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

First published 2015

Typeface: Fritz, 11 points

ISBN 978–978–918–317–3

= KRAFTGRIOTS = (A literary imprint of Kraft Books Limited)

Contents Agudua ...... 7 Owiwi ...... 65

Agudua

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.

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.

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?

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. IYALODE: Osetura o! And such a man will now live in our midst? Osun will not let him.

BAALE: Anything he touches he destroys like the adornment of evil, and what he does not understand he kills. Rumours have it that he was cursed by his grandmother even before he was finally born, for heaven caused his frail mother the pain of repeated births for a record, seven times. On the day of his seventh birth, assured that he would finally live, and full of anguish of his repeated births, his drained mother tore his face with her index nail with two deep marks on each cheek as payment for his wickedness. His smugness smells, covered by a false shyness, the very falseness of a saddened cold blooded soul ... BALOGUN: All that in a king, and the gods want us to leave him alone until he destroys himself? Such a demon of death? I say we should snap off his neck when he sleeps. We should pound his body ounce for ounce until life ebbs out of his case. His crypt, a closed nut, should be buried deep in the belly of the earth, until the red ants eat up what is left of his flesh. BAALE: Why stain our hands with the blood of a fool? I hear that he is a wimp of a man. Ukilo, the old adviser, is the devil behind him. A shroud of wickedness. A baboon in human skin. An aged wizard, who has refused to die. He has lived through almost ten decades of life, but holds on to life and power with a passion. BALOGUN: Ukilo ... the name rings a bell. My late father spoke once of an Ukilo ... the hunchbacked king. No, it cannot be him. BAALE: It may be him. Did you not hear me? He loves life with a passion. An old decrepit grouch during the day, and a king wizard at night. BALOGUN: Same description ... But, no ... Ukilo .... No .... my father’s own should be dead by now. My father said that he was a great king who met shame in the hands of his people who chased him out of his palace in a small town near Akure. They beheaded all his children and left only his old wife to mourn them. Does this one walk with a limp?

BAALE: I have never met him. BALOGUN: Does he cover himself with a long cloak which allows him to seal off his hunchback from the world? BAALE: Maybe. But I say I have never met him or either of them. Just rumours I picked up from the palace servants before the Timi beckoned me into the throne room.

BALOGUN: The third? BAALE: A blind priest who wants to be second only to the king. A failed magician. The fool! But I hear that he is more dangerous than the mad king.

Agudua 15

16 Collected Plays II

IYALODE: Why? BAALE: He speaks in a strange tongue and whispers only with their god. It is what he says the god says, that the god says.

IYALODE: Why? I mean what is the name of their god? BAALE: No one knows. They have countless names for one god. His name changes as the spirit moves the blind priest. Our informant says there is a man we need to break their ranks and understand them or even destroy them when the time comes. IYALODE: Who? BAALE: Agudua, an odd member of their privileged elite. OSI: Elite among a band of land beggars and insurgents? BAALE: A bastard prince to Ibeku. A child born to another tribe, brought there by providence, but has lived well with the people except Ibeku who doubts his every move.

OSI: Why?

BAALE: He thinks he wants his throne. BALOGUN: How can? If he is not from the tribe, then he is not of their royal blood. How then can he be king? BAALE: With them, there is no royal blood. Their god chooses whoever he wants. The people love Agudua. Even though his origin is hazy, he could become king if the people want him. All they want is a good and honest man. And besides the people also believe that ...

IYALODE: The voice of the people is the voice of their god. BAALE: Not quite. But Ibeku does not even want the notion of Agudua becoming king coming to the mind of the people, let alone their god. He has tried to kill him twice through some drummed up charges.

BALOGUN: How? I thought you said he was a great warrior? BAALE: Yes. That was what saved him, but most of all, the people and their god embrace him more than Ibeku. One more careless mistake and Ibeku, blinded by his envy and hatred for Agudua, may be dethroned even before they settle down here. IYALODE: Good. It means we have little to worry about ... we just have to wait. BALOGUN: Wait? For whom? Some hypnotized fools misled by a mad king drowned in his foolery? Please, what do we do, Baba? BAALE: (Pause.) Send Adeleke to their camp as a spy. Is he ready, Balogun? BALOGUN: Yes, Baba. Like a Chameleon, he blends even with the very colours of nature and would fool even the sharpest eyes of the serpent king in his camouflage. BAALE: Good. Then secondly, we shall lure Agudua to our side. Even give him a wife. Osi, your daughter, Obaki, remains unmarried?

OSI: Yes, she remains unmarried. Even though she will do what I ask her to, I wonder if she will want to be a second wife to a stranger like Agudua. IYALODE: Baba, it will be a privilege for her to marry even the village fool. Just tell him what you want her to do for her people.

OSI: Iyalode! You hurt me.

Agudua 17

18 Collected Plays II IYALODE: Me? Hurt you? Baba, she remains the fattest girl in the village. She is so fat that at the last rains, she remained in the rains, unable to leave the farm until the rain beat her good and proper for two days. I hear she even wets her mat sometimes after a good meal of pounded yam and efo riro on a cool night. Why instill such an affliction on a poor stranger? Why? BAALE: This is good. She will do just fine. We will begin to tend their friendship slowly.

IYALODE: Haa, Babami! (OSI bursts out laughing.) BAALE: In a month’s time, when my beloved daughter, Jibike, gives birth to my first grandson, I shall invite them all for a feast. Iyalode, you will play a big role in the matchmaking game we are about to play with our new neighbour and our daughter, Obaki.

IYALODE: If you insist, Baba. I am ready. But ... OSI: No buts, Iyalode. The baale is not asking you to live with them. Just marry off Obaki, and your task is done. (They all laugh.) (ABORE comes in with YEYE and IFAWOLE. They salute the BAALE.)

ABORE: Kaara o le!

BAALE: I greet you, too. In fact, I was going to send for Ifawole and yourself concerning the message we got from the Timi’s palace.

ABORE: The one concerning the visitors?

BAALE: Yes. But how did ...? ABORE: Ifawole and Yeye came to me. The gods revealed the same message to them at the same time. BAALE: I hope it is good. When you see the Priestess of Osun in broad daylight, and it does not concern a birth of a newborn, then there is a birth of a new worry. I hope Yeye Osun herself is happy? YEYE: She is, Baba. But there is a message which I had to tell the Abore. BAALE: Let us hear it from you, Yeye. It is from the mouth of the elder that the kola nut tastes better. Tell us what Yeye Osun wants from us. YEYE: The land which you are about to hand over to the strangers is the sacred land of Yeye Osun. Already, they plan to block the passage of Yeye’s stream, and build houses on her resting spot.

ABORE: Eewo! BAALE: Our riddle is solved then. Let Yeye Osun avenge those who defile her land. I hope she knows that we did not take the land ourselves, and give it to strangers. We do not even know them. For hundreds of years, our fattest yam tubers which we display at the lpedi Yam Festival have come from that land. A new festival date approaches, and our yams are buried under the earth there. I say, let Yeye Osun go herself to the sacred land and claim what belongs to her herself, so that we can harvest our yams. Let her, I say! IFAWOLE: (Clears his throat.) Not so easy, Kaara o le! BAALE: Another obstacle? IFAWOLE: Another one, Kaara o le.

BAALE: Let us hear it then. This must be the season of the tender calabashes all neatly tied up together. If one is removed forcefully, without care, we lose them all.

Agudua 19

20 Collected Plays II

Out with it, Ifawole. IFAWOLE: Ifa says that there will be three days of darkness. Evil will reign everywhere, unless sacrifices are made.

BAALE: Sacrifices, Abore? ABORE: Yes, Baba. A grown-up man chosen and given up willingly by the strangers. Then a two-day-old baby boy taken from us, tied in palm fronds, and taken to the big bush for the gods to have and to own. They will decide what to do with them.

BAALE: No blood on our hands then? ABORE: No blood, except we cannot find the two-day-old baby. Then we have to behead the young man at the Shrine of Ogun. BAALE: Haaa! You have heard it all yourselves. Let the men search the bushes for any abandoned baby. I do not care whose baby they find. Our contribution should not be difficult. We should make it with little or no strain on us. Iyalode, go to the slave dealers and buy one if necessary.

IYALODE: Yes, Baba.

IFAWOLE: Baba, the baby must carry Akoda blood. IYALODE: He will. Who do you think gets most of the slave girls pregnant? Spirits? BAALE: We expect the strangers in the palace any time now. When they arrive, we shall extract from them the demand of the gods. This

will be their first trying blow. We shall test their resolve to stay with us. For free land, a life of plenty with ease, the sacrifice of a man is not too much to give. That should be worth our great piece of land, don’t you think? BALOGUN: No, Baba. (ADISA comes in with a staff from the Timi and a body guard.) ADISA: Kaara o le o! BAALE: Kabiyesi! What is the message from the great Timi? ADISA: The Timi says that the strangers of Ijebu-Jesha have arrived. They stay at Ode Omu tonight. Tomorrow, they shall come directly to you. You shall take them to their land. When they are fully settled, they are to be brought to the palace where he will officially meet with them. He sends his blessings to you and your people. And he hopes you prepare for the Ipedi Yam Festival for this year. BAALE: We have heard what the Timi wants. We thank kabiyesi, and we promise that we shall do everything as he has said it. We shall be at the Ipedi Yam Festival as our ancestors before us. May the Timi live long. May peace and progress continue to reign in Edeland under the Timi.

ALL: Ase!

(Lights slowly fade.)

Agudua 21 BAALE’s palace. All are richly dressed and seated. OSI comes forward. OSI: We welcome the great settlers from Ijebu-Jesha to the palace of the Alakoda. We all know why we are here. Not too long ago, our father, the great Timi of yesterday, gave land as gratitude to the fathers of our new settlers for a battle well fought. Today, the wish of our father must be carried out because our present Timi is an honourable man. We, the Akoda people, are all honourable people. Let your leader

rise and speak to the Alakoda, before we take you to see the Timi. IBEKU: I am Ibeku, son of our last king, and leader and king of the settlers, like you have chosen to call us. We are happy to be here. And to show our pledge of allegiance to the Alakoda, our own Olohun-iyo will now give a brief performance. (He beckons to OLOHUN-IYO who steps forward.)

OLOHUN-IYO: Ede Mapo arogun Iyaka Agbo

Aji soso Aji f’ojo gbogo dara bi Egbin Ede, ile Timi. OSI: (Rushes forward.) He failed it. Osi o! That is the oriki of Ede. When we get to the palace of the great Timi, we shall sing his praise. Is there any of your people who knows the oriki of the Alakoda? (There is silence in the crowd as AGUDUA rises slowly.) AGUDUA: (Steps forward.) I shall not allow you to shame my people. I think I will try to recite it. With the

22 permission of my leader of course.

(IBEKU, ruffled, confers with UKILO.) UKILO: We grant you permission, Agudua, with caution. (Rises.) Kaara o le o! Agudua will represent my people. He will be our voice. OLOHUN-IYO: Kaara o le o! My people! We have heard Ibeku. Leader of the great people of Ijebu-Jesha. Eni to nfe je we, bi ile fojo we, Katakata okurin meta. The great leader has spoken. Oya, Agudua, your people have pushed you forward as their lamb, step forward and cover your people with aso etu. Speak, brave one.

AGUDUA: Alakoda o! Baale mi o!

Babami Ibeku loni nki o! Alakoda o! Agberi oga omo ’yoloro Omo ekun t’ofin winikinkin Omo ekun

to’fin t’ori t’iru Omo ekun ti n’jeran l’owo to mbeere omiran. Omo o gbin oogun gbin ila Omo ila nso l’oko, oogun nfa l’ja Omo o ran omo ree ka ila O ti ka larare ka oogun Omo asewo mo se, asewo mojulekoko Omo o fi ojigodo gbe arugbo alarugbo re’gbe ree ’joogun K’alarugbo o pa arugboe mo a o s’oro bo’di lola Omo Akinwaare OSI: (Runs forward, amidst applause and cheers.) He can stop! The Alakoda is happy with him. Where is it? (An abese brings a complete set of agbada and hands them to the BAALE. AGUDUA is taken to

Agudua 23

24 Collected Plays II the BAALE who hands them over to him amidst applause.) BAALE: (Rises.) Leader of the settlers, the great Ibeku, I welcome you to our village. Today has been a great day in Akoda. The dances, the music and the food have made even the most sober of men, intoxicated with happiness and joy. I am grateful to the gods and to the new settlers who have brought such wonderful feelings. May we continue to have this type of feelings of friendship and love forever.

ALL: Ase! BAALE: However, why I have called this inner palace meeting is because of some serious issues which arose in the process of your settling down, and also the fears expressed by our ancestors about our living peacefully with each other. I shall now call on Ifawole to give us the message from Orunmila. IFAWOLE: Kaara o le o! Leaders of the settlers, Ifa greets you. Because man’s actions are not static, the messages of the gods to man are also not static. I think it is better for me to have a short consultation with Orunmila, the god of wisdom, again. (He throws the divining chain.)

Twenty people went on the journey of life. None of them was to return Except they all showed each other the inner groves of their hearts. Then one by one they will cross the river. Omi o, Atobe ga ye Water, the first orisha of life, Ile, second orisha of life Awo gbo mi Awo gba ile One from each clan. A two-day-old, and a grown-up man Willingly ... into ... thank you, my father. Ifa says that for us to have peace and harmony. A male child from us, and a full-grown man from you must make a journey to the big forest. They must visit the gods.

IBEKU: How soon do they leave?

IFAWOLE: (Checks the tray. Announces.) At most in two days’ time. IBEKU: It is done then. In two days’ time, I shall send the full-grown man. IFAWOLE: Good. Just one more snag. The man must willingly give himself up, Baale. The child’s mother must also willingly give him up. IBEKU: (Smiles.) A tricky one. But it shall be done. In two days’ time, he shall walk into the shrine of the Abore on his own. Two days. BAALE: Good. With that off the way, we can now proceed to the palace of the Timi. (As they rise, lights fade.)

Agudua 25

IBEKU’s palace. He passes a cup round his five loyalists. IBEKU: Taste me and feel the depth of power. This is a convent of power seekers. Those who are ready to die for me. Those who are ready to sell their souls for the touch and smell of it. Taste the blood of oneness. Taste! KELA: (Hesitates. Raises the cup to his lips but cannot drink.) It smells, great one. It reminds me of the shit of a mad woman. (Raises

the cup again.) Hmm. My stomach swells. IBEKU: That is the taste of power. At first, it gives a revolting smell, but when you move closer, and allow the thrill to flow through your tongue, you come alive, infested with the worms of greed, gluttony and avarice. Slowly, your brain sinks, eyes close on their own, it becomes intoxicating, overpowering. And you begin to find ways of how to control it, until it creeps into your medulla.

IPADE: Medulla, great one, the all knowing! IBEKU: I am excited. Kela, taste and let the juice reign in your veins. Take the first step. Fulfil your legacy. All great men pass through this stage of doubt, soon the animal in them takes over, and they embrace power till they die. All of them. Taste it, small boy. Become a man and taste it! UKILO: Does he hesitate? Then what do we do? Was he a wrong choice? Is he the one? Is the blind priest right again? IBEKU: Right? How can? As his master, I am closer to the god he consults. If his senility grows, I may take over as priest myself.

26 IPADE: You have already been blessed in abundance. In fact, why can’t you be god himself? You are already made in his image. I say, what is left? IBEKU: Ipade, your tongue pushes me towards a glorious height. I may just appoint you as my Otun. GAGU: Check his heart. His tongue may be coated with honey. Remember, the sweetness of honey always lingers into an aftertaste. Be careful, Ibeku.

IBEKU: What did he say?

IPADE: He says that to appoint me Otun will be an act of the gods.

IBEKU: I heard that? I am not sure. But as always, I am in conflict in thought with the gods. My head is full of what to do to this settlement so that I can become king forever, and my children will take over after, and after the next twenty generations. I have even chosen a spot I want to be buried in. IPADE: You can never die, Ibeku. Does life die? And even if by mistake you do, for mistakes trail the world, it shall be noted that it was your courage to face the madness of homelessness that drove us here in the condition of loss and want. Whatever happens, Ibeku, you have written your name in the indelible ink of the hot frying cashew nuts. IBEKU: I like what you said. I like legacies. Ukilo, please note, since you have learnt how to defy death, for already you have lived up to ten score and ten, ensure that at least six historical spots are named after me. And if I should mistakenly die, which will be a great anomaly, behead Gagu first, he promised me life everlasting. But my statue, that of my wife standing by Oduduwa, must be by the palace entrance.

