Azan, Baba JamesMuhammad, Idris LadanAdokwe, Grace2023-12-122023-12-122021-01-01Adeota James, A Role of African Literature in.Insight, Lagos; July 1969. P. 6-9. Athol Fugard, Statements: Three Plays, London; Oxford University Press, 1974. Balogun F. Odun 'Marxist Aesthetics in socialist African Literature' in Femi osofison et at (eds) Proceedings of the International Symposium on African Literature 2-7 May, 1989, Lagos P.359. Barrel William, What is Existentialism? In Kari Beckson (ed) The Macmillan Family Encyclopedia, Arete Publishing Company 1984.https://keffi.nsuk.edu.ng/handle/20.500.14448/3245Like clay in the hands of highly experienced porters, the authors have laid bare the age-long relationship that has been in existence between arts and the society. The effect that societal norms exert on the structure, form and even style of a work of.art is elucidated. Drawing backups from Fugard's Sizwe Bansi is Dead and Thiongo's Tlte Trial of Dedan Kimathi, the authors have convinced us that the exigencies of the times in which their plays were written adversely affected the playwrights style. Not haying any camps in which they could pitch their tents, they had no option but to spend currency that was coined right out of their own mint by evolving styles that were non-existent in those days. Fugard for instance, resorted to the use of paucity of characters as a technique while Thiongo ......deployed the use of types as can be seen in the array of raggedly clad country side peasants that abound in the play, all these were meant to keep everything on the down low.enSocietal exigencies, literary technique, Athol Fugard, Ngugi Wa Thiong'o Drama.Article