We continue to marvel at the literary career of the
phenomenon called Wole Soyinka- a man who now, not so far from the age of 90,
continues to dazzle with his assorted writings.
He was very young when the world already took note of him as
a brilliant playwright well over half a century ago....and at 80 or almost 80
he wrote this brilliant play, Alapata Apata.
Alapata Apata? An ingenious fecund title. Anyone of Yoruba
extraction will confirm this. The great man himself is proud of the title, no
doubt as one saw during tv interviews when he chuckled with satisfaction whilst
explaining the alliteration/puns et al in respect of the title.
Soyinka of course has been street lights ahead of virtually
rest of the field as a playwright for years on end. He is also a profound
linguist. Not only in English. He has appeared in at least one major French
dramatic production over the years, and we have seen him delivering important
speeches in the French. Of course in English he is easily one of the Best in
the world, if not the best...?
Yoruba is Soyinka's mother tongue, and he relishes it, as is
palpable from the manifold allusions and aphorisms that dot his work. There is
the small matter of his translating the classical works of monumental Yoruba
writer, D. O Fagunwa into English. In this play, Alapata Apata, the Nobel
Laureate toys and exhilarates in the Yoruba language, though the phalanx of
English language readers will still appreciate the work.
We see the reference to "xenophile" alongside the
title of the book. No, I hardly knew the meaning of the word too - though it is
useful to think of the opposite of xenophobe (xenophobia)... But in this book
we also see the very hilarious, sarcastic side of Soyinka which has always
typified his Writings.
The protagonist, Alaba who is the "alapata"
(Butcher in Yoruba language) is a rather weather beaten man, assailed by
pertinent political giants that this reviewer will not highlight upon here. (Also
note that "apata" means Rock in Yoruba). Hence a simplistic
translation of the title of this book from Yoruba to English would be something
like The Butcher of the Rock.
I like the reference to a "Teacher " friend of
Alaba here, a thinker and articulator who might remind of us the Spartan
teacher in Ayi Kwei Armah’s superb novel, The beautyful ones are not yet born.
The Teacher in this play is the one who emphasises the essentially futile,
vapid, ineffectual existence of many important Africans, as it were.
And Alaba accepts this, rather gleefully and farcically. He
acknowledges he is involved in often doing "Nothing. Nothing. Nothing...Oh
Teacher. You are a Tower of Strength… I feel inspired my Mentor. Energised…’’
Top notch Soyinka drama – as usual!
- Review by O. (Eric) Bolaji.