Agudua 27

28 Collected Plays II IPADE: The shrine, Baba. How about the shrine? IBEKU: That one, too. My wife and I. DEDE: Leader, how about the gods? IBEKU: You see how you speak like a child? Where were the gods when I offered myself as scapegoat to lead you people here? I say where were the gods? Today, I say I am god. IPADE: Ibeku, the great god, has spoken. The other gods shift, a new one is ordained. UKILO: That reminds me, great one, Gagu said that one of us shall betray us. One of us shall break the covenant and betray the trust of the spirit. One of us. This is the last chance I have at power. I cannot let it pass. Whoever is not with us, we shall kill. Are you the one, Kela? The enfant terrible? Are you?

KELA: No, Father. UKILO: Then drink or I shall tell Iya Tiro that in front of the oath, her young lover chickened out. IBEKU: Enfant terrible! I love this! Haa! I am so excited, I could dance wildly to praise a god.

IPADE: Which one, my Lord? IBEKU: (Excited.) I forget which one in particular. I have worshipped too many gods in my lifetime.

IPADE: I am sure that is why you are so numerously blessed. IBEKU: Enfant Terrible! (Laughs loudly.) I love this. I am always happy when you speak in tongues. I wish you were my real father, and I was not labelled the bastard son of the old fool. But you have the trick. Say what they want to hear, dance wildly and even their god would be fooled. Now that I am king I want to rule forever. UKILO: Thank you, great one. It is a word I picked up from the Dahomey warriors when we were sent to Abeokuta to fight them. This case of the refusing recruit worries me. He suddenly develops cold feet, and refuses to partake in the covenant of blood? After he came to my house and swore by his late mother’s skull. I know what to do to traitors.

(Pulls out a sword and walks towards KELA.) Drink now, or with this old shaky hands I shall kill you myself. And after, I shall drink your blood to my fill. Then I shall tear the tendons of your heart open for the vultures to feed. Drink! (Turns.) Blind priest, this must be your man! He smells of cowardice. Hmm. (Spits.) GAGU: No. Let him be. See how his lips dry up in the face of death. See how his fat cheeks shake and tears drip of fear from his bloodshot

eyes. Oh, mighty son, let me rip off his heart, before they turn his crown upside down. I know where to get his burnt fingers, now all shattered at the shrine of the angry gods. The end is at hand. Please, let him be! IBEKU: No, old one. Not yet. I do not seek his blood yet. (Chuckles.) But he talks of a crown. How can a coward have a crown? I am afraid Gagu is beginning to really loose his grip on his visions. IPADE: The gods may be departing his sight, master. His younger, short kekere awo walks this day with a hop, a smile, and a renewed confidence. The gods may have gone to visit him with a whisper. These men of the gods must not be trusted. That is why I urge you to take over as priest.

IBEKU: Why not? I have the training. My mother’s younger

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30 Collected Plays II brother, Igbogila, taught me. Remember, I was an Ifa Priest myself before I joined the white witches, where we danced for the gods in white flowing robes. I forget which one now. This stream passed through many routes to get to this river.

GAGU: I know what I saw. UKILO: Now, I am beginning to lose my patience. This is a typical case where a baby cannibal is pretending to be human, after all. I hate it when a madman pretends to be sane amongst other madmen. Who pronounced you saner? Drink the bloody juice of life. (Grabs his neck.)

KELA: I cannot breathe, great one.

GAGU: Leave him alone. He is not the traitor we seek.

UKILO: (Relaxes his grip.) Then drink. KELA: (KELA drinks.) The juice scratches the wall of my stomach as

it climbs down the wall of my belly. UKILO: Good. Now who is the traitor? This kingdom must live forever. All the sacrifices needed have been done. I do not want to die. I love power too much to die. I have vomited all, given all to my king. I shall die with him. What do you all say?

ALL: We shall die for him. Master and king forever. KELA: Then let the great blind priest tell us who the traitor is, and what we should do to him. IBEKU: Must we go so far? The traitor gave himself away. When no one, not even me knew the oriki of Akoda, instead, Olohun-iyo sang away the oriki of Ede. Who rose and made us look stupid? Who did the baale promise a gift of a white horse and a barn full of yams? Who did the baale hug and single out for honour of a young beautiful wife? Who?

IPADE: Agudua. DEDE: But, great one, he is still small to you. He breathes as yours. He lives as yours. He works as yours. He thinks as yours. He belongs to you. IPADE: Yes, but does he own himself? Does he not jump to greet the great one when they meet? Why then should he suffer the loss of his good manners, unless behind smiles, those humble gestures, there is an opaque cloak of bile, a wickedness we must cut off. Great one, I shudder! IBEKU: (Bellows.) Have I ever been wrong? IPADE: No! Always right. Forever right! DEDE: But what if he is not the traitor, great one? IBEKU: Small boy. Mark this and learn from the master. Justice does not always reward those who tell the truth, but those who create it. If I say Agudua is the traitor, not even the gods can fault it.

IPADE: How can they? When today, you are god.

DEDE: But ... IPADE: Shut your lips. Seal them with the paste of wisdom. Just listen, brother. DEDE: I am just afraid of the repercussion. The people like him. Jaguna, the old war general, likes him. We hear he delivered him at birth. UKILO: Shut your lips indeed. In fact, shut the whole mouth. What have eyes not seen before? So what if he tended him from youth? What did he do that is so grand? Like me, he treated him like a son he did not have. Life is a game of war. But they have both lost this game. We

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32 Collected Plays II have won. We are on the throne now. We have brought the people to the land of grace. Far from the stranglehold of the Ijebu people. By so doing, we have fulfilled two great legacies, so we shall rule them forever. All the people should be saying now is Deus gratias!

IBEKU: Hm, another one. UKILO: Yes, great god Ibeku. It is Italian. Learnt it from Burma during the Second World War. It means thank you, God. IBEKU: (Gives out a wild laugh.) You see. You see what you can learn if you live forever? I want to live forever.

IPADE: You will, Ibeku. Gods don’t die. Ibeku ani o ti gbe ku de. GAGU: Iku n’ de dede, dede n’de ku! (Goes into a fit of gibberish. He stops and speaks in one clear voice.) Surely, the traitor ... we seek shall be king. The Itagbe has passed on. Iku ... death has crossed to the other side. He kills the man who sent him. Haa ... Iku apekanuko!

IPADE: Then trap him, until Iku stands still. Tie him down. Cement his feet to the mighty roots of the iroko tree. Cover his eyes so that he will kill a bush rat thinking it is our master.

IBEKU: Um? What did he say? IPADE: The blind priest speaks rubbish again. (To GAGU.) If you see the traitor, then give us his name, wise one. His name. GAGU: His name is ... see the crown shatter. Osetura dances, Esu follows with palm oil, Ifa watches, his eyes steadfast on the opele in amazement ... obiribiri, the whirlwind of the heavens, has come and with the flapping tail of Osun sengese, the rain falls ... heavy ... violent and washes it away. All away. IBEKU: What does he say? I need a drink. Where is the new trusted palace keeper with my palm wine? ADELEKE: Here, my Lord. I got it from the same tapster who fetches palm wine for the Alakoda and the Timi. IBEKU: Then pour. (ADELEKE pours into a golden cup. Hands it to IBEKU. IBEKU gives it back to him.) You taste it. (ADELEKE collects the cup, drinks it. IBEKU watches him for a while, then he gestures for ADELEKE to refill the cup. He collects the cup, and drinks from it.) Hmmm, just as you said it is. Emu ogidi. Stay with me always. The affairs of the state have a way of drying up my tongue. UKILO: (ADELEKE gives him a cup of palm wine. He drinks.) Exquisite master. The priest has finally gone mad, great one. Nothing will happen, and can happen to you. I myself went to Iloko-Ijesa, Akure, Idoani, Akungba, and made sacrifices at the River Ose, just before Ibillo. Nothing can happen. IBEKU: The priest should see what we want him to see. Tell our dear god that the traitor is Agudua. Do we agree?

ALL: Yes, great one!

GAGU: (Goes into a fit again.) Agudua ... I see his figure ... standing unstained. His hands unblemished with the blood we seek. Not him!

IBEKU: What did he say?

IPADE: He agrees with you, great one. He says it is Agudua! IBEKU: It is sealed then spiritually and temporally, I decree. He shall therefore be arrested and handed over to the Baale of Akoda as the sacrifice demanded from us ... The Ukilo has prepared a chain, once he wears it on him, he shall be caught under the spell. Who do I trust

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34 Collected Plays II with such a delicate matter that concerns life and death? An affair of the state despite its impending gruesome nature. What do you see, wise seer?

GAGU: Um?

IPADE: The leader wants to know ... GAGU: I know what he wants to know ... it is what I am being told by the spirits that I am not too sure about. I am not sure he wants to hear.

IBEKU: What did he say? IPADE: Nothing yet, my leader. The spirits are still conversing with him. IBEKU: Good. Now back to who chairs this project of our son’s demise? ALL: Who else? Baba Ukilo, the wisest of us all, the all knowing, omnipresent, omniwise and omni-ever living. IBEKU: Yes. Perfect. As always, Ukilo, my political father and mentor and oldest and wisest fox of the green forest, shall champion this one.

Bring his neck to the board, so that with one swoop, I shall have it on the platter of wood. Do we agree?

ALL: We all agree.

IBEKU: What has our elder to say to this new assignment? UKILO: Oh, I love a good murderous plan. Intrigues gladden my heart. I need just one day. Intrigues ... falsified panels ... a good dosage of lies and machinations. He will fall. The type of plan the Ibadan warriors set for Kurunmi, the late Kakanfo of Oyo. In all the confusion, we shall pinch him when he least expects, and his blood will flow this time. IBEKU: I want his head. Remember, the babalawo from Ife said ... a strange prince shall bring about my downfall. UKILO: Then you need not worry. Agudua is not a prince. He is a son of the common female warrior who must have been raped by a soldier during the war. But we shall still get him all the same. We shall frame a good lie.

IBEKU: And when that fails? GAGU: Be very careful. I see the face of a tiger with a broken tooth. But he shall fall, bitten by his own cubs.

IBEKU: What did he say?

IPADE: Victory. He says that he will fall, trapped by this great plan.

GAGU: Victory forever! IBEKU: Hmmmm. Thank you, my people. I hereby decree that Ipade would be the new Otun.

GAGU: Why, great one? IBEKU: He sings the songs I like to hear. Already, I feel the freedom of an undisputable, supreme leader for life. Now, to the other matters of the land.

GAGU: (In a whisper.) Caution ... great one, caution. I see a fallen king, a shattered crown, blood mingled with mangled flesh and plucked out eyes. I see death.

IBEKU: What did he say? UKILO: Never mind him, great one. He only just now approves of the decision. He says the spirit demands we clap for the supreme leader! All Hail. (As they clap, lights fade slowly.)

Agudua 35 AGUDUA’s room. He is asleep. An old woman in white iro and buba comes to his bedside and wakes him up. IYA: Agudua ... wake up, Son. (AGUDUA turns.) Agudua Agudugudu gudua. Son of the weaver bird. Omoluabi. One with the eyes of fire. Omo nla, Akikanju Okunrin. Opomulero mi. Abogunloko. Akole, Akomo. Ase eru bi omo. I say, rise, Son. We have to talk. AGUDUA: (Stirs. Opens his eyes.) Mother, you have come to me once again. IYA: And again and again, Son. As long as I feel the aches of a once full bosom upon which you laid your little head and with which I fed you, and most of all you make me worry over your manly deeds, I will worry and come to see you, Son.

AGUDUA: How was your trip, Mama?

IYA: As always, swift like the wind. Where is this strange land? AGUDUA: A long story. Our old king died. When his last word was revealed before he died, and was interpreted by the elders, we from the bastard son, Ibeku’s camp had lost the tussle for his throne. We instead inherited this land which was given to our late oba as a sign of gratitude after a war which he fought on the side of the late Timi of Ede.

IYA: Oh! So this is the place?

AGUDUA: Do you remember something about the story, Mother?

36 IYA: (Pause. Using a deliberately slow voice, almost a whisper, she speaks.) I was pregnant with you then. Oba Adejuigbe was a tall and handsome king. A great warrior with a special squad of women fighters like the ones they had in Dahomey. We fought well, sometimes better than men.

(Chuckles.) No one could dare the king and Jaguna, the war general. Before that war, half of us were pregnant. Ogun had asked for a great sacrifice for victory from our oba. If we won, our oba was to behead all the female babies born by his women soldiers as sacrifice. Thirsty for victory which had eluded him for a long while, and not wanting to fail the Timi, the oba agreed to Ogun’s demand without giving a thought to the emotions of the impending loss to his women soldiers. He had also forgotten the traditional rule which says that no oba must willfully kill his daughter. A son, yes, but not a daughter. But the irony was that most of the children we carried belonged to him and Jaguna. The oba ordered the war general to carry out Ogun’s will. Jaguna himself was a man with five children, all daughters. How then was he going to shed the blood of one?

(Pause.) That day, unaware of our fate, we fought like wild animals. Sword for sword, blood for blood, we matched the enemies. So possessed, we won. But soon after our victory, we were all given a bowl of concoction to drink. That week, we all gave birth to girls except me. Jaguna spared the lives of the girls and came after your head. That night, I ran from the camp. I did not stop running until Jaguna’s men caught me, at Ijebu Remo where I was tortured to death after I told them the truth.

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38 Collected Plays II

AGUDUA: The truth? IYA: Yes. Whose son you really were, and why they had no right to shed your blood. Agudua ... the fleeing prince ... your father, Kabiyesi, told me to give you the name the night he had me.

AGUDUA: So I am the son of ... (Covers his mouth.)

IYA: (Nods her head.) Yes. But no one should know. AGUDUA: Then why do they treat me as if they are the only children of father? IYA: Let them languish in self-conceit ... claiming to be who they are not ... let them, Son. But they see the mark on your forehead.

AGUDUA: What mark, Mama? (Pause.) Again, you refuse to answer. IYA: I gave Jaguna two bags of cowries. One was all my earnings as a soldier, the second was given to me by your father when he learnt I was pregnant with you.

AGUDUA: He gave me when I returned.

IYA: Returned? From where? AGUDUA: This explains it now. Even as a small boy, I was not safe. When the attempts on my life became too many, Jaguna took me away from the camp ... far away from them ... and gave me to the white missionaries in Abeokuta. They taught me many things. They even changed my name to David. By the time I grew up and returned to the camp, I was different ... the experience was a rebirth of my spiritual essence. IYA: David? What does the name mean? AGUDUA: I don’t know. But his story is a good one. It is about a small boy, David, who beheaded a giant soldier.

IYA: David. Do you know that that was how your father always killed a conquered king? After the victory at the battlefield, he would fight the king of the conquered village in an arm to arm combat, and when he fell his opponent, he would take his Ida Ogun and cut off his head. Do you know why the white man gave you the name?

AGUDUA: I don’t know. IYA: You should have asked. Names have a way of influencing the destiny of a man. You should, Son. AGUDUA: I did not ask. (Pause.) But, Mama, why did you choose tonight to tell me this story? IYA: There was no tongue I could trust except Jaguna’s to give the story. And even then he is now too old. And besides, the time has come for you to know. (Pause.) And I ... me ... that motherly feeling, that sinister cold feeling of self-preservation I always had back then, in the land of the living, it crept in once again into my dry veins tonight. When it does I come alive. I cross those barriers and return here willed. I had to see you. (Pause.) Agudua, my son, there is danger ahead. AGUDUA: Is the danger worse than the one not too long ago set by a gang of brood of vipers? Is it, Mother?

IYA: Worse. Son, I fear. AGUDUA: (Almost in a whisper.) I prayed that the freshness of the land should wet their hearts and sew new seeds of love ... IYA: Child, Esu lurks and tugs at the whimpering idle hands, and the innocent remain perturbed always.

AGUDUA: (In a whisper.) Then there is no escape. Even in

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40 Collected Plays II a land blessed by gods.

IYA: None. Even in a heart touched by your god, the one whose name you chant when you come to my grave side. Esu lurks, Son. AGUDUA: We are trapped then. Like a pack of baby rats left by their mother who has gone to seek for food at the mercy of the pussy cat ... it is doom. Mama, what do I do now? Answer my name? Flee again? IYA: No. Do nothing. Let your god ensnare them himself. Let him, Son. Watch him, Son. (Chuckles.)

