Kinjeketile

                                               

Criticism

          The play Kinjeketile opens in the village of Ngarambe, in the Rufiri region of Sounthern Tanganyika. Chausika, the daughter of Kitunda, Bibi Kitunda, her mother and wife to Kitunda and Bibi Kinjeketile, who happens to be the wife of Kinjeketile are seen walking a path leading to a river. On their way, they hold several discussions, one of which is the plantation owned by Bwana Kainoo.

          Many of the Tanganyikan burghers have taken to this plantation, in order to earn a living. Ab ovo, they’re being cut out from every source of their own livelihood and are now being compelled to rely on the plantation as their only means of survival. However, there appears to be a famine all over the land; a kind of pestilence that has affected all the populace. The famine seems to be from a hideous source; and has really eaten up the wealth of the people except Bwana kainoo’s. Non-the-less, the only option left for these people is to rely- symbiotically- on the plantation, owned by Bwana Kainoo.

In the play, we are able to understand that, though the plantation is the only line of life for the people, those who work therein are treated with contempt. They are made to work indefatigably. ‘All the men are spending their time cultivating for Bwana Kainoo and not for themselves. And in the end, they are being rewarded with a meagre wage’.

As they walk, a plume of smoke is sported from a distance drifting out of the thatch roof of Kinjeketile’s hutment. And very quickly, Chausiku is sent to see if it is really the cooking of food that is causing the smoke or something else. From this, we are able to sense their present plight, as they poor-mouth for want of food, within the stringency-stricken Tanganyika.

          Soon, the play shifts to the plantation. Therein, Kitunda- a member of the Wamatumbi-has just been whipped by the overseer, who was initially ordered by the head man. Thereafter, there is a covert slate proposed amidst the workers to have a meeting in the night.

          In the following scene (i.e. scene 2), we are acquainted with the following characters, Ngulumbalyo, Mngindo, Kitunda, an old man, Mkichi- in an open field, though a locus fitting for a ‘catacomb’, discussing on whether to set up a brawl against their German overlords(the new owners of the plantation) or not. It is in this scene that we come to know who Kainoo represents and what, palpably, is the fountain head of the general vassalage or the ruinous famine which has been infused to siege the people. Here, Kainoo is depicted as a German as well as the owner of the plantation. Having established a despotically Teutonic authority over the people, he together with the rest of his Germanic colleges, further, set up some instruments of coercion such as the Askari (the police force) which will compel and also belabour the people to work subserviently for them.

          Doubt soon hits this caucus of Tanganyikan coup plotters, when Kitunda is questioned about his visit to Kilwa, although he denies to have visited him. Through this page, we get to know that there is betrayal amongst the Tanganyikans, as there could be some who have decided to be ‘parrots’ or scouts, employed to eavesdrop on any form of machination perpetuated by their own members, for the Germans  Consequently, this actually tends to slow down the ‘proclivity’ of the plot.

‘Mngindo: people say that if one goes to Kilwa with the right kind of news, one is   
                rewarded. The white man pays well to get valuable information.

Kitunda: Are you trying to say that I am selling you and my people to the white
             man?

Mkichi: There are people doing that. There are people who are paid to stop us
           uniting. (Kinjeketile 5)’

          Here, they are interrupted by Mnypala. He approaches Kitunda directly for something concerning his (Kitunda’s) working at the plantation. Afterwords, we discover that he is being whipped seriously to a point of his falling unconsciously. His daughter Chausika is taken away to slave-in lieu of her parents. And later, it is revealed that, she is forcibly raped and molested, by the Askaris.

          Kinjeketile suddenly emerges from his thaumaturgic comb. He dances forward and backward and ambles towards a particular river inside of which he drowns himself, very quickly. At his metamorphosis, he comes out of the river, like one who has already been inebriated with some wild spirits. And addressing the people, in poetic figures, he begins to preach revolution and an outright purgative exorcism of the ‘aliens’ (Germans) from the land.

          In this scene (of Kinjeketile’s transfiguration), Kinjeketile appears to the whole, as the messiah who, having gone to the wilderness for so many years, arrives with a remedy. He becomes a mythic portraiture of respite for the people, just like some legendary immortals, as Odysseus and many other Grecian heroes that we know of. He has gone to dine with his ancestors, to get help from them and has been conjoined with them. He has been shown the key to freedom, ‘the spiritual water’, the water of life and immortality, ‘the maji-maji’.

