AFRICAN DRAMA JOE DE GRAFT: Sons and Daughters Discuss the character and role of Mr. James Ofosu in the play.

Answer Details

Mr James Ofosu is the father at the centre of Joe de Graft's Sons and Daughters. He is a hard-working, well-to-do businessman whose attitude to his children's future drives the main conflict of the play, the clash between parental ambition and the young people's own artistic dreams.

His character

• A loving but controlling father. Ofosu genuinely cares for his children and wants the best for them, but he insists on choosing their careers, believing he knows what is respectable and secure.
• A believer in conventional professions. He wants his son George to become a lawyer and his other children to enter established, money-making professions such as law and medicine. He looks down on art, painting and dancing as unserious and unprofitable.
• Hard-working and self-made. Having toiled to build his wealth, he expects his children to value education and to pursue solid careers rather than risky artistic ones.
• Capable of change. Though stubborn at first, Ofosu is not a tyrant. By the end he softens and comes to accept his children's true talents.

His role in the play

• Source of the central conflict. His opposition to George's wish to be a painter and Maanan's love of dancing sets up the generational struggle the title announces.
• Victim of a false friend. Ofosu trusts the lawyer Bonu to look after his affairs and his children while he is away, but Bonu proves treacherous and self-serving. This exposes Ofosu's misplaced faith and advances the plot.
• Agent of resolution. When Ofosu at last recognises Bonu's wickedness and the sincerity of his children's callings, he relents and allows them to follow their artistic gifts, bringing the play to a hopeful close.

Significance

• Through Ofosu, de Graft dramatises the theme of parents imposing careers on children versus letting them pursue their natural talents.
• His final change of heart delivers the play's message: that children should be free to develop their own gifts.

Conclusion

Mr James Ofosu is a loving yet overbearing father whose insistence on conventional careers creates the play's conflict. His misplaced trust in Bonu and his eventual acceptance of his children's artistic dreams make him the pivotal figure through whom de Graft explores the tension between parental control and youthful self-fulfilment.