AGUDUA: What now, Mama? IYA: (Chuckles again.) I must leave now. (She holds his hand and takes him back to his bed.) No, I must. The morning approaches. AGUDUA: No, stay a while longer, Mother. (Lights fade and sharply return. AGUDUA wakes up slowly. He raises his head.) Mama mi. (Slowly, lights fade.) ABORE sits in his house eating his dinner. AGUDUA comes in, sword in hand, all bloody. ABORE goes on his knees begging for his life. ABORE: Spare my life. By Ogun, I beg you for my life. (AGUDUA raises his sword as if to cut off his head. ABORE shakes in fear.) AGUDUA: You shiver, Abore. You, ever so quick to cut off the head of innocent people, shake before the blade. ABORE: It is my duty. My job to my people and the gods. I hate no one. It is a job I inherited from my father, who inherited it from his father.

AGUDUA: Haa! A lineage of head cutters.

ABORE: Who told you I was here? AGUDUA: A fat woman. She was ever so polite. Could not come herself, she apologized. Her weight won’t let her. But she pointed the

way here. Your daughter?

ABORE: Yes. But how did you know? AGUDUA: She magnified you, head, face, nose and all. Now, have you finished? ABORE: Yes. I am ready now. Do it. (Bends his head low. Slowly, AGUDUA places the sword at his feet.) What?

AGUDUA: I have come to give myself up to you?

ABORE: Me? AGUDUA: Please, rise, old man. I hear my people gave me up as sacrifice to save their heads. I have come to

42 Collected Plays II fulfil that promise. ABORE: (Takes the sword and keeps it in a safe place.) I heard that you were leading an uprising in your settlement.

AGUDUA: Uprising? (Chuckles.) In honour of my able God? Yes.

ABORE: I heard you killed four men with your bare hands. AGUDUA: I only killed in defense of those who killed my people because they refused when they demanded that their leader be worshipped.

ABORE: Ibeku? Is that the leader who now thinks himself a god? AGUDUA: Yes. He insists they address him as their Lord and Saviour. There is only one Lord and Saviour to us and He lives in Heaven. ABORE: Heaven? Um. And when the Timi sent the Jaguna, his war general, to fight you at the gate of Ede you ran. Rumour has it that you

disappeared to Iwo. AGUDUA: Me, run? No! I remained in the bush and watched them run wild, cutting down trees and harassing innocent market women. And when they gave up and returned home, l came here. So, do what you have to do. (BALOGUN bursts into the room with three other soldiers with dane guns and swords.) BALOGUN: Stay where you are, Agudua. We have come to save the Abore. ABORE: (Chuckles.) Save who? Rescue who? From whom? We are just two friends talking. Who sent for you?

BALOGUN: Your daughter, Obaki. She made such an effort running to my house next door. Breathless, she delivered the message. “The strong stranger has a sword to my father’s neck”, she said, and she collapsed. Her fall crushed my benches. But the effort she made is commendable. ABORE: Where is she now? BALOGUN: My wives are attending to her. Have you told him? (Pointing at AGUDUA.)

ABORE: He has come to surrender himself.

BALOGUN: Surrender? What kind of a man are you? AGUDUA: When you believe with faith like I do, you become a creature. ABORE: He is ready. It is now left to you and your men to find the two-day-old baby. We do not have time. BALOGUN: Very well then. Do we take him away or leave him with you?

ABORE: He has a long journey to embark upon. He needs good food in his stomach. He shall eat with me, and then we shall both come to the Shrine of Ogun. Tell the Awo to expect us.

BALOGUN: Very well then. (Lights slowly fade.)

Agudua 43 AGUDUA moves to the edge of his prison, and watches JIBIKE cry for a while. AGUDUA: Woman, why cry by my prison? Why try to find solace where pain lives, where despair rules? Why?

JIBIKE: I have nowhere to go. AGUDUA: Why? Go home. I am a condemned man. Waiting for the early sunrise for my head to rise from my body. JIBIKE: Why? Who pronounced such a hideous death upon your head? Who? AGUDUA: The baale and his retinue of fools, blinded by the mad urge to shed my blood.

JIBIKE: What? The baale? My father! Ewo! AGUDUA: Your father ... then you, too, must come from a lineage of fools. Come.

JIBIKE: Um? AGUDUA: Come closer ... let me first run my hands round your neck and lift your dainty head from your frail body, and let us see how happy your wicked father will be when he sees your headless body. Come, I say! (Stretches his hands.) JIBIKE: No! My mind may play games with me now, but I know the finality of death. You go and wait for me. Haa ... the Mariwo!

AGUDUA: What? JIBIKE: You have the palm fronds of sacrifice on your neck. Now, you are marked for the gods.

AGUDUA: Then, join me. Come.

JIBIKE: I say no. AGUDUA: No? Why? You don’t want to die? It could be a welcoming peaceful end you know? JIBIKE: I say no! (Pause.) But why are you here? What did you do? Who did you offend to deserve such a death? (Pause.) Your face ... it is not familiar. I don’t know you. Who are you? Which house do you come from? Who are your parents? My worried mind cannot place you. AGUDUA: Agudua. Yes, I am not from here. I came with the new settlers. We were told that the gods need a sacrifice from us to appease the sacred land the Timi gave to us. I am the sacrifice for the gods. I and a two- day-old child. JIBIKE: A child! Where? (Looks around.) I do not see the child. I cannot even smell one or hear the cries of one.

AGUDUA: The very problem.

JIBIKE: Problem? AGUDUA: Yes. They cannot find one. The difficult part is that the mother has to give the child up willingly for the gods to accept us as sacrifice.

JIBIKE: Us? AGUDUA: See, if I find a child, I will not get beheaded. Instead, both the child and I will walk into the bush, but if I don’t, then my head gets cut off.

JIBIKE: You want your head to stay on your neck ... AGUDUA: Even in death. I am Prince Agudua, son of Oba .... We die whole. If only I could get a baby. If only it were in a war ... a battler ... where my strength was

Agudua 45

46 Collected Plays II what I needed, I would have yanked a baby off an unknown woman’s back or ... or better still, found an abandoned one by a mother to whom life meant more to, than the burden of a child’s weight on her back. But not here. Not in prison. I feel trapped. My faith is sealed even before I die. I feel choked. The noose tightens. Oh my god, they have me now. Like a common bush rat chased by wild village boys, they have me now. Where is my god now? Where is his face? (Pause. Chuckles.) Me, a common sacrifice. That is all I have become in the midst of strangers. Me!

JIBIKE: I have a baby for you. You can have it.

AGUDUA: Have it? It? Does he or she live? JIBIKE: My baby, a son, but you can have him. I give him up willingly. I don’t know why I do this. Maybe I like your braided hair. And your face reminds me of my husband. No more. I beg you, just take him.

AGUDUA: I thank you. But who are you? JIBIKE: There you go again. All you do is ask questions, too. You wanted a baby, did you not? Here. Do not go away. Stay where you stand. (Runs offstage and returns with a wrapped baby.) Here. (Opens the cloth to reveal the face of the child.) My baby. You can have him. I don’t want him. I never want to see him again. Now, he too is sacrifice. AGUDUA: You don’t want him? Why? He looks so innocent. What could he have done to earn such anger from your loins? Which god did

he so innocently offend in the very womb of his mother? Why does life hate him so? JIBIKE: There you go again ... questions. Just take the baby from me. Innocent? Did you describe him so? Ha! Urged on by Esu, he connived with the trickster god to tear my heart into a thousand pieces and turned my soul to a stone ... okuta! Innocent my foot! Just take him away from my sight!

AGUDUA: Are you sure the baby is yours? JIBIKE: Since I brought him, have you seen women run in screaming, chasing after me, looking for a baby? Or a child thief? Take him, man, and do what you want to do with him.

AGUDUA: Has he a name? JIBIKE: NO! I don’t want him to have one. If he does, he will become a person. His father, my late husband Ogunmodede, died the day he was born. He was a hunter. But on the day he died, I followed him to the farm to check on our yams for the Ipedi Festival.

AGUDUA: Ipedi Festival? JIBIKE: Yes. A festival we use to celebrate the new yams. A month to his birth, while on the farm, two men in search of magical powers who had been told to force themselves on a pregnant woman, unknown to me, chose me, and raped me. My husband met them at it and fought them. They killed him and left me all bruised up in a pool of blood, my late husband’s body lying next to me, my baby’s head forced out of the sack as if trying to see the wicked world. I wanted him to die that day. I wanted us all to die. I still want to die. But he survived. Please, make sure he does not survive today.

AGUDUA: I am sorry, woman. JIBIKE: (Chuckles.) Sorry? What can that do for me now? What? I say you can have him, Agudua. He brought me nothing but bad luck. I pray

he brings you better

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48 Collected Plays II luck. Maybe as a sacrifice, the gods will pity him, and allow him to return to this world with a better, luckier head on his next visit to earth. As for this trip, it has been one of pain, blood and sorrow. And he is not even seven days old yet. He is not even old enough to qualify for a name. Please, take him or I will smash his head to the walls of your prison. I feel nothing for him. My breasts, aware of how I feel, are dry. Not even a drop of milk. My nipples do not even have the bristle for his gum to hold. I say, take him from me, Agudua! He killed my true love. And because of him, my joy and expectations ended abruptly. Take him! Now!

(Slowly, AGUDUA collects the child.)

I hate him with all my heart. (She runs offstage.) AGUDUA: (Watches her run out.) What a troubled soul ... all lost. Yet, in a fluid thought of instability, I find an attraction of the spirits. Hmm. (To baby.) Yes, unpined spirit, sleep off the many worries of the earth you do not yet know. It might even be safer with me, calmer with me, to shut your eyes totally of these man-made intrigues of woes.

(Three palace maids run in breathless.)

MAID 1: Where could she have gone with the child? MAID 2: We shall die for this. I swear. Even all the guards by the palace gate will die for this. What kind of maids are we? We could not keep an eye on a common sick girl. Ha ... we are in trouble.

MAID 3: (Screams in horror.) Sonponna o! It is him. It is them! See! MIAD 1: What? MAID 3: The sacrifice has the baby. Now, he belongs to

the gods. But how did he find the child? One minute, I was feeding it, and the other minute, he was gone. MAID 2: Let us ask him. If he has the child, then he should know where the mother is. MAID 3: Not one word ... not even a whisper! MAID 2: What do we do then? MAID 3: Call Iyalode. Hurry! MAID 2: (Hurries out shouting “Mama”. The others stand just watching AGUDUA until IYALODE hurries in with two other maids. The MAIDS onstage, stupefied, point at AGUDUA holding the baby. Not a word is uttered. She sees them.) IYALODE: Ewo! (Slowly but firmly, to no one in particular, she speaks in a hushed voice.) Someone, hurry to the house of Osi. Tell him to meet me at the palace. The baale must hear this. Someone, call Abore. He must see this. Someone, run to Balogun, tell him that the search can now end, say to him that the he-goat has found himself a calf. Go, someone each with a message! Hurry! Go! (Sharp lights fade.)

Agudua 49 BAALE’s palace. IYALODE hurries in. IYALODE: Kaara ole le o! Hurry, father of the clan. There is so much to talk about. Kaara ole le o! It is me, Iyalode! OSI: (Hurries in.) Haa ... Iyalode, I received your message. And the girl was good enough to tell me what had happened. Where is the baale? IYALODE: Inside. I too have just arrived. Maybe he rests his eyes with the afternoon sleep. Only you can go into his inner chamber. Go in. Hurry, Osi, we need to know what to do. Abore is on his way here. OSI: What do I tell him? IYALODE: Um? OSI: What do I tell the baale? IYALODE: Tell him that the trap we set has caught one of our own.

Tell him that the sacrifice comes from his cocoon. Tell him that the gods will take one of his own if he does not come out now and let us chew kola nut on the matter before Abore arrives.

OSI: Pity. IYALODE: Tell him, Osi. Tell him that the masquerade is dressed, all it needs is the Atokan ... an experienced keeper to lead him forth. Tell him! OSI: (Murmurs, repeating IYALODE’s words.) The big masquerade is dressed ... IYALODE: Go in, Osi! (OSI hurries in.) I have never seen a man behave like a woman this way. All he has is a big

50 mouth on what he can do, what we should do, but not a drop of blood of boldness runs in his veins. Not a drop. What do we do if with our own hands we have created a tradition which will kill the first grandson of the baale? Eewo! May the gods forbid that I should be the Iyalode, the mother of the land, at the time when this happens. Yeye Osun, Osun Segese, not on my head, I beg you, not in my time, I plead with you! Never!

(ABORE comes in quietly. He sits.)

You have seen them? ABORE: Yes.

IYALODE: Is there anything we can do? ABORE: A pitiable sight, I must confess, but who are we to argue with the gods? IYALODE: So, there is no need to chase the madwoman with a dress to stop her from entering the marketplace naked? ABORE: Yes. She dances in the market square already, applauded by children and chastised by market women. No need. We must

commence with the ritual tonight. That is the only way we can avoid the six days of darkness. The requirement of the etutu is complete. (OSI comes out of the room, head bent. Without a word, he sits. The others wait for him to talk, but he is quiet.) IYALODE: What did he say? (OSI does not say a word.) Say something, Osi.

Agudua 51

52 Collected Plays II

OSI: He will not come out. He orders Abore to do what he has to do.

IYALODE: He said that? OSI: Yes. If the visitors could bring their sacrifice, then we must bring ours, too, no matter who it is. That was all he said. He turned his back and slept again.

IYALODE: He slept? OSI: When he started to snore, I left him. (Looks up at ABORE.) You heard me. ABORE: I heard. We must start the preparation. I need to summon the Awo.

(BALOGUN hurries in.)

BALOGUN: I greet you all. Where is the baale? IYALODE: Asleep. He knows everything. He has also asked Abore to go ahead with the sacrifice. OSI: Have you found his daughter, Jibike? He showed concern for her health.

BALOGUN: Yes.

IYALODE: Osun be praised. BALOGUN: Ogun guided her steps to the place of her husband’s final burial. (Chuckles.) Interesting, but frightening.

IYALODE: What? BALOGUN: She saw and took part perfectly in the aspects of the burial wives are never allowed to take part in. IYALODE: What part? I thought she was the chief mourner. BALOGUN: At home, Iyalode, not at the shrine. At home!

IYALODE: Forgive me. What happened? BALOGUN: At the high point of the burial, when the hunter stepped out to call his spirit.

IYALODE: Whose?

OSI: Haa, Iyalode! ... Jibike’s husband’s spirit. BALOGUN: With the Ijala rendition, the other hunters were set to lift the Ijala chant ... the drummers too. And most of the masquerades ... Jibike burst into the midst of the hunters, raising dust, taking over in a possessed voice the chant song of her late husband. IYALODE: Why did you not stop her? Why did someone not lift her madness and all out of the ring of the hunters’ enclave? BALOGUN: We tried. But the Olori Ode asked us to remain where we were and watch.

ABORE: Go on. BALOGUN: As she continued to chant, the Egun Masquerade in the late hunter’s ancestral honour rose and started to dance. Jibike’s husband had returned, and so had Jibike’s mind. Slowly, they danced at first as lovers do, then as the swiftness of Ogun took over, their legs moved with the speed of lightning. Each step raised more dust. There

and then they became one. Husband and wife. We could see two people dancing, but one spirit in the twirl and turning of the feet. The drummers beat the drums like madmen, lost we were in the magic of the dance, all of us, lost in the spirit, until Jibike’s feet gave way. She fell. The masquerade picked her up and took her into the shrine room. Still enthralled, we stood petrified. We did not move. Then Jibike stumbled out, all drenched in our

Agudua 53

54 Collected Plays II sacred palm wine, and milk pouring from her breasts. Slowly, she staggered back to the middle of the circle of the singing hunters as she fell on her knees and fainted, dropping like a sack of garri, panting, gasping and breathing through her opened mouth, sweating all over. Her glazed eyes had a fixed gaze. With a nod from Oderinde, the Olori Ode, I lifted her on my shoulders and brought her home.

IYALODE: Osun Segese, I thank you. Where is she now? BALOGUN: In her mother’s hut, crying for her baby. Iyalode, I hear you have the baby. Give him back to her so that her mind will be fully restored to her. IYALODE: Her baby? Me? Abore, please, speak. How can I have in my care the tender fragments of an already broken calabash? Abore, please, speak up. ABORE: It is too late. She had given it up at the foot of the shrine. They leave for the big forest this night ... the child and the stranger. And besides, she gave the baby up as sacrifice before she ran to the Shrine of Ogun. Like Agudua, the poor innocent soul is now food for the gods. They leave tonight! BALOGUN: Olohun-iyo, come! Soothe the spirit of the baale. To lose his son-in-law, his gandchild and his daughter’s mind in one swoop! His soul will be heavy with these problems today. Call a smile to his

face, Olohun-iyo.

