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Agudua Owiwi DRAMA Kraftgriots Also in the series (DRAMA) Rasheed Gbadamosi: Trees Grow in the Desert Rasheed Gbadamosi: 3 Plays Akomaye Oko: The Cynic Chris Nwamuo: The Squeeze & Other Plays Olu Obafemi: Naira Has No Gender Chinyere Okafor: Campus Palavar & Other Plays Chinyere Okafor: The Lion and the Iroko Ahmed Yerima: The Silent Gods Ebereonwu: Cobweb Seduction Ahmed Yerima: Kaffir’s Last Game Ahmed Yerima: The Bishop & the Soul with Thank You Lord Ahmed Yerima: The Trials of Oba Ovonramwen Ahmed Yerima: Attahiru Ahmed Yerima: The Sick People (2000) Omome Anao: Lions at War & Other Plays (2000) Ahmed Yerima: Dry Leaves on Ukan Trees (2001) Ahmed Yerima: The Sisters (2001) Niyi Osundare: The State Visit (2002) Ahmed Yerima: Yemoja (2002) Ahmed Yerima: The Lottery Ticket (2002) Muritala Sule: Wetie (2003) Ahmed Yerima: Otaelo (2003) Ahmed Yerima: The Angel & Other Plays (2004) Ahmed Yerima: The Limam & Ade Ire (2004) Onyebuchi Nwosu: Bleeding Scars (2005) Ahmed Yerima: Ameh Oboni the Great (2006) Femi Osofisan: Fiddlers on a Midnight Lark (2006) Ahmed Yerima: Hard Ground (2006), winner, The Nigeria Prize for Literature, 2006 and winner, ANA/NDDC J.P. Clark Drama Prize, 2006 Ahmed Yerima: Idemili (2006) Ahmed Yerima: Erelu-Kuti (2006) Austine E. Anigala: Cold Wings of Darkness (2006) Austine E. Anigala: The Living Dead (2006) Felix A. Akinsipe: Never and Never (2006) Ahmed Yerima: Aetu (2007) Chukwuma Anyanwu: Boundless Love (2007) Ben Binebai: Corpers’ Verdict (2007) John Iwuh: The Village Lamb (2007), winner, ANA/NDDC J.P. Clark Drama Prize, 2008 Chris Anyokwu: Ufuoma (2007) Ahmed Yerima: The Wives (2007) Emmanuel Emasealu: The Gardeners (2008) Emmanuel Emasealu (ed.) The CRAB Plays I (2008) Emmanuel Emasealu (ed.) The CRAB Plays II (2008) Richard Ovuorho: Reaping the Whirlwind (2008) Agudua Owiwi DRAMA Ahmed Yerima Published by Kraft Books Limited 6A Polytechnic Road, Sango, Ibadan Box 22084, University of Ibadan Post Office Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria +234 (0)803 348 2474, +234 (0)805 129 1191 E-mail: [email protected] www.kraftbookslimited.com © Ahmed Yerima, 2015 First published 2015 Typeface: Fritz, 11 points ISBN 978–978–918–317–3 = KRAFTGRIOTS = (A literary imprint of Kraft Books Limited) All Rights Reserved First printing, July 2015 Contents Agudua ....................................................................... 7 Owiwi ......................................................................... 65 5 Agudua 7 8 For Dapo Adelugba Author’s Note Today, I remember Professor Dapo Adelugba, who published my first book of interview with Geoffrey Axworthy, even while I was still a student in England, the man who sent me off to the late Professor Caroll Dawes to get a job at Ahmadu Bello University, and then though frail, dared his failing sight to sit by me as I examined my first doctoral student in Zaria. I miss him dearly. My restless maturing muse is at work again. It is about me trying to relate to my school’s move to obey a divine order ... a dislocation and relocation to Akoda in Ede This play is a reconstruction of a sad repeated metaphor. For this one, I will like to thank Akinniyi Adeleke, Kehinde Akinya, Saidi Omotoso and my family who now understand that I must mingle in spirit with every new place I step into in order to find my own inner peace. Ahmed Yerima, Akoda, Ede, 2015. 9 Dramatis Personae 1. Baale 2. Iyalode 3. Balogun 4. Osi 5. Abore 6. Yeye 7. Olohun-iyo 8. Agudua 9. Ifawole 10. Ibeku 11. Ukilo 12. Gagu 13. Ipade 14. Dede 15. Kela 16. Jibike 17. Adisa 18. Priests, maids, dancers and drummers. 10 AKODA BAALE’s palace. He is seated surrounded by his key chiefs. BAALE: The meeting with the Timi Ede was a brief one. I was the only baale in the palace room. Ironically, it was the same room I sat in with his late father when he gave the vast land of Akoda to the strange people of Ijebu-Jesha. I was angry then, and his now youthful, non- respectful attitude, the very copy of his father’s hard but royal manners, made me livid. He had just received a message from the new Olori-Oko of the break away group of rebels, and they now wanted the land they were promised by the late Timi. It was not a matter of war, he insisted, just rest for the word of a late great ancestor. BALOGUN: Just like that? BAALE: Just like that, Balogun. Like little children who did not know the value of the Akara Osu bean cake, which the so-called wise elder wanted to trick out of him, we were to just drop the Akara on the pretence that little red biting ants could bite us. I swelled with anger. IYALODE: And ... BAALE: Still in his royal smugness, the young Timi continued, “I cannot go against the word of my late father, so when the people arrive, give them their land.” That is it. He said, “Their land”. The words, like a sharp knife, drove straight into my heart, and I was washed in raw pain. I bit my lower lip for self-control. BALOGUN: And what happened? 