Book review
Political upheavals
By HENRY AKUBUIRO (akuhen@sunnewsonline.com)
Sunday,
March 9, 2008
|
Photo:
Sun News Publishing
|
|
Lantern Books, Lagos, 2004, pp. 152
Given the number of bad leaders that have led Nigeria and
the political trajectory that the country has experienced
for many years, our writers have continued to fictionalize
these developments. In Us Lies the Fault, a novel by the albino
novelist, Anthony Anierobi, is another reminder of the inglorious
past.
Set in an imaginary country called Blackaria, the author depicts
a country in shambles. The federal system being practised
by the country has not worked well. Ethnicity is rife and
echoes of marginalization are everywhere. The domination of
by a few ethnic groups in the country is another bane.
The beginning of this novel doesn’t read like fiction.
It seems like a political documentation of a troubled country,
because it is bereft of fictional sublimity. There are hackneyed
and sterile references to a civil war, numerous political
and religion uprisings, students and labour strikes, clamours
for secession from the country, the conveying of a national
conference – which makes the unliterariness of the exposition
as repulsive as the reverberations of untutored ejaculations.
As the country of Blackaria grapples with sordidness in its
national affairs under the leadership of Retired General Oluremi,
the author uses the social wrangling in the community of Osuofia
as a microcosm of the national retrogression. The quest for
power rears its ugly head again, and blood flows.
The abject portrayal of the community is alarming. Like most
towns in Blackaria, it is underdeveloped, with no electricity,
pipe borne water and motorable roads, save for “a small
dispensary, a small post office and a few other infrastructure”
(p. 4).
The irony of it is that the woes of this community are inflicted
by its own learned citizens, who sabotage every attempt to
develop it, lining their pockets, instead.
In Us Lies the Fault may have grand themes of corruption,
misrule and retribution, but it is a novel written without
consideration for style and techniques. A worse superlative
could be obliged to qualify the shocking read. The story line
isn’t totally warped like the former, however.
Occasionally, one gets a flash of brilliant expressions and
descriptions, but their sparing occurrences don’t make
for a page-turner. This string of sentences: “every
night, the people of the town had to depend on the moon. Whenever
it appeared in the black-blue sky the people of Osuofia nursed
the sorrow of their deliberate neglect… The moon once
again had appeared in the black-blue sky. Fully rounded like
a circular bowl, its light shimmered on the entire land of
Osuofia ... (p. 7)” is one of the few enlightening moments
in a turgid prosaic undertaking.
There is an element of African storytelling tradition from
page 7 to 20 when Odo narrates to his children, Uba and Mma,
the town’s heroic exploits and unforgettable moments.
But one wonders what its contribution to the realization of
the plot is.
The conflict in this novel is between man and man. In Osuofia,
both the past and the present king of the community, Ibe,
are bad eggs. The incumbent, Igwe Ibe, even embodies a most
tyrannical leader.
Just as it on the national stage, where usurping power has
become an attraction to many over ambitious people in Blackaria,
Igwe Ibe equally does same for a crown meant for people from
the village of Dueze in Osuofia, where is different from his.
Mazi Odo represents a forward-looking, training his two children
to university level. He is the opposite of the arrogant king.
The author depicts a traditional leader who is defiant to
societal norms and ethos, as well as laws. The oracle of the
community plays an important role here: through its chief
priest, Adio, it warns the usurper of the dire consequences
of his action: “… a defiance to this warning means
an atrocious sacrilege. Its consequence is always unreserved….”
Yet he is adamant, replying: “The past remains the past.
The present remains the present. Our forefathers are gone
with their tenets and ways of life. When will our modern way
of living be devoid of superstition? (p. 27).”
Mazi Odo continues to be a strong personality in Osuofia,
and he cannot be cowed by the usurper, which makes him the
major enemy of the king. The author presents a society that
is imperiled by many woes. Besides bad leadership, the activities
of members of a notorious cult group, Owunsu, have held the
people hostage to fear. Ichie Ude, an ally of the king, is
a member of the cult, and the king uses his witchcraft to
dehumanize his subjects in order to achieve his selfish aims.
Diseases and deaths occur with rapidity, yet stoicism appears
to be become a resignation for many of his subjects at the
early stage.
In the height of Igwe Ibe’s dastardly acts, he masterminds
the murder of the pious Odo, typical of notorious leaders
impatient with opposition. In response to the people’s
demonstrations against his misrule, he sets his deadly terror
squad, the Zombie Squad, to torment them.
There is a reward to good education: this underlines the result
of Mazi Odo’s effort in training his children up to
university level. Uba and Mma later becomes accomplished people,
which translates to success and fortunes to their father who
toiled to train them.
In Us Lies the Fault ends on a high, with a religious intervention
saving the people from the stranglehold of evil. There is
a glimmer of hope, too, on the national level, when Mr. Johnson
is elected the new president of Blackaria. But a novel is
not all about a topical issue; how it is told matters. This
is where this offering is a putdownable read. Its languorous
strokes make no canonical pretension.
|