OLOHUN-IYO: (Steps out.) Babami Akinjobi Omo Ekun. Maroo ... Marooo! Omo Akinwaare Omo eye kan eye kan to ’ba soriiyeye Okan ni ’yeye o ma so Okan ni ’yeye o gbodo w’ewu eje Nigbati ’yeye o ba so, ti ’yeyeo wewu eje, Kini a o mu s’oro bo o ba di ola Omo Akinwaare Omo p’ese de mi ng o ya l’abo Omo bee ri mi mo e mese maa je Omo Akinwaare. Akin Okurin Maroo Marooo!

(Slowly, the lights fade.)

Agudua 55 Dark stage. Two priests lead the way. One beats the gong, the other carries a calabash. AGUDUA carries the baby, following the PRIESTS. ABORE and BALOGUN follow them. Then, at a distance comes in JIBIKE held by two maids. She struggles, trying to break free. She also carries a bundle of load tied to her back. PRIEST: Eriwo! (Beats the gong.) PRIEST: Yaa! PRIEST: Gbe ku lo, Gba run lo! PRIEST: Yaa! PRIEST: Ke bo fin, ke bo gba! (Beats the gong.) PRIEST: Yaa! PRIEST: Ki ilu toro, ki ilu dara! (Beats the gong.) PRIEST: Yaa!

PRIEST: Eriwo! (Beats the gong.) PRIEST: Yaa! (They stop at the entrance of the dark forest which is demarcated by a string of palm fronds. ABORE steps forward.) ABORE: Agudua, this is where we shall escort you to. The point where the living separates itself from the dead. You and the baby you carry know what we want from you. Go and visit the gods. If in three days’ time you both return, then you have the blessings of the gods. They shall also tell us what next to do. But if we come here, and you do not

return, we shall rejoice all the

56 same, believing that the gods have asked you to stay. (With an oja, they back the child for AGUDUA. They carry the basket and place it on his head. As they turn to leave, JIBIKE comes forward, breaking the hold of the women. JIBIKE: Man! In trust, I give you my son. In trust, return him to me. Although your eyes appear to see from a distance, I am sure my voice echoes from a distance. Here. (Gives AGUDUA a bundle.) It contains the clothes, some squeezed milk, and food for you. It is the least I can do. I shall wait here by the threshold of the market square. I shall wait for both of you. Er ... er ... if you see my late husband by mistake, tell him that I love him. Tell him that I shall stop crying only when I set eyes on you and my ... our son again. Go. May the God you serve be with you. (She breaks down and begins to cry.) AGUDUA: (Slowly, AGUDUA turns, and begins to chant.) The Lord is my Shepherd. I shall not want ... ABORE: Shut him up! (One of the priests takes a palm frond and places it across AGUDUA’s mouth.) Bite it. It will protect you. Not a word to disturb the gods. Now, go! Go! (Slowly, AGUDUA turns, goes through the passage of strung palm fronds as the others turn their backs and leave. One of the maids covers JIBIKE with her own wrapper. The gong plays in slow rhythm without a chant, as lights fade first to spotlight on JIBIKE who is still on the floor crying. A total darkness descends as a dirge is raised. Lights fade.)

Agudua 57

BAALE’s palace. IYALODE and OSI are seated. BAALE: Like a joke, three days have passed. And Agudua has not

returned with Jibike’s son. My wives refused to touch a morsel of pounded yam. The palace is like a graveyard. IYALODE: I know how hard it is for the women in the palace. I go to see them each day. And Jibike ... omo baale, refuses to even wash or eat. I fear she may lose her mind again, if they do not return safely. The women say she cries all day. OSI: Baba, maybe ... just, maybe you should have allowed her mother to join her. Just, maybe.

IYALODE: I think it was a wise decision, Baba. (Both of them just stare into space like morons, tears streaming from their eyes like the Osun rock springing water.)

Say something, Baba. BAALE: What can I say? My heart bleeds. I am so worried about the preparations we have made for the Ipedi Yam Festival. Imagine some of the other towns, Igbokiti, Owode, Idi-Agbon, Ponpola, all looking gay and beautiful, and the great Akoda people with long drawn faces looking sad. The state of mind of my people matters a lot at this time. How I wish all would end well like Ifawole said. How I wish the gods would listen to my prayers. IYALODE: All will be well, Baba. In the end, all will be well, Baba. Osun Segese will not let us down.

58 OSI: And neither will Sango, Oloju orogbo. The fiery one will not just sit still while we get swallowed in this troubled times. Eewo! Baba Eewo! (BALOGUN and ABORE come in.) BALOGUN: Kaara ole o! BAALE: We greet you. What happened to the settlers? BALOGUN: No one knows for sure, Baba. But from what we gather,

their king, Ibeku, is either dead or has run away from the land.

OSI: How? (ADELEKE hurries in.)

ADELEKE: Kaara o le, Baba! BAALE: You are truly the son of your father. I was just thinking about you. The settlers. We sent you to stay with them as spy. We hear there is a squabble there. What is it? ADELEKE: It started with the beheading of the four innocent friends of Agudua. Then, Agudua, himself, was given up for sacrifice. No one felt safe any more. Children told on their parents, wives told on their husbands. It was a period of deceit and animosity. Then Ibeku brought in Balogun Ikukoyi to teach the soldiers how to fight. Ikukoyi formed an alliance with Ibeku, and started to go beyond the duties of a war general. That was when the settlers broke into camps. Ibeku became extremely corrupt. He no longer listened to the hunchbacked old adviser, and plotted against his ambitious blind prophet. That was when the people took the law into their hands. They killed the hunchback in his sleep. And set fire to his house, allowing his wife and grandchildren to burn alive. They then plucked out what was left of the eyes

Agudua 59

60 Collected Plays II of the blind prophet, and took him into the dark forest for the wild animals to feed on.

BAALE: And Ibeku? ADELEKE: They cut off his lying tongue, built for him a cross, and hung him upside down with a well shaven stick stuck through his anus until it came out of his mouth. He groaned until he died. Then, they started to uproot all the evil ones among them.

BALOGUN: How about Balogun Ikukoyi?

ADELEKE: They added two more marks to his face, forcing his huge melon shaped head into a crown of nails. BAALE: Would peace ever return to them? ADELEKE: Yes. ABORE: If Agudua returns from the big forest? BAALE: Yes? ADELEKE: Not really. Before he left, he told them that they must turn to the true God they were taught to worship by their late father. He prayed with them, and asked them to cleanse the land of the ills of Ibeku. At the right time, they will choose the right king guided by their god.

BAALE: Their god? ADELEKE: Yes. He has all the attributes of Orisa Funfun. His strange lowly birth in a manger, his miracles, his early death on the cross due to the betrayal of one of his disciples, his promise to return to the world before it comes to an end. Everything!

ABORE: Orisa Funfun, ke? ADELEKE: The very one. Same Odu. Same stories. But they changed his names. They call him Jesu ... I forget.

ABORE: No wonder the gods favour him. BAALE: (Excited.) Tell us more. Then they are not too different from us. What about the songs? The dances? The chants? ADELEKE: Em ... same, Baba. I shall tell you more when I return from Osogbo. BAALE: Yes, you will. But do not let them convert you. Remember whose son you are. ABORE: (Clears his throat in order to interrupt.) Baba, we must leave. We have to be at the Timi’s palace at the rise of the sun. BAALE: Yes, hurry, Adeleke. You run home and see your mother first before leaving for Osogbo. Give Lisa the message I sent you. Your

mother has sent messages asking for your return since you left. And Abore ...

ABORE: Baba! BAALE: Bring them all here if the gods should smile on them, and they return safely. I shall wait here until I hear from you. May the gods of our land be with you.

ALL: Ase!

(Lights slowly fade.)

Agudua 61 Lights come on to reveal ABORE waiting at the gate of the dark forest. JIBIKE waits eagerly. Two priests in white wrapper are with ABORE. ABORE: Spirits of our fathers, gods of our ancestors, we are here awaiting at the gate of darkness the arrival of our own. We want them back, so that we can live in peace, understanding and harmony. Let them come out. I shall call three times. Agudua! (No answer.) Agudua! (No answer.) Agudua! (AGUDUA appears with the baby in his hands. A palm leaf between his lips.) Welcome, Son, welcome! Stay where you are. (ABORE beckons to the PRIESTS who cleanse AGUDUA and the baby. They remove the leaf from his mouth.)

Son, you are back. AGUDUA: We are. We left as the scourge of the earth, drenched in the hatred of the wrath of our own people, but here we are.

ABORE: What did you see? AGUDUA: We met evil in the dark forest, but then in a blaze of burning twig, we met God and he asked for our souls.

ABORE: Your souls? AGUDUA: Yes. I fear now. I fear God ... the true one ... like most men, I did not fear because I had not seen, but now I have seen.

ABORE: The god you saw. Did he say that we are bad? AGUDUA: No. But he spoke. First, he shall make you all resolute, and then one by one he shall judge us all within the scope of our actions. At the right time, he will unleash the wrath of punishment on each and everyone of us. He demands we live in harmony.

ABORE: Just the very words of Olodumare. AGUDUA: Light versus darkness. No. Hope versus despair. Never. He has given me renewed strength. A new beginning ... to meet the challenges of life.

ABORE: Strength ... power. Then you are our new hero? AGUDUA: No. The world does not need heroes anymore, but builders, menders, soaked in his blessings. Now that I know that hell exists, I know there is a heaven too. That is where we must all strive to go. ABORE: Come. (Stretches out his hand. AGUDUA holds it. JIBIKE steps forward and kneels before AGUDUA.) AGUDUA: Mother ... you are still here. Here is your son. Give him a name now. JIBIKE: (Collects the child.) I will. My son, forgive me. He smells fresh and looks well fed. Which woman took care of you ... er, him? AGUDUA: Woman? We needed no help. We were never empty. We were complete ... always complete. God most high was wonderful. ABORE: Yes. Olodumare is always wonderful. To the palace then. The baale awaits our return. Agudua, there is so much for you to do for your

people and for us too. Come, today begins the festival of Ipedi.

AGUDUA: Ipedi?

Agudua 63

64 Collected Plays II ABORE: The festival of yams. (Drums and music are heard. BAALE leads in a group of dancers, and villagers.) BAALE: To the Timi’s palace. I hear he is about to climb his white horse. Hurry. The other towns are already there. Osi, dress Agudua up in rich Aso Oke. Hurry. (In front of the audience, AGUDUA is dressed up and they all dance out singing.) Ojumo ti mo awa ti r’odun Ipedi odun yi. Ese dansaki Timi Ede Olofa ina Isese awa a koni parun Orin oloba lenuwa

Ese dansaki f’oriade Ese dansaki f’alalewa. Odun Ipedi lawanse e Itatipe, ilutipe Eku akebieku Omo eyan f’ohun bieyan Aboyun abi were Awon agan atowo alabosun a fi p’omo lara Odun Ipedi s’oju enu wa Lamodun ma bawon se o

(Final lights fade.)

Owiwi

For Sametu, my second mother, and her six seeds.

Author’s Note I enjoyed writing this play. It was an academic exercise in a very scary creative process. I would switch off the lights in my study and try to enter the world of the play. Again, I was the “little god” and the characters were my acolytes. The “duality of the human mind” of Richard Dawkins also interested me here. I liked the fact that man, like the Yoruba god, Esu, could be an embodiment of the dual nature of bad and not so bad. Goodness, the traditional opposite of badness, may even be considered deceitful. It was heavy stuff and I enjoyed it all. Now you read and try to make sense of it. But, let me give you a clue ... “The owl” is the reality of most pretentious men, and the white dove ... the only salvation, remains a suppressed delusion ... a vague sense of hope which is often hypocritically expressed but hardly genuinely embraced unless one is forced. Even the line between love and hate, because of the complexity of man’s nature, becomes an illusion. Hmmm ... I learnt this the hard way. Sad. I want to thank Ayo Ewebiyi, Yemi Adeyemi, Emmanuel Adejumo, Toyin Falola, Oyeleye Dairo, Akinniyi Adeleke, Idowu Sunday, Juwon Oloruntoba, and Abosede Emmanuel for some materials I used. Almighty God and my family also remain my supreme inspiration.

Ahmed Yerima, Ede, May 2015.

Characters ADUNNI PAGA FAUSATU FADELOLA IFAOSEKE SAURA OBA IDELE OTUN MAYEGUN OSI

ILARI WOMEN AND IFA PRIESTS

Spotlight. When the light comes on, it shows ADUNNI lying on an easy cloth chair. She has a Bible on her chest, and sleeps for a while. Then startled, she wakes up as if from a bad dream. ADUNNI: Lord Jesus, what a dream! Thank you, Father, it was. But what kind of dream is this? A white dove fights and kills an owl. Can the meek fight and kill the fearsome one? What riddle is this? Something evil is about to happen. But what can it be? (She kneels.) Father Lord, God of challenges, the fighter for the just, the saviour of the downtrodden ... see me through this one. Grant me protection ... grant me pure wisdom. I begin to flutter in confusion. I must get to the root of this. I must ask Ifa. FAUSATU: (Hurries in.) Iya Ewe, Iya Agba gets worse. Hurry, she asks after you. Iya Ekeji demands you come immediately. Now, Iya.

ADUNNI: Yes ... yes. (In a confused state, they hurry out. Lights fade.)

69 Iya Agba FADELOLA’s house. When lights come on, ADUNNI and PAGA are seated on little stools (Apoti), anxiously waiting and talking. ADUNNI: Owls are abounding tonight. Seeing too many things, which should be covered in darkness and shrouded in cloned secrets, why must Iya Agba depart tonight? Something is amiss. PAGA: It is my turn then? ADUNNI: Your turn? PAGA: Um ... my turn to be ... ADUNNI: (Ignores her.) Fadelola’s reign was good for us. We swooped and swooned. Shook the very roots of the iroko trees. Even the stupid king himself, Oba Idele, on bent knees, begged us for his life. Yet, we drove our fangs into his succulent chest, and licked his ribs to his soft heart. And hand in hand with Esu, we installed a woman-man, a wimp, our glorified buffoon, as king. Ha! ... When Iya Agba sat, you knew a queen sat on her revered throne. (Breaks into a praise chant.) Iya mi ooo! Fadelola omo oba Iya mi ajefe lo oo! Patepate l’oja

eleijigbomekun, Iya mi Fadelola ooo! Durojaiye, Iya mi ooo jo ma ti lo Iya mi ti n lo nigba oja ba tu. Gidigba gidigba obirin meta Obirin nla bi okun mewa

70 Ani ma ti lo! Osoronga eye a ke tikanra tikanra. Iya nla Iya agba oo Ani ma ti lo se.

Iya Fadelola was indeed a leader of the swarm of bees.

PAGA: Was? Mother, the woman still lives. She will live. ADUNNI: I know what I feel tonight. Just the way I felt when the last three mothers died. (Returns to her praise mood.) Iya mi ooo! With Iya Fadelola, we stung the flesh to the bones, leaving a carbuncle of pain with each bite. So, why will Iya Agba die at the peak of her reign? Um, I see hands in this matter. PAGA: Hands? Who dares look at the lioness in the face? I beg you do not becloud my chance to rise to the supreme top with doubts and postulations which break the swarm of bees. (Sound of the owl.) Her time is almost come? I feel sweat of anxiety in my armpits. ADUNNI: Did Iya whisper your name into your ear when you spoke with her?

PAGA: No. ADUNNI: Then what did she say? What took you so long? You came out with a smile on your smug face. What did she say, woman?

PAGA: I barely heard what she said.

ADUNNI: Um? PAGA: In her new hoarse, croaky voice, she said my daughter was next. And since I do not have a daughter I thought she meant, me ... the only daughter of her late sister ... her daughter ... me ... therefore was next. Did I waste the smug smile, Mama?

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72 Collected Plays II

ADUNNI: Um?

PAGA: What? I hate it when you do this. ADUNNI: (Lost in thought.) You say the sacrifice for Esu was carried out without delay? PAGA: Yes. Without delay. At the break of dawn, immediately after the first crow of the early cork, we carried it out to the letter. Before our very eyes, Esu sent down his angels, and they swooped down on the calabash, and it disappeared. Before our very eyes.

ADUNNI: The carcass? PAGA: l placed it in the middle of the calabash. Red palm oil and esuru yam, all richly displayed. A meal fit for a god.

