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Elliot Ziwira
THE Nigerian poet and dramatist, Wole Soyinka, uses the satirist trope to lambast man’s foibles in his quest to hoodwink his fellows for self-aggrandisement through religion.In “Three Short Plays” (1969), Soyinka explores the oppressive nature of religion on the psyche, its creation of anomalies and its fostering of hypocrisy and deification, using Islam, Christianity and Traditional African Religion.
Drawing inspiration from the satirist spectrum – ridicule, sarcasm and humour – the dramatist pokes at man’s follies by allowing him to laugh at himself and yet at the same time making him raving mad at the image he sees in the mirror.
The compilation has three plays; “The Swamp Dwellers”, “The Trials of Brother Jero” and “The Strong Breed”.
Notwithstanding his admission that religion plays a pivotal role in moulding societal consciousness, the playwright questions the authenticity of prophets and priests as custodians of norms and beliefs.
In “The Swamp Dwellers”, Soyinka examines the malaise and stasis pervading a family and a community awaiting divine intervention to avert a natural disaster that decimates a whole crop.
It is the story of Makuri, a man of about 60, and his wife Alu, who in their poverty nostalgically revisit the past to locate their present predicament.
Like all the swamp dwellers, they believe in the existence of the revered god of the swamps – the Serpent.
Modernity threatens the reverence for and reliance on the Serpent that seems to be angry at its own children.
Igwezu, one of the couple’s twin sons, has just returned from the city and inspects the extent of the damage to his crops.
Comic relief is brought through the character of the blind Beggar, a wandering Muslim whose “faith promises paradise for all true believers – paradise in the company of Muhammad and all the prophets”.
It is this hope and faith that make him tolerate his situation while hiding the true nature of his suffering.
In spite of his lack of sight, he is blessed with foresight.
He is so passionate about the land and that prompts him to inquire if one can reclaim the swamps that are the abode of the Serpent and put them to better use.
When Makuri reminds him of the dangers of blasphemy, he replies: “I have not come to question your faith . . . I must continue with my journey.”
It is at this point that the Kadiye, the priest of the Serpent, arrives with a drummer, praise singer and servant “who brushes the flies off him”.
The Beggar refuses alms from the priest and – like Igwezu – later questions why he is fat.
The extent of deification of the priest places him at par with the Serpent.
Through intelligent Socratic questioning, Igwezu is able to establish the hypocritical nature of the Kadiye.
He asks: “Who takes the gifts of the people, in order that the beast may be gorged … and did he offer them in turn to the Serpent? Everything which he received, from the grain to the bull?”
He goes on: “Did I not give the soil his due … bring the first of the lentils to the shrine, and pour the first oil upon the altar?”
The priest “blessed” his marriage and “promised him long life”, “happiness” and “children”, yet none of this comes to pass.
In his hopelessness, despondence and frustration, he sees no light in the gods, as the priest seems to be bent on benefiting at the entire community’s expense.
Igwezu is convinced that no sacrifices to the Serpent of the Swamps or kisses to the Kadiye’s feet will change anything.
This scorn on the priest is considered sacrilegious, so Igwezu has to leave immediately before the Kadiye rallies the ire of the community against him.
Soyinka seems to ask: Can Igwezu be considered to be an atheist? Do the gods really punish their own children? Would they be angry at the priest or the common man who dutifully pays his dues believing that they would be forwarded? Is religion really beyond question?
But Soyinka is also contemptuous of a society devoid of any religious beliefs.
This is evident in Igwezu and his twin brother, Awuchike, on whose star fortune smiled when he left the swamps for the city.
Instead of helping his brother, he lends him money against his harvest, which unfortunately perishes in the floods. As if that is not enough, he robs him of his beautiful wife, Desala, which prompts him to ask his father: “Tell me father, are women so easily swayed by wealth? Are all women the same?” to which his father responds: “Alu was different. She turned their heads but she kept her own.”
The same themes obtain in “The Strong Breed”, which tackles Traditional African Religion.
Soyinka highlights society’s tendencies to shield itself from its own foibles by creating a make-believe world.
He depicts a community that believes there should be a “carrier” who carries the burdens of the preceding year at midnight of the New Year to the gods as a form of sacrifice.
The community, led by the astute Jaguna, is devoid of its own heroes prepared to die for their people, so it seeks comfort in the belief that the gods will always send them strangers to bear their burdens.
The unfortunate stranger, the idiotic Ifada, is shielded from the gory deed by Eman, who is also a stranger and a teacher, who tells them: “A village which cannot produce its own carrier contains no men.”
Eman is eventually sacrificed as he is the only other stranger in the village, who observes taht, “Then it is only deceit. Do you think the Spirit of a New Year is easily fooled?”
“The Trials of Brother Jero” explores the subterfuge, moral dearth and hypocrisy that pervade Christian circles.
The suave, cunning and comic Brother Jeroboam boasts: “I am a Prophet. A Prophet by birth and by inclination,” and calls himself “Velvet-hearted Jeroboam. Immaculate Jero. Articulate Hero of Christ’s Crusade”.
The proliferation of churches and prophets creates a kind of warfare to control the community which “has turned the profession into a thing of ridicule”.
Following modernistic traits of realism, Soyinka dramatises the folly inherent in religious circles through humour and satire as Jero calls his worshippers “customers”, and his prophecies are premised on chance and probability.
Jero owes the wife of his follower Chume, Amope, money and she decides to lie in vigil at his house until he pays up, but the Prophet flees through a window.
When the Prophet discovers that Amope is Chume’s wife; the one he has always dissuaded him from beating; he tells him: “In that case, since Brother Chume, your wife seems such a wicked, willful sinner, I think … You must take her home … And beat her.”
On realising that Jero is a fake, Chume decides to beat him up at his shrine where he is praying for an MP whom he has “prophesied” will become a minister.
Jero flees and the MP believes that he has “vanished. Transported. Utterly transmuted”, and dreams: “I must await his return. If I show faith, he will show himself again to me…”
Humour is created when Jero turns to the imaginary audience and quips: “You heard him. With your own ears, you heard him … the miraculous disappearance of Brother Jeroboam. Testified to and witnessed by no less a person than one of the elected Rulers of the country …”
Online Reporter