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CHAPTER II
Myth-Ritual Paradigm and the Contemporary Society
I
"Throughout the inhabited world, in all times and under
every circumstance, the myths of man have flourished, they
have been living inspiration of whatever else may have
appeared out of the human activity and mind". 1 These words
of Joseph Campbell sum up the universality of the myth-making
process. As mysterious and inexhaustible treasures of
information about a culture, the social scientists, the
psychologists and •the poets and playwrights have all been
interested
Freud and
in the study of myths
Jung explored myths
in their different
for understanding
ways.
the
individual and the collective psyche, poets like Eliot and
Yeats went back to myths to look for a a vision of wholeness
that would regenerate a fragmented civilization and Eugene
Oneill used the Greek myths in an American setting to
underscore the permanence of certain human urges and
instincts. We see contemporary Indian writers like Raja Rao
and R.K. Narayan using myths in their novels to serve various
structural and thematic purposes and African writers like
Duro Ladipo, Obatunde Ijimere and Wole Soyinka deploying
mythical motifs in their plays and novels in different ways.
Defining myth is not an easy task as its meaning has
been changing from its Greek origin mytbos which meant
"speech" or "message" to the present dictionary meaning: "A
50
purely fictious narrative usually involving supernatural '
persons, actions, or events, and embo~ying some popular idea
concerning natural or historical phenomena" 2 . Social
scientists hold diverse views on myths; all however seem
agreed on one basic fact: that a myth is a tale or a
narrative. In Tristam Potter Coffin's definition "myths are
folk tales that are religious in nature and explain the
universe and its inhabitants. Such stories are considered
true by both the narrator and the audience and tell of
creation and regulation of the world"3 . Isidore Okpewho, a
Nigerian writer has also felt that " any narrative of the
oral tradition so long as it lays emphasis on fanoiful play
[is] a myth" 4 . Hence, myths are narratives, in that they may
reflect nan's metaphysical quests, his vision of cosmic
existence and involve gods and heroes. Myths are different
from other genres like legend or fairy tales. Though all are
basically narratives myth has a religious dimension while the
others may be historical or fantastic. While legends may also
deal with the genesis of the world, a clear out definition of
legend and myth is not possible. Hercules is both a mythic
hero and a legendary figure. Legendary heroes and heroines
nay assume god-like qualities and their lives and
achievements may acquire.mythological significance. Even the
lives of ordinary human beings can become mythicised. The
tradition of maasti stones in Karnataka (India) can be taken
as an example here. Women who die along with their deceased
husbands on the funeral pyres as a token of Patiyrata Dharma
51
are said to acqure divine proportions and the living
societies not only worship such women but they are also
remembered through stones put in their names.
Myths may be classified according to the dominant
themes they portray. The cosmogenic myth relates how the
entire world came into being. An example may be cited from
dasayatara myth here, according to which creation came about
through the agency of an earth diver. God Vishnu as
Koormayatara (the shape of a tortoise) dived into the
primordial waters to bring up the earth. Another group of
myths describes the process of the discovery of a cultural
artifact or a technological process, e.g., the myth of
Prometheus who stole fire from the gods. Soyinka is
interested in these myths and he frequently uses the story of
Ogun, who in the Yoruba mythology is said to have discovered
iron. The foundation myths relate the process of cities
coming into being. The city Athence in Greec• is founded by
the godess Athena and there is a story attached to that.
Similarly the myth of Romulus and Romus is about the
foundation of Rome in the Roman mythology.
Myth seems to have had its roots in the oral tradition.
Its creation and preservation is done by the human society
through recitation and ritual. The question why myths are
created is answered by charles H. Long who says that myths
"result from euhemism, that is, the divinizing of the heroic
virtues of a human being" 5 . The play ~ Bacchae ~ Euripedis
contains an example of the social. coming-into-being of a
52
semi-European deity. Euripedis did not create the myt~ of
Bacchae; borrowing it from the Greek society, he rendered it
in the form of drama. Euripedis only recreated the myth of
Bacchae which the.Greek society had been preserving through
singing and rituals. Preservation of the myth is a conscious
act because the living society constantly borrows morals
and paradigms from the myth, draws sustanance for its life.
Euripedis' interest in Bacchae myth is inspired by the
dramatic elements in it which he could use for conveying his
philosophy and message without altering the myth drastically.
Soyinka, like Euripedis who understood the potential of the
myths not only transforms Yoruba myths to suit his purpose,
he does so by reinterpreting the Bacchae myth.
Myth - making is not the habit only of the primitive
mind; it is a feature of all ages. In Joseph Campbell's well
known words, " Myth is the secret opening through which the
inexhaustible energies of the cosmos pour into human
cultural manifestation". 6 In our modern technological age,
even science is-incorporated i~ the process of another kind
of myth making. In crystal dynamics a defracted light is not
just a ray of light but it is "Raman-ray" or, the measurement
of heat is not done in degrees but.in the Fahrenheit which is
the name of the 18th century inventor. These individuals
transcend time and place to be linked with natural phenomena.
We also know how the human imagination tends to convert some
living figures of history into mythological symbols. Christ,
Buddha and in our time Gandhi are exam.Qles of this. While
53
Raja Rao in his nove 1 Kanthapura( 1938) depicts Gandhi as, an I
invisible but dynamic sprit who moved the impassive world of
Indian villages Richard Attenborough, an Englishman, making
a film on Gandhi nearly forty years after his death, adds yet
another dimension to this myth. Reducing nearly 20 years of
Gandhi's freedom struggle into three hours, he visualises him
as emitting a tender light from his everglowing eyes stuck in
a frail body with the w'ill power of the seekers of truth and
saints of both the east and west that can transform forces of
imperialism. Poets, playwrights, historians or film makers
have all been traditionally part of the myth-making proce~s.
Wale Soyinka also belongs to this tradition; he mythicises
some of the historical and heroic deeds, and conversely
imbues contemporary situations with mythic resonance.
~yth and ritual are inseparable and are two faces of
the same coin. While a myth is a narrative the ritual is a
performance. The Dionysian ritual, the Ogun ritual of the
Yoruba in Nigeria and the Holi festival in India are examples ---------· of rituals that originate in myth~n Euripedis' !.he. Bacchae
the Dionysian ritual is performed : men and women dressed up
in ivy wreaths and fawn skin participate in the Bacchic
ritual. Dionysus is the god of fruitfulness and vegetation,
espcially of wines, hence god of wine. The myth says that
Dionysus frees the human beings from mundane sufferings and
his worship brings elements of ecstacy in life. The yearly
rites in his honour gradually evolved into the structured
form of the Greek drama. The dithyrambic hymn sung in his
54
praise evolved into tragedy and comedy. 7 In India 1the day
before Holi, an effigy is burnt .on the streets. In the
northern parts this effigy is said to be of the she-demon,
Holika; in the southern ·parts, specially in Karnataka,· the
effigy-burning is connected to Shiva·s burning down of Kama
or Madana td ashes. Thris the same ritual is explained by two
different myths.~ the Yoruba land of Nigeria the Ogun
ritual is celebrated every year. The ritual protagonist
possessed by the Ogun spirit acts out the god's plunge into
the chthonic realm where he recreated himself after being
torn into piec'es in the cosmic winds. The Yoruba playwrights _.
including Soyinka are of the opinion that the Ogun ritual
contained the potential elements of all subsequent dramatic
performanc_e~
-~~dian narrative past is rich in myths, in both the
literary and oral traditions. Kahabharata and Ramavana
surviving in these two traditions, were written centuries
back and have been preserved in many Indian languages through
oral recital,performance as well as written text~These
· narratives have a two way relationship with the present
societ#ile poets and playwrillhts look up to these texts~ as inexhaustible sources of material for their own writing,
they in turn modify the ·myths through new interpretations. In
Indian mythology while there is one pan-Indian great
tradition of Sanskrit - there are many "little traditions" in
different regions of the country with local and regional
myths.
55
In the case of Africa it is difficult to talk about I
myths generally, because the six thousand or so oifferent
tribes have their distinctive orginal myths which have
sometimes been retained in their pristine form, and sometimes
they have undergone mutation through contact with other
tribes as well as with Islam and Christianity 8 . What has
been restored or preserved in English translation ( as for
example in Geoffrey Parrinders' African Mythology) must
necessarily be, a very small fraction of what is orally
available in the local languages.
In West Africa Nigeria is the largest country and here,
a lot of scholarly activity with regard to myths, oral
literature and fraditional drama has been going on. We also
know that a large number of writers in English have emerged
from this region. Inspite of large scale religious
conversion the mythology of Ibo, Yoruba and Hausa tribes have
not been replaced by the myths of Christianity or Islam.
In Chinua Achebe's Things fAll Apart, Gabriel Okara's ~
voice, Duro -Ladipo's Ob..a. ~~ Obatunde Ijimere's Iillt
Imprisonment a..f. Obatala and a large number of Wole Soyinka · s
plays the Nigerian world of myths and the gods and the
godesses occupy a significant position. Eaoh one of these
writers approach the gods ~n a different way. But
collectively their works introduce us to the Ibo, the !jaw
and the Yoruba world of myths. One of the problems that a
non-African reader faces while analysing their literary use
of myth, however, must be admitted at the outset. It is not
56
always easy to distinguish between the orginal form of a· myth.
and its 1 i terary reinterpretation because the reader OU'tside
the Yoruba culture is receiving information about the myth
primarily through a modern literary text.
The Yorubas are the most urbanised community in
Nigeria and a large number of them are Christians today. In
traditional Yoruba cosmology there is an elaborate hierarchy
of deities, which includes a supreme creator and some 400
lesser gods and spirits, most of whom are associated with
their own cults and priests. The Yoruba language has an
extensive literature of poetry, tales, myths and proverbs. In
Yoruba mythology 114 .~ is considered the spiritual home.
Literary activity in English began in this community as early
as 19th century. Ajayi Samuel Crowther the first Yoruba
Bishop is said to have written the first Yoruba dictionary
and collected the Yoruba myths and tales in English
translation 9 Spread of English education was part of the
missionary activity as a result of which today, we have among
the Yoruba's writers like Soyinka, who seem equally at home
in the indigenous tradition and in the Christian world view.
~t another facet of this biculturism is the production of
books which attempt to comprehend the African world in the
English language. Soyinka's Myth. literature And 1h4 African
World (1976) and Ulli Beir's Yoruba Myths (1980) are two
examples. f?'
51
For Soyinka understanding of his world begins from
reflect a myths, masks and rituals. These three aspects
comprehensive metaphysical-cosmic world view of the Yorub~
people. Soyinka's interest in them is not of a religious
person or an anthropologist, but of a creative writer. Myths,
rituals and masks are integral parts of Yoruba life and
include gods " who by the nature of their attitudes which in
addition to their manipulable histories have [become] the
favourites of poets and dramatists, modern and traditional''
[emphasis mine, this will be considered later with Ogun's
myth]. The rituals do not only posses dramatic qualities but
also testify to the existence of an indigenous theatre. For
myths
they
and rituals are "immensely
might lead to a theatrical
useful ...... .
revolution". 10
Soyinka
[because]
What are· these rituals, masks and myths and what roles do
they play in the traditional Yoruba or African society ?
Rituals have their origins in the
attempt to come to terms with the vast
primitive man's
immensity of the
cosmos that challenged him. In other words, rituals have
originated out of primitive man's meta~hysical quest to
unravel the mystery that surrounded him; in a way it is a two
way process, it is both an internal exploration of his own
being and the search for a relationship with the external
universe. Such explorations were aimed at harmonising the
relationships with his enviroment as well as harnessing the
"essence" in his own self and in nature for the good of the
community. The heroes who once dared the forces inimical to
58
self expansion have become part of the collective memory and
the rituals which re-enact these epic feats are "history,
morality, af·firmation, sup-plication thanks giving, a ,simple
calendrification" 11 . Hence rituals apart from their religious
value assume a dramatic dimension.
The rituals often include all the ingredients that are
normally associated with modern drama, the stage, the
audience, the shared faith or suspension of disbelief. The
stage of the ritual drama is just a place where it is
performed; it could be "the shrine of the deity or a historic
spot in the drama of people's origin or a symbolic patch of
earth amidst grain stocks on the eve of harvest" 12 . By virtue
of the drama of hero-gods performed there, a small patch
of earth, gains a sy~nbolic meaning. Accordingly, "the ritual
arena of confrontation" represents the chthonic realm .....
and in this
challenged" 13 .
incantations,
charged space the chthonic inhabitants
In a ritual, a priest starts uttering
the Oriki poetry in Yoruba, glorifying
are
the
the
gods, the participants, by way of choric participation not
only join the_ongoing ritual ceremony but also give spiritual
strength to the priest; in the process, the participants and
the priest both get spiritually charged, thinning into the
"chthonic realm", the abode of god• and spirits and transform
the whole arena into a sacred spabe. (The priest who is a
human agent can be looked at as the ritual protagonist; and
the participants are the human co~nmunity who share the common
belief). This leads to the "communal ecstasy" or "catharsis".
59
Nevertheless. the latter aspects correspond directly:to the
aesthetic world - the world of songs and music. Here, very
importantly, the use of the word "catharsis", which in Greek
means pity and fear, need not surprise us because it
corresponds to the 'communal ecstasy·. And the ritual drama
like the epic drama also "celebrates the victory of the human
spirit over the forces inimical to the self-extension14 .