A vignette from His Verse

‘This is th water land
This is the water of life.
And this is the whisk of power.
He who partakes of this water
no harm will befall him
No bullet will penetrate his body.
These are the gifts given us by our
ancestors and our spirits
Hear from me who comes from Bokolo,
the land of our ancestors
The message from our ancestors.
‘Destroy the Red Earth!
And these are the instruments.’’ (Kinjeketile, pg 10)

In the end, the Maji reveals itself to be a mere substance of inspiration, courage or a mental charger to enable the Tanganyikans maintain their stands and as long as they are spiritualized with it, not even the ruthless, oppressive threat of the Germans will penetrate through them, nor ruin them. They will remain immortal, that is, they will have a deathless cultural heritage, regardless of how cataclysmic the Germans may appear to be. So the maji is a figurative entity which, albeit derives its attribute from the so-called supernatural, yet does not appear to work for the purpose of building an immortal army for some physical battles. Instead, it is meant to build a web of cultural conjunctiveness amidst the people; and also enable them hold to their tradition and not deny it, regardless of what the white men do to ‘kill’ them (culturally).  Therefore, the cognitive manifestation of the maji-maji is in the oneness of the people.

          ‘You are confirmed in the belief that the water and the spirits will fight the war for you. You are depending on the water. Remove the water, and you will have a war- amongst yourselves, tribe against tribe…’’ (Kinjeketile 16).

          Kinjeketile soon declares war on the Germans. But later- as regards the critique of the power of the maji maji- he becomes cynical and disconcerted about whether the war should be fought or not.

          His idiopathic cynicism opens the door to another textual complexity as he attempts to dissuade Kitunda from believing in the power of the maji-maji. He says, ‘…when you had the people to war, you will act and plan as if the water did not exist. Use your own strength. You must not depend on the water! Promise me that.’

          Inferentially, we can say that, the meaning for the maji is derived from two transcendental phases- one phase, probably, expressing the point of unity underscored earlier and the other phase trying to warn the people of their doom, if they actually fail to realise the true significance of the maji, as regards its paradoxical vitiation, instead of  its ill ontological anecdotal prospectus, because now, they have failed to understand the true/deeper meaning of the maji, which is the cultural unification of every Tanganyikan tribe.

          At the end, there is war, but victory is not attained. At Mahenge- the strong-hold of the Germans- many of the warriors, are extremely defeated. Kitunda and some of the leaders of the tribes are both arrested and incarcerated. Kinjeketile is captured by the Germans, tortured and atrociously brutified, for refusing to renounce the ‘power of the maji maji (i.e. the spiritual water). At the end, he is persecuted to the point of his death.

                                      Symbolism in Kinjeketile

          In the play, the playwright employs some symbols to punctuate some extrinsic facts which, on the flip side, are not diaphanously stated in the text, but embedded within such textual elements as human characters, places and objects.

·        The Plantation: The plantation-interpretatively-appears as a microcosmic portal, to the planetary oyster of the negro-soil (the whole of Africa). And like a large looking-glass, it transpicuously reveals the nefarious trails of a Teutonic westernism upon the Africans.

Bwana plantation happens to be a bolt-hole or a Xanadu of succour wherein these people get sustenance for their daily living. As it is being exhibited through the author’s authorial testament, the plantation (Africa) has got someone like Bwana Kainoo, who has come, in the furtive might of feudalism, to lord over the traditionally African socialist, by means of force or other diplomatic chicaneries. It is in this society-as mirrored through the happenings in the plantation- that we find men and women, father, mother, daughter, belaboured to labor, like elephants. All they work for is only for the copious increase of the plantation which is at the glabrous lucre of the white owner. Worse still, they are barred from working for themselves, enslaved and blotted out of a free, independent living.

‘Bibi Kitunda: I know. Anyway, famine is inevitable. All men are working
                        in Bwana Kainoo’s plantation and not for themselves.

Bibi Kinjeketile: What you say is true. All men are spending all their time
                           cultivating for Bwana Kainoo, and not for themselves.
                           (Kinjeketile 2).

