional rulers participating in street protest. The overall image that emerges from the drama/ play (text) and phenomenal events (context) is silence and absence of this group of individuals with influential positions. This paper examines the dramatic culture of street protest and seeks a moral approach to the participation of traditional rulers as social actors in the prevailing culture of street protest. The methodology of research is qualitative and exploratory in nature. To achieve this, content analysis approach is implored where the paper analyses occurrences and participation in street protest. To explore the reason traditional rulers have not participated in street protest, this paper identifies plays that treat protest as a theme and examine if any play characterises protesters as traditional rulers. The findings from the analysis of text (plays) and contextual (street protest) performances disclose that there is no portrayal by playwrights or empirical evidence of traditional rulers participating in street protest.