Soyinka shows how ritual drama is both "functional" and
"essential" as it spiritually galvanizes man and animates his
innermost being.and how it contains dramatic and theatrical
elements. He goes further into the examination of the myths
of Ogun, Obatala and Sango. Of the three gods. Soyinka finds
Ogun the most fascinating and dignoses the myth associated
with Ogun as a paradigim of Yoruba tragedy. Obatala's or
Sango·s myths do not interest Soyinka, much as he finds the
earlier a " f?nctionalist of creation" - dealing with just
the creation and the latter, "a destructive egotism''. But in
Ogun, he finds a god of creativity: "Ogun the essence of
creativity its~lf".
Soyinka has done an extensive scanning of the Yoruba
myths in his attempt to evolve a dramatic model of Yoruba
tragedy. He discuses these aspects in the essay titled ~'The
Fourth Stage" and sub-titled" Through the mysteries of Ogun
to the orgin of Yoruba tragedy" included in the book MY.t.h
literature and thA African World 15 . The first version of the
essay was written when Soyinka was in his early thirties.
60
Since then, the essay has been "improvised" and
obstacles" in it have also be-en removed. The
"elliptical
role of G.
Wilson Knight, the well-known Shakespearean critic and
Soyinka's Professor at Leeds in the final shaping of "The
Fourth stage" cannot be ignored as the manuscript was sent to
him "for his comments".
Soyinka finds the signs of the Yoruba tragedy in the
"Mysteries of Ogun or more closely in the choric ecstasy of
[Ogun] revellers". This reminds us of the origin of the Greek
tragedy in the festivals of Dionysus where the choric
revellers weari~g goat - skin, sang songs. But for Soyinka
there is an essential difference: "We did not find that the
Yoruba, as the Greek did, 'built for his chorus the
scaffolding of a fictive chthonic realm and placed there of
a fictive nature spirits, on which foundation... Greek
tragedy developed"(MLAW, p.142)The Greek chorus sang but the
Ogun choric revellers re-enact Ogun's mysteries ritually.
This seems to have made Soyinka say: "Yoruba tragedy plunges
straight into the "Chthonic realm'~, the seething cauldron of
the dark world will and psyche. the traditional yet inchoat~
matrix of death and becoming. In to this universal womb once
plunged and emerged Ogun, the first actor"(MLAW,p.l42). His
favourite god Ogun once plunged i~to the "chthonic realm'' or
the abode of cosmic spirits and emerged; but the word
chthonic realm has been described by Soyinka as "universal.
womb; inchoate matrix of death and becoming and the seething
cauldron of the dark world will-and psyche". This concise
61
definition of Yoruba tragedy made by Soyinka doesnot fully
convince . us because the details of the circumstances that
made Ogun plunge into the chthonic realm or the changes in
him after he emerged from there are not made clear here.
~oyink~ describes the Ogun myth in detail in his book
Myth.Literatur-e and.~ African World ..... according to which
"the gods were coming down to be reunited with man, in
particular to be re-united with human essence, to re-assume
that portion of re-creative transcient awareness which the
first deity Orisa-nla possessed and expressed through his
first continupus activation of man images" ( P. 144, MLAW)
because the gods were "anguished by a continuing sense of
incompleteness, needing to recover their long lost essence of
totality" (P.27 MLAW). But the gods' descent to earth was not
easy as the "immense chaotic growth had sealed off
reunion with man. "A long isolation from the world of man
created an ~mpassable barrier which the gods tried, but
failed to demolish. Ogun finally took over; he plunged into
the "chthonic realm". He was "literally torn asunder ·in
cosmic winds, but had rescued himself from the precarious
edge of total dissolution by harnessing the untouched part of ~
himself - the will" (p. 30. MLAW). While emerging out of the
chthonic realm Ogum "Armed himself· with the first technical
instrument which he had forged from the ore of mountain
wombs, he cleared the primordial jungle ... and called on the
others to follow" (p. 29 MLAW).
62
The myth contains a tragic situation, a tragic
character and a plot in its own natural way. The aspects
governing the tragic elements in the myth have their roots in
Yoruba philosphy. According to the Yorubas the moral well
being of the society depends on the unity of essence and the
self which means "eternity" (gods) and the "earthly
transcience" (human beings). Hence, according to Soyinka,
"Tragedy in Yoruba traditional drama is the anguish of this
severence, the fragmentation of essence from self"
(MLAW,p.145). In a nutshell it is the 'divine remoteness·
which causes tragedy. The Yoruba have a remedy for this. To
avert the tragedy the gulf must be constantly diminished by
the sacrifices, the rituals,the ceremonies of appeasement to
these cosmic powers which lie guardian to the gulf" (MLAW,p.
144). It is this gulf that Ogun diminished by sacrificing
himself in the cosmic winds and for this, he has come to be
known as "the first actor - for he led the others... first
suffering deity, first creative energy, the first challenger,
the conqueror of transition. And his first act was tragic
art" (MLAW,p.145).
The tragedy of Ogun was that when he plunged into the
chthonio realm or the metaphysical abyss, the powers of the
gulf had torn him into pieces, but Ogun had refused to be
destroyed completely in the abyss. He battled against the
cosmic powers and recreated himself by a "titanic resolution
of the will". And his will "reverberating within the cosmic
vaults usurp[ed] the powers of the abyss"and this- enabled
63
Ogun to emerge successfully out of the transitional abrss and
create the harmonious Yoruba world. This transitional abyss
is called "the fourth stage", the vortex of archetypes and
home of the tragic spirit (MLAW,p.149).
The concept of the fourth stage is exclusively a
contribution 'of Soyinka to the Yourba metaphysics. Soyinka
has used his understanding of psychoanalysis, his readings on
Greek tragedy and contemporary studies in anthroplogy and has
extended the concepts prevailing in the Yoruba metaphysics.
The Yorubas believe in the existence of three worlds: "the
world of ancestors, the living and the unborn" (HLAW,p. 26).
The world that surrounds ~11 the three according to Soyinka
is the fourth stage - the transitional or metaphysical abyss
where cosmic forces are both destructive and creative: a weak
self may completely be torn and a strong one may emerge
stronger after usurping the cosmic powers there. The beings
in these three worlds for the recreation of their self have
to plunge into the fourth stage as "The deities stand in the
same situation to the living as do the ancestors and the
unborn, obeying tne same laws, suffering the same masonic
intelligence of rituals for the perilous plunge into the
fourth area of experience" ( MLAW,p.148).
What is true for the gods is true for human beings too.
The mythic text can constitute the theoretical meterial for
modern drama. The experience in the transitional abyss which
Ogun's myth explains is an archetype of the cosmic battle.
64
I
Hence, "A tragic view of the theatre goes further and'
suggests that even the so-called realistic or literary drama
can be interpreted as a mundane teflection of this• essential
struggle" (p. 43, HLAW). This serves Soyinka as a foundation
for modern Yoruba tragedy in which not the gods but the human
beings participate. And central to this tragedy is the
experience of re-creating the individual self. In the place
of cosmic forces, in a modern tragedy we may have socio-
political situations and circumstances which destabilise man
from his roots. The Yoruba modern tragedy dramatizes the
living world:
On the arena of the living, when man is stripped of excrescences, when disasters and conflicts (the material of drama) have crushed and robbed him of self-consciousness and pretentions, he stands in present reality at the spiritual edge of this gulf, he has nothing left in physical existence which successfully impresses upon his spiritual or psychic perception. It is at such moments that transitional memory takes over, intimations rack him of that intense parallel of his progress through the gulf of transition, of the dissolution of his self and his struggle and triumph over submission through the agency of will. It is this experience that the modern tragic dramatist recreates through the medium of phy~ical contemporary action, reflecting emotions of the first active battle of the will through the abyss by dissolution" (HLAW,p.144).
Soyinka also seems to see a structural pattern in the
Ogun myth. The importance of the structure or technique of
the plot construction is evident to us from the reading of
Shakespeare. Shakespeare, while he dramatized the material
drawn from European history, folk legends, he borrowed the
plot structure developed in English drama by Lily in the
65
sixteenth century which had five acts : (a) introduction of a
situation, (b) a problem tied to it (c) climax (d) anti;
climax, and (e) the dissolution. Soyinka integrates it with
the Yoruba myth. The Ogun myth is his source again and it has
a plot. The myth falls into five stages: it involves a hero;
the hero is faced with a problem; the hero mentally prepares -
himself to solve the problem; after equipping himself he
confronts the rival force and normalizes a tragic situation.
An anatomy of the myth is as follows:
l.The gods wanted to c6me to the human community;
2. they couldnot because they .were separated by the "transitional ether"-the forest-the gods fail;
3. Ogun takes the problem in his hands; he alienat~s himself, he plunges into the fourth area of experience and emerges with the weapon to destroy the chaotic growth;
4. Ogun cuts the for~~t and makes the way for the others;
5. gods led by Ogun, join the human community; essence and self are united, a tragic situation is averted and a hQrmonious world is created.
Narrative structure
Introduces a situation: a collective wish, a necessity
for both the gods the human community;
introduces a counter force; ties a problem to the situation established by the preceding situation;
an individual takes the situation into his hands and prepares himself mentally and physically to confront the opposite force; ·
t~e confrontation between the opposite forces;
' d:issolution of the conflict; culminates in an expose of ~he force inimical to the ~elfare of the human community ~nd a new psychic mood prevails.
Yet another, and an important aspect that is
discernible in the structural pattern of the Ogun myth is the
concept of a Ogun hero only around whom a play based on the
66
philosophy of the Yoruba tragedy is possible. Ariostotle '
highlights four impol'tant points about the Greek tragic
heroes: "First and foremost that they shall be good ... The
second is to make them appropriate ..... The third is to make
them like reality ... The fourth is to make them consistent and
the same thorugh out" 16 . Except for the first quality
goodness which is highly subjective, the rest are more
technical in nature and deal with questions of
representation. Soyinka's Ogun is so full of Greek qualities
that to an extent Soyinka's Ogun seems inspired by Dionysus.
Ogun, in Ul~i Beir"s book Yoruba Myths or in Soyinka's
" Myth. Literature .an.d. .t.h.e_ African World" has been described
as "the creative-destructive spirit"; he had brought the
divine and the human together and on another occassion under
the impression of drunkenness he had killed friends and foes
indiscriminately. His other qualities "restorative justice",
"Dionysian-Appollonian and Promethean Virtues," "essence of
creativity" and so on refer to his recreative and explorer
instinct. Ogun c_an be termed as Dionysian because he has the
dual nature of a cruel barbarised demon and a mild pacifier
and his dismemberment in the transitional abyss parallels
Dionysus' dismemberment in the hands of Titans. He is also
the Promethean impulse because he forged iron and the path to
the human community as Prometheus gave the knowledge of fire
to human beings. Against this general background of the
explorer god a paradigm of an Ogun character could be
evolved. An Ogun character could be any individual - high or
67
low by birth, rich or poor, ·weak or strong; he needs to be
sensible to understand a tragic situation of divine
remoteness where the self and essence are separated and moral
order has collapsed in a society. He decides to take up the
tragic situation in his hands and this coincides with his
alienation, and plunge into the transitional abyss where his
self usurps the cosmic powers. Here, he makes his will and
emerges with solutions. In a nutshell, an individual with
explorative instincts sees the agony and suffering of .his
society as his own and internalising within him the cosmic
influences he attempts to restore harmony. Along with this,
he enlightens his society about the forces opposed to the
social good. The paradigm of an Ogun hero can be perceived in
the serious plays of Soyinka. His comedies and some political
satires do not lend themselves to this kind of an analysis,
but the structural aspect discussd above can to some extent,
be traced in almost all his plays.
In her book ~ Sovinka and Modern Tragedv: A Study Q!
Theory and Practice Ketu. H. Katrak examines the myth of Ogun
but does not dwell on ritual theatre and the masks. The book
does not raise any issues that could problematise Soyinka's
claims on the Ogun myth. It doesnot ask some of the very
obvious questions: Whether Ogun be compared to Prom~theus and
Dionysus ? or How much of Soyinka's Ogun is borrowed from the
other cultural sources? or What form does the Yoruba Ogun
take when he is processed and recreated in the dramatic
imagination of Soyinka ?
68
It is neccessary to critically examine Soyinka's claim
that "Ogun .... is best understood in Hellenic values I
as a
totality of the Dionysian, Apollonian and Promethean
virtues". Dionysus· case in the Greek mythology is one of
divine jealousy, enimity and battle of ego: twice, in
different w~ys and at different points of time attempts were
made to destroy him; both the times by jealous Hera. Hera
prompted Semele to take a promise from Zeus to appear before
her in majesty as god of lightning, but when he appeared, she
was consumed by the flames, and the infant Dionysus was saved
by Zeus. Zeus took him up and enclosed him in his thighs till
he came to maturity. In ano~ther episode, when Dionysus was
growing up as Zagreus, in the underworld, Hera sent Titans
who tore him into picess, and again Zeus saved him. Based on
hierarchy, the Greek god-world is full of politics and
tension whereas the Yoruba world is just the opposite of this
and is primordial and evolutionary in nature. Ogun does not
belong to a divine world.which is horizontally divided and is
a site of constant friction. Ogun has fought battles and is
an undefeated warrior, however, he doesnot have an arch enemy
of the kind of jealous Hera who is constantly after his life.
Confronted by the natural growth on his way along with other
gods to the human world. According to Soyinka Ogun plunges
into the metaphysical abyss - the fourth stage - where he was
torn into pieces in the cosmic winds, but he battled for his
survival and recreated himself - corresponding in a way to a
large natural paradigm . As Bertolt Brecht puts it, " A man
69
is an atom that perpetually breaks up and forms again" 17 . A
deliberate attempt of Soyinka to read the Ogun myth with all
the euhemistic complexities has definitely enriched it. But
even this Ogun doesnot acquire Greek qualities. Soyinka's
creativity cannot be questioned but it is important to
recognise the different elements that fuse here.