          In the plantation (as conceptualized within the African sense) we find, hardship, molestation, racial degradation/discrimination, ethnic intolerance, oppression, irreligiousness, imperialism, totalitarianism, aristocracy, slavery ,centralism, gubernatorial egomania, torture, injustice, impecuniosity, impropriety, austerity, malfeasance etc.

‘Mkichi: we are made to work like beasts in the…plantation. We are forced
            to pay tax. We die of hunger.’ (Kinjeketile 4).

·        Kinjeketile: Kinjeketile is a prophetic shaman. As described in the play, he represents the reactionary sages of a society like the social activists and critics, reformist etc. who, having observed the past, present and likely futuristic condition of the society, spurn the people into action. He is a reincarnation of traditionalism as well as the chain of concordance binding the very nature of its system.

·        The Maji-Maji; (Also known as the spiritual water), the maji or maji-maji is first mentioned in Kinjeketile’s poetry and forms a quotidian outlook. It deems itself, a supernaturally aqueous substance which when supped would ordinarily, transmute the body into a formidable and impenetrable wall. From this sense, though figurative, the surface structure interpretation of the Maji is to render the warriors indestructible, from the guns of the Germans. However- in contrast- the water serves as a restoration of tradition. It symbolizes unity among every traditional group; a merger agglutination one tribe to the other. In addition, it also serves as a ‘belaying pin’ in spanning one to another, thereby weaving into a consonant amalgamation of multifarious tribal units. More so, the water not only represents the recovery of their primitive puissance but also, it serves as a redeeming fortification of cultural energy. It tends to refurbish the frightful fissures of religious divergence in order to enliven unity.

‘Representative: We believe in Kolele. We can only follow his guidance.
                          But the more we hear of your spirit Hongo, the more we
                          are convinced that he his Kolele. Kolele lives in water.
                          Your spirit does the same…But the Mywiywila said that,
                          he is Kongo. We come to ask you whether this is Kolelo or
                       Hongo…If it is so, then we are ready to join you. If not,
                        then, we cannot fight together. (Pause) you haven’t
                        answered my question.

Kinjeketile: What question?

People of the Wazaramo: Are Hongo and Kolelo one and the same?

Kinjeketile: (almost timidly) Hingo is merely another for Kolelo…’’
                   (Kinjeketile 18).

Summarily, the maji is meant for culture-immortality rather than the immortality of the Tanganyikan mortals.

‘Kinjeketile: No, you are not ready to fight! What you mean is, you are not
                   ready to fight! What you mean is you are confirmed in the
                     belief that war for you. You are depending on the water.
                     Remove the water, and you will have a war-amongst yourselves
                   (i.e. disunity, intra-ethnic war), tribe against tribe.
                   (Kinjeketile 17).

·        The Bullet: The ‘bullet’ is a symbolism of the policy of the German colonialists. It is portrayed, poetically, in the 34 lines free verse perused orally by Kinjeketile. From between lines 40 and 45, the ‘bullet’ is mentioned

‘‘Kinjeketile: This is th water land
                    This is the water of life.
                    And this is the whisk of power.
                    He who partakes of this water
                    no harm will befall him
                   No bullet will penetrate his body

Note: It is from the poetic nature of this disquisition that we are able to understand that, nothing is to be taken literal. More over, the whole concept of the Maji is not to assert any idea of necromancy, but to advocate a substructural connotation of what it is aside its physical composition- ‘bullet’.

          The bullet, as to what it should mean, symbolizes the violent regime of the Germans which-through the established policy of brutish individualism- is meant to extirpate all forms of cultures and belief systems and also render every vociferation of the African tradition and religion in the community bootless. Also, while the bullet is to smite the African heritage, it is also meant to kill every cultural body of its primitive conscience/cultural philosophies thereby translating them into another system that is awfully alien to the whilom. So, the bullet must kill their culture and the owners, in order for them to resuscitate into an unprecedented Germanic system. Hence, we have two classes which the bullet has dealt with- both in misanthropocentrism, and in altruism

a)    The alienated: These are those whom the bullet has isolated from out of their poly-cultural compounds. Such people are the Askaris as well as the notorious kilwa (a parrot or a modern-day hooded agent, serving the white).

b)     The inalienated: Those who refuse to be isolated and who refuse to deny their heritage; and who, as a result, are recompensed (by the same bullet) with forced labor, starvation & malnutrition, flagellation etc.

