ALAPATA APATA. By Wole Soyinka

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.