11 12 Collected Plays II BAALE: Slowly, he rose, as his white rich agbada, flapping and overflowing, swept cool breeze on my face. Nothing more. Not a word was said. The great Timi Ede had spoken. Dejected, angry and vilified, I too rose, my tongue dry and tied. I did not wait for the stupid gifts. I walked out of the great palace with my head bent with shame and worry. BALOGUN: Just like that? OSI: How else did you want it to end, Balogun? How did we behave when our land was taken and given to the people of Osogbo? Just like that? I say how? What did our ancestors do when the people of Ede extended and occupied our land, giving some to the soldiers of Ibadan, and then to the tribal tradesmen of Oyo, and finally, what mountains did we climb when our land was given to the white men to build roads which ran from Gbogan to Ipetumodu up to Ile-Ife? I say what word did we utter when on our land, schools and administrative posts were erected without the permission of the baale? We, from the lineage of Aagberi, proud children of great warriors, hunters and farmers. Our docile and often understanding ancestors danced, saying, “Ati dara po mo won”, “Ati di kan”, “Awa Omo Aagberi tidi Omo Timi, Omo Olofa ina”, “Alaati kan”. We were now a fully integrated part of the great Kingdom of Ede, not knowing that it was a move only made to fortify Ede and remind us further of our status as a small ... very small vassal outpost. The very way we were deceived when not too long ago, our Baale was even promised a beaded crown and then the Timi died, and all that became a mere phantom ... a dream. To this day, we are yet to see the beads, not to mention the crown. Fooled again. Just like that, my friends. We continue to lose our space, our land, our rich clay soil which sprouts ten million yams in one season. The only inheritance we have left for our children. BAALE: So what do you suggest we do, Osi? OSI: We have a Balogun, don’t we? Let us pretend to receive them when they arrive, give them the sacred land which the Timi had given them in error and allow the gods to fight them, one by one. BALOGUN: The fight of the gods is usually painstakingly very slow. They take too much time waiting for the frailties of men to show. I have no patience. When the settlers arrive, we will give them the land the late Timi gave them. We will then poison the waters, curse the very earth they will walk on, then we will send the whirlwind of Ojiji to carry their wives and children off to the darkest part of the big forest and smite their leaders with madness. One week. In one week, I swear they will all return to where they came from, scattered like grains of corn eaten on the cob by a hungry vulture. BAALE: (In a whisper.) He took me aside and whispered that we should be patient with them. BALOGUN: Who took you? IYALODE: Patient? With whom? BAALE: Baba Shakiru, the palace medicine man from Offa, says we should be patient. Already, he said, madness sits pretty in the heads of the three leaders of the Ijebu-Jesha people who come for our land. They shall eat one another until only the good ones which the gods want will remain. In his smelly kola nut voice, hoarse with a grunt, he warned me ... he warned us. Not one blood must be shed. Let them be. The fight is not yours. Let the gods decide. Agudua 13 14 Collected Plays II IYALODE: Did he give you the names of the three leaders? BAALE: No. But the Timi mentioned Ibeku, their king. Wicked to the bones, he covers his bile with a sweetness of the tongue. We hear he worships in fanatical spirits, a god he does not comprehend. We heard also that the feeling is mutual between him and his unnamed god, but who dares to tell a mad, foolish king of his folly? Who? Once, we heard he worshipped Esu, then he became a Priest of Ifa. And then excited by the propensity of the miracles of a strange new god of the albinos, his madness attained a fullness as he joined the sect, only to be thrown out before he was ordained. Now, he is priest of all, with none in particular.

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