·        Mnyapala: He is the German whip. He represents the aliens, in all the coasts of Africa. He symbolizes all those who have decided to be initiated and circumcised into the culture of the whites and now becomes as harsh and inhumane as the whites. They will go as far as betraying their fellow Africans, torturing them, cheating them, stealing from them and even persecuting them. They are the same set of people who are lampooned in ‘the trial of Dedan Kimathi, especially those employed as police officers or soldiers to war against their African brothers.

‘The same story. Our people…tearing one another…and all because of the crumbs thrown at them by the exploiting foreigner…’’ (The Trial of Dedan Kimathi 18).

·        The Red Earth: Th Red Earth is a symbolism of the German; though used, in part, to show the exotic familiarity of the people with the white men and, in whole, to give a picture of what they ought to be, from an unschooled thought. The people, due to their illiteracy would prefer naming things that are runic to their knowledge by means of comparison. For example, stick (referring to a gun) and even the Red Earth (referring to the Germans). ‘The Red Earth are still in our country…’’.

Themes

          Through various themes, the play addresses many prominent issues which splashed across the whole of Africa during the colonial period. These themes are;

1        The unabridged extremes of western capitalism, totalitarianism and slaveocracy.

2        Alienation.

3        Animism: the role of tradio-religious proselytism.

4        Ethnicity.

5        Dehumanization.

6        Africanism and Eurocentrism.

7        Fear.

v The Unabridged Extremes of western Capitalism, Totalitarianism, Slaveocracy: These themes assume their covert forms in the words of Mkichi.

‘Mkichi: The Red Earth is still in our country. What’s more, he has taken
               our country from us by force… He has got us paying him taxes.
              We just stare at him. Is it for him to demand taxes from us? He
              should be paying us tax, but no! We like women, just meekly sit,
              watching him do what he wants with us, with our land. How long
              are we going to remain meek and silent? Are we going to allow
              ourselves to be persecuted in our country?’ (pg 3)

 Mkichi’s curtailed jeremiad is a mild vociferation of the beaming cords of western despotism and individualistic egomania plunging very deeply into the arteries of the mainlanders. From his words, we are confronted with the asparagus of imperialistic intolerance, having witnessed what transpires between the black settlers of the Sounthern Tanganyika and the german-white overlords. Also from the play, we are affiliated with the scope of a no-Marxian society; a society where the exploiter reaps more and the exploited, less. It is even in this capitalistic taradiddle that we find the labouring peasants working as ants and eating as ants, whereas, those for whom the work is being done eat the largest share of the through-put. By this, the people are continually made helots (or slaves) to the Germans. They will have to work tirelessly without any reproach; and if they try to revolt, they will be severely punished.

          Under this condition, fundamental human right has become a jack-water entity, as the people are strictly subjected to the indisputable edicts of the Germans, barred from making free speeches or protesting against their white-masters (the Red Earth).

v Alienation: In the play, the Red earth- a great deal of extempore extents- are considered aliens, coursing the Atlantic heights of the African terra- firma (Tanganyika). And due to their pungent doctrines, so many have to renounce their cultures for the sake of getting relief from the whites. They allow themselves to be circumcised as well as adopted into the Germanic system. More upon, many tend to receive more recognition and favour as long as they continually support their policy- by means of betraying other Africans who tend to be secrete plotters and cabals heading for the cleansing of the societies. These set of people, like Mnyapala, and the entire fold of askaris, will go as far as killing, torturing and extorting from their black brothers- in deference to the hellish laws and principles of the Germans. Here also is someone like Kilwa who rewards nosey parkers and society parrots that might, perhaps, disseminate any information touching the plotting of coup or demonstration (violent/peaceful) of any Tanganyikan (African) groups.

v Animism- The role of an Afri-tradio-religious proselytism: This has a focus on the spiritual connection between the people and their saws. Since this alien tradition has suddenly invaded the whole black community as well as ‘injured’ the internal system of the people’s traditional minds, there is the need to revitalize the oldish nature of the people’s culture-by means of a substance which will serve as a spiritual  connective (or a sort of network) between the people and their source. It is through this means that there can be a general cleansing of the land. More so, the Maji has become a symbol of unity to detach the people from the euchring benisons of the Germans as well as attach them to their backgrounds, because no revival will betide unless the people are co-meddled with the forces encircling their roots. That is why Kinjeketile says- in his poetry- that the ‘maji maji are the gifts given us by our ancestors and our spirits…the message from our forefathers…(pg 70) destroy the red earth...!’’ (Kinjeketile 10)

So, now that things have gotten worse, the only solution is to re-generate everyone and get them glued to their primogenitors (or ancestral spirits), for to ensure a forthrightly outstanding change, they must be re-united within their traditional/religious hearth.