ADUNNI: And the blood? PAGA: Freshly drained, we brought it straight to Iya, opened her clasped lips. Three drops as told by Ifaoseke. ADUNNI: Did she lick and swallow? PAGA: Um? ADUNNI: I say did she lick and swallow the blood? PAGA: Like a child tasting honey for the first time, I gave her with the second finger of my right hand. She even attempted to chew my finger. Thank God her gums are soft now, I would have lost the finger. ADUNNI: Um. Then why? Why will Iya die this way? First it was a sneeze. Then a cold ... a crowded chest which we blamed on the rains but when she found breathing difficult as if she was being strangled, we knew that it was no longer a joke. Which man? Which god? Who dares touch Iya Agba? The Atoka of the conclave of owls cannot die like an uncared for village madman. Eewo! She can’t.

We must find who is responsible. I shall visit Esu’s shrine and ask the old man, Saura. He will know. PAGA: No, Mama. Not today. Let the ill-fated wind of tonight blow away these god-forsaken ills first. Tomorrow, Mama. One shrub at a time clears the footpath better. Tomorrow. ADUNNI: (Sits back.) I just don’t understand all these noise and rumours ... this impending shame cooked up for us. (Breaks into a song.)

Yokolu, yokolu, ko ha tan’bi? Iyawo gb’oko san le, Oko yoke. Eewo! No one shall sing the song of shame for us to dance. No one! Go tell the other members to stay at home tonight. I am too confused. I can’t bear women asking too many questions about Iya. We must not pre- empt her death. The stillness of the hot air chokes me. Iya cannot just fold her wings and fly home like a wounded chicken. No! PAGA: (Rises.) I will go. But do not forget the promise you made to me ... We swore an oath. I let your only son live ... and in return you promised to give to me the throne of Iya Agba ... remember? This is the time to test our bond. I must become the Iya Agba by all means. ADUNNI: I have not forgotten, woman. But this is not the time. We took an oath when we thought the rains will fall from the West, now it falls from everywhere. So for now, we take shelter and watch. But I shall help when the time comes. And remember, the outgoing Iya Agba picks the next one after her.

Owiwi 73

74 Collected Plays II PAGA: I know. And I worked hard for it. I am not begging to become what I am not qualified for. I am not a child of the coven. Against all odds and machinations, I became the second-in-command. (ADUNNI coughs.) Yes, I know, with your help also, Mama. I am

grateful, but you must make me Iya Agba. ADUNNI: Must? Be very careful how you talk to me. I am Olori Ewe. With the number of the youths, I can still upturn the choice of the dying Iya Agba. PAGA: I also know that, too. That is why I have come to you. Only you can counter her choice. (Pause.) But so what? Head of the young entrants carries little weight.

ADUNNI: Um? PAGA: (Breaks into a false chuckle.) Unless in cases of this nature. Mama, be soft with me. Age has no help here. I know what decisions I have helped to carry out here. I know my worth, Mama. I am the Ekeji Iya Agba ... the second-in-command. So you be careful how you talk to me, too. We have spoken. Remember that a war announced does not catch the cripple unprepared. ADUNNI: Proverbs? Um. No, child, not now. Let’s not hurry to lick the hot soup or it will scald everything. We shall get there when we see how well the night unfolds. Go home, Paga, and give my regards to my brother, your husband. Go, woman. (FAUSATU hurries in.) Yes, Fausatu. FAUSATU: Iya asks to see you. Her health fails more. I am afraid life drains from her body. The big owl may fly anytime now. Hurry, Mama.

ADUNNI: Her daughters. Gather them. Hurry.

FAUSATU: They are there ... by her bedside ... the two of them.

ADUNNI: Two? FAUSATU: She looks through and past them as if they do not exist. Her eyes remain dilated with tears of knowing of her impending trip. PAGA: Then she has not whispered her choice into the ear of either of

them? FAUSATU: No. She continually asks for her third child. The others say that she is on her way from Eko-lle. I fear it might be too late for her. Iya no longer breathes in tune with a pained rhythm. Now she just gasps for air continually. She is no longer with us in spirit, Mama. She has called her late husband’s name twice already, as if he has come for her. I fear she begins to prepare ...

ADUNNI: Ssh! PAGA: Then hurry, Mother, to Iya’s side. My ... er ... the moment may have come. Hurry. (ADUNNI hurries into the room, followed by FAUSATU. PAGA remains unsure of what to do.) PAGA: Let me show my face early, so that Esu will know his own. (Sound of the owl is heard.) With broken wet feathers, she gathers her wings. Soon, she will whisper my name to Adunni, then as the Igbakeji Iya, the second in command, I shall take my rightful place as the new Iya of the coven. (Chuckles.) Under me, we shall be deadlier. Not witches who fly by night and sleep by day. We shall fly until our wings ache. Now we are of the red stock. I shall mix the red with a tinge of black which shall be the flavour of the meanness of the new sect. The true colours of our divine brother, friend and

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76 Collected Plays II master, Esu, shall appear in our symbol of death. Complete in the half measure of wickedness and deceit, we shall conquer the world spreading the sweetness of doom as the new message of salvation. We shall be the undisputed angels set to help Olodumare to end the world. The white sect of gnomic and deformed spirits will not be relevant in this whirlwind of devilish doom. And you, Orunmila, the third in our group of collaborators, we are tired of eating soiled crumbs ... leftovers

from your sacrifices. Sit still and watch me enthrone Esu not in places where three footpaths meet, nor by the doorsteps of spent houses with leaking roofs, but a befitting shrine ... a cathedral of worship. My lord Orunmila, swallow your pride with your usual humble dignity. Your whiteness miffs me. Your wisdom angers me. What can bring more joy to me like a shake in the equilibrium of cosmic equity? Haa, I excite myself. Enough, Paga! Patience, woman! Your blood boils. No more talk. When I get there, we shall cause enough havoc which will unseat Esu as the glorified saint of darkness. ADUNNI: (In slow strides, ADUNNI walks in. Head bent, she goes to her stool, sits, head bent, she gives a big long sigh.)

PAGA: (Anxious.) What happened? ADUNNI: Iya Fadelola is gone. With crushed wings, folded, bloodshot eyes, and a tongue twisting at the edge, she folded her wings and with her last breath, she died. PAGA: Did she name ...? ADUNNI: Yes. In a whisper she named her successor. PAGA: Who? ADUNNI: (Pause.) But what is going on? I am confused. I had a sinister feeling of having seen all this before. It is all too strange.

PAGA: How? What, Mama? Who? ADUNNI: I do not understand all these at all. (Pause.) I have witnessed the passing of three great Iya Agbas before her. Hers was the most painful ... the most pathetic. Why did she join us then? To live well in life and then die like a common house rat? What was the use of acquiring all that power? I thought it was for days like this? I was expecting a chariot of fire to descend from Olodumare, driven by Sango, and lift her dressed in sanyan to dine with the king. Haa, ofutufete ... like a common house rat she died ... just like that. This will deplete our coven, I swear. Why join what one will regret later? A great

queen dying like a common house rat. I shudder to think of foul play. (Pause.) Oh, the dove flutters in me. PAGA: Ssh ... enough, woman. Control yourself. (Pause.) What did she say? Who did she name? ADUNNI: In a whisper she said that her death was not a natural one. That someone broke her black pot.

PAGA: Someone? ADUNNI: And that a god had a hand in it also. And finally she made me swear that no Iya Agba should be appointed before the secret of her death is revealed. PAGA: The secret of her death? Then she suspected foul play within our sacred coven? How come? ADUNNI: She did. Like a melting sigidi in a downpour of rain, she melts into disintegrating crumble. The growing stench ... I could smell the rot within her start to swell. Her once bulging shining eyes were sunk in. Her whole body collapsing ... crumbling. You say you gave her

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78 Collected Plays II the blood? PAGA: Yes. To the letter. Bidemi was there. She looked well that night after we gave her the medicine. She even managed to eat a morsel of amala. Then suddenly, the relapse, and now ...

ADUNNI: Her death, which I do not consider natural. PAGA: Haa, Mama, which sudden death is ever natural? When it is time, the person just flutters like a feeble chicken and dies. Hold yourself. Control, Mama ... the young ones watch you.

ADUNNI: Let them, I don’t care. I am an old one. I cannot be there in the market and watch the head of a backed child bend on the mother’s back. I must ... l will straighten this one, I swear! (Pause.) The sight of her on her deathbed reminded me of ... no, it can’t be.

PAGA: Reminded you of what, Mama? ADUNNI: Oba Idele’s deathbed. I had gone to see him die with Iya Agba. What I saw tonight had the same symptoms. But no, it can’t be. No.

PAGA: What can’t be, Mama?

ADUNNI: So this is it? Hm? (Slowly, she begins to sob.) Iya mapoo! Re bi agba Eye n re! Gidigba gidigba Eye. O re bi agba Eye nre! Duro ... mu ki n mu omi ko e Duro je ki n mu akara ko e oo Yeye re bi agba Eye nre.

Yeye mi lo! Iya agba lo! O di gbe re oo! PAGA: Not now, Mother ... not now. No one mourns the Iya Agba, remember? No one. Wipe your tears. (Watches her for a while as ADUNNI cries.) She did not mention a name?

ADUNNI: She did. PAGA: Who? I see she tied the osugbo round your waist. Are you the one then?

ADUNNI: Er ... yes ... no.

PAGA: Yes or no, woman? Speak, so that we know who is next ... ADUNNI: She said I should leave it on me ... until light falls on the dark soul and fire consumes her. And then I can tie it on the new leader once I find her and set eyes on her. PAGA: Why search too far? Why value the words of a dead woman. Why? (Stands before her.) Here I stand. Crown me! Tie it on me! Move

me one step to the throne of total darkness. Now!

ADUNNI: No, not you, woman. You are not the chosen one, Paga. PAGA: (Aside. In a whisper.) Not me? Then the river stained with red blood might continue to run deep. I swear, I know what to do to stop these ugly deaths. Crown me, Mama.

ADUNNI: Um? What did you say?

PAGA: Ooh, not again. FAUSATU: (Runs in.) Mother, she rots. Before our very eyes, she rots. We were preparing her for burial, but worms ... black and white maggots gushed out from her

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80 Collected Plays II stomach ... her nostrils ... her all. She rots, Mama. What do we do now? ADUNNI: Hurry, Paga. Go to the bottom of the Banana tree behind the house. Dig seven times to the left where she normally sits, bring out her black pot, place it on her chest, then scrape her and whatever is left into the red shroud. Bury her tonight.

PAGA: How about the grave diggers? ADUNNI: This one is our own. No one must see her the way she is tonight or tongues will wag, and we shall be the subject of the jeers of the whole village. Dig the earth with whatever you find ... fingers, broken edges of pots, cudgels ... hoes ... anything ... just dig to cover our shame. Dig! Bury her with her secret in her crypt. Hurry, women! Tonight, her flesh must lie beneath the earth. Hurry, women. Hurry! (She ties her wrapper, and begins to hurry out.)

PAGA; Mother, where do you go? ADUNNI: To the grove of Esu’s shrine. There is a lot that meets the

eye tonight. Saura has some explaining to do on behalf of his trickster master. Because all this is becoming a dark joke on us, I see a dirty hand in the death of Iya Agba. From the water from Yemoja’s river, I shall wash us clean. I swear! Hurry, women. (The sound of cries are heard from the room.) And tell those stupid women to stop crying. What have eyes not seen before that they now claim that they will shed blood? Tell them to wipe their eyes. An enemy lurks within. (She storms out. Slowly, lights go off.) Lights come on to reveal IFAOSEKE’s house. There are activities of his priests carrying load up and down the house. IFAOSEKE sits in front of his opele.

ADUNNI: Good evening, wise one Old man, Ifaoseke, servant of the god of truth, the god of wisdom...the pure one... the great god Orunmila, I greet you.

IFAOSEKE: I greet you, too.

ADUNNI: Orunmila oo! Orunmila o, Eleri Ipin Aje ju oogun Oluwa mi atobajaiye Oro a biku jigbo Ogege a gbaye gun Odudu tin du ori emere A tun ori ti ko sunwon se A mo iku Olowa ayere Agiri ile il ’igbon, Oluwa mi a mo ti mo tan A ko mo o tan, ko se A bam o o tan, iba se.

IFAOSEKE: Adunni Oye, Adunni Ade, Adunfe mi. I salute you, too. ADUNNI: Orunmila favoured by Olodumare! Our conclave cracks ... evil reigns.

IFAOSEKE: (Chuckles.) What an irony! When the queens of 81

82 Collected Plays II evil cry over impending evil, strange things will begin to happen. What a world! ADUNNI: Do you see me laugh? The irony is in my shame. There is

someone who is determined to use the powers we got from Olodumare wrongly.

IFAOSEKE: Someone?

ADUNNI: Yes, wise one. This is why I have come. IFAOSEKE: (Chuckles again.) Another dark irony. Let us ask Ifa why you have come. ADUNNI: Hell draws nearer than we think, old one. I swear hell is about to burn even hotter and spill over ... IFAOSEKE: I know. Adunni, mother of the pack. Awon Iya wa Osoronmiga. Mothers of darkness. Mothers of light, Eye abiye ruru, eye abifo ruru. Eye bagebage. I welcome you to my humble house. ADUNNI: And your house is full of activities. There are bags and baskets of load everywhere. Are you set for a trip, wise one? IFAOSEKE: Have you not heard? After the death of Oba Idele, the whole village turned against Orunmila. No one comes here anymore. I sit alone brooding over what happened five years ago. That is, how we got to this point that the village loathes my master and l begin to unfold. Going over the events through my mind, from the moment they invited us to the palace for the ritual of promise, where they wanted the three dominant gods of the land to take from him his oath of leadership at his Ipebi. You remember? ADUNNI: Like yesterday. Every word that was said echoes in my head. Fadelola, our Iya Agba, was there with Paga and I. Us ... the three stones that will not let the pot overturn. I remember clearly. IFAOSEKE: Saura, the messenger of Esu, and I representing Ela, my god of wisdom were there, too. We all sat and listened as he spoke, remember?

(Lights fade on IFAOSEKE. Darkness as lights fall on the other side of the stage, revealing the ipebi. IDELE in white wrapper sits on a stool. The others stand.) IDELE: My fathers and mothers, I greet you all. Here, before I become king, I prostrate to those who own me. (He prostrates.)

IFAOSEKE: Idele, omo onile, Oba lola, Oba leni. Orunmila greets you. IDELE: Awon Iya mi Oriyan meta. Osoromonga. Eye aiye, eye orun. I greet the big birds!

FADELOLA: We greet you.

IDELE: Esulalu, Onile ketu, Egbe lehin a koro s’eledumare lenu!

SAURA: Sooko! Oba Idele, my master greets you. IDELE: I am about to become king. I have done all that is demanded of me. I thank Ifa for picking me. As it is with tradition, I must ask you what you need from me so that I can be a great king. During my reign, I want the birds to sound like birds, and rats to sound like rats. I want peace, I want plenty, good health for all. I want security and stability in my land. Mothers and

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84 Collected Plays II fathers, what do you want from me for all of these to happen? IFAOSEKE: Orunmila thanks you. Orunmila wants nothing from you beyond the observance of its festival dates. Remember, Olodumare picks a king ... it is your destiny. Rule well and wise, Son. IDELE: I thank Orunmila. Your festival will be sacred. And your presence and that of your master will never be scarce in the palace. My mothers, I ask you to please speak and make your request. FADELOLA: Because Esu gave us the knowledge of the secret of

possessing our powers from Olodumare, we want Esu to speak first.

IDELE: Rightly so, old man, Saura. SAURA: My King, Kabiyesi! I thank the mothers for their eternal wisdom. Esu wants peace for you, and peace for himself, too. His sacrifices abound. You rule your village, and my master will rule his world. Respect the worship of Esu, continue to grant him and his women acolytes the one night in the rainy season where they can commit havoc without redress on the village. Look the other way, and your reign will even be better than your father, Oba Agboluaje. IDELE: Your request is noted with respect. (Turns to FADELOLA.) And now, my mothers. FADELOLA: We greet you, royal one. We greet our fathers; Orunmila and Esu. All we want is one month of the year.

IDELE: One month? FADELOLA: You as king will reign for eleven months, and for one month, we shall rule with all the powers of a king. You will give me, the Iya Agba, the horse whip of the king. The Opa Ase, too. We shall reign not as Regent, but as king. IDELE: (Confers with OTUN and the other kingmakers.) Granted. Your wish is granted. May I kneel now? IFAOSEKE: Yes. Come closer. (He beckons to IDELE to kneel. IDELE kneels. IFAOSEKE, SAURA and FADELOLA place their hands on IDELE’s head. Slowly, lights fade.)

