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

Contents
Agudua ....................................................................... 7 Owiwi
......................................................................... 65
5
Agudua
7
8
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.

10
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?
11
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
Agudua 29
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
Agudua 31
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
Agudua 33
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.
Agudua 37
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
Agudua 39
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
41
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.
44
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
Agudua 47
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.
62
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
65
66
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.
67

Characters
ADUNNI PAGA FAUSATU FADELOLA IFAOSEKE SAURA OBA
IDELE OTUN MAYEGUN OSI
ILARI
 WOMEN AND IFA PRIESTS
68
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?
Owiwi 71
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
Owiwi 75
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
Owiwi 77
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
Owiwi 79
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
Owiwi 83
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.)
Owiwi 85
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.
Owiwi 87
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
Owiwi 89
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
Owiwi 91
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?
Owiwi 93
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.)
Owiwi 95
96 Collected Plays II
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!
Owiwi 97
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
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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
Owiwi 103
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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
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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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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
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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?
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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
Owiwi 125
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)

127
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)

128