Prometheus rebelled against the Olympian hierarchy
which was biased against the mortals. The gods did not want
their knowledge of fire to be shared with the human beings.
But Prometheus breaks the gods monopoly of fire and suffers
for humanity which.makes him a revolutionary, a rebel and a i
radical. But Ogun is not, because he is not antogonising the
supreme gods above him, who are not there in Ogun·s case and
he was not going to be banished from his legitamate world for
doing . good .to anybody. He forged a weapon-a matohet or a
sword; this makes him an inventor or an ingenuous god but
definitely not a ~ebel.
This does not mean that an Ogun character in a modern
serious play should not have Prom~thean qualities just
because Ogun in his myth does not have them. Soyinka's plays
emerge out of a socio-political situation which is full of
bloody coups, civil wars, draughts and famines. In a society
of this kind, anybody who raises his voice against the state
is bound to be a rebel, who thinks of an alternative policy
to the government's shortcomings is a definitely a Promethean
character.
70
The original Ogun may not have had the complex '
resonances with which Soyinka ~nvests hi~. The version
recorded by Geofrey · Parrinder in African
highlights the explorative instinct in Ogun and his saga of
clearing the forest which separated the divine and the human
worlds:
~e Yoruba of Nigeria say that Ogun, the god of iron, used to come down from heaven by a spiders web and hunt in the marshes, in the olden days when the earth was a watery waste. Later, the earth was formed by Great god, who set about arranging every thing in order. But he came to thick forest that his tools could not cut, since they were only bronze. Ogun alone, whose axe was iron, was able to clear :the way and he only did th\~ after other gods had promised to reward. (p. 79) ~
Going by this, Ogun is a hunter god and as there are a
number of versions of the same myth, minor variations exist
in the narrative. The myth listed in the book Yoruba .Myths by
Ulli Beir does talk of Ogun as a god of war, truth, valour
etc. what is not available in any of these books is the
detail about the fourth stage and Ogun's plunge into it. The
suffering aspect attributed to Ogun also appears to be an
addition by Soyinka. A god who suffers to bring back the
moral order, or the divine essence back to the humanity is
obviously a different version of Ogun. Ogun's action is a
heroic deed; the fruit of his individual achievement flows
down to the good of his fellow beings. This is a universal
phenomenon. In the society and in the human soul, there
often appears a schism, a disintegration and on the heels of
it comes death, slowly encroching upon life. This cannot be
71
resolved very easily. As Toynbee sees it only a birth can
counter death. 20 In many spiritual heroes in diffe~ent
civilizations, eg, Buddha, Christ, Mahatma Gandhi there is a
basic pattern of suffering, isolation, and through reflection
the birth of a new vision of life. To this extent the Ogun
myth has a universal dimension.
Although he draws heavily from the Yoruba world view
Soyinka takes advantage of the gaps in the myths: "by the
nature of attributes which addition to their manipulable
histories (emphasis mine) are dearer to poets and
playwrights" (p.l, MLAW). Soyinka 'manipulates' the available
story creatively so that the myth of Ogun becomes enriched by
material drawn from new sources.
One of the several sources may be -Friedrich Nietzsche's
essay ~ Birth Q! Tragedy. Words like 'torn asunder·,
'transitional abyss·, the concept of 'dismemberment',
individuation, Ogun as an artist and suffering deity have
their origin in Nietzsche. It is fairly obvious 'that
Soyinka's Ogun imbibes certain qualities which Niet~sche
finds in Dionysus. In a way Soyinka has acknowledged
Nietzsche's influence on him : "Our course to the heart of
the Yoruba mysteries leads by its own ironic truths through
the light of Nietzsche and phrygian deity" (p.l40, M~AW). The.
following passages from Nietzsche establish the affinity
between Soyinka's Ogun and Dionysus:
72
Divine and human world, each of which is in the right individuality but as a separate exist.enc_e alongside of another has to suffer for its individual for, universality, in his at tempt to pass beyond the bounds of individuation and become the ~ universal being, he exeperiences in himself the primordial contradiction concealed in the essence of things, ie., he trespasses and suffers (p.338).
Dionysus of the mysteries, a god experiencing in himself the sufferings of individuation, of whom wonderful myths tell that as a boy he was dismembered by the Titans .... Dionysos has the dual nature of cruel barbarised demon, and a mild pacific ruler ... the hope of the epos looked for a new birth of Dionysus, which we have now to conceive of in anticipation as the end of individuation ... And it is only this hope that sheds a ray of joy upon the features of a world torn asunder and shattered into individuals ... In the views or things here given we already have all the elements of a profound and pessimistic contemplation of the world, and along these we have. the mystery doctrine ~ tragedy : the fundamental knowledge of oneness of all existing things, the consideration of individuation as the primal cause of evil, and art as the joyous hope that the spell of induividuation may be 2~roken, as· the a~gury of a restored oneness (p.341) . .
So for in this chapter myths and rituals have been
discussed in terms of the Yoruba tradition and Soyinka's
dramatic use of them. There is yet another aspect in this
tradition that -·needs to be dealt with masks. Masks
objectify in visual forms ideas and philosophies which the
society can read, recognise and understand. Masks represent
gods, spirits and human characters by creating a sense of
distance between the masked participants and their social
identity. Masks very commonly appear in many African rituals.
Bangwa Night Society masks in Cameroon, Yoruba Gelede masks
and Ibo beauty and beast masks in Nigeria have been famous
73
for their artistic qualities. Masks are worn by men but in
Sierra Leone unusally women wear masks for ritual occassions. I
They have symbolic and performative functions, and can be
effectively used for the purposes of drama. 22
Masks can be of gods or ancestors. The participation of
masked persons in the social events and ceremonies is
symbolic of divine and ancestral presence. As the masked men
are either gods or ancestral spirits, they maintain
neutrality and the people - the kith and kin - who know the
original identity of the masked men also maintain d1stance as
it is seen in Thirigs fall Apart where Okwonko is one among
the nine mask-spirits egwuwu:
Okwonko's wives and perhaps other women as well, might have noticed that the second egwugwu had the springy walk of Okwonko, ... But if they thought these 2ihings they kept them within themselves. (p.79)
As in any dramatic performance, the social and personal
identity of the actor is irrelevant. The suspension of belief
has to be so complete that only the performative identity of
the masked figure is seen as real. The masks enjoy respect
from the people and insult to a mask is an insult done to the
god or a spirit. Ogun mas~ appears very frequently in
Soyinka's plays and the other characters can be seen to be
mortally scared of this, because Ogun is considered to be a
ferocious god.
Masks also mark change: change in the season, change in
the leadership through. death, change in one's life from
74
adolescence to youth or from life to death. The masks
connected with the change of seasons like the major mask
festival of the Afikpo-Ibo which mark the beginning of a new
agricultural year and masks connected with transitional
points of social life denote two concepts of time: one in
which time is endlessly repetitive or cyclical, as in
seasons; and the other linear time: which character
is exemplified in the process of growth and ageing; in this
case time is seen as an irreversible process.
When Soyinka uses masks in his plays he informs the
audience through the dramatic narrative about the nature of
the mask. Just as Yoruba mask is unfamiliar to a Ibo, a Ibo
or a Yoruba mask shall remain strange to a non-African
reader. Soyinka's plays need a general understanding of the
function of masks. A mask when it appears on the. stage is
meant to indicate the presence of divine and ancestral
spirits, change in seasonal time or social life. It could
also mean a combination of characters - human and animal
and represent a manifestation of contradictions in social
life as the mask conceals the real state of being and reveals
another. This understanding must remain an important
dimension in the examination of Soyinka's plays.
Myths, masks and rituals are interlinked; they are
manifestations of a civilization's understanding of man, his
relationship with his, his environment and the cosmos .. They
operate on various levels. Soyinka uses all these aspects in
75
his plays; his plays are steeped in the philosophy of Yoruba.
tragedy, structured on Ogun myth and designed with the
of various types. Besides this, there are various
uniquely Yoruba cultural elements which Soyinka uses in
m~sks
other
his
plays, like ·agemo· a religious cult of flesh dissolution,
sesan a kind of children's play, the concepts of the earth
mother, forest,spirits and gods. By discussing the myths,
masks and rituals, we have attempted to identify certain
common patterns that appear in Soyinka"s plays. But, how far
does Soyinka succeed in his venture of laying foundations for
an African modern theatre and Yoruba tragedy? What are the
problems he faces? These are some of our concerns in the
present chapter.
II
!ha Road. Kongi"s Harvest and !ha Baccbae QL Euripedis
were written at a time when Nigeria was faced with the
problems of a ne~ly independent nation trying to restructure
the economy, society and political system which were till
then controlled by the colonising power. A fight for power
and wealth had begun among the various ethnic communities in
Nigeria resulting in two coups ( Januar~ and July 1964) and
in the victimization of the minority communities by the
majority. This tension ridden political situation led to
nearly forty two months of civil war (1967-1970) leaving the
country divided along ethnic and religious lines and
economically devastated. The first two plays written before
the war reflect the mood of the .time which is marked by
76
bloodshed, greed and the premonition of a sinister holocaust.
The last play writ tell after the war and the release of
Soyinka from 27 months of imprisonment, portrays the
universal struggle for power and the ensuing human suffering
touching upon the problem of apartheid. In these plays
Soyinka is making an attempt to understand violence and
suffering in contemporary African society using his
creative imagination aided by Yoruba myths and rituals.
Because these plays have a thematic unity they have been
grouped together for analysis in this chapter.
~ R2ad24 presents an enigmatic protagonist referred
to as 'Professor· who maneuvers accidents on the road in
order to loot the wrecks. The myth of Ogun and the ritual of
egungun mask dance are used as the sub-text. In Kon"i's
Harvest Soyinka is presenti~g a megalomaniac African dictator
by dramatically deploying the myth of yam eating and the
ritual of harvest festival. In ~ Bacchae Q! Euripedis
Soyinka rewrites the Greek play by making the King Pentheus
stand for another African dictator and by representing the '
contemporary African society in the frenzied bacchanals. The
ritual of Diony~ian festival and flogging as community
cleansing are used as stage devices by Soyinka. Kristin
Holst points out the contemporary relevance as well as the
limitlessness of these concerns: "it is contemporar-y ... (T)hey
[the plays] document a time of transition. They reflect what
is still fresh in the memory of the living" 25 . This chapter
makes an attempt to analyse the three plays with special
77
reference to myths, rituals and masks and Soyinka's concept
of the Yoruba tragedy.
Before beginning ~ aQad, Wole Soyinka had spent some
years in writing plays of an entirely different kind. While
The. Strong Breed (1960) is a serious play with. a tragic
character Eman at the centre, The. Trials .Q!. Brother J..e.r..Q.
(1960) is a hilarious comic-satire on the gullible and
psuedo-religious men and ~ LiQn and ~ Jewel is a comedy
with a puny man imitating a western life style pitted again~t
a larger than life macho hero of traditional culture. Also,
in these plays Soyinka has handled themes where the belief of
the traditional society came in conflict with the modern
values resulting in death and suffering of the individuals.
~ Swamp Dwellers and 1.:.rut Strong Breed portray the
contemporary African society by involving myths and rituals
but operate on a very realistic level and employ a causal
structure. With ~ ~ Soyinka seems to begin a new kind of
playwriting in which he uses the tragic along with the comic,
the satiric with the mystic and the real with the abstract.
Moreover, we-notice a different kind of struc~uring in his
plays from now - the episodic. In Iha RQad, myths and rituals
occupy central position and unlike their realistic treatment
in the earlier plays, here they are used more on a symbolic
level.
is structured around a character called
Professor and his search for the meaning of a certain 'Word'.
Earlier he was a Sunday school teacher, an austere Christian
78
I
and after being thrown out of the church for pilfering its
funds now he is the proprietor of the 'Aksident Store'. In
addition to the income from the store Professor plunders from
the accident sites, forges driving licenses and in the
evenings, offers shelter, liquor and lecture to the drivers
and touts. Professor has nursed and cared for Mu·rano, a god-
man, finding him brutally injured in the back of a lorry; he
wants to see the divine nanifesting in Murano and hopes he
will be helpful in his search. Providing a sharp contrast to
Professor is Kotanu, a driver, who before the play has begun,
has decided to retire from driving after seeing death in an
accident. In the accident Kotanu has·killed an Ogun-possessed
mask-dancer (Murano) who was participating in the drivers'
festival of offering sacrifice to the god of road.
Frequenting the roadside shack of Professor are Particular's
Joe, an ulscrupulous policeman hoping to be bribed either by
Professor or the drivers and touts , and Chief-in town, a
corrupt politiqian looking for the jobless touts for his
political criminal activities. Each of these characters
reflect certain aspects of contemporary society. The single
setting continuing for the whole play includes the church and
its graveyard; adjacent to it is the roadside shack and the
lopsided 'bolekaja' (a Mammy Wagon) minus its wheels. Thus
the physical location hints at different dimensions: the
spiritual, the derelict industrial and the destructive.