In summary, animism tends to unlock the people, in terms of their,

v Belief in spirits

v Belief in the animistic suprabilities of the gods

v Belief in ancestral authorities

v A withdrawal from modernism (the present) into the primitive (the past)

v A preference for the antiquated as a medium for such a cleansing

v Ethnocentrism- religious and cultural conflicts: In the play, names of several groups are mentioned. They are Wakichi tribe, wamatumbi tribe, wazaramo, Warufiji etc.But the problem that we are made to see- as touching this ethnic groups-is their contradistinctive belief systems. Every group believes that it has a different god that is supreme to the other and that it is capable of making them succeed. In fact, some still believe they can fight independently and therefore need no collaboration with any other groups. This is  vividly evident in the words of Ngulumbalyo:

‘First Man: No sign of Kibasila and his people.

Ngulumbalyo: If they don’t come, it doesn’t matter. It’s not necessary that
                        they should join us. We can manage without them. We have
                         won several times before, we will win again…’ (Kinjeketile
                         23)

Another ethnocentric issue emphasized is the issue of tribalism. Here, one group believes that it is superior to the other and that the other one is inferior. This case is found in ‘Act 1 Scene 2, where Kitunda and Mkichi fight over one matter, relating to the superiority or inferiority of one ethnicity to the other.

‘Kitunda: Hongo is a powerful spirit, true, but he has no power over matters
                 of life and death.

Old Man: (standing up) you blaspheme! Your words are dangerous! How
                 dare you talk of Hongo in that manner?

Kitunda: We did not come here to talk about Hongo. We came here to
                 decide upon a plan of action.

Mkichi: and what have you to say?

Kitunda: I have already said it, let us wait until we have the arms.

Mkichi: That is a coward’s point of view. But then, since when we’re the
             Wamatumbi warriors!

Old man: We did not come here to quarrel over tribal issues.

Kitunda: Let him say that again and I will make him sorry for the rest of
                his life.

Mkichi; I’ll say it again; the wamatumbi are cowards. You are nothing but
              women. (Kinjeketile 4).

From the extract above, tribalism, religious and cultural differences are boldly underscored.

v Dehumanization: Chausika is taken forcibly away to work in her father’s stead. Not only is she taken away to slave, she is also being molested and raped. However, she represents the degraded ‘womanhood’ of the petti-coat African society. On the other hand, kitunda is whipped to a state of coma, because of his refusal to work at the plantation. Also, Kinjeketile is publicly humiliated slugged and later ‘crucified’ for refusing to deny his hood, his people and his heritage.

v Africanism and Eurocentrism: In a more stringent perspective, these items can be subsumed under the clash between two different cultures; the preponderance of one over the other together with the effort of one to destroy / rule over the other. In the play, we see that, because of the oppressive nature of the Germans and their alien cultures, the Africans tend to search for various means by which they could annihilate them.

The choice opted for the negro-physicking of a Caucasoid barbarism as such is nothing but revolution. There is the need to expunge the white-stains and policies form the African soil and restore authority to the Tanganyikans.

Kitunda’s method for such a revolutionist approximation could be sub-genred under the context of fighting westernisation with westernisation or foreign policy with foreign policy. ‘As our first duty therefore, we must collect weapons. Steal guns from the Askaris, seize them if need be in short do everything to see that we’ve got guns…’

Kitundi sees through the binoculars of modernism as the purest mechanism to get westernization guillotined, while Mkichi confines in the primitive as the most feasible. By and by, there is a tumultuous clash between their philosophies: Kitundi abrogates the potency of ancestral powers and believes they will have no effect on the aliens. Instead, he hankers that a new power, one which he sees in the Germans, to be their strong hold/or background will do. He believes that, the Germans can still be destroyed with their own fabrication rather than with any extrinsically illusionary hokum of a ‘dream-land magic’.