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Lights reveal IFAOSEKE’s house.

ADUNNI: Did you ask Ifa?

IFAOSEKE: I did.

ADUNNI: And what did he say?

IFAOSEKE: The kokoro that eats the plant, lives within it.

ADUNNI: The kokoro that eats the plant lives within the plant?

IFAOSEKE: Yes.

ADUUNI: (Pause.) Then my fear of an impending doom is right.

IFAOSEKE: Your fear? ADUNNI: The fear engulfs my soul. You got my message on my dream?

IFAOSEKE: Yes. Is that why you have come?

ADUNNI: No. Iya Fadelola is dead. IFAOSEKE: I heard the owl’s cry this evening. I thought it was a gathering of the owls. ADUNNI: No. She flew away. I am worried, wise one. When I saw her on her deathbed, it was the same way Oba Idele lay dying. I am worried. I hope this type of dreadful death will not spread. She looked really sad ... IFAOSEKE: No, it will not. The death came in her name. (Chuckles.) I see you’ve wrapped yourself with the osugbo already. Are you the new leader?

86 ADUNNI: Yes. Just until we find those who have a hand in Iya Agba’s death. IFAOSEKE: Did she name another? ADUNNI: Yes. IFAOSEKE: Paga? ADUNNI: No. IFAOSEKE: I thank Olodumare. Paga is a hard woman, a tough nut to

crack. I am always unsettled by her person. Where is she? Why is she not here with you? I thought you always go about together. ADUNNI: Not tonight. She remained behind to take care of the burial. The third is with our great mothers before us tonight. (SAURA comes in.) SAURA: So it is true? The whole village is full of the talk of the sudden death of Iya Agba. I am pained. IFAOSEKE: By what, Saura? Ikeji Latopa. The ear of both Odara and Ebita. The right hand of the half good, half bad. The trickster of the place where three footpaths meet. Saura ... ore Onile Ketu ... alekuru lega! I greet you. SAURA: Ifaoseke ... babalawo oloto. Enu Orunmila ologbon aiye. Agbonrandun gbogbo Orisa. A dara ni wa. I am pained.

IFAOSEKE: I ask, why are you pained? SAURA: I am pained at the reason why women never grow. Even as goddesses with powers that give them the right to rule their domain on earth, they run to the arms of a man.

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88 Collected Plays II IFAOSEKE: Forgive them, Akere fi nu sukun. Do I sense jealousy in the mouth of a god? SAURA: Even Olodumare is a jealous god, remember? I mean, if there was a problem like the death of Iya Agba, and they needed the arm of a man to cry on, they should have run to my shrine, not neglect me who helped to guide them to the fame of darkness. Whose arms should they cling to? Um? Definitely not you, Ifaoseke. ADUNNI: Forgive us, Lalu Ogiri-oko, oko dudu, oko pupa. alekuru lega, alega le kuru. Our father, our mentor and our husband, we beg

you.

SAURA: Ummm. IFAOSEKE: Forgive them, Saura. A fika san ika nio je kika tan laiye. Forgive them. SAURA: I shall forgive them, but not Iya Agba Fadelola, who never forgave Oba Idele. I asked her to let him be. He rules by day and the Eleyes rule by night.

IFAOSEKE: How? ADUNNI: Yes, how? Oba Idele made a promise to us. And in the very first year of his reign, he failed to fulfil his promise. We were livid. Our conclusion was that he did it because we were women. We heard that he called us common women, with petty powers. This angered Iya Fadelola. So we decided to teach him a lesson. SAURA: You decided to pull his ear, until you cut it off. Fadelola and Paga had come to see me, and she told me before the meeting at the palace what she wanted to do if the king insisted on not carrying out his promise. I begged her, and she refused to listen. ADUNNI: (Recollecting.) Yes, I remember. Again, she changed our decision on her own. She was not to bring the pot of life of the king to the palace. Paga and herself carried it without my knowledge. Iya Fadelola had a burning desire to draw blood, as if Oba Idele offended her beyond breaking the promise.

SAURA: He did.

ADUNNI: Um? SAURA: (Ignores her.) You see, Ifaoseke. Even within themselves, there was no trust. I remember you screamed when she shattered the pot. That is what saved you from my wrath.

IFAOSEKE: Lalu ogiri oko. Atagirigiri bii Agbon. Ode aiye ati orun.

Slowly, lights fade. The lights on the other side of the stage come on to reveal OBA IDELE’s palace. He is with his CHIEFS. IDELE: You have heard it. The Iyas demand that they must rule this kingdom, my kingdom, for a month, starting tomorrow. Last night, Iya Fadelola appeared to me, dressed in agbada, sokoto and with shoes to match, demanding for the crown. A classic case of madness. MAYEGUN: Forgive me, Kabiyesi. All the three kingmakers present at the Ipebi on that day, should be brought out at the shrine of Ogun, and their buttocks laced with whip. A hundred strokes each. OSI: And grown-up chiefs agreed to that? Custodians of the traditions agreed to that?

OTUN: What were we to do? We wanted the ritual to go

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90 Collected Plays II on. How were we to know that the Iyas would hold us to the promise of the king? OSI: Now I understand the foolery of the elders better. For the ritual to go on undisturbed you agreed to the demands of the Ajes? Have you heard of their oriki which says: A t’apa j’ori At’edo jokan At’idi j’orooro ogalanta A ro’gba aso ma kanle Oni sokoto pempe tii d’elewu etu riyeriye Kukuru l’osan Gboorogbooro l’oru Akeruru, alaruru Ofi mo nakannakan f’enu e so’le gba u. Nakannakan f’enue sole gbau!

Have you heard?

OTUN: I say what would we have done under the circumstances?

OSI: Did Kabiyesi not consult with you?

OTUN: He did.

OSI: And you asked him to go ahead?

OTUN: Haa ... we thought ... MAYEGUN: You thought wrong, Otun, and now we must bear the consequence like men.

IDELE: What does that mean? OSI: A man who boasts of being a great warrior must not be afraid of the sound of guns during a battle. Give them the throne for one month as you all agreed, Kabiyesi. OTUN: Ha, Osi! What rubbish is this? Foul words from the mouth of an elder? What do we tell the villagers? OSI: We shall simply tell the Akegbe to inform them that both the king and Otun have given them a new king for a month. Their king shall be Oba Fadelola ... the supreme Queen of Witches. (Breaks into a laugh.) Imagine the commotion after the announcement. We may even have to change the name of the village to Ajeloba ... or Itedo Aje ... or better still ... Abule Omugo.

IDELE: Osi. OSI: (Prostrates.) Forgive me, Kabiyesi. The truth is bitter today. Even gall tastes better. Si o Otun! MAYEGUN: Kabiyesi, the harm has been done. Now, what are we here to do? IDELE: Good. All three of them; Esu, Orunmila, and the Iyas are coming here to try and resolve the issue. OSI: What issue? Just give them the crown and let them rule or what will come out of this will blossom and yield fat big eggs similar to that of vultures, bald, scraggy ... a full dish of the aftertaste of death. IDELE: Osi. Haaha! OSI: Ejoo, Kabiyesi, but ooto koro. IDELE: Now, I am really worried.

OTUN: (Rises.)Ma fo ya o Idele Ma foya. Omo Lanihun Sebi jagunjagun ni idile yin Ki won to bere sin joba. Omo omo Alafin Oyo Ti nje omo Iku

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92 Collected Plays II Omo arun Ekeji Orisa. Se bi baba baba re nse se. Fo ju di ota re Gante gante okurin meta. Ani fo ju di ota re, ki o gbemi.

(Breaks into a song.) Eni ba foju do ’ba awowo a wo A ni Eye to ba fo ju do oko won Oro agbe! IDELE: Good words, Otun. Honey to the right ear. But to the left ... I hear caution.

OSI: (Rises.) Idele se bo se wi Kabiyesi ... sebo se wi

Oba to soro loni To mu se loba Ani se bo se wi!

IDELE: There! So what do I do now? MAYEGUN: Listen to your heart, Kabiyesi. May the Onile grant you wisdom. ILARI: (Runs in. Prostrates.) They are here, Kabiyesi. IDELE: You all have heard him. One voice. Let them in, Osi! OSI: My lips are sealed, Kabiyesi. (Enter SAURA, IFAOSEKE, FADELOLA still dressed in men’s clothes, PAGA, carrying a pot covered with a red cloth, and ADUNNI.) IDELE: Akapa po ra Enu eye o le ranjo, enu eye o le rankuta Adifa fun Orunmila, a bu fun Esu odara Adifa fun awon eleye ti n se keta won

Lenjelenje Nigbati awon meteeta n yo sinu afin mi I became full of joy ... Aro meta ... meta meta ... meta nta ta gbe. I know my reign shall last forever with my fathers and mothers behind me. Welcome!

ALL: Kabiyesi! IDELE: I thank you all. I shall not waste the time of you all. We know why we have come. Our forefathers say, that if I say the masquerade of my ancestors will dance today at the village square, I have the right to say I changed my mind. Because of the impending rains, my masquerade will not dance again. This is why we are here.

FADELOLA: Oba Idele, you push my patience with your silly joke.

OTUN: Haa, Iya! FADELOLA: Yes. Any common man can change his mind. He is a common man and has nothing to lose. Not a king ... not one addressed as second to the gods ... not you, Oba Idele, not you. What you will lose today will be more than your crown, if you insist on changing your mind. OTUN: Haa, Iya, you are speaking to Kabiyesi, Ekeji Orisa, Oba Alaiyeluwa. FADELOLA: Shut up, old man. Were you not there? If you have nothing to say, then shut up. You push Kabiyesi to the edge of the mountain, and now you begin to talk rubbish. (Chuckles.) Who made him Alaiyeluwa? We! Who made him Igba Keji Orisa?

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94 Collected Plays II

OTUN: You. FADELOLA: No. You did. Orunmila is Igbakeji Orisa ... do not deceive this common being raised to the level of sacrifice by the crown which we gave him to the position of a god.

MAYEGUN: Our mother, it is enough. FADELOLA: Enough? So that what will happen? Tell Oba Idele to keep his word made to us at his Ipebi. Crown me now, and let the Eyes rule for a month. Our Atoka, Esu, has had his wish, so has Orunmila, Agbonmiregun. Why then does he deny us what we asked for? We want it now! (OTUN gets up and goes to IDELE, he whispers into IDELE’s ear. IDELE nods.)

IDELE: Um. FADELOLA: You sigh again. This was the type of whisper which led us to this disagreement. This same Otun’s whisper led an honourable man to become a liar.

SAURA: (Lets out a big laugh.) Akika!

IDELE: What now, Lalu? SAURA: Nothing. It is just interesting to see how the mothers have grown. I remembered them as timid women from the world in search of powers. Big breasted ... bushy haired ... timid dirty women, and now they, through the help of Orunmila and I, have perfected the use of the powers Olodumare gave them, and can now face a king and force sweat to rise from his brows. Interesting. Oba Idele, even amongst thieves, there must be honour.

IDELE: Lalu, you have spoken well. Lalu ogiri oko, I hear you. SAURA: If you have, then pass on the crown. This is not the time for pleasantries. Act, Oba Idele. Power ... (Chuckles.) ... Power is like a fresh pot of soup. It is sweet, intoxicating especially when one is hungry. But with time it begins to ferment, until it rots. If you eat it at that time, it will poison you.

IDELE: We hear you, Esu.

SAURA: You do not, Kabiyesi. I am for both sides. A promise is a promise. Do not let power ruin your agbada Etu. You will soon throw up on the dress, and regrets will follow. Kabiyesi, give them at least this once, and then when they destroy the town, we will have a reason to tell them to kill their desire. Give it to them.

IDELE: (Turns to IFAOSEKE.) What does Ifa say? IFAOSEKE: Oro ... word. To each word, a promise. To each promise a mouth. Like an egg, the word dropped. Oba Idele, what will make the whirlwind of shame carry you? Do not let it, Kabiyesi. Ifa ni kila nbo ni Ile- Ife? Enu ... enu ... mouth is what is worshipped in Ile- lfe ... because of the delicacy of the word. Ifa has spoken. IDELE: And like honey, I lick it up. But, on whose side was I expecting you to be? Elders ... and gods of my kingdom.

(OTUN hurries and whispers into IDELE’s ear.) OSI: Sound like yourself when you speak, Kabiyesi. Do not listen to the sugar-coated voice of those who lure and push the leaders to the point of no return. Sound like yourself, Oba Idele, do not sound enamoured against the forces of spirits ... of gods. Caution, great one ... caution. IDELE: Mothers, I have heard what you have come to say. (Looks at PAGA who is still carrying the wrapped pot.)

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Mother, you have said nothing all day. What is it you carry? (Slowly, PAGA removes the red wrapper from the pot. All are confused.)

FADELOLA: You see, Idele, we have brought your pot of life.

OTUN: Haa! The sacred Oru of the King. This must stop, Iya Agba!

IDELE: But you were to keep this with all secrecy until the day I join the ancestors. Why bring it here?

FADELOLA: To show you that we are serious.

OTUN: Haa ... Women! MAYEGUN: This matter has not gotten to the point of bringing to the king his sacred pot of life. If it as much as cracks, then it is all over for us all. FADELOLA: We have brought it. Now the king will know how serious we are. His smile will be wiped away for good. Do we get the crown or not? (Pause.) Answer! IDELE: I was going to accept, but with this threat, no, I shall not give up my crown, not for a day or even a second. I see your wickedness knows no limits. Fadelola ... Iya Agba Eye, I shall not give you the crown. Do your worst.

FADELOLA: Indeed ... then you shall taste the bitterness of gall. (In one movement, PAGA raises the pot and hits it on the ground. All scream.)

IDELE: (Shaking with anger.) Fadelola, you broke my pot of life. You broke me into shattering pieces, And my placenta no longer holds even to the centre of the earth.

(Rises.)

Fadelola, Fadelola, Fadelola (The CHIEFS prostrate.)

ALL: Kabiyesi!

OTUN: Kabiyesi, please, don’t. IDELE: Step aside, Otun, you have escorted me far enough. It is now between me and the Iya Agba. Fadelola, Fadelola, Fadelola Omo

Fafunwa, Fafunwa lgbomekun O se yi tan? You did this to me? Won ni ki o pa’gun O si pa gun

Aiye re o ni gun ALL: Kabiyesi! IDELE: Let me be. You all saw it. In her name, Fadelola, my supposed mother. Iya Agba mi, Osoronga, shattered my reign. Bi ofo, bi ofo ... Fadelola aiye re d’ofo loni.

ALL: Kabiyesi! IDELE: Fadelola The very death that takes me, must wait and take you too. You shall be scraped into your grave. Oba Okimi o! Oba Okinkin, Oba Agboluaje my father!

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98 Collected Plays II

Eyin alale ... my ancestors ... grant me my Last wish

ALL: Ha, Kabiyesi!

(Sharp lights fade.)

Lights return to reveal IFAOSEKE’s house. IFAOSEKE: Oba Idele was never the same after that. All the medicine men tried their best, but he died. The very way he wished Fadelola’s death.

ADUNNI: And it was the same with Iya Agba. SAURA: I don’t like this. Regret after an action has been taken always makes me very upset. She ordered the shattering of the pot. She knew what she was going to do. I asked her, and she said it was just to frighten the King. But Paga says she ordered her to break it.

ADUNNI: She did not. We had all agreed to take the pot only to frighten the King. Later, Paga said she did not know it was the real pot. But in my heart, I know she lied. She offered to carry the pot, and we all agreed because we felt her hands were steadier. But just like that, a pot is broken, and lives are gone? SAURA: Yes. People forget how feeble life itself is. Clad in false illusion of strength and power, they toy with it, and in a flash, it is gone. (Pause.) So how did Fadelola die? ADUNNI: She died, definitely not like Iya Agba, but as a common being. Iku did not respect her position as the head of the pack. With his club of death, he clubbed her to pieces, leaving scraps for ile to swallow. Our own Iya Agba. IFAOSEKE: The gods granted Oba Idele his last wish, that Fadelola should die the very way he died.

ADUNNI: Ha! That was why as she lay on her sickbed, she

100 Collected Plays II reminded me of Oba Idele. SAURA: You saw him on his deathbed? Who allowed you to take your cursed presence to a man you willingly killed? ADUNNI: I never will be able to explain what happened in the room that night. Iya Agba stood still, not a word. It was the only day I saw her cry. The Oba just took a hard look at her, smiled, as if they knew each other well, each with a personal triumph, known to them alone, then he looked at me ... called me Adun, shut his eyes and died.