Episodic, philosophical and absurd - the play comes to an end
with violence and death in which Professor gets killed, when
flouting all the ritual norms, he brings Murano under
79
possession. Kotanu succeeds Professor as the· proprietor of
the store. The play maintains all the thr~e unities of time
place and action and juxtaposes the church music with the
'agemo' mask dance.
contemporary situation,
Although a play dealing
~ ~ is dominated by
with
myth
a
and
ritual. Ogun is the central idea around which the play ~
RQad has been constructed. The Yoruba believe that the god of
road Ogun has to be offered sacrifices at regular intervals
for the good of the users of the road. The sacrificial animal
for his ritual is the dog. The ritual is celebrated in a
festive mood with egungun mask dance and the drums. At times
the Ogun spirit may become manifest in the mask dancer. The
ritual takes into account the existence of man in the cosmic
context. Unlike his material conditions man's relation with
the cosmic world does not change; therefore, the
significance of the myth-ritual remains relevent· to the
contemporary society. The Ogun myth also supposes that while
man should constantly strive to nourish the divine in him,
acquiring forbidden knowledge is sacrilegious. Hence, .any
irreverence or abuse of the sacred ritual is a blasphemy and
implies destructiqn and havoc. This philosophy seems to be
operating in ~ ~ and the events in the play are closely
connected to this.
In the elaborate opening scene at the stroke of five
the dawn breaks on the roadside shack revealing a rugged
fence and a corner of a church" with stained glass - window.
On the benches and floor of the road are sleeping Samson,
80
I
Salubi, Kotanu and many other touts and drivers. The stage 1
setting-" a corner of church", "the shack", the back ~
of a ;
I
"bolekaja", lopsided minus its wheels bearing the mispelt
inscription- AKSIDENT STORE ALL PART AVAILEBUL. and a gad-man
coiling under a table sum up in a nutshel1 the shabbiness and
desolation of these people who live off the thrown away junk
of industrial society. Objects like discarded beer case "the
empty cans", "a tin mug" amidst which they sleep highlight
their derelict condition. Meticulously structured, the scene
reflects upon all the important spheres of life: the
spiritual (the church), the moral (the god under the table)
and the social (the people sleeping on the road) and
foregrounds the rupture between the traditional wholeness of
life and the present fragmentation. ·
This general tragedy is further intensified: Samson
"ambling around aimlessly, stops to pick up crumbs from a.
plate lying on a table·. He flings a tin-mug up in the air
and lets it drop, drawin~& our attention to a "spiders web in
the corner" making these people appear like insects caught in
the web of a. run-down mechanical life. Sa.lubi wears a. second
hand blood-stained driver·s uniform and claims to be "a
private driver temporary unemploy". His statement: "All I
need now is a licence. It is only a matter of getting
Professor to forge one for me" (p. 153) emphasizes a corrupt
social set up because he has no hopes of getting it from the
proper authorities.
81
Salubi's and Samson's down and out lives are made
bearable by dreams. Taking turns, they play roles of
imaginary millionaires and fantasize about the ways of j
spending their wealth. Their desire encapsulates the
greed for possession and sensual gratification that makes
contemporary society, When Salubi becomes a millionaire he
would like to "marry ten wives", and when Samson attains that
state he would like to "drive along Marina at two o'clock.
All the firie girls just coming from their office, the young
and tender faces ... old bones like me must put fresh tonic in
his blood" (p. 156). Samson's charade of throwing money to
the policeman serves twin satiric purpose for Soyinka: of i
exposing corruption and its methods and procedures, so that
it becomes a social ritual.
Samson [dips in an imaginary purse he is about to fling them a fistful of coins when he checks his harid]. Now remember, officers first. Superintendent! [Flings coins. Salubi scrambles and picks up the
money] ~nspectors ! ... Sergeants ! ... Now that is what I ·call a well disciplined force. Next, those with one or two stripes... Excellent. Excellent. And now those who are new to the game ... You may; go now and good hunting friends. (p. 155)
The imaginary society enacted by Samson 'and Salubi
becomes real when Particulars Joe, a policeman and Chief-in-
town, a politician appear on the stage. They are the
objectification of the corrupt society which we have seen in
the "millionaires" fantasy. The ·policeman frequents the
Professor's shack in search of a driver. who has knocked down
a mask dancer, not with the intention of arresting him but
82
. ...--
probably to get his share of the brib~. Professor is a
professional forger of driving licenses a fact the policeman
knows but all that he wants is his commission. A P-olitician I
also frequents the shack looking for thugs who would help
him. The corrupt politician is a recurring ·figure in Nigerian
literature, appearing in a large number of texts including
Ache be· s M.an. Q.f. t.M People and Ben Okr i · s The. Famished fulAd.
Soyinka's roadside joint of deviants would have been
incomplete without this type.
Soyinka uses the image of the 'road' for the enactment
of his drama because the road, like the river is a running
space which has been inhabited by various forces and here,
man has to learn to co-exist abiding by self imposed
limitations. Soyinka seems to see this space at a particular
point of time in African life as_ a battle-field, hence
bloodshed ·and loss of life are as common here as day and
night. In the play, from the beginning till the end, we see
repeatedly the drivers and lay abouts returning to the
roadside shack, brutally injured and bleeding. There is also
a mass burial of the dead and funeral processions. Such
scenes establish a close, one to one relationship between the
corrupt ways of life and their consequences. The men the
politician hired, return brutally hurt. The stage directions
show how the drivers and touts return like an army from the
' battle field:
Enter two of the lay abouts, with broken heads. One collapses on a bench and the other rushes through water-pot, drinks like a camel, pours the
83
rest over his head and slides down besides the pot. (p. 187)
Enter three more of the touts, sup.portin-g one another. They flop down like a defeated army. (p. 190).
Such dangers occur, Soyinka seems to suggest, when man
transgresses his own limits to attain forbidden strength. If
a man challenges human laws in order to gain wealth~
knowledge or power, the consequences might destroy him.
Professor, the central character is mysterious and
absurd. He is perceived or misunderstood as a "millionaire",
"madman", "new born, fool". He "sleeps in the churchyard with
all that dead body"; (p. 154) like a tantric. Kotanu sees him
as "Adam re-planting the tree of life", Salubi on the
contrary, thinks of him as a menace," pulling up road signs
and talking all that mumbo-jumbo." (p.176). We see the
difficulty of any unified perception when Professor makes his
entrance in the following way:
Professor is a tall figure in victorian outfit- tails, top-hat etc., all thread bare and shines at the lapels from ironing. He carries four en0 rmous bundles of newspaper and a fifth of paper odds and ends impaled on a metal rod stuck in a wooden rest. A chairstick hangs from one elbow, and the other arm clutches a road sign bearing a squiggle and the one word, 'BEND' (p.l57).
While the victorian outfit historicizes him making
him incongruously out of place, the odd assortment of objects
around him accentuates his eccentricity and the oddity of his
84
quest. Soyinka uses a paradigmatic character - a searcher. a
quester to explore the complex African situation he is
dealing with. Professor is almost a Faust figure who with his
materialistic view towards life became a victim of his own
aspiration.
Professor's search revolves round wealth and power. He
wants to strengthen his knowledge with the essence of
Christian religion, Ogun spirit and death. In order to
achieve this, he wears various masks: of a devotee, a
preacher and a searcher. Accordingly, his involvement with
the church~ with the road, with the drivers and lay-abouts or
with Hurano-the godman. are all geared to an end. He had once
been a devoted Christian when he searched for the meaning of
'Word'. He knew more tban the preacher himself: "the preacher
directed his sermon to Professor for approval", also as
Professor himself was a good preacher- " three quarters of
the congregation only came to hear his voice'' (p.163). :But
while he seemed deeply immersed in religion he was actually
after money. He was thrown out of the church for having
pilfered money. The world around him has a meaning for him
because it is directly related to his intellectual curiosity,
but he does not have any human relationship to temper it. He
shelters the drivers, lay abouts and touts at his shack not
out of love or sympathy for them but because, first, they are
his potential customers; second,they buy forged licenses and
spare parts from him and they provide him with their
experiences for his search:
85
Professor:If any think I do this from the kindness of my heart you are fools. It is truie I demand •1 i ttle from you, just your presence at evening communion, and the knowledge that you offer me that your death will have meaning ... your lives whittle down the last obstacle to the hidden Word (p.229).
Professor is obsessed with 'Word' and 'Quest' and the '
terms are not explained in the text. In associating these
words with Proffessor who is already invested with a great
deal of absurdity Soyinka imbues these ideas with mystery,
absurdity and metaphysics.The 'Word' has several meanings:
Professor: What's the ministry's needle after all except for'sewing Word together or the broken flesh. (p. 196).
Murano, the one person in this world in whom the 'Word' reposes. (p. 186).
The 'Word· represents human -body in its ordinary sense
and in Yoruba metaphysics it is the divine essence because it
reposes in Murano; the godman. The Christian meaning is also
very close tp the Yoruba as it is in the sense of power of
"word made flesh". Hence Professor is linked both to
Christianity and the Ogun mask. Professor uses capital 'Q'
for his quest. And Professor's quest seems to be material
wealth as his own following words suggest: "understanef" the
. shop sustains our souls and feeds our bodies" (p. 195). To
achieve this end he peforms various wrong deeds: he pilfers
church funds; he steals from others; he uproots the road
signs and.causes accidents. Having sold the soul for his body
he is living a partial existence. This is explained in terms
86
of the separation of essence from self in the Yoruba
metaphysics. Hence Professor is a tragi~ character as
"Tragedy ... is the anguish of this severance, the
fragmentation of essence from self. Its music,is the stricken
cry of man's blind soul as he flounders in the void and
crashes through a deep abyss of a-spirituality and cosmic
rejection" (p. 145 MLAW.) Professor, like that mad king
Lear, stripped of excrescences, robbed and crushed of self-
consciousness by disasters and conflicts stands at the edge
of the spiritual abyss. Soyinka consciously plays upon this
similarity by using the famous imagery of flies and wanton
boys:
Professor: like flies you prove it ... like l~rvae on the day of the sanitary you prove it. (p.200)
mosquito inspector
How does one overcome this? How does one normalize a
tragic situation in one's own l~fe? Soyinka seems to suggest
this alternative through Kotanu, who is also connected to the
Ogun myth. Kotanu is passionate and sympathetic; he
understands pov~~ty and suffering as is testified by his
giving of the drive~·s uniform to Samson .. In addition, Kotanu
also offers Samson his driving licence Though a driver, he
refuses to kill a sacrificial dog for the god of road. His
love of life is further evidenced by his participation in
the funerals. Kotanu is not like Professor who charges a fee
for giving advice and for making driving licences and above
all, steals from the miserable touts.
87
Kotanu shows his broader vision of life by rejecting
popular ways of lif-e and doing -what he f-eels is right. Qne
reason for this is that Kotanu has the will to recreate
himself like Ogun. After the accident in which the masked
Ogun dancer got killed Kotanu has undergone the experience
of getting torn in the transitional abyss and recreating his
will. This process is dramatically shown by Soyinka:. "Its
getting dark Samson I can't see. His blood got my eyes. I
can't see Samson ... Samson ! Samson Samson ! "(p.109)
Kotanu's cry is that of a tragic soul in the dark abyss of
death and transition. After this incident a process of i
transformation sets in in Kotanu's life. He observes: "A man
gets tired of feeling too much" (p.166) and remarks At
least I will see a man's face before I bash in it. Driving
does not gQarantee you that" (p.169). All.these hint at a
new Kotanu.
' The character of Professor does not come anywhere near
a Ogun hero. An Ogun hero whenever confronted by an obstacle
in life. turns inward and looks for the source of energy and
usurps the cosmic self within and regenerated thus. destroys
the schism that has debilitated him. Kotanu. as we have seen '
has this potential. His reti~ement from driving is indicative
of his initiation into the process of drawing fresh life
from within. Professor's obsession:for material wealth is
eating up the essence of his self and leading him on a path
of extremities.
88
I
Investing Professor with the predatory aspect of the
' Nigerian society Soyinka makes .him prey on the gullibility of
the simple man. As a god of wine Ogun is a symbol of agrarian
society and in the play, Murano representing him is a palm
wine tapper. Professor has found him "neglected in the back of
hearse. And dying. Moaned like a dog whose legs have been
broken by a motor car. I took him ... looked after him... I
held a god captive" (p.156). Professor wants to bring Murano
under possession and see the divine manifesting in him.
Professor's use of Murano for his selfish purpose is
diabolic, because it entails a misuse of mystic power. He
want~ to know what is forbidden by the traditional wisdom.
This act of arrogance and transgression causes violation in
life's ethos causing the destruction we have already seen in
the beginning of th~ play. Also there are many drivers who
never returned from the road. Kotanu catalogues the departed
heroes of the road:
Where is Zorro who never returned from the North without a basket of guinea-foul eggs? where Akanni the lizard? ... where is Ope? where is Sapele Joe who took on six policemen at the crossing and knocked them all into the river? (p.167).
Sergeant Burma, Professor's business partner is the
last to be mentioned in the list. Reinforcing this central
theme. the images of death and destruction recur through the
play. Professor himself articulates it. It is like a
fisherman. "slapping a loaded net against the sand bank"
Below that bridge, a black rise of buttocks two unyielding thighs and that red trickle like a
89
woman washing her monthly pain in a thin river so many lives rush in and out between her legs ~nd most of it a waste" (p. 197)
This tragic social reality is explained through the
central character Professor. Imbued with arrogance and greed
Professor ignores what is hu~an in him and commits an act of
transgression that results in his death. Professor's attempt
to bring Murano under possession, culminates in violence and
death. Professor prepares himself mentally for "the final
confrontation" - egungun mask dance - and asks the touts and
drivers to prepare Murano-the godman for the dance. Finding r
them not obeying him, Professor" himself pulls up Murano,
takes him into the store where the egungun mask is kept.