However, the brilliant chemistry of such an innovative slate is one that is required to exorcize the white-devils off the land, according to Kitundi. Nevertheless, there still seems to be an occlusion towards its prospect as he senses that ‘frustration pushes the helpless to a state of unmitigated destitution wherein they are pummelled by the ferule of stringency and hunger drives us to betray one another.’ (pg 4)

In this respect, we are made to understand how this Teutonic imperialism has brought about sectionalism as well as intra-ethnic stratification of cultural subjects. In the same vein, the contact between African tradition and the alien has brought about a circumcision of societal structure into a new culture. Every denizen of the African sphere has been isolated from their core beliefs and therefore transmuted into an alien system, assuming a different body and mental attitude. And because of this influence, there is the need to wave back to the traditional system where everyone is gagged unto the other by trust, love and a system that has an undivided communion and that is built upon an undaunted Africanness. ‘There is only one way to fight. Let us propitiate our ancestors, and the spirits. And Hugo will help us’.

v Fear: In Act 1 Scene 2, the atmosphere is inflicted by a cumulus of consternation as the people are encaged within the latches of fear. Here, Kitunda is being whipped by just two men and Chausika is being plundered away by just the same two men. In spite of this, there are a lot of people around, watching the whole scenario. They only creep out of their shells to console Bibi Kitunda including Kitunda himself after the two Askaris had gone already. ‘Get out! Get out of here, you women. Two little men were enough to scare the whole lot of you. You have been enslaved body and spirit. Do you call yourselves Wamatumbi? Oh no not at all. You are mere women. You! You’re forced to dig- yes. Your children are seized- yes. You are ‘yes’ men. What have you crept in here to do? You hid until those two where gone. And now you steal in like thieves- to come to my aid. I don’t want your help. Get out! ’- Bibi Kitunda

Rogbodiyan by Anish O'Cornel

                                                                Rogbodiyan
                                                                   Bakare ojo Rasaki

Plot

                The play is set in the fictional thorp of ‘Koroju’, ‘A land where merit is thrown to the winds…an entity controlled by non-entities…abode of religious hypocrites and political sycophants…(a land) where intelligence means nothing and the academically brilliant is a potential pauper…a land where truth has been hindered and falsehood exalted’{Rogbodiyan 7}.

In the land, the search for a new king is called into question. The regent has decided to bequeath regal authority unto a loyal person from the community. And having made her long causerie on the bequest, she decides to involve the traditional chiefs (Aloba, Eto, Abere and Salotin), into the matter of selecting the right person who will be due for the kingship title.

                Asagidigbi  (the big Eagle) and Gbadegeshin become willing bodies who are ready to take on the kingship post. Probo no  publico, each  of them decide to vociferate their aims and objectives just as it is in the modern-day politics. Soon, Asagidigbi becomes the king immediately after he had bribed the chiefs. However, as a rite to be performed by a new king, he is to be in seclusion for seven days to confer with the ancestral spirits. The seclusion ends with the Oge festival. Also, for this period of seclusion, he is to select a new Arugba Oge, whose duty will be to carry the sacrifice and lead the procession to the shrine on the festival day. So, like the new king, the Arugba Oge must be kept in seclusion at the palace until the day of festival. She must remain pure in body, mind and soul in order for her sacrifice to be acceptable to the gods. All these are the cultural codes for the religious placement of a new king. But the reverse is the case when Asagidigbi-now the king- starts to misbehave, first, by getting himself drunk and later by sleeping carnally with the Arugba Oge, even while both of them are yet to complete their days of separation. Having perceived this malignity, though at the initiatory passage, the Agogo , usually the King’s very special adviser as well as, a curator of the traditions of kingship, stabs himself in the stomach and dies.

                There is climax in the kingdom. The gods have become angry at the people, as a result of the error committed in the palace. Therefore, as a punishment for this transgression, the whole village, including the king, is stricken with different forms of deformities, whose cure can only be procured from river Awogbaarun. The river is situated at Ite-Esumare in the land of the dead. And the one who can go to the land is one who will dress like the king, because, already, the king too is affected by the epidemic.