SAURA: Did you know him that well?

ADUNNI: Um?

SAURA: You say he called you Adun. Did he know you that well?

ADUNNI: No, but I liked him. I always thought he was an uncle from the past. That was why I was pained at all the happenings. It all went so fast, and watching them both die like sick chickens, saddened my heart. I still do not understand why he sent for us.

SAURA: Us? ADUNNI: Yes. The chief specifically mentioned Iya Agba and myself. The Oba always mistook me for the Ekeji Iya Agba. I got tired of correcting him, so I let it be. But why would he want us to watch him die? IFAOSEKE: He wanted her like a true sister who shared his mother’s womb to share the pain of death which she had brought on him.

ADUNNI: Sister? IFAOSEKE: Yes. You did not know?

ADUNNI: Know what? IFAOSEKE: Her name was Fadelola. She was a princess who fell in love with a commoner’s son. She was made pregnant by the young man. When Oba Adeolu, her father, found out, he disowned and sent her out of the palace to the poor boy’s house without a dowry. The boy died not long after they were married. But before she left her mother, she came to me for wisdom on how to take care of her daughter in the poor compound of over thirty women ... ADUNNI: Baba Ifaoseke, how did she send her off to her husband’s house?

IFAOSEKE: See ...

(Lights fade.)

Owiwi 101

Lights come to reveal FADELOLA’s room.

OLORI: Fadelola, I see you have packed your load.

FADELOLA: (Crying.) Mother, I am sorry. OLORI: You failed me, Fadelola. You should have asked me. I would have told you that it was forbidden for a princess of this land to sleep with a lover before her marriage. Now, I wear the torn dress of shame with tears. See how I stink in the palace.

FADELOLA: Forgive me, Mother. OLORI: Now, see how you separate us. See how your foul action cuts the umbilical cord that is supposed to tie us together. FADELOLA: I shall be well, Mother. I will never leave you. I shall come to the market to steal glances of my mother stride majestically as queen, while I mingle with the kola nut sellers of my new family. And when my baby is born, I shall sing my favourite lullaby you sang for me as I grew up, to him. He shall know you well, Mother. And he shall know me, his loving mother, well too. OLORI: Never! She is not a son, but a girl. My mother, your grandmother, returns. Call her Adundola Omoniyi in her memory. And remember the tradition also forbids you live together, or she will die before the age of ten. FADELOLA: Haa, Mama mi! You people will kill me. First, I cannot be a king because I am a woman. Now, I cannot be a Regent or grow up in the palace because of my abominable act of love. (Begins to cry.) My child, my

102 seed of love cannot even stay with me? You people are wicked.

(An ILARI comes in.) ILARI: Olori, we must take her out. Her room needs to be shut and her feet swept out of the palace grounds for the last time as omooba. Kabiyesi awaits her departure. He needs to cut the thread of birth with her. Omooba, be strong. I am sorry.

OLORI: We know it is time. One moment, I beg you. (The ILARI leaves the room.) Here girl, open your mouth. Do not chew. Swallow.

FADELOLA: Why, Mother? OLORI: Just listen to your mother for once. Take it, girl, and swallow. My mother gave me when I was to come to this big palace with its trials and tribulations. It has protected me well. It shall protect you too. And besides ...

FADELOLA: Besides, Mother ... OLORI: We shall have the opportunity to see each time we want to without your father and his palace guards seeing us. Swallow, child, and let’s procure your protection from the mothers. Now, swallow. We do not have much time to haggle.

FADELOLA: My child will be well? OLORI: Nothing will happen to you or your child. Swallow, girl. I am your mother. I cannot harm you. Swallow, girl.

(FADELOLA swallows.) Huum. Now you have grown fifty times over. You have become an owl who sees everything, who knows everything. You shall rule the night and day. But you

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104 Collected Plays II must use the powers you now possess, wisely. Hurry... go, child. We shall meet even tonight when the moon and stars stand still. (They embrace.) Go, child. Hurry! FADELOLA: I shall go, Mother, but I shall return one day. And on that day the palace will cry. I swear by your love for me, Mother. I swear by the hatred my father now has for me ... for us!

(Lights fade slowly.)

Lights return to IFAOSEKE’s house.

ADUNNI: So that is how she became one of us?

IFAOSEKE: Yes. ADUNNI: With all that bitterness. (Pause.) The child. What happened to the child she was carrying at the time? SAURA: Nothing. She was born. But for their blessings of prosperity, the first thing the Iyas asked from her was the life of her beloved husband. In return she was to become rich and most powerful. ADUNNI: Why? How? Why would she give up the only man she loved? Sometimes, our wisdom baffles me. It baffles even the gods. Your wisdom surpasses reasoning. Your logic surpasses the normal one. (Gets emotional.) That was how they took away my womb in exchange for wisdom. I swear, I ... regret.

IFAOSEKE: Sssh, woman. SAURA: (Clears his throat.) It was the only way she could protect her child. She chose the child and gave up her husband in exchange. IFAOSEKE: But the Eyes had made her promise never to live with the child, to keep her at arms’ length. She was never to let her know that she was her mother, or the taboo of her initial action of unblessed love would kill the child.

ADUNNI: Haa ... no wonder she sent her to Eko-Ile. SAURA: Sent who? Eko-Ile, ke? She lives here. But we, the three of us, agreed never to let her know. That was the

105

106 Collected Plays II

only way they could grow old together while they could also see each other without anybody suspecting. ADUNNI: All these had gone on, and I did not know about it? I never heard of this story. Iya Agba never mentioned a word. And to think I thought I was the closest person to her. SAURA: A woman’s heart is like a chest locked up by the gods. They can marry one man, sleep every night with him ... call him husband ... while all their three children belong to the neighbour next door. This is why I have never thought of getting married. It frightens me.

ADUNNI: Frighten you? I thought Esu rules our hearts. SAURA: Love rules your hearts and your heads. It sets the home for a maze of plots and riddles. The closer you think you are to a woman’s heart, the further away she puts you in her soul. (Chuckles.) Yet, they are the best friends of Esu.

ADUNNI: Why? SAURA: Our spirits are the same. They take a lot from me. For one little egg, they can kill fifty chickens. The proverb kaka ki eku ma je sese, a fi s’awada nu, was composed by the elders for them. IFAOSEKE: I think what he is trying to say is that the more you think Fadelola was evil to Oba Idele, the more she loved him as a brother. ADUNNI: Then why did she kill him that way? Break his pot of life and watch him die in rot? Why?

IFAOSEKE: She died like her brother. ADUNNI: Her brother? No. Iya Agba had no relatives. It was just her ... her three daughters. No one else. Ha ... what riddle of life is this? Things unfolding, and I don’t know a thing about them. IFAOSEKE: One daughter. Iya Fadelola had only one child. A

daughter.

ADUNNI: How about the two daughters who lived with her? SAURA: They are the children of her late sister-in-law. I was there when they were born. It was a long labour of triplets.

FADELOLA: Triplets? SAURA: Yes. Yeye Osun Olomo Wewe called me to assist her. They were sacred from birth. One a dwarf, one an albino, and the other a full- sized child. The albino died at birth. In one sad twisting swoop, they tore her womb into shreds, and killed her as they came out of her at once, as if in a race to outlive each other. ADUNNI: Who was their father? SAURA: You don’t want to know. ADUNNI: Ebita?

(SAURA does not answer.)

Odara? SAURA: (Shakes his head.) My master’s children are the most beautiful of human beings. Remember eniko omo, eni mo oko. Esu odara to dara bii omidan. Ebita to lewa bii ebora inu odo ... Oba orita meta, to kole ni Ika-meji. Her fate was just bad luck. She went to the river too early in the morning, sent by Fadelola, and there she met an ebora, the worst gnomic messenger of Arun –– sickness in human form –– who raped her.

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108 Collected Plays II IFAOSEKE: That is why Fadelola cared for them as her own. But you see now why the children cannot succeed her. ADUNNI: And the child we await from Eko-lle? Definitely, she is Iya Agba’s real child.

SAURA: No.

ADUNNI: Ha! SAURA: The child she had lives here within the village, under our protection ... waiting without knowing. ADUNNI: Waiting? Please, Saura, this is not the time for riddles. Do you know her? IFAOSEKE: We delivered Fadelola of the child. She went to see Saura in his shrine ... Esu’s home.

(Lights slowly fade.) Lights reveal a young, very pregnant FADELOLA coming into the shrine of SAURA. Her head is covered.

SAURA: Woman, what do you want? FADELOLA: It is me, old one. (She uncovers her head.) I think my water broke. My ibekun has happened. I have come as my Olori asked me to. SAURA: You came well, Fadelola. (Touches her stomach.) The child lives. Ifaoseke says it is a female child that you asked for. IFAOSEKE: (Hurries in.) I went to pluck the early morning leaves, and I saw the figure covered with straddling steps. I knew it was her. SAURA: She is here as we agreed. IFAOSEKE: Let’s take her in. SAURA: Is Ogini Olodo ready to receive the child? IFAOSEKE: Yes. He will be here at sunrise. FADELOLA: Ejoo, my fathers, I beg you. E ma je ki omo mi gbomije l’ojumi. I do not want to die. I have buried my husband already and neither do I want to bury my child. Help me. IFAOSEKE: Leave it in the hands of Olodumare. We have begged Esu, Orunmila has a hand in it, and Iya awon Eye has a hand it. Your child

shall be a gift from the three major gods of the land. Ore meta ... Orisa meta, meta nta gbe. Ore ofe meta ni ti re loni. Fadelola o. Do not fear. Ma b’e ru. Hold our hands, girl. (FADELOLA

109

110 Collected Plays II faints.) She has gone to sleep. SAURA: Good. I do not want her to meet the child for too long. You know women, she might change her mind, and we will have a scandal in our hands. I hate it when the villagers say things they don’t understand. IFAOSEKE: Nothing bad will happen. He awaits the arrival of the child. His barren wife is too eager, tired of deceiving the world with a stuffed womb. Her purported birth must also take place today or she will run mad due to mere expectation. SAURA: Hurry, then. This way to the bedroom. My master hates the sight of blood this early in the day. (They take FADELOLA in. Lights slowly fade.) Lights come on to IFAOSEKE’s house. IFAOSEKE: The child came without much effort. A healthy female child. Olodumare be praised. ADUNNI: Who is Ogini Olodo? SAURA: Um? ADUNNI: Baba, speak. IFAOSEKE: A man. An Ifa Priest who left the fold and whose wife was barren. A good man.

ADUNNI: Did he ever return the child to Fadelola? IFAOSEKE: No, he never did. Fadelola knew where her child was, and kept her close but far away from her. She later made her a trusted friend. ADUNNI: I counted myself a trusted friend to Fadelola, and yet, I

didn’t know all these secrets ... then I didn’t know her at all. SAURA: How would you when you spend all the time in church ... playing Iya Ijo. Man amazes me. ADUNNI: I find an inner peace there. But now with all these happenings ... I am confused.

IFAOSEKE: You must make up your mind. The load is yours to carry. ADUNNI: It is. If only I knew where I will go when I die, it would be easier to clear my mind. (Pause.) Now back to the riddle. Who is Fadelola’s daughter, Baba? Is it Paga?

111

112 Collected Plays II IFAOSOKE: No! She will appear to you at the right time. (PAGA enters, agitated and angry.) Paga ... Ikeji Iya Agba has appeared. SAURA: If one hurries the sunshine he could be burnt. Why don’t we wait and see?

PAGA: I greet the elders seated. IFAOSEKE: Hum, Paga ... Obirin meta. Obinrin bi okunrin. On behalf of the elders of the land, I greet you, too.

PAGA: Iya Agba has died.

IFAOSEKE: The elders know.

PAGA: We have buried her.

IFAOSEKE: That we know also. PAGA: But when we went to dig her Oru, it was broken. I brought pieces of it for you to see.

ADUNNI: I told you to bury her with the pot.

PAGA: You told me as what? Um? Answer. As the Ikeji Iya Agba? May I remind you that you are nothing more than the Iya Ewe, the third-in-command. You told who?

ADUNNI: I only told you what was said. PAGA: I wonder what she told you that you still have not uttered a word to me. I saw how you ran to the elders to do my job as the second-in-command. (Sarcastic. Chuckles.) I see you still have the osugbo on. (Pause.) My elders, please, help me ... no ... help us. IFAOSEKE: If the Iya Agba dies and fails to name a successor before she dies, the Ikeji Iya Agba may become Iya.

PAGA: Good. I hereby claim my right to be the next queen of the night owls. It is my right of claim. SAURA: Women! Pity even as spirits ... even as gods empowered by Olodumare, they are women. PAGA: Esu ... I have not heard your voice in this matter. If you were l, about to be raped of her right, plunged and dispossessed, what will you do? SAURA: I will claim my right. PAGA: Good, now, I feel strength flow through my spine. SAURA: All within the span of truth, laced with caution. PAGA: Caution? What type? Oh, speak, man ... my fury rises again ... and blood flows into my eyes. And when I feel that way, I kill even my own. SAURA: Caution, woman. A free for all fight at the market square often leads to the deaths of too many innocent bystanders. Caution. PAGA: I will not swallow a cautionary plea, which will make me a queen of fools. The queen is dead, long live the new queen. ADUNNI: (Rises. Moves slowly towards PAGA.) Here I am. Remove

the toga of power which the late Iya Agba did not bestow on you as it is with our custom. Remove it. (PAGA stretches her hands to undo the osugbo.)

PAGA: In the name of our ancestors before me, I ... IFAOSEKE: Stop, woman ... caution! Let the spirit rule your heart ... let the will of grace rule your heart ... for once, woman, let your soul rule you, and not your head. SAURA: This is why no tale on Esu, my master, has to do with the love of a woman. Why bother? I rule their

Owiwi 113

114 Collected Plays II hearts because of the weakness of their defenses and the extreme passion to destroy what they cannot have. Women!

PAGA: Your words irritate me, Esu. SAURA: What I am saying is take what is yours within the angle of your sight. Perceive it all with your desires. This won’t be a strange decision for you, woman. PAGA: I am beginning to like this man SAURA: But, caution ... Iku raises his club of finality. PAGA: Haa! Esu, you confuse me. SAURA: Without much effort, woman. All you express is a whisper of lust, take it, it is yours, damn the consequences. Take it, Paga. Take it ... (In a whisper.) Take it, Paga. (Convinced, PAGA stretches her hands again.) IFAOSEKE: I shall not watch you hurt yourself within a feeble moment of madness. I shall return you to the Odu Osa Meji ... Osa Eleye of our forebears. Listen, woman. Akapa po ro Enu eye o le ranjo, enu eye o le rankuta Adifa fun Orunmila, a bu fun Esu odara Adifa fun awon eleye ti n se Oketa won

lenjelenje. Nigbati awon meteeta n bo lode aye Won ni ki won rubo Nigbati won de agbede meji aye ati orun, Won ni ki Orunmila lo wo ile aye. Ko de wa difa oun ti kaluku won maa maa se. PAGA: I know this one. Iya Agba Fadelola taught us. IFAOSEKE: Then she taught you well. Go on, woman, but don’t lose the message. Focus on the message of the Odu. PAGA: Nigbati won reti Orunmila ti ko de Won bere sini da gbogbo nkan Orunmila ru. We are not patient birds. Orunmila difa, o ripe awon eleye lo wa nidi oro oun Orunmila lo ba won, awon eleye ni ko se etutu Pe nkan e ko ni baje mo And my sacrifice is the crown which I seek. Give it to me, or else. IFAOSEKE: Saura, forget her ranting. Continue the words of wisdom to Ifa. Woman, listen. SAURA: (Hesitates.) Let them continue. We shall soon get to the part I like. ADUNNI: Nigbati won dele aye, won ripe Orunmila lo ni gbogbo agbara. Won to Esu lo pe ki o ran ’won lowo Lati ni agbara bii ti Orunmila PAGA: Then what is strange in my search for power? My motherly ancestors did it. Why not me? IFAOSEKE: Listen, woman ... listen. Esu ni ki won lo ba Olodumare, o si ko won ni oun ti won maa se PAGA: Olodumare fun won l’agbara. I say give me my power, too. I say

What am I doing that is new? ADUNNI: Nigbati won lo agbara tan, won fe da agbara pada fun Olodumare.