"Play you foul-mouthed vermin of the road" (p.226), he shouts
at them. "They obey him slowly, beating out the rhythm of
agemo emerging from the bowels of the earth ... The egungun
continues to dance. The dance of the masquerade becomes
wilder, racked by spasms, the gradual build-up of possession"
(p.227). When the egungun has become thoroughly possessed; a
violent psychological mood builds up as a result of the
continuing dance :
Salubi watching intently dips his hand in his pocket and brings out a clinched first ... he slides an object along the bench ... Say Tokyo grasps the knife as Professor's stick hits Salubi's hands on the wrist, plung~s th~ knife in Professo~s back
There is a dead: stiffness of several moments ... , The mask appears to come to life suddenly lifts Say Tokyo Kid in a swift movement up above his head . . . smashes him savagely on the bench. Say Tokyo kid tries to rise, rolls over on the ground and clutches'the train of the mask to him. The mask still spinning, has continued to sink until it appears to.be nothing beyond a heap
90
of cloth and ruffia. (p.228-9).
The play comes to an end and with the death of
Professor. The "agemo" mask dance is symbolic of change:
change of leader, change in the season, change from life to
death. With the death of Professor, the "Aksident store" has
got a new proprietor Kotanu. He suggests a qualitative change
in the "Aksident store" business. The forging of licenses,
the consultation fee, thieving and ruthless exploitation of
the drivers and the touts may now come to an end.
The play is episodic and employs repetition as a
dramatic technique. When repeating an episode Soyinka uses
effects for variation- sound and light, mimicking and so
on. An accident Kotanu has had, for example, is not only
repeated but mimicked in detail. " A violent screech of
breaks. They look [Samson and Kotanu] forward, skirt an area
carefully and peer down a hole in the ground" (p. 155-6). The
words "the rotten planks", "the hole" blended with other
sound and light effects visualize an episode already
presented. Simila~ly Professor's relationship with the church
is discussed by Samson and Salubi more than once (p.162 to
164 and 205 to 206); Murano's ferocious nature is dramatized
at two places ( p. 124 and 228). The technique of repetition
and the change of dramatic medium from the verbal -to the
dance and music (the 'agemo' and ritual mode) makes the
performance complex and stylized.
It may be interesting to look at the reviews of two
91
different performances of ~ RQad one by a person who had '
not read the play, and the other by•a person who had. K.R.
Srinivasa Iyengar who saw the play at Commonwealth Arts
festival in September 1965, writes "I didnot quite
"understand" the play, but the production "bounced" me all
the same" 26 . He confesses that he has not read the play, but '
then the spectator cannot be expected to come with a prior
knowledge of the text. Ketu. H. Katrak who has extensively
worked on the plays of Soyinka reacts to another production.
She attributes the failure of the play to the problem of I
actualizing a powerfully written text. She writes: I
When they burst out singing, the dramatic place and purpose of their words seemed unconvincing. Only when one of them was talking to Professor ... the dramatic·. action unfolds and evolves ... The action did not develop with a sense of inevitability-a certain repetitiousness in the de'livery of the words seemed t0 flatten the 2~ergy and vitality of Soyinka's words themselves.
Her first ':reaction refers to the fluctuation in the
dramatic presentation, the shift from words to song and the
second, "the action did not develop with the sense of
inevitability" obv.iously refers to the episodic structure and
the lack of linear development of the play. The choice of the
medium is not fortuitous but conscious. Soyinka had written
a good number of plays which have communicated themselves
very well on the stage - like ~ Swamp Dwellers, ~ LiQn
and ~ Jewel and ~ Trials QL Brother ~ before he wrote
~ RQad. The failure of the play on the stage cannot be
attributed only to the use of the repetitive or episodic
structure which are all deliberately chosen dramatic devices
92
and indicate his attempt at finding a new form though the I
fusion of different elements.
Kongi"s Harvest (1968)
Harvest is, not a season of joy or plenty in this play
but it is an inauspicious moment of disaster.Kongi's Harvest
is Soyinka"s first attempt to write a political satire. The
play was first published in 1968 but before this it was
staged in Lagos in mid-1965. The play is woven around a
dictator called Kongi and indirectly refers to all the
dictatorial regimes the various decolonized countries of
Africa have experienced. The Nigerian north even now is very
much dominated by the Qhaa - the traditional rulers who are
basically Hausa Fulani Muslims and they wield lot of
political power. Soyinka satirizes and exposes both the old
and the new ruler~.
Kongi's Haryest28 ·is structured around the har~est
festival that celebrates the end of one season and the
beginning of another. In all agrarian societies man's
gratitude to bountiful nature is expressed through
celebrations at harvest time. In Yoruba society ritual
sacrifices are offered to the forc~s guarding the spiritual
gulf so as to bring divine influence on the human community
to purify it. The king is god in the Yoruba world. On the
harvest festival day a New Yam is presented to the king and
his eating of it is symbolic of cleansing the community.
93
Soyinka uses this ritual paradigm to comment upon the modern
politicians and rulers. Along with this, he deploys ideas of
his culture · like the Ogun hero, the Yoruba concept of
tragedy and the stage as chthonic realm to create a special
dramatic effect. He also uses the narrative structure of the
Ogun myth in this play.
Kongi·s Harvest is set in an imaginary country called
the Republic of Isma. Isma is derived from 'isms·, and by
inference Isma is a land of Isms. The play is in four parts ~
and it revolves around three groups of characters: (a) the
old king, Oba Danlola and his royal reverie, (b) Kongi, his
organizing secretary and the Fraternity Revolutionary Aweri
(FRA) and, (c) Daodu, heir apparent to Oba Danlola and Segi,
a mysterious woman who owns a bar. Oba Danlola regarded as
god by the people, enjoyed the royal privilege of eating the
first of the new Yam on the harvest festival day. Kongi has
usurped power from the traditional ruler, Oba Danlola. Now he
wants to be the spiritual head and so, he demands -.the
traditional ruler to present the new Yam to him in a gesture
of total submission. The Oba will voluntarily submit the new , . Yam and Kongi will grant reprieve to the political prisoners
awaiting execution. The play ·builds up to the harvest
festival day with each group looking forward to the
fulfillment of its scheme. In the place of the Yam Kongi
gets a severed head and Daodu and Segi, who wanted to
eliminate Kongi, fail in their maneuver. In the ensuing
scramble no one is left but Kongi with the head symbolizing
94
the continuation of the reign of terror in Isma.
The play opens with a short ,scene called "Hemlock"- a
kind of prologue. In this the playwright shows us a
traditional ruler, who in his continuous enjoyment of royal
luxury has forgotten his spiritual responsibilities to his
people. Through this degenerate king we are made to
understand the spiritual bankruptcy of the culture. The poem
discusses it.
The Its The Its The
pot that will eat fat bottom must be scorched squirrel that will long crack
foot pad ~ust be sore sweetest ~ine has flowed down
The tapers shattered shins And there is, oh-oh Who says there isn't plenty a word In a penny_ newspaper (p. 61)
nuts
The poem emphasizes the phenomenon of aging, and
wearing out and is obviously referring to the society which
is spiritually worn out and debilitated. Oba Danlola's
obsession for sensual and materialistic pleasures despite'the
loss of political power and imprisonment indicates his
indifference to life. Oba Danola by his cowardice and self
centered life has paved the way for the birth of an
unnatural child which ripped through its mother and swollen
up itself" signifying the unleashing of an evil sp_irit in
Isma. This evil spirit may well be Kongi since he is an
oppressive dictator. The title of the scene "Hemlock"
reminding us of Socrates serves as a contrast emphasizing the
hollowness of the present context. Socrates not only believed
95
in reason but also in exposing what is untrue for which
courage he was tried,and condemned to death. He refused to
run out of his country but accepted death in his own land.
The evocation of Socrates· life and ideas by contrast red~ces
the image of the Oba to nothing.
Oba Danlola is aware of his divine position in his
society and he knows how to play on the emotions of an
ordinary man. When the detention camp superintendent stops
the Oba who was dancing with the national flag wrapped around
his waist, the Oba prostrates suddenly before the
superintendent so as to create a sense of moral fear in him..
"I beg you not to cast subtle damnation on my head" (p.65)
says the superintendent, shocked and frightened. Soyinka
satirises and indicts the Oba for his buffoonery and
gullibility.
Oba Danlola.is old and half mad and once again through
him Shakespeare's Lear is invoked. The words of the
superintendent to the Oba "Kabiyesi, be your age ... an elder
is an elder" (p.62) reminds one of Goneril's advice to Lear:
"As you are old and revered, should be .wise./ Here do you
keep hundred knights and squires" (243-244 act 1 scene V).
Like Lear, the Oba also wants his Agbo Aweri, a council of
ministers: "What's a king without a clan of elders" (p.63).
Again like Lear to his daughters, in his raging madness the
Oba cruelly curses at his nephew who tries to reason out to
him the subtleties of diplomacy: "There may be another
son/ ... I will have after you "(p. 113). It may be recalled
96
here that Soyinka's particular reading of ~ ~ had
impressed the well known Shakespearean critic G. Wilson
Knight, when Soyinka was his student at Leeds. 29
Soyinka satirises the Oba's understanding of freedom
and politics ~o show that the Oba did not have any sense of
responsibility towards his people and the state. He does· not
value freedom:'' oh, what home coming this is! I obtained much
better service in the detention camp" (p. 100). His release
from the detention camp does not give him pleasure. He is
conscious of th~ status and provisions of a royal prisoner
because that is how he lived in the past as a slave to
sensual life in the four ~alla of' the palace. He proudly
says, "Get up. Get up man. An Oba Grade 1/ By the grace of
chieftaincy succession/Legislation section 11 nineteen
twenty one'' (p. 109). Given the normal comforts, Oba Danlola
would prefer the prison life. He cannot understand why he has
been divested of kingship. He is blind not only to the
subtleties of ~~litics and diplomacy, but also to the process
by which the king_ would be attributed divinity and made into
the spirit of harvest and life. The Oba could have performed
the role of the life giving ~pirit if he had saved the lives
of his five subjects awa~ting execution in Kongi's jail. The
Oba has more time for trivialities than for serious things.
Instead of appreciating the efforts of his nephew Oba Danlola
abuses him in the harshest terms:
My vital parts shall exhaust In my frivolous bed. Call me Wuroala Go hand the New Yam yourself. But count me out. (p. 113).
The rhetoric of sensuality marks his language. "I love
to have my navel/Ruffled well below my navel " (p. 64), "Find
me/such other ladle and I will/Shove it up your mother's
fundaments" (p. 101). This obsession with the sexual act
raises suspicions of impotence, a doubt confirmed by the
absence of children despite many wives. His failure to
regenerate his people has paved the way for a repressive
dictator like Kongi.
A breakdown in the moral order of the society is also
indicated in the case of the five political prisoners who
have been sentenced to death. Harvest is a season of
cleansing and spiritually energizing the society. Neither the
Oba nor the people around him are doing this. The essence is
separated from the self and the Oba is floundering in the
spiritual void. Lacking the will to recreate himself the Oba
is heading towards a total destruction.
Kon·gi, the present dictator of Isma has usurped power
from the Oba. In a way Kongi is the reincarnation of the
spirit of the Oba in a slightly different political set up,
and specially, with a diabolic intellectual fraudulence and
with more political power on the lives of the people than the
Oba. Kongi has the RAF, a kind of elders council the Oba
enjoyed, and its only duty is to entertain the debased,
98
ordinary and flirtatious sentiments of its master. Kongi
lives in "a retreat in th-e meu-ntains", just as th-e Oba lived
in the palace totally isolated from his people. Kongi also
wants that recognition "the spirit of harvest ... the justice
of the earth ... the spirit of planting ... the spirit of
inevitable" all of which symbolize his megalomania.
Kongi uses the enormous state resources under his
control for his ego boosting. He wants to be projected as the
man of 'positive scientificism· and the RAF has to debate and
suggest appropriate means of doing it. Kongi·s secretary
wants him to be p~ojected as " a benevolent father of the
nation" implementing i-~he " five year development plan". The
secretary also provides rhetorical titles for Kongi's various
profiles:
"A leader's temptation ... Agony on the mountains ... the loneliness of the poor ... The uneasy head .. ~A saint at twilight ... The spirit of harvest ... The face of benevolence ... The Giver of Life ... who knows how many other titles will accompany such pictures around the world".(p.9~)
Kongi's secretary caters to his ego further by
suggesting that a new era corild begin from the day of - the
harvest festival in the name of Kongi. "A H my-leader. After
the harvest. In a thousand years, one thousand A H. And last
year shall be referred to ~s I BH~ There will be only one
harvest worth remembering··. (p.92) Kongi aspires to be the
god, trangressing moral and spiritual imperatives of the
harvest ritual and in this violation of the traditional
wisdom Soyinka sees the origin of ~iolence and bloodshed in
99
society. Kongi puts in prison and tortures those who vdice
dissent. When a political prisoner has escaped from the
jail, he orders: "I want him alive if possible. If not, ANY
OTHER WAY" (p. 100). He plays with the lives of people. He
insists that his reprieve to some political prisoners should
remain a secret" until a quarter of an hour before the
hanging" ( p. 94).
Shakespeare is a constant frame of reference for
Soyinka and the parallels between Julius Ceaser and this
play are intermittent. Like Ceaser Kongi suffers from
epileptic fits and while Ceaser "foamed at mouth, and was
speechless" (243 Act I see III) Kongi is a demonic mass of
sweat and foams at the lips" (p. 131) .. The suggestion is that
power has corrupted and debilitated him. Segi, his mistress
before he became the dictator, says that "he was a great man"
(p. 79). The harvest metaphor central to the play reduces
Kongi to a weed, a weed that is out-growing the healthy crop
and calls in question the credentials with which he claims·
to be a messiah, a god, the spirit of harvest.
