AFRICAN DRAMA; Joe De Graft Sons and Daughters "Our society is sold on money: nothing is worth anything unless it brings money." How does this state ment re...

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Joe de Graft's Sons and Daughters is built upon a conflict between an older generation's materialistic values and a younger generation's desire for artistic and personal fulfilment. The statement that "Our society is sold on money: nothing is worth anything unless it brings money" captures precisely the mercenary outlook of James Ofosu that drives the central conflict of the play.

The materialism of James Ofosu. James Ofosu, the father, judges the worth of everything, including his children's futures, by its earning power. He is determined that his children should enter lucrative and respectable professions, law and engineering, that will bring money and social prestige to the family. To him, a career that does not "bring money" is worthless, and he cannot imagine that a son might value art or music more than wealth.

The conflict over the children's careers. This money-centred outlook brings Ofosu into direct conflict with his children's ambitions. His son George wishes to become an artist, a painter, while his daughter Maanan is drawn to dancing. To their father these are frivolous, unprofitable pursuits, unworthy of a serious young person. He insists that George study engineering and that his other son Aaron pursue law. The clash between the father's insistence on money-making professions and the children's yearning for artistic self-expression forms the backbone of the play's conflict.

Lawyer Bonu and the corruption of materialism. The statement also illuminates the character of Lawyer Bonu, the scheming relative who embodies materialism at its most corrupt. Bonu manipulates the family's finances and schemes to marry Maanan and to gain control of Ofosu's property, all out of pure greed. Through Bonu, de Graft shows the ugly extreme to which the worship of money can lead, deceit, exploitation and the sacrifice of human relationships to gain.

The cost of the money ethic. The play dramatises the damage done when money is made the measure of all things. Ofosu's rigidity nearly crushes his children's talents and happiness, and his misplaced trust in the money-minded Bonu almost ruins the family. Only through suffering and the intervention of the sympathetic teacher Hannah does Ofosu begin to see that his children's fulfilment matters more than the professions he had chosen for them.

Conclusion. The statement reflects the materialistic value system that generates the play's central conflict: the father's belief that only money-making careers have worth pits him against his artistically gifted children, while the greedy Lawyer Bonu shows the moral corruption to which such values lead. De Graft's play ultimately criticises this money ethic and pleads for the recognition of talent, individuality and human worth above mere wealth.