Book review
A stool in crisis
By HENRY AKUBUIRO (akuhen@sunnewsonline.com)
Sunday,
February 24, 2008
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Play
Photo: Sun News Publishing
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Can man ever stop tussling over power? For a traditional
stool that is hereditary, you don’t expect any tussle
over ascension, but when it comes to power, a section of humanity
will always go for the punch. In Umuchu community, where this
play, The Puncture, is set, wrangling over who becomes the
next OkeNze, a title equivalent to the title of kingship,
is tearing the community apart.
Laserian Onyeka Anufuru’s play looks at the paternity
question in our traditional society. In Africa, the biological
child of a man is often taken as his real children. Chubby
is the adopted child of Chris, the OkeNze. His death means
that his adopted son should become the next OkeNze. This,
however, does not go down well with some people.
As expected of a play predicated on power tussle, the traditional
institution is polarized within two camps. Iwuji leads those
in support of the status quo while Amaechi is leading those
who want to scupper the process for choosing the OkeNze.
The Puncture is a play characterized by pulsating actions.
Anger is easily stirred up. Fight breaks up with rapidity
and hate reigns supreme. With flashbacks, the playwright connects
past events with the present. The diction is laced with proverbs
and local nuances.
Ndidi’s case in the play is pathetic. She has had three
conceptions without babies, which leads her husband Chris
to adopt Chubby. “It’s now obvious that I cannot
bear my children, ” she laments after the latest miscarriage.
Chris is not as pessimist as she is, and would like her to
keep hoping for the better.
The playwright attempts to expose the hypocrisy of some elders
in our society who are supposed to be the bastion of tradition.
When Chubby was adopted, the rite of “ihenrisanwa”,
which is the traditional way of accepting a child as bonafide
son of the soil, was performed. Though the like of Amaechi
is cognizant of this, he believes Chubby should not be accorded
the same right as a biological son.
At the heart of Amaechi’s action is selfishness (he
wants the stool to be transferred to his family), though he
appears to be making a case for the appropriateness of traditional
laws. Chubby, despite the promise of becoming the next OkeNze
is not overambitious. He doesn’t expect his grandfather’s
brother to be championing a cause against him.
In showcasing the culture of the people, the playwright demonstrates
the system of administration in his native Igbo land. The
Ndi Ichies are the traditional titleholders in the community,
and they play arbitrative functions. Their constant meetings
to address the paternity of Chubby point to one of their functions.
But, like every society, personal interests have made them
to align themselves to different camps.
A play is meant to excite, among others, and with the wrangling
between Amaechi and Iwuji, you get a run for your money. They,
unfortunately, show the delinquent character of elders. Amaechi
is the most delinquent of all. In reaction to Chubby’s
right to air his view on the paternity palaver, he throws
a taunt at him: “The tiger cannot bear a goat….”
Despite his age, Chubby is a witty bloke. When he finally
gets the chance to speak, he queries: “People of Umuchu,
Ndi Ichie, please, I want to know if Umuchu observes a custom
known as ‘ihenrisanwa’? Probing further, he wants
to know why his late father performed the rite, which makes
him to roar at him: “You are stupid to ask such a question…!”
Anuforo’s elders in the play codemixes their speeches.
In response to the rebuke by Amaechi, he says: “…
you are the one who are mad for uttering inyo with your mouth
and refusing to comport yourself.”
The Madman plays a comic role in the play. Despite his mental
derangement, he doesn’t utter just gibberish. Behind
his lunacy are often words of wisdom. Following the scuffle
between Iwuju and Amechi, which leads to the dispersal of
the crowd from the village square, the Madman appears beating
the village gong. Though it sounds ironic for him to call
the villagers “ndi ara” (madmen), there is wisdom
in what he is saying, for they have comported themselves like
madmen.
If that is less derisive, other statements by the Madman,
still beating the Ogene, are outrageous: “… I
thought I have reminded you about the Ihenrisanwa, and you
people still want to fight again. Mad people still want to
fight again. Mad people, you have not yet installed an OkeNze
and there is no time again. Mad people, you want Umuchu to
burn. I cannot burn with you people. Mad people.”
The playwright, it seems, from his deployment of the madman
motif, wants to emphasize the absurdity of the human mind
in his dealings with fellow men. Nothing typifies this madness
than the mockery that has become the quest for power in Umuchu,
where the late Chris’ brother is the one championing
the plot to disinherit his grandson of the stool of OkeNze.
The chief priest, in the traditional scheme of things, occupies
a sensitive position, for he is engaged in a communion with
the gods. To resolve the crisis in the play, the playwright
invites the Chief Priest to mediate. His position doesn’t
go down well with the overambitious Amaechi: “The people
of Umuchu accepted the seedling as tradition demands. And
now the seedling has grown into a tree and developed taproots.
Henceforth, strange seeds shall occupy the sacred stool of
Umuchu … because what you accepted as a seedling, you
cannot turn around out of selfish motive to reject as a grown
tree.”
Thus, Chubby becomes the next OkeNze. The ending of the play
is fatal for Amaechi as he wrongly shoots his son who is trying
to prevent him from shooting the new OkeNze. The Puncture
really punctures the hearts of the iniquitious.
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