Through Daodu who possesses the qualities of
leader Soyinka presents a counterforce. Unlike the
Kongi, Daodu does . n~t use his farm house or
belongings for dancing or diabolic meditation; he
a true
Oba and
personal
provides
work and shelter for the poor there. He is a successful
farmer too, growing prize winning yams. He has true followers
among the people who are not paid stooges. Thus, Daodu stands
100
. .. . ·~ : .. ,.
out among the three leaders of people, meriting praises like
"Spirit of Harvest", "democratic prince", w-hile the Ob-a ,and
Kongi stand for luxury and personal gain, causing death and
destruction to people.
The peaceful and the dynamic elements co-exist with
equal power in Daodu making him approximate to the figure of
an Ogun hero. The creative side of his nature is manifest in
his social work; the dynamic power is revealed in episodes
like the following. Impatient with the Oba, who was enjoying
his dance with his wives and relatives, Daodu in a fit of
emotion halts the ceremonial ecstasy of dance: "At its height
Daodu moves with decision, pulls out the ceremonial whisk of
Danlola and hits the lead drum with the heavy handle. It
bursts... Daodu and Danlola face each other in a long,
terrible silence"(p.lll). We also know that he had plotted
to eliminate Kongi and save the five men awaiting execution. I I
Daodu can relentl~ssly remove from his way hurdles that cause
him obstruction.
Daodu confides his emotions to Segi : "I feel like some
decadent deity, let me preach hatred Se.gi. If I preached
hatred I could match his barren marathon, hour for hour,
torrent for torrent ... ". His angry out burst "I hate to be a
mere antithesis to your messiah of pain'' (p.98-99) risembles
Ogun's plunge into the seething cauldron of transitional
abyss, and the dark world of total disintegration, and
recreation of the self. However, there is an elem~ntal and an
essential difference between Ogun and Daodu. Unlike Ogun
101
Daodu did not isolate himself from his world; he undertakes
his inward journey while being part of .the crowd. Like
Emerson's a still point in a turning wheel" Daodu can
achieve a balanced state of mind while in motion. Even in a
public place like Segi"s bar he can think clearly and act
decisively.
By showing courage in the face of a predatory enemy and
mobilizing a campaign against Kongi, Daodu becomes like Ogun
the agent "of restorative justice". Unlike Kongi and the
Oba who lack political vision and the will to create a better i
society Daodu is interested in bringing back harmony to the
society. Kongi wastes the wealth of the state to become "the
spirit of the harv~st" without a thought about the spirit of
cultivation. ·The .Oba compromising with Kongi, barters the
state but Oaodu by his humane attitude embodies the life
offering spirit o~ harvest. Oaodu himself does not make this
claim but the logic of the play invests him with this
symbolic function.
In the character of Segi, described as "Kongi's
mysterious woman" Soyinka has created an enigmatic character.
Her appreciation of the leadership qualities in Daodu arises
out of a complex situation. In Daodu she has perhaps ~ound a
man. who can defeat Kongi. Segi's mystery lies in her past
relationship with Kongi with whom she has lived till he
became the dictator of Isma. She may be parceived as a king
maker and an important person in the power game of Isma.
102
\
Segi is also a leader of sort who has been democraticalli
elected as their head by the women corps. Her opposition' to
Kongi co~ld be ideological because she herself has faith in
democracy, and also because Kongi has imprisoned her father.
It is also possible that Kongi has cheated her. Hence she
declares ""Let it all end tonight. I am tired of being the
' mouse in his (k)at and mouse game" (p.129). Like lady Macbeth
Segi is not only a woman of inspiration, but of action also.
She is an active participant in the plan to kill Kongi: "Let
everything go as planned" (p. 129).
The play P+Oceeds towards the day of the harvest
fest'ival . and the public place which is the ritual arena. In
this arena, the ritual protagonist re-enacts the saga of the
hero gods who cha-llenged the cosmic forces inimical to self
extension in order to purify the society. The plot to kill
Kongi by Daodu is a microcosmic representation of the heroic
battle of the gods. And Daodu is our ritual protagonist here.
True to its ritual backg~ound the scene uses songs, dance and \
offering and the whole community participates in the event
to receive the spiritual benediction.
Even though Segi and Daodu fail to eliminate Kongi on
the festival day ("We have failed again, Segi" p. 129) they
are not figures of defeat. Daodu has succeeded in br-inging an
awareness of the anti-people policies of Kongi. Doudu
preaches voilence as the only means of overthrowing a
dictator and this is in line with the Ogun paradigm where the
iron weapon plays a part. After the harvest day holocaust
103
when many people, including Oba Danlola, are leaving Isma,
Dandu and Segi refuse to leave their people, reaffirming
their faith in democracy.
The severed human head in the play has raised some
questions and doubt. James Gibbs writes:
"I am not, however, convinced, "that ~ presentation Q!. the. severed bead" can ever be made an effective contribution to this drama. My objecti~n to the severed head begins on the level of the stage-craft: it is manufactured, it is not certain that the audience will recognize what it is ... they will be confused as to whose it is. If they guess wbose
3Jt is they may be at a loss as to
what it means".
The use of artificial property cannot be a substitute
for the dramatic talent of the actors. "Kongi · s mouth wide
open in speechless terror" may effectively bring out the
horror even if the severed bead does not. Gibbs is silent
over a similar situation in Euripedis' ~ Bacchae. How did
the Greeks manage Agave carrying the severed head of her own
son in an age where neither synthetic property nor the light
effects were as sophisticated as today ? Or perhaps
gods are seen to be more powerful than the African' ones
Greek
The question of "whose bead it . ? .. 1S. is less important
than the realisation that it tapes the place of a new yam.
There was no harvest but for the harvest of human flesh
death and devastation. The severed head is Segi · s father's
and a few suggestions towards the end of the play clearly
indicate this. Segi's father had escaped from the prison and
we are given the following information:
104
a burst of gunfire which paralyse~ everyone... The secretary . . . obviously shak'en. Hesitates looking at Segi especially but drawn dutifully to Kongi. He goes up to him and whispers in his ear. Kongi relaxes gradually... His eyes fixed on Segi as confident spider at a fly, ... snaps an instruction to the secretary. The man hesitates but Kongi insists, never taking his eye off Segi. (p.128).
"(N)ever taking out his eye off Segi" Kongi "snaps an
urgent instruction to the secretary. And the secretary
"hesitates" but Kongi "insists" - all of this anticipates .
serious consequence concerning Segi and it can be speculated
here that K6ngi has ordered the killing of Segi's father,
more specifically chopping off his head. "I shall soon return
with season's gift for the leader " (p. 129) says Segi and
the words "Segi throws open the lid in it, the head of an
old man" establish that the head is Segi's father's. It can
be speculated here that Segi out of her anger, has decided to
expose Kongi 's diabolic and cannibalistic nature by
presenting him with the severed head of her own father. This
may be her way of protesting. The idenitity of the severed
head is in any-case a secondary question. The real focus
is on its symbolic implication: there was no agricultural
harvest but only a reaping of destruction.
Soyinka, using the idiom of harvest says that the moral
well being of a community depends on the spiritual strength
of man. The spiritual energy does not come on its own but it
has to be earned regularly. Therefore on the one hand the
ritual ceremonies demanding a spiritual introspection of the
105
self are necessary and on the other, a dynamic political
will is imperative to keep the community alive. It is 'the
new Ogun who combines the two needs. The traditional idioms -
the ritual paradigm like the harvest festival or agemo mask
dance are preserved as sources of renewal. Thus Soyinka
weaves in the myth and ritual of his culture with the
rendition of contemporary political situation to bring out
the elemental nature of man's relationship with his
community.
The Bacchae of Euripedis. (1973).
Ritual is a communal event giving each participator
the sense of being part of a larger entity. Violating the
rules of a ritual amounts to sacrilege and the person
responsible for it gets destroyed for the ·transgression. This
message of ~ ~ and Kongi"s Harvest is also repeated in
T..h.e.. Bacchae Q.f. Euf:ipedis. Arrogant Professor spied on the god
man and got killed. Kongi considered himself above the
harvest ritual at his own cost and in T..h.e.. Bacchae QL
Euripedis 31 Penth~~s refusing to accept Dionysian "communion
rite" spied on the ritual orgy inviting his own death.
Soyinka, once again, uses the myth- ritual paradigm to talk
about yet another dictator and the contemporary socio
political situation - discrimination against women, slavery
and apartheid.
106
In the Greek world Dionysian ritual orgies wine,
' dance and revelling - have been understood as life affirmin-g.
Suffering can also attain this quality of ecstacy. The ritual
of flogging as cleansing is used here by Soyinka and this is
an element found in Yoruba philosophy. There are basic
differences in these two rituals. In the Greek ritual the
whole community participates as one to attain divine ecstasy
and this is a collective experience. But, in the Yoruba
ritual one person (the flagellant) suffers and the rest of
the community, while suffering with the flagellant gains the
spiritual essence. Flogging as a cleansing ritual is not a
new element in Soyinka"s plays. In his early play ~ Strong
Breed he used this same theme. When Soyinka adapts ~
Bacchae, he grafts the Yoruba philosophy on the Greek
experience with a view to widen the scope of the play.
~ Bacchae ~ Euripedis is a post-Biafra civil war
play which he wrote in response to a commission from the
National Theatre of Great Britain. Euripedis" original play
had attracted Soyinka during his undergraduate days at
Ibadan. In his book Myth. literature ~ ~ African World
Soyinka wrote about the fundamental similarities between the
myth of Ogun and Dionysos pointing out some ''conclusive
evidences for the thesis that the Yoruba religion is derived
from the Greek" ( p. 13-14 MLAW). "Ripped in pieces at the
hands of the titans for the (by him) uncalled acts of
hubris, a divine birth, Dionysos-Zagrues commences divine
existence of the destruction of the self, the transitional
horror" (p. MLAW) has a parallel in the myth of Ogun, who
107
also experienced the process of being literally torn asunder
in cosmic winds,. of rescuing himself from the precarious edge
of total dissolution by harnessing the untouched part of
himself, the will" (p. 30 MLAW). Further Soyinka finds
similarities between Dionysos· thyrsus and "the ~ Q..g_un"
borne by the male devotees of Ogun" (p. 158 MLAW). While
Dionysos' festival is marked by revelling of men and women
decked in ivy-wreaths and drowned in wine the Ogun revellers,
men and women, " are decked in palm fronds ... palm branches
in their hands" (p. 159, MLAW). Like Dionysos, Ogun also
encourages wine sci that it "creates a challenge to the
constant exercise of will and control " (p. 159). Soyinka
uses these interesting similarities in the adaptation of the
Greek play.
In ~ Bacchae Q! Euripedis, Soyinka relying on the
translation of Gilbert Murray, William Arowsmith and David ,.
Greene has borrowed lines from the original and has kept
the names of the characters unchanged. But he has also u~ed
lines from his Id~rire "a passion poem of Ogun''. In addition,
Soyinka seems to have made an attempt to contemporise and
Africanise the play. To bring in the new elements of
apartheid and dictatorship, Soyinka makes some changes: the
chorus is turned into a group of slaves headed by a black
man. Dionysos' fight for his acceptance and a new order
which is not in the original play, is subtly manipulated here
to include the cause of the blacks. The use of two spectacles
portraying negative and positive effect of wine involving
108
Heraclit~s and the Christ figure is a new addition and
finally, in the last scene the suffering of a mother is
replaced. by the happy note of communal harmony. Our objective
here is not judging the success of the synthesis of the two
traditions but attempting a new reading of Soyinka.'s T..he.
Bacchae Q! Euripedis without constantly comparing it with
the original.
God Dionysos, at the time of Eleusis annual festival in
Thebes, has returned from many Asiatic countries to Thebes,
the land of his mother. The seductive power of his cult has
lured many in Thebes including Agave, Pentheus' mother and
her two sisters and, a large number of women who have
deserted their homes and children for the mountains. Kadmos,
Pentheus' grand father and Tiresias, the Greek philosopher
have accepted Dionysos and are celebrating his festival. The
slaves in Thebes have found a special meaning in the
Dionysian ritual. Encouraged by the new order of Dionysos
they are prepared to fight Pentheus who imposes only on · them
the annual scapegoat ritual. Into this changed situation
Pentheus returns only to become a victim of it, like Okwonko
in Things EAll Apart whose return to Umofia from his exile in
Mbanta, cost his life. Pentheus refuses to accept the
celebration of Dionysian ri.tual and considers the excesses o·r
women devotees, the old men and the slaves to be obscene. He
wants Dionysos to be caught and caged. An angry Pentheus
disobeys Kadmos and Tiresias and insults Dionysos by cutting
his hair. He slaps an old slave.and attempts spying on the
109
Maenads and ultimately gets torn into pieces by his own
mother. In the fall of Pentheus Dionysos acts as an agent.
The use of the flogging ritual conveniently Africanizes
the play, but a comtemptirising takes place on the language
and material level also. Soyinka occasionally uses colloquial
' words like "yakkity-Yak" and the rhetoric of modern time like
these: "coup de etat", "old age pensioner", "campaigning to
secure our national borders", "I want immediate results". On
the material level, the Greek object thyrsus gets modernized
when we see a collapsible version of it. The stage direction
describing " the emotional colour and the temperature of an
European pop scene and the black hot gospellers who
themselves are often first become physically possessed
reminds us" of todays culture. Similarly Pentheus· dress and
stage manners "militaristic in bearing and speech" indicates
a contemporary ~ictator. Most important, apartheid practised
in Soyinka's Thebes belongs to the modern world.
