|
CP
,
)
Wole Soyinka
This is a false rhetoric of modernization not only on account of its utter
callowness and naivet´e, but also because Lakunle himself is carried away
by the rhetoric: it reflects, but at the same time constructs his reality. In
contrast to Lakunle’s naively unselfconscious rhetoric of “civilization,”
Baroka deploys a counter-rhetoric of the alienations and shortcomings of
progress and modernization that builds on the best elements of tradition;
but he retains a detached, self-amused, even manipulative control over
this elaborate rhetoric. The verse form of the dialogue provides an effec-
tive modulation for this underground contest of rhetorics, and it reaches
its finest expression in the play in the final moments of Sidi’s seduction:
For a long time now
The town dwellers have made up tales
Of the backwardness of Ilujinle
Until it hurts Baroka, who holds
The welfare of his people deep at heart.
Now, if we do this thing, it will prove more
Than any single town has done!
(
The wrestler, who has been listening, open-mouthed, drops his cup in admiration. Baroka,
annoyed, realizing only now in fact that he is still in the room, waves him impatiently out.
)
I do not hate progress, only its nature
Which makes all roofs and faces look the same.
And the wish of one old man is
That here and there
(
Goes progressively towards Sidi, until he bends over her, then sits beside her on the bed.
)
Among the bridges and murderous roads,
Below the humming birds which
Smoke the face of Sango, dispenser of
The snake-tongued lightning; between this moment
And the reckless broom that will be wielded
In these years to come, we must leave
Virgin plots of lives, rich decay
And the tang of vapor rising from
Forgotten heaps of compost, lying
Undisturbed . . . But the skin of sameness . . .
Masks, unknown, the spotted wolf of progress . . .
Does sameness not revolt your being,
My daughter?
(
CP
,
–
)
To the concluding question Sidi can only give a sort of drugged, bewil-
dered nod. The persuasive, seductive logic of this view of progress and of
The “drama of existence”: sources and scope
its increasing separation from nature and its inculcation of a deadening
uniformity overwhelms its charmed auditor. We, the audience, are also
“seduced” by the poetry and rhetoric of this speech, and though we may
not be in agreement, point by point, image by image, with the view of
history, culture, and tradition that Baroka advances here, we feel that
weighty issues are involved, even though they are articulated with a self-
gratifying intent. Soyinka created a rich layering of dramatic action in
this early play, and we can see here the roots of his full powers as a
poetic
dramatist in the far more adroit and self-assured manipulation of verse
dialogue in
Death and the King’s Horseman
, as we will see in our discussion
of the scene of Elesin and the Praise-Singer’s trance-dance in the fourth
chapter of this study.
The event on which Soyinka based
From Zia with Love
, his most fe-
rocious satire to date on military dictatorship in Nigeria, took place on
April
,
. On that day, three condemned drug traffickers, Bernard
Ogedengbe, Bartholomew Owoh and Lawal Ojulope, were executed by
a military firing squad in Lagos.
These men, all in their twenties, had
been condemned to death under the so-called Miscellaneous Offenses
Decree of
, otherwise known as Decree
and generally consid-
ered one of the most heinous decrees ever promulgated by any Nigerian
military regime. By the time the execution took place in April
, the
regime of Generals Buhari and Idiagbon was already sixteen months in
power; and it had clearly established itself as an arrogantly repressive and
self-righteously authoritarian military dictatorship. And yet, the whole
country was profoundly shaken by the execution of these three young
men. Prior to this event, nobody had ever been condemned to death,
let alone executed for drug peddling in Nigeria. Armed robbery, murder
and unsuccessful coup making were the only crimes punishable by capi-
tal punishment. Also “Decree
” outraged most Nigerians by its being
made retroactive to offenses committed before the promulgation of the
decree. Thus, most Nigerians expected that the death sentences on these
men would either be commuted to life imprisonment or reduced to a
long prison term. At any rate many religious, civic and political leaders
publicly appealed to the regime not to carry out the death sentence
on the three men, not to implement the retroactive punitiveness of
“Decree
.” These pleas were simply ignored and the men were quickly
executed.
The scope of the expression of outrage which greeted this event was up
till then totally unprecedented in the history of military rule in Nigeria.
A former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the country described
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