SAURA: Esu ni ki won da agbara pada nitoripe ti won ba da pada

Won yoo di eniyan lasan, eniyan yepere

Owiwi 115

116 Collected Plays II O wa ko won bi won yoo se maa lo agabara na Won wa lo ri agbara naa mo ibikan Ibe ni won ti maa n mu ti won ba fe lo. PAGA: Titi, ti won fi n dagba ti won tun nfi agbara naa lee awon omo lowo. Give me the powers of my mothers. I beg you, Adunni. Once again, I beg you Orunmila ... I beg you Esu odara, give me the power that I seek. IFAOSEKE: Listen, woman. Esu ni atona awon Aje Tori oun lo mo bi won see gba agbara. SAURA: Did you hear that, woman? You burst in galegale demanding for power you don’t even know who gave you and how to use it. Who made you Ikeji Iya Agba? Who cleared the path for you?

PAGA: You. IFAOSEKE: Did we not tell you that is where your rise will end? Did I not tell you that the head which will wear the crown comes from the saworo ide of the dundun drums? Did I not say Ifa did not see your head in the aworoide? Why then do you want to go beyond your place as set by the ayanmo? A destiny you chose before Olodumare with your own hands? SAURA: (In a persuasive whisper.) Paga, you are wiser than the gods. You have become a god already. Untie the osugbo and tie it on yourself. Go on, woman ... you take all night. (Changes his voice again.) I dare you! You weak, common person. PAGA: Me? You dare me? ... See if I am weak. (In one swift move, she grabs the osugbo, unties it from ADUNNI and ties it on herself.) See how well it suits me.

IFAOSEKE: It suits you, does it? Ayo to pa omo Oba lojo kini Lo fe paa omugo loni o. Ifa says the misguided fool and her dream are soon parted. PAGA: Soon? I have what I want. (Begins to cough.) My stomach hurts. (Grabs her neck.) I am choking. Help! (ADUNNI tries to help.) SAURA: Stay where you are, woman. Iku alumutu approaches, his club for snuffing life in his hands. PAGA: (Falls down writhing in pain.) Someone help me. Iya Ewe take this burning osugbo from me before it becomes a shroud. Hurry, Adunni, before it kills me ... (She dies.) ADUNNI: (Standing still, staring at PAGA’s lifeless body.) You should have let me help her. I think we could still have saved her.

SAURA: Let her be.

ADUNNI: Why? I thought she was your friend? SAURA: Yes, I liked her wicked nature until she decided to assault my presence with her greed.

ADUNNI: No, not Paga. Assault you? Never! SAURA: This means that you did not really know her well. One hot night, she came to my shrine, all calm and angry to assault my person.

(Lights slowly fade.)

Owiwi 117

Spotlight on PAGA. PAGA: Binti binti, Bamba bamba! Esu lalu Ogirioko! Laroye ... Larogo, I call you. Tabirigbon gbon Abanija ma wakumo Esu lalu I, Paga, call you. I have come to you, sent by Iya Fadelola. But I plead, I beg you Esu lalu, Help me. I want

the throne of the night owls, And feeble souls want to stop me. Lalu, help me. Are you not aseni bani daro? Esu, oga niluu Are you not atobajaye, elese ogun? Oti baluwe gun esin wole Otili loogun Alagada Oroko-ni-ojoebo le Bi a ba rubo Ki a mu ti Esu kuro I know that in time of sacrifice we must remove your share, even before the other gods eat. But Fadelola, my queen, dares your might, Laroye. She asks, what can you do? Wrapped in the cloak of a supreme fool, she misreads your smugness for weakness. Haa, a stupid move! Only a fool makes an enemy of Lalu. There is more, Lalu. She insults you with these cursed sacrifice. She sends you with disdain fresh fish instead of a fat chicken, Palm kernel oil, instead of rich palm oil and

118 Agidi instead of ekuru. (Presents them.) Laroye Latopa, I warned her. But Paga is a common messenger. So Lalu Ogirioko, go for the sender, Go for Iya Agba Fadelola Se won basubasu, turn her to s’ibalas’ibo. Turn her into an effigy of shame. Go, Esu, go as I await the good news of my impending joy.

(The lights slowly fade.)

Owiwi 119 Lights return to IFAOSEKE’s house. IFAOSEKE: We spoke to her. We begged her, but she did not listen.

SAURA: Do you blame me now?

ADUNNI: This was why you did not raise a finger to save Iya Agba?

SAURA: Yes. IFAOSEKE: When Ifa told me that Fadelola would die, and I was not to have a hand in it, I checked. See what I saw.

120

(Lights fade.) Lights come on to reveal an inner chamber. OBA IDELE’s bedroom. He stands while PAGA lies on the bed.

PAGA: How was I, Kabiyesi? IDELE: Exquisite as usual. Marry me, Olubunmi. Indeed you are a gift from the great god, Olodumare.

PAGA: Hmm, Kabiyesi, you flatter me. IDELE: (He carries a small box of jewelry and gives it to PAGA.) Here is a token of my love. PAGA: Opens it. Haa! All these for me? My love for you swells like my heart, Kabiyesi.

IDELE: Olubunmi. PAGA: Only a handful of people know me by that name. Only my beloved ones like you. Call me Paga, Kabiyesi. It suits my spirit best when I am in this mood. IDELE: Okay, Paga ... um the name tastes hard in my mouth. I like you soft. I need you by my side, woman, by my side always. Giving me love and loyalty.

PAGA: After I become Iya Agba. IDELE: I want you to change ... no, erase the promise I made to the Eyes in my Ipebi. PAGA: I can only do that with the crown on my head. Promise me, Kabiyesi, that ... IDELE: It is yours. PAGA: Then you will join me to remove Iya Agba Fadelola.

121

122 Collected Plays II IDELE: She is gone. The throne rejects her already. PAGA: Then come closer ... my body still yearns.

(As IDELE moves towards her, lights fade.) Lights return to IFAOSEKE’s house. ADUNNI: Paga did that? Slept with the king? SAURA: This is why I have refused to get married. A man would fight and struggle to be successful, and in one smart twist ... a touch of a finger and his skull is filled with water. If only Oba Idele knew what it cost his people to make him king. ADUNNI: (To IFAOSEKE.) And you, Baba, you did not help us to save Fadelola. Why? IFAOSEKE: Ifa does not change destiny. It advises one how to avoid the pitfalls in the way man fulfils his destiny. I warned Fadelola about trusting Paga. But her mistake was that she trusted Paga with all her heart. Now, see how well her trust has borne bitter fruits. ADUNNI: So when Paga convinced her to take the king’s oru, they were both doomed. The king, her brother, and Iya, his sister. SAURA: You see how innocent I always am? People always ignore the Ebita blood in each man and blame it all on me. Is there any more to be said? I have work to do. ADUNNI: I still need help to crack this riddle about Iya Fadelola’s daughter. I must tie the osugbo on the rightful Iya ... one chosen by Olodumare. IFAOSEKE: (Esu goes to Orunmila and whispers into his ear.) Come closer, woman. (ADUNNI moves closer to IFAOSEKE.) Stand before us, woman, and we shall tell you. (SAURA unties the osugbo from

PAGA who still lies dead on the floor. with both of them tying it back

123

124 Collected Plays II on ADUNNI. Steps back.) Behold the daughter of Iya Agba Fadelola.

ADUNNI: Me?

IFAOSEKE: Yes, you.

SAURA: The very one that you seek. ADUNNI: But my father was Adefila, the timber tree cutter. The Christians fondly called him Baba Aladura. SAURA: Yes, Ogini-Agbegi l’odo, son of Adefila. He was the same person.

ADUNNI: I never knew. No one told me.

SAURA: Tell us, Iya Agba, how did you become an owl? ADUNNI: In my sleep one night when I was ten years old, an elderly woman covered her face with the dish of my favourite meal, pounded yam and efo riro. I ate to my fill. And after, she told me to follow her, and without a thought I flew. When we got there, there was a feast with everybody doting on me. IFAOSEKE: Adunni, why do you think I always call you Adunni Oye, Adunni Ade, Adunfe mi? ADUNNI: What do I do now? The troubled twist in my stomach rises. The storm gathers again. The birds battle. I feel too heavy to fly.

SAURA: Fly? To where? ADUNNI: Again, you forget, Fathers, the riddle, my riddle of faith. Held captive ... I am shrouded from light. The last riddle for me to

unravel. I want to know. I must know, Fathers.

IFAOSEKE: Know? About what, woman? ADUNNI: My repeated dream ... the white dove pecking and killing off the owl. Sometimes, I feel choked ... the two birds at war within me. A peaceful white adaba, almost harmless, attacks an Owiwi. I want ... I want ...

SAURA: What do you want, Iya? ADUNNI: I am more confused now. Even now, with all these revelations, I remain supremely confused. I want to shed all these ... Baba ... Baba, if I change my bird, will I change my destiny? (To IFAOSEKE.) IFAOSEKE: I don’t know. With either bird, you are head. As Iya Ijo in your church, you head the women, a strange new world, but now as Iya Agba of the Owls ... a world you know so well. (Chuckles.) You are head of everything. You were born to be the head, woman. You are living your destiny already. Iya! Your ayanmo is soaked in the royal drums tied to the saworo ide. ADUNNI: (In a whisper.) Save me, Lord. Save me. A ri nu rode, Olu moran okan, save me. I feel the dove swell in me. But the owl rises too. Let me soar, Baba, I beg you. My spirit is about to explode in a hurricane of doom. (In a whisper.) I am afraid. But in your name I say, depart, oh strange one. Depart!

IFAOSEKE: Depart? SAURA: To where? Woman, I say to where? You talk of fear. Of whom? What can possibly frighten the queen of the clan? Is it blood or its smell that frightens you? Or is it the chimes and tumtum of your church bells that tingle your veins already. Woman, take your title and go rule both worlds! Either way, I shall be there with you. ADUNNI: No, I shall shatter it all! I shall tear to pieces and turn to strands of disgust that which holds me down. I

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126 Collected Plays II must break this yoke that binds me to a doom of endless flight. (She unties the osugbo and points it at FAUSATU.) Take this, woman. Hold it awhile. I must untie this thread of evil fate. Take it ... Tie it. (FAUSATU collects it and ties it on herself.) SAURA: Be gentle with yourself, woman. Be gentle with yourself. Whichever you choose, remember ... you may shatter your life ... the very roots that bind us together ... so, woman, be gentle with yourself. IFAOSEKE: Call her ... Osetura ... maybe, she may hear us for the last time ... call her. I am afraid her senses deaden. ADUNNI: (In a wild scream.) In his name, I shed you! (She falls, twisting and turning like a woman in pain about to give birth. She holds her stomach as she writhes in pain. Slow sound of drum beats starts.) IFAOSEKE: Call her Osetura. I say call by her first name. (ADUNNI continues to writhe in pain.)

SAURA: Eye abiye, Eye abifo ruru, Eye bagebage

Adunni ooo!

ADUNNI: Nooo! IFAOSEKE: See! It flies. She has ejected one of the sacred birds. Can you see it, Saura? SAURA: (Looks up as if trying to identify a flying object.) Yes ... yes ... I see it. I see it now! She has ejected the one with large, round eyes. She has made a choice. (With slow drums beating.)

(Final lights fade.)

Kraftgriots

Also in the series (DRAMA) (continued)

Niyi Adebanjo: Two Plays: A Market of Betrayals & A Monologue on the Dung- hill (2008)

Chris Anyokwu: Homecoming (2008) Sam Ukala: Two Plays (2008) Ahmed Yerima: Akuabata (2008) Kayode Animasaun: Sand-eating Dog (2008) Ahmed Yerima: Tuti (2008)

Ahmed Yerima: Mojagbe (2009) Ahmed Yerima: The Ife Quartet (2009) Peter Omoko: Battles of Pleasure (2009) ’Muyiwa Ojo: Memoirs of a Lunatic (2009) John Iwuh: Spellbound (2009) Osita C. Ezenwanebe: Dawn of Full Moon (2009) Ahmed Yerima: Dami’s Cross & Atika’s Well (2009) Osita C. Ezenwanebe: Giddy Festival (2009) Ahmed Yerima: Little Drops ... (2009) Arnold Udoka: Long Walk to a Dream (2009), winner, 2010 ANA/NDDC J.P. Clark drama prize Arnold Udoka: Inyene: A Dance Drama (2009) Chris Anyokwu: Termites (2010) Julie Okoh: A Haunting Past (2010) Arnold Udoka: Mbarra: A Dance Drama (2010) Chukwuma Anyanwu: Another Weekend, Gone! (2010) Oluseyi Adigun: Omo Humuani: Abubaka Olusola Saraki, Royal Knight of Kwara

(2010) Eni Jologho Umuko: The Scent of Crude Oil (2010) Olu Obafemi: Ogidi Mandate (2010), winner, 2011 ANA/NDDC J.P. Clark drama prize Ahmed Yerima: Ajagunmale (2010) Ben Binebai: Drums of the Delta (2010) ’Diran Ademiju-Bepo: Rape of the Last Sultan (2010) Chris Iyimoga: Son of a Chief (2010) Arnold Udoka: Rainbow Over the Niger & Nigeriana (2010) Julie Okoh: Our Wife Forever (2010) Barclays Ayakoroma: A Matter of Honour (2010) Barclays Ayakoroma: Dance on His Grave (2010) Isiaka Aliagan: Olubu (2010) Emmanuel Emasealu: Nerves (2011) Osita Ezenwanebe: Adaugo (2011) Osita Ezenwanebe: Daring Destiny (2011) Ahmed Yerima: No Pennies for Mama (2011) Ahmed Yerima: Mu’adhin’s Call (2011) Barclays Ayakoroma: A Chance to Survive and Other Plays (2011) Barclays Ayakoroma: Castles in the Air (2011)

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Arnold Udoka: Akon (2011) Arnold Udoka: Still Another Night (2011) Sunnie Ododo: Hard Choice (2011) Sam Ukala: Akpakaland and Other Plays (2011) Greg Mbajiorgu: Wake Up Everyone! (2011) Ahmed Yerima: Three Plays (2011) Ahmed Yerima: Igatibi (2012) Esanmabeke Opuofeni: Song of the Gods (2012) Karo Okokoh: Teardrops of the Gods (2012) Esanmabeke Opuofeni: The Burning House (2012) Dan Omatsola: Olukume (2012) Alex Roy-Omoni: Morontonu (2012) Chinyere G. Okafor: New Toyi-Toyi (2012) Greg Mbajiorgu: The Prime Minister’s Son (2012) Karo Okokoh: Sunset So Soon (2012) Sunnie Ododo: Two Liberetti: To Return from the Void & Vanishing Vapour (2012) Gabriel B. Egbe: Emani (2012) Shehu Sani: When Clerics Kill (2013) Ahmed Yerima: Tafida & Other Plays (2013) Osita Ezenwanebe: Shadows on Arrival (2013) Praise C. Daniel-Inim: Married But Single and Other plays (2013) Bosede Ademilua-Afolayan: Look Back in Gratitude (2013) Greg Mbajiorgu: Beyond the Golden Prize (2013) Ahmed Yerima: Heart of Stone (2013) Julie Okoh: Marriage Coup (2013) Praise C. Daniel-Inim: Deacon Dick (2013) Wale Odebade: Ariyowanye (The Uneasy Head) (2013) Soji Cole: Maybe Tomorrow (2013) Wunmi Raji: Another Life (2013) Sam Ukala: Iredi War: A Folkscript (2014) Bashiru Akande Lasisi: The First Fight (2014) Angus Chukwuka: The Wedding (2014) Prince Ib’ Oriaku: Legend of the Kings (2014) Denja Abdullahi: Death and the King’s Grey Hair & Other Plays (2014) Julie

Okoh: Cry for Democracy (2014) Walse Tyoden: Hunting Sekyen (2014) Ahmaed Yerima: Orisa Ibeji (2014) Julie Okoh: A Cry for Democracy (2014) Chris Anyokwu: Bloodlines and Other Plays (2014) Titus Ohwonohwo: Edacious Potentate (2014) Pius Osuntoyinbo: Before the Stroke of Noon (2015) Bosede Ademilua-Afolayan: Once Upon an Elephant (2015) Dickson Ekhaguere: Unstable (2015) Isiaka Aliagan: Ogu Umunwanyi (2015) Chukwuma Anyanwu: Two Plays (2015) Ahmed Yerima: Collected Plays I (2015) Dimabo Oruama: The Return of the Golden Sword (2015) ’Muyiwa Ojo: Half a Bag of Lies (2015)

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