~ Bacchae ~ Euripedis opens in the midst of the
annual festival of Eleusis and Thebes that is charged with
the Dionysian frenzy. While "a smell and sweat of harvest
Ripeness" informs the joy and jubilation of the harvest
festival "the bodies of the crucified slaves in the skeletal
stage'' lined up by the road side and the "dim figures of
slaves flailing and trading" even during the festival portray
a world of discrimination, organized murder of the slaves.
The skeletons are of those killed in the scapegoat ritual or
110
a rebellion. The indisposed skeletons are here presumably to
warn the slaves against possible rebellion. The call given by
Dionysos seems to have instilled cour~ge and strength in the
slaves. They don't want to be scapegoats any more and die
profitless deaths.
[Slave] Leader: Flogged to death? In the name of some unspeakable rites?
Herdsman: Someone must cleanse the new year of the rot of the old or, the world will die. Have you ever known famine? Real famine?
[Slave] Leader: why us? why always us?
A
Herdsman: why not?
Leader: Because the rites bring us nothing
king
Let those who profit bear the burden of the old year dying : (p. 237).
or a slave the mother earth makes no
distinction who is offered as s~crifice. She responds to the
ritual of sacrifices with bountiful harvests. Having known
this Pentheus has been forcing only the slaves for this
ritual and that has obviously been bringing "generous
harvest". The Eleusis myth-ritual demands that the leader or
the king should sacrifice himself to bring a renewal to the
mother earth. But Pentheus has been evading it and his
distance from the ritual had bred in him ignorance, arrogance
and audacity, making him one of the worst tyrants. On the
contrary, the slaves who sacrificed their lives and
consequently gained communal strength pose challenges to the
king. Rebellions and resistances have become the order of the
day. The skeletons lined up in front of the palace testify to
111
this. Dionysos - the symbol of life and ecstasy and knowledge-
is opposed to Pentheus. The slaves and Tiresias are well
aware of this.
[Slave] Leader: You hesitant fools ! Don't you understand? Don't you know? We are no longer alone - slaves, helots, the near distant dispossessed ! This master race, this much vaunted dragon spawn have met their match. Nature has joined forces with us.
Tiresias: ... And Thebes -well, Let's just say the situatitin is touch and go. If one more slave had been killed at the cleansing rites, or sacrificed to that insatiable altar of nation-building ( p. 242).
The two instances explain a tensed up socio-political
situation which is a creation of Pentheus. People with power
impede the normal flow of spontaneous life. In the raucous
violence against consciousness Pentheus is a kin of Professor
and Kongi. Suffering or Dionysian revelling are seen as
periodic necessities of life which in their different ways
bring renewal.
Soyinka has used the figure of Tiresias the need to
explain the communal significance of the ritual of voluntary
suffering. A blind seer of the Greek myths who appears only
once in the original play has been turned into a servant in
·Soyinka"s play- "the one who looks after dogs" in the king·s
household. According to him the Eleusis ritual of flogging
and the Dionysian ecstasy are cleansing rituals: "They must
be cleansed. Filth, pollution, cruelties, secret
abominations~ a whole year· s accumulation" ( p. 242) and they
112
both, in general make fertile the resources in man that
generate self knowledge. And to experience that self
knowledge he has offered himself as a voluntary flagellant.
Tiresias: I have longed to know what flesh is made of what suffering is made of. What suffering is. Feel the taste of blood instead of merely foreseeing it. Taste the ecstasy of rejuvenation after long organizing its ritual. Some thing did begin. Perhaps those lashes did begin something. I feel a small crack in the dead crust of the soul (p. 243-244).
The small crack in the dead crust of Tiresias· soul
suggests the rejuv~nation of his inner self. Tiresias is
aware that his symbolic suffering has broader implications
and influences the vitality, harmony and morality of his
society. To some extent Mahatma Gandhi's experience of the
fuller realization of the human self has similar mystical
overtones. Rationalizing the concept of Satyagraha Gandhi
wrote in Harijan: "It is not possible to see god face to face
unless you crucify the flesh". 32 Gandhi and Tiresias- one a
historical figure, another mythical, were both leaders of
people. Both have similar feelings so far as the human body
is concerned: it housed the divine essence and to realise it
some form of suffering or crucifying the flesh is essential.
Through the slave leader and Tiresias Soyinka has
introduced the theme, tone and the forces that lead to the
conflict. Both the slave leader and Tiresias insist that the
individuals should voluntarily accept suffering for the good
of themselves. In their views it is also clear that anybody
113
( !
1
who opposes this, comes to be naturally eliminated. Soyinka
has made this philosophy explicit in his introduction to: a
particular production:
I see ~ Bacchae, finally, as an insightful manifestation of the universal need of man to match himself against Nature ... the Ritual sublimated or expressive is both social therapy and reaffirmation of group solidarity
Man affirms his indebtedness to earth, dedicates himself to the demands of continuity 3~nd invokes energies of productivity.
Dionysos is the divine fount that guarantees the cycle
of regeneration within. Through wine and dance, spontaneity
and suffering which are the sources of self knowledge,
Dionysis becomes an invincible force. While accepting him
means life the denial of him is death. The opening lines of
Dionysos emphasize this.
'
Dionysos: I am the gentle jealous joy. Vengeful and kind. And essence that will not exclude,nor be excluded. If you are man or• woman. I am Dionysos. Accept. (p.235)
His existence encompasses the universe - "that will not
exclude" and hence cannot be ignored. The only approach to
him is accepting him in totality. He is an embodiment of· all
the forces in Nature and so, his mother is "Semele my mother
earth".
The appearance of Dionysos against the background of
the dead bodies, flailing slaves, and smoking Semele's tomb
has a significance. Dionysos is aware that in Thebes he has,
been called "a bastard son of Semele" and his followers have
114
been discriminated against and ill-treated by Pentheus. To
get justice for his mother and his followers, he has retu~ned
to Thebes and if he is not accepted he swears to seek
''vengeance on all who deny my origin". Dionysos "is a beauty
of calm rugged strength, of a rugged beauty, not of
effeminate prettiness" emphasizes more masculine features
than the androgynous traits. One possible reason is that he
is Ogun in disguise who is a ferocious god, "Lord of the road
of Ifa" and a hunter god. Ogun is described "as the god who
turns children into blood", "who bathes in blood". This
apart, Soyinka may, be rendering Dionysos as contemporary, as
in the modern time~ gender models are sharply differentiated
quite op~osed to practice of ancient civilizations. Greek
gods and goddesses were not aggressively gendered and the
brave epic heroes in Homer could be seen weeping. Among Hindu
gods too Shiva has an ardhanareeshwara image privileging
androgyny. The contemporary version of Dionysos has to be
categorically masculine.
A flint of cosmic energy of destruction and creation,
Dionysos by his arrival in Thebes has ignited the encrusted
souls in men and women there. As a result, they have taken to
his rituals. The women are dancing on the mountains, the
slaves are drowning themselves in wine and the oldmen like
Kadmos and Tiresias are als6 dancing in the street. -They are
all an extension of the divine energy of Dionysos and when
they invoke him, they attain all that he stands for freedom,
destructive and creative power and divine wisdom. The women
115
reflect a "kind of radiant peace, like the sacred grove of
deity" and a miraculous harmony of the beastly powers. The I
disruption of the Maenads testifies to the poetic power of
both Euripedis and Soyinka.
Herdsman: Her voice was dear And strangely tuneful in those echoing hills, I heard her... That air of peace still controlled their action ... And such beauties' We do have some treasures in the Thebes. Young supple lambs, maidens who have yet to know man. Such yet and gold flow through the air when they let for their hair. They brushed their clothes, then Fastened them at the waist with ... well, tell me I am lying. Snakes ! L..i.Y.ft snakes ! I see their tongues still flickering clearly as I see you now ! . . . . ................ Have you ever seen a woman nurse a fawn. Exactly like ~ ~hild? or a wild wolf cub? I mean To the point where she gives it suck? From-her-own breast ! .......... She/ Topped a rock and ... out of that rock sprouts-water ! clear, spring water, as fresh as dew (p. 279).
They are one with Nature. Under their control they have
"wine spring", "milk, creamier than morning". In addition,
the Maenads possess ,all those powers which make them
supreme: their "arms were flashing like blades", "There was a
force with them; it drove them/Uphill their feet hardly
touching the ground" (p. 280). Likewise Kadmos and Tiresias
reflect the divine wisdom of Dionysos which they use on
Pentheus to bring him back to right path. Kadmos advises
Pentheus: "Don't blaspheme son. Have some respect/For
Heaven." (p. 255). To those who oppose Dionysos, dea·th will
come from any one of these several manifestations of
Dionysos - the slaves, the old men and the Maenads who have
destructive power. The fate of the victim of Dionysian divine
116
power will be of the cattle that were torn off by the Haenads
on the Kithairon mountains.
Pentheus is the only person in Thebes who refuses to
accept Dionysian orgies and to recognize the
Dionysos. This may be attributed to his absence
divinity of
in Thebes
when Dionysos came there. As a result, he could not become a
part of the slow process of change. We have already compared
him to Achebe's Okwonko whose exile in Hbanta alienated him
from the slow changes that took place in Umofia during his
absence. So, when he returns to Umofia it is difficult for
him to belong. This added to the inherent flaws of pride and
rigidity caused to his fall. Similarly, Pentheus too has
physical power that misleads him. His fate is obvious, as he
fails to develop, fails to take-note of the miraculous
changes operating in Thebes. Coming out of Soyinka's Nigeria
ravaged by Biafra ci~il war, Pentheus is described as
"straight" militaristic in bearing and speech. Like other
dictators in Soyinka's works - Professor or Kongi, Pentheus
appears late in the play and brags, barks and makes a show of
arrogance and powe-r. Apart from the _state machinery, his army
which carries out his orders at times unwillingly
Pentheus does not have a single follower in his persecution
of Dionysos. In this, his situation resembles more of Kongi's
than of any other dictator in Soyinka's world. The proximity
of Pentheus to the supreme political power has made him
intolerant, as we see from the time of his first appearance.
117
Pentheus: I shall have order Let the city know at once Pentheus is here to give back order and sanity ........................ Let every one Know I have returned to re-impose o-rder. Order. (p. 256).
These words reveal a man maddened with power and not
mellowed by wisdom. ""I want them/ Hunted down. Chained and
caged behind the ba~s of iron··, speak of his excessive faith
in physical power and his indifference to humanity. Pentheus
does not know that his order cannot bring the spiritual
essence to his state.
Pentheus is a tragic character in its Yoruba meaning.
He has been robbed of his consciousness, as a result, he is
floundering in the void of a-spirituality. Blinded by ego he
commits a series of sacrileges. He places the temporal power
above the divine which is the costliest of his mistakes and
he commits several other blunders. When an old slave talks
about his understanding of Dionysos and his divine power
"Pentheus fetches him a slap which knocks him flat". He
insults and instigates a god by "shearing off his hair".
Against the wishes of the Bacchantes and the elders Pentheus
gets Dionysos chained and captured in order to put him behind 1"1-.tbu
the bars of iron: "He insults your king. He insu 1 ts. Load hl~t~.. "
with chains The man is insane" (p. 270). He unleashes
similar treatment on the women: "we netted a few. The rest
escaped ... I want them /Hunted down" (p. 250). In the same
breath he orders the destruction of Dionysos" hut: "Pry it up
with iron bars, demolish ... " (p. 202) In several incidents
happening around him he fails to see a power beyond his
118
limits. His palace has been "Raged ... to the ground, reduced
it I To utter ruins". (p. 276) while the herdsman sees
"Miracles", "A radiant peace" in the Bacchantes Pentheus only
imagines "Drunkeness", "the wild music" and "topping around
the bushes". All these episodes expose his own limited self
He fails to adapt to the new situation. Just as any species
becomes extinct when it fails to adapt itself to the changing
conditions the life style of Pentheus anticipates atrophy
death, and elimination.
As a being and the leader of his people and king he has
certain responsibilities and the duty to maintain a balanced
approach to the laws of the Universe. His failure to perform
this expected role contributes to his fall. Even when
Tiresias and Dionysos teach him, it all falls on deaf ears.
Earth and ether provide man with bread and wine: bread
nourishes man and the ether contained in wine washes the
soul. The life of Pentheus should be guided by these
principles as these are complementary principles in life ..
Tiresias:Shal~ I tell you what to look for this being? Think of two principles, two supreme Principle in life. First principle of earth, Demeter, goddess of soul what you will .
Second, principle
the opposite, and
Ether, locked in the grape until
. . . Bread. complementary
released ... by 111an.
Think of it as more than drug for pain Though it is that. W~ wash our souls, our
parched and Aching souls in streams of wine ... (p. 259).
119
Dionysos also teaches this philosophy to Pentheus,
creating· with his divine power• two spectacles which depict
the devilish as well as divine nature of wine. The first
episode presents the horrifying marriage ceremony of
Hippoclides and Agariste, in which, under the influence of
wine, the bridegroom, by his irresponsible and vulgar dance
forfeits his bride. In the second tableau Christ turns water
into wine in the marriage of Cana. With these spectacles and
his magic power Dionysos stirs the inner divine resources in
Pentheus which escaping the principles of Dionysos and Ogun
remains barren. B~fore his death, coming under the impact of
wine Pentheus wears the fawn skin and ivy wreath-the ritual
dress of Dionysos and gradually rises above his arrogance,
audacity and ego and sees the other possibilities of life. He
recognizes a bull: "Are you a- bull'? There are horns
newly/Sprouted from your head" (291) which is a symbol of
Dionysos himself - the beastly and divine power in man. And
later on the Kithairon mountains where his mother tears him
into pieces Pentheus feels or experiences the physical -·
manifestation of the Dionysian power. Thus, like a demon or
a king opposing god, in Hindu mythology Pentheus has a
glimpse of the divine before his final destruction.