                Adegbani finally volunteers himself for the service. He successfully gets the water from the river after making negotiation with the king of the dead to always offer a sacrifice to him. Assured that he is going to be made king, Adegbani offers the water to the people to drink. He becomes the king, while Asagidigbi is immediately bundled off and ex-communicated.

The Effect of the Play on the Political, cultural and                      Social Situation of the Country

·         The play pictures the various hierarchies of corruption, maladministration, violence, mis-appropriation, terrorism in all gubernatorial strata of the country.

1. ·         It depicts the widespread level of bribery in all bureaucracies.
2. ·         It features several characters that are archetypes of contemporary political individualists, egomaniacs and diplomats. Such characters are found in the cabinet of chiefs:  Aloba, Salotun, Eto, Abere, the Akigbe and lots more.
3. ·         It also punctuates on the issue of moral decadence which thrives in all aspects of the constituency. For example, the king gets himself drunk and even sleeps with the Arugba Oge who is to remain virgin before the Oge festival.
4. ·         The play portrays a decline in cultural values and normative behaviours.
5. ·         It demonstrates the mordant effects of corruption on the divan of traditional jurisprudence.
   ‘’Aloba: If people like you could enslave themselves to money and allow their conscience to be bought then I weep for the land…’’ {Rogbodiyan 26}
6. ·         In a stringently unimaginable artistic twist, it demonstrates the high level of insecurity, hypocrisy and pretension amongst the leaders of the land. For instance, as you read the strictures of Aloba against the others whom he sees as corrupt (from chapter 18-28), you will think he is such an immovable purist. Yet, he too tends to even be the worst of them all.
7. ·         Considering the allegory of the epidemic, the play reveals to us what happens when corruption has grown beyond its ostensible heights: The economy of the country is affected, thereby leading to mass hunger, poor academic achievement, socio-psychological violence, inflation, suffering etc. Not only are the people affected, especially when the whole thing melts down- the leaders too are affected, because the country- in its entire ramification- becomes totally fruitless and dead.
8. ·         On the positive, the text makes use of proverbs richly plus a goodish reference to the religious artifacts and ritualistic elements of the Yoruba culture. Those applications depict a documentation of the salacious Yoruba-Nigerian cultural heritage which is transmuted into a long-lasting text for a generational reading.

Examples of Proverbs Used:

1.       A cockerel which has been visited by the long knife cannot crow at dawn.

2.       A stubborn goat must be prepared to accept the pot as its dwelling place.

3.       The chicken is saved from cold by its plume.

4.       The crown un-worn is a crown smeared with dung. The staff unheld is a staff buried in the mud. The power unused is a power unworthy of being owned. (pg 12)

Aside from the fact that, these are proverbs, they also serve as wise sayings extracted from the Yoruba language ‘figure’ system.

                Religious Artefacts/ Ritual Elements

1.       The Igba: The Igba (calabash) normally contains some ritualistic concoctions having a mixture of herbs, woods, leafs, water and some other things. It is exceptionally relevant to the ritualistic fete of the Oge festival.

2.       Incantation: The Ese Ifa (a sacred aspect of the Ifa spiritualized poetry) is evident in (Rogbodiyan  44).

3.       Myth: ‘’The Land of the Dead’’.

4.       Opele: check (Rogbodiyan  44).

5.       Names of gods/ deities: Orisa nla, ifa (the oracle of palm nut), Ebu (inseparable companion of Ifa), Obatala (the creation god), Ogun (the god of iron). (Rogbodiyan 45)

Symbolism as a Motif in the Character’s Naming System

                The term symbolism as used above is fully expounded within the context of charactonym.
Charactonym: A name which suggests the personality trait of a fictional character. Such names as used in the drama are;

ASAGIDIBGI (the big Eagle eye) 1.       Pride 2.       autocracy 3.       aristocracy 4.       authoritarianism 5.       Totalitarianism.

GBADEGESIN (to set the crown upon the horse)   1.       subtlety 2.       Sophistry 3.       Brutish democracy

ADEGBANI (the crown saves) 1.       Salvation 2.       Peace 3.       Equity 4.       Justice

Note: The aforementioned items above can also serve as relevant themes which are likely to be found in the drama.