The gods are not to blame (Writer's Intent; The Purpose of The Book)

World Class

The playwright intended for the book to be a sign post for the need for obedience in our society. The story is a well-grounded literary piece on an unfortunate man named Odewale, the king of Kutuje. This man left his hometown and in the process stumbled upon the people of Kutuje at a time when they were weak and down-trodden reeking of defeat. Odewale empathetic to their plight mobilizes them to action against the people Ikolu, the town responsible for the invasion and subsequent defeat of the Kutuje people. The people of Kutuje respond to his call and follow him to war against Ikolu. They are successful and in appreciation the people of Kutuje make Odewale their king. As custom demands he takes Queen Ojuola, the wife of the now late King Adetusa, as his wife and she bear his four children. Eleven years after a peaceful and joyous rule as King of Kutuje, trouble begins.

An epidemic in the town resulting in the death of the towns people in their numbers sets in motion the series of unfortunate events brewing up. These deaths cause the Odewale to send Aderopo, the son of Ojuola’s former husband, King Adetusa, to Ile-Ife to inquire from Orunmila the cause of the present epidemic. Aderopo returns with an answer that a curse on a full-grown man, who killed the former King Adetusa, was the cause of all the trouble. Odewale sentences the man right there and then to a slow painful death and again sends Aderopo to Oyo to call Baba Fakunle, an old Ifa priest, considered to “see all” and “know all”, to unveil the identity of the man. When the priest arrives he gets frantic on seeing Odewale and accuses him of being the murderer that was being spoken of. He labels him the cause of all the present problems in the land and a bedsharer. Odewale is upset by this assessment and orders for the priest to be detained. Seething, Odewale comes to the conclusion that there is conspiracy against him spareheaded by Aderopo and as a result, after a confrontation with Aderopo on the issue, banishes him from the land.

More determined than ever to find the culprint, Odewale swears to do so before the end of that day and is about to set out to begin his search when his wife delays him with her questions on what happened between him and her son. He answers and it is from this conversation that the truth about the origin of Odewale is revealed. It is discovered in the end that Odewale is the first child born to King Adetusa and Queen Ojuola. When he was born divination was carried out and his destructive destiny was uncovered. He was going to end up killing his father and marrying his mother. To avoid this, the priest at that time Baba Fakunle, ordered for the boy to be killed. This was to be done by a palace guard called Gbonka. Gbonka took the child to forest but decided to spare the life of the child. Instead he gives the child to a hunter and his aide that he met in the forest. The hunter Ogundele accepts the child and raises him as his own. When Odewale is full-grown, he also visits the oracle for divination to be carried out to find out his destiny. It is here he discovers that cruel hand fate has dealt him. Against the advice of the priest to simply stay where he was, he decided to run far away from home and not come back until both his parents were dead. In the process of running, he, in anger, killed a man later revealed to be King Adetusa for speaking disrespectfully against his tribe. It was while fleeing that he came across the people of Kutuje and helped them. As Ojuola discovers the horrible truth, that she has indeed married, slept with and had children for her son, she goes into her chambers and drives a knife into her own stomach. Odewale, realising that the weight of what had been done, goes in after Ojuola and seeing her dead, pulls the knife out of her stomach and uses the same knife to remove his eyes from their sockets. In his self-imposed darkness, Odewale requests for Aderopo to be called back to the land. He (Odewale) apologizes to Aderopo for accusing him wrongly when Aderopo eventually arrives and then asks as a final request for his wife and mother, Ojuola, to be given a burial of honour. Odewale proceeds to banish himself along with his children from the land, fulfilling his earlier vow. On this tragic note, the play ends with Odewale sorrowful and full of regret, his children confused and sealed to a wretched fate and the people of Kutuje mourning for the loss of their beloved king.

The book is written in drama form in acts and scenes with dialogue. With a well-handled plot, the fluid movement of the plot from start to finish gave the story an enthralling rhythm that did well to engage the attention of the audience. The employment of the narrative technique in fractions of the play conveyed a better understanding of plot and did well as an element of mystery and suspense. Literary devices like flashback were employed to expound on the plot, evoke the interest of the reader and give life to the story.

The quality of the playwright’s style was high. One feature to highlight here is the sheer simplicity of the play which left a sweet taste on my tongue. The originality of this piece is commendable. The idea to “Africanise” an originally European literary piece (Oedipus rex) was daring enough but then the playwright not only succeeded in this but ended up delivering a work of art rich with African content and flavour. The plot is well framed with an excellent construction and dramatic power. Dramatic irony is effectively used and the tense mood of the story is lightened through the application of literary devices like irony which contributed to the emotional quality of the writing. An example of this is seen in Act 3 Scene 2 where Odewale says Odewale: Of course. You all mean no evil against me. You all love me. We are all close friends. [Sneering] Like he-goats and cocoyams!

[Here Odewale already suspects that there is a conspiracy against him]

In terms of theme, the major theme is the price of disobedience. This is a traditional and familiar theme that is especially popular in religious settings. The archives of history are replete with stories of people/ communities/ nations that have been destroyed for acts of disobedience, an example is the Israelites. The theme, didatic in purpose, developed as the plot developed and was emphasized at the climax of the story where all the clothes were hung out to dry. If only the bodyguard had obeyed, then if only Odewale had obeyed and remained where he was. If only, if only… The three-dimensional characters also carried the story well. Odewale, for example, was a complicated man, the kind of man you would not want to die, one you would love but also the kind you would want to shake hard for lacking wisdom and common sense, not to mention taking unnecessarily rash actions. There wasn’t one interpretation to him.

I would recommend this book to as many people as possible. It is a magnum opus, a work of art with much to teach and even more to offer. I’ll give it a 10.

What do you think the has in mind while writing this master piece? put down your answer on comment column...