The death of Pentheus takes place in the ci~cumstances
in which Professor is killed in T..W:. Ro.ad.. When Professor
attempted to spy on Murano the godman he was killed. The
ritual is not to be spied upon but to be participated in.
Living in the world of ignorance Pentheus does not know that
120
the Maenads are ferocious and would kill those who spy on
them. Wh-en the herdsmen had mistaken Agave to be mad and
wanted to save her, they were hunted down. The herdsm~n had a
narrow escape: ''The Haenads were swift upon their feet,
rapt, unseeing, / ... Agave raced towards me, she flew close"
(p. 280). Pentheus· journey towards the Kithairon mountains
therefore suggests his death and destruction.
The Maenads, the slaves and the two oldmen are
different facets of Dionysian spirit. In this the Maenads
represent the physical power, the indomitable cosmic energy.
Pentheus gets various treatment by all the four group. The
slaves accuse him of tyranny. The oldmen initiate him into
the process of enlightenment and Dionysos makes him realise
the divine essence in him and the Maenads devour enabling him
to become one with the cosmic energy. The power of Maenads
matches the brute force of Pentheus with which he had cut the
hair of Dionysos, chained and imprisoned him. The play would
have been incomplete without this scene describing the
devouring of Pentheus by Agave and the Maenads which is a
visualization of the incident that is shown on the stage.
The officer: And snood, touched her face and hoped for recognition .f He mouthed a last departing plea in silence, his voice I Broken from the fall. She foamed at the mouth, her eyes/Rolled with frenzy. Agave was mad, stark mad/ Possessed by Bacchus, blind t:o all plea for pity/ She seized the waving arm by the wrist, then/Planked her foot upon his chest and pulle~Tore the arm clean off the shoulder.The tongue/Of· Pentheus stretched out in agony, his mouth ran blood/But no sound came. ( p. 299).
121
In the original ~ Bacchae Agave repents and curses
Dionysos for killing her own son. But in Soyinka's T.hf:.
Bacc·hae .Q..f. Eur iped is she immediately rea 1 i zes that the
renewal of the earth required the death of a tyrant who is
her own son. Agave heaves "a soft sigh" after realizing her
act. There is an immediate reversal of events at the end of
the play. A tragic situation is turned into a scene of
community rejoicing. The imposition of the Yoruba myth and
the ritual sacrifice results in the changed ending.
Agave [Suddenly Calmer]: Let no hand but mine laid on him I am his mother. I brought him to life I shall prepare him for grave [she turns towards the ladder, stops] How did he die ! (p. 306)
When Agave tries to bring her son's severed head down:
a powerful red glow shines suddenly as if from within the
head of Pentheu~, rendering it near luminous ... from every
direction. Reactions of horror and panic. Agave screams and
flattens herself below the head, hugging the ladder" (p.307).
Tiresias tastes the red liquid spurting from the head and
announces "It's wine slowly, dream like'' all move towards
the fountain and drink. Agave also joins and drinks it.
The death of Pentheus has benefitted the community in
spiritual regeneration, in breaking the various barriers of
discrimination and in establishing a new order. Tiresias
voices the significance of Pentheus' death for the
contemporary society in these words.
122
Tiresias: Perhaps our sustaining earth Demands ... a little more Than token offering in her own needf~l revival.
Pentheus joins the spirits in the world of the dead and
he is purified. The Yoruba world view believes in the co-
existence of the three worlds - the world of the dead, the
living and the unborn. Death is seen as an agent of
purification. The ritual sacrifice and the Yoruba philosophy
are informed by the cyclical concept of time and hence, ~
Bacchae Qf Euripedis ends on a note of happiness, a communal
rejoicing.
When the play was staged in National Theatre at the
Oldwic (England), according to the available reviews
despite Soyinka's own production of the play - it did not
succeed. The failure has largely been attributed to the use
of amateur artists coming from various linguistic and racial
backgrounds. This ~ade Albert Hunt describe the production as
"Amateurs in Horror". He observes that the opening scene
the slaves drinking the wine did not communicate a sense of -.
communion. His catalogue of mistakes in the production is
quite a long one:
The company that presents Soyinka's play contains a drummer who cannot drum, dancers who can't dance, and actors whose only concept of narrative - acting is to begin every speech in the flat clipped tones that used to characterise British war ~ovies, and then to rise in a gradual crescendo towards controlled emotional wallowing. Where the play calls for ecstacy, the girls in the chorus offer a well-bred limitation of a hop at the local disco; where the play calls for horror, we're given a
123
crude imitation which spurt pink final assertion attempt, by his
of a Madame Tussaud head, out of paint. The strength of Soyinka's is fritted away in a grotes~~e
production to express release.
Soyinka was working with a few amatuers in England and
not with his regular troupe·that he formed in the 1960s
called ~ .l.illill. Masks. Use of American slang, the gestures of
black American gospellers and the disco and pop singers
styles are deliberate devices deployed by Soyinka. It is a
mistake to assume that Soyinka is attempting to contemporise
the play only on the linguistic and property level. Albert
Hunt's comprehension of the last scene that represents the
"communion rejoice" is completely mistaken. By extending the
last scene Soyinka has taken a lot of liberties with the
original text and those who are conditioned by Euripedis ~
Baccbae will naturally suffer a shock quite unconsciously.
~ Bacchae Q! Euripedis is an adaption and this demands a
fresh out look and much more seriousness than the original
Greek play because there are two texts instead of one,
palimpsestically inscribed upon each other demanding a
special alertness on the part of the viewer.
III
A writer works within a given tradition. A tradition
includes language, philosophy of life, and knowledge encoded
in the form of myths, rituals and festivals as well as
existing literary texts. A writer born into a tradition
naturally inherits its culture, language and philosphy but to
124
make it his own he has to learn it, earn it, explore its
history. Only when he has internalised it, does he become a
part of his world. And so when he grows, all that he has
imbibed in him also gets an extension. Thus, the vitality of
a tradition depends on the individual writer and his
contribution to his tradition. In this sense Soyinka is part
of a Yoruba tradition of myth, rituals, language and
philosophy because he has learnt it, worked at it and works
with it. He also inherits another literary tradition from
Europe and most of his work arises out of the contradiction
and overlapping of these two traditions.
The Yoruba Myths and rituals are a constant source of
inspiration for Soyinka. However, he works with .other
traditions also-for example- The Absurd Theatre, the Greek
Drama and Shakespeare~ The absurd theatre technique in ~
~ is so dominant that the success of the character of
Professor entirely rests on it. The characters of Kongi and
Oba Dan lola in Kongi's Harvest are developed on' a
Shakesperean model. Like Peter Brook who experimented with
Orghast staging it at Persepolis and with Hahabharat,
Soyinka too is propelled by the same need to rediscover the
origin, the root experience of the ritual drama. The
Dionysian ritual and the Ogun ritual w~re therefore ~ttempts
in this direction. Realising the importance of using a multi
ethnic or mixed race cast in his plays Peter Brook has said
that·~- .geography is bunk". 35 Soyinka must have also thought
of this as he also employed the "mixed cast" in The. Ba.ccha.e
125
Q_f_ $uripedis and also insists the same for the producers ·,in
his note. Thereby Soyinka synthesises in him the Greek, the
Absurdist and Shakespearean traditions.
Myths and rituals were a result of the primordial man's
interaction with the cosmic immensity around him. To that
extent, they talk of the past society, past heroes,
everything of the past but also makes the past come alive in
the present. Soyinka widens the scope of certain myths and
rituals so as to make them relevent for the present. A
sacrilege in the past meant a direct abuse of divine power.
Recognising the present social identity of a masked man in a
ritual ceremony, or refusal to wear the ritual dress of Ogun
on his festival day as in ~ Bacchae ~ Eurioedis are
examples of ritual trangressions today. Soyinka .sees these
acts as violating the deep rooted faith of the community and
causing a rupture :in its harmonious functioning. However, for
Soyinka, these transgressions belong to an organic commun_ity.
The present society with its many complex forces has many
different causes of disharmony and discord, and he attempts
to study them in terms of the religious and moral codes of
the
for
myth
Yoruba world. Accordingly, he goes deep into the
their spirit, the Ogun myth, the harvest-ritual and
of flogging as community cleansing which now not
talk of past, they become relevent at a symbolic level.
myths
the
only
The Ogun myth serves as a convenient device for Soyinka
to posit his views on social change and the inadequacies and
the imperati~es of political life. An Ogun hero is a
126
·---
multifaceted dynamic character: he could be a political
revolutionary, a spiritual man or an ordinary human being
aware of his limits. What is more important, he knows the art
of harnessing the supreme potential of the human self when
forces hostile to human expansion threaten the peace and
harmony of the society. He does this not in total isolation
and for the sake of personal pleasure but for the sake of
humanity. His life has therefore a message- both social and
political. While he advocates restraint and spirituality to
counter an acquisitive and meterialistic life in the same
breath, he encrourages bloodshed, revolution and conspiracy
to cleanse the society of political greed and power
obsessions. Thus the Ogun hero embodies a commitment to art
as well as to life in its varied aspects.
•.
127
1
Notes
Joseph Campbe 11, The.. H..fu:..(l lii.t..h .u.. Thousand Faces, New Jeresy, Princeton Univer~ity Press, 1949 first edn, 1986 11 edn, 1972 rpt. 1973, p. 3.
2 C.T. Onions,Shorter Oxford Dictionary, GB, OUP 1933 rpt, 1968, p. 1306.
3 Tristam Potter Coffins, "'Folk Tales"', E..un.k. and Wagnal's Encyclopaedia. Yo...L.. l.O. Editor-in-Chief, Robert S. Philips, USA, RR Donnelly & Sons Co., p. 327. (Publication date not mentioned)
4 Is ldore Okpewho, "Rethinking Myth", A.L.!. , No. 11, p. 19.
5 Charles H. Long "Mythology"', E.u.n.k and Wagnals Encyclopaedia YQ!. 18. Eds. Robert S. Philips, USA, Rand McNally & Co-date not mentioned. p. 215.
6 Joseph Campbell, p. 37.
7 .George Duckworth, "Dionysus"' Collier's Encyclopaedia Yo...L.. a. Bernard Johnston, Editor in Chief, New York MacMillan Education Co. 1950 rpt. 1987, p. 240.
8 James Wellard, "Africa", l:1.a.IL.. tU.t,h and Magic ed.
9
Richard Cavendish, London; Marshall Cavendish, 1983, p.9.
David W Crabb, "Languages of the World Kwa Languages", Encyclopaedia Britannica._ Yo...L.. ~ ed. Philip W. Goetz, First edn. 1768-1771, 15 edn. 1987, p. 771.
10 Wole Soyinka, Myth. Literature and ~ African World, London, CUP, 1976. rpt, 1979, p. 1. and 9.
11
12
13
14
Ibid. ,
Ibid.,
Ibid. ,
Ibid.,
p. 5.-
p. 3.
p. 9.
p. 2.
15 Wole Soyinka,Kyth. Literature. and t.hft African ·World, London, CUP, 1976; rpt. 1989.
16 Aristotle, ~ Oomolete works Q! Aristotle YQ1 z. ed. Jonathan Barnes. New Jeresy UK, Princeton Univ. Press, 1984, p.2327.
17 Bertolt Brecht, Brecht an Theatre: Letters and Notes ed. James Willet, London, Methuen, 1964; rpt 1968, p. 15.
126
18 Geofrey Parrinder African Mythology London, Hamlyn, 1967.
P~ul
19 Ibid., p. 79.
20 Joseph Campbell, p. 16-17.
21 Friedrich Nietzsche, "The Birth of Tragedy'', Moderns Qll.
Tragedy ed. Irwing Howe, Newyork, Fawcet world library, 1867 p. 338 and 341.
22 Adams Moni, "Interpretation of Masks in Black Africa", Bashiru, Vol 11, No 1. (p. 47-55). Unfortunately I have lost the publication details of this article which I collected at CIEFL Library, Hydrabad, India.
23 Chinua Achebe, Things [all Apart, London, HEB, 1962, p. 79.
24 Wole Soyinka, Collected Plavs 1. London, OUP, 1973. All references to;this text.
25 Kristin Holst, Criticism and Ideology: Second African Writers Conference Stockholm 1986. ed, Uppasala; Scandinavian Institute of African Studies, 1985, p. 3.
26 K.R. Srinivasa Iyengar, "Wole Soyinka's Ih.e. F&a.d." lJio.. cheers ~Commonwealth Literature ed, 1970, p. 149,
27 Ketu H. Katrak · ~ Soyinka and Modern Tragedy London, Greenwood Press, 1986, p. 61.
' 28 Wole Soyink~. Collected Plays 11 London, CUP, 1973, All
references to this text.
29 James Gibbs, "Shakespeare and the Living Playwright," Shakespeare's Suryey ed. Stanely Wells, London, CUP. 1987, p. 170·.
30 James, Gibbs; ~ Soyinka, Publishers Ltd, 1986, p. 95.
London, MacMillan
31 Wole Soyinka Collected Plays 1. London, OUP, 1973. All references to this text.
32 Quoted in Stanely Jones, Interpretation London, Hodder p. 112.
33 Ketu H. Katrak. p. 70.
129
Mahatma Gandhi: and Stoughton,
An. 1948
34 Albert Hunt, "Amateurs in Harrer" Critical Perspecti¥es o.n. H.Q..l.e.. Soyinka, ed, London, Heinemann, 1981, p. 115.
35 Richard Schechner, et ·al, "Talking with Peter Brook" T.D.R J 109, Spring 1986, p. 54.
130
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