The Setup - "Alexander Hamilton" & The Question of Narrative Power
Hamilton opens with a question that haunts all national origin stories: "How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore and a Scotsman, dropped in the middle of a forgotten spot in the Caribbean by providence impoverished get up and climb?"
This is Lin-Manuel Miranda asking: WHO GETS TO BE REMEMBERED? Who gets their story told? Whose narrative survives?
Nigeria's founding story has the same problem. We celebrate Nnamdi Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo, Ahmadu Bello, and Kwame Nkrumah (the "Big Four"), but how many know about Herbert Macaulay? Samuel Ajayi Crowther? Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti fighting for women's rights while the "official" founding fathers got the credit?
In "Alexander Hamilton," we meet a young immigrant with ambition. In Nigeria's founding, we meet men shaped by colonialism, educated abroad, returning to fight for independence. But like Hamilton, the question persists: who decided these men were the heroes?
The Question of Legitimacy - Who Decides Who Mattered?
Here's the real question that connects Hamilton and Nigeria: Who gets to tell the story? Who decides who mattered?
Lin-Manuel Miranda chose to make Hamilton the hero. He chose to center Hamilton's ambition, Hamilton's writing, Hamilton's vision. But in doing so, he:
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The Question of Legitimacy - Who Decides Who Mattered?
Here's the real question that connects Hamilton and Nigeria: Who gets to tell the story? Who decides who mattered?
Lin-Manuel Miranda chose to make Hamilton the hero. He chose to center Hamilton's ambition, Hamilton's writing, Hamilton's vision. But in doing so, he:
Nigeria's founding story centers four men (or sometimes Nnamdi Azikiwe alone as "father of the nation"). But it:
Both stories are partial truths dressed up as complete narratives.