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Tag: Denja Abdullahi

  • An uncommon epic

    Title:Death and the King’s Grey Hair
    Author: Denja Abdullahi
    Publishers:Kraftgriots, Ibadan
    Reviewer:Edozie Udeze

    Historical and epic plays have a way of gripping you.  They grip you not only with words of wisdom, but with actions that put you in the mood to begin to recollect stories told by your grandparents.  This is the story of the people of old who lived by the dictates of their time and values.  In Death and the King’s Grey Hair, Denja Abdullahi, a playwright and poet, combines his mastery of these two genres of literature to deliver a classical play infused with deep wisdom and the right sense of values, norms, proverbs and idioms.

    In the land of Shakaga, it was meant to be guided by laws of the old.  The King is not meant to rule for long.  The idea is to circumvent a long reign that will make the King become tyrannical.  Once there is a grey hair on his head, he will be asked to drink poison.  When he does so, he will die and will turn into a lion.  This has been on for a long time.  It has helped the people, the Kingdom, the Shakaga land to survive years of short reigns.  This has been good for the people so that the wise men in the land act as checks and balances.  They monitor the King, checking for the grey hair from time to time.  But Esutu, the clever king tries to outwit his people of Shakaga.  Unknown to the wise men who suddenly begin to suspect Esutu, he has devised some dubious means to avoid having grey hair on his head.  But death must come for the King as soon as a grey hair is noticed on his head.  However, being clever and smart enough to evade this age long tradition, King Esutu employs the services of a friendly Prince from a far away land to dye his hair from time to time.  Using the excuse of visiting his friend, the King, he comes in, takes him into his inner chamber to apply his medicine.  But on this fateful day, luck runs out on them both.  The cat is let out of the bag.

    Before now, the wise men have engaged the king in exchange of banters and demand that the King conforms to the demands of the land.  The King refuses to subject himself to the scrutiny before the elders council or even listen to their voices of reason.  He rejects the messages sent to him to come out openly to declare his status.  He turns himself into a tyrant so that the elders become more enraged.  There is then a hide-and-seek game between the King and his council of elders.  In the end, a poison bearer is sent to him to do the needful.  The King seizes him, forces him to drink the poison instead.  Before now, he had taken into prison the poet who took the banner to him to summon him to appear before the elders.

    The play recounts what happened in Oworo, an ancient city from where the playwright extracted the idea for the play.  But the lesson in the play goes beyond the location or point where the drama originally took place.  When the old tyranny flees from the city because he could not stand the power of the masses, it shows how we can also make for the desired change we need.  King Esutu, in spite of his bravado could not stand the collective power of the people, when they rose against him.  Even though the masses complained of armed robberies, of object poverty, abductions, injustices, seizures of lands, all kinds of evil done by the king and his cohorts, it could be seen that the centre could no longer hold.  The people had suddenly become tired of the antics of the palace people.  This was why it was easier to upstage the king and his people.  It is also to show that kings do not really act in the interest of their subjects most of the time.  There is need for a new beginning; time to start on a new slate.

    When the old ways have failed, then it is time to forge ahead with new ideas.  This is the import of this play and Abdullahi deployed all the good ingredients of an epic to deliver a master play on the psyche of a people.  It is not just deep, it is didactic, a play that gives a director the freedom to experiment with a number of options.  The songs vary; the dances tilt towards love, celebrations, dirges and curses.  There is enough room to revisit songs of the old, and come back to the present to situate this new beginning.

    It is a play on ideas; ideas of leadership, followership, collective sense of responsibility on both the young, the old and not too young.  The common man has a role to play.  Market women also hold the ace.  In this sort of collective hold against the status quo, it becomes easier to chase tyrants out of the way.  ‘Then we can beat the gong with festive frenzy.  We can blow the trumpet to high heavens.  We caress this drum like a fond friend.  We can then call on the flutist to commune with the wind’.  With all these we can mark this end, then mark this beginning… using the zeal of a new era to maximize profits.  The book made the longlist for the 2018 Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) literature prize.

     

  • Seeking balance between modernity, tradition

    Death and the King’s Grey Hair by Denja Abdullahi seems misleading as it diverts all attentions from the king who appears to be the fog in the wheel of tradition. All preying eyes are deceitfully navigated to the words ‘death,’ and ‘grey hair’ so that the unending feelings to ferret out the concomitant intriguing twist that underlie the entire actions in the play become the cliff hanger that allows no alienation effect. As some critics will avow, cliff hanger is a potent element of magical realism or surrealism if you like. It operates alongside another seminal element of magical realism called myth. These artistic elements evident in the play, inform the playwright’s dramaturgy.

    The play which begins in the middle (in medias res) unfolds in a very serious way; readers are plunged deep into the major tension of the play. This tension as dialogued by the Seven Wisemen in the play, is a stinking complexity whose clenched fist ravages the entire people of Shakaga. With due recourse to Gustav Fretag’s dramatic pyramid of a plot structure in his Die Technik des Dramas (1863), it is pertinent to opine that the play starts in the climax of the event when the engulfing conflict is being raised, and with a sharp yet apt flashback recoils to the exposition. From this point, the conflict rises again and finally retires to the expected denouement.

    The entire play is predicated upon this statement: we do not gather to crack nuts like little children. But from time to time we gather to tie or untie the knots of tradition.

    This mind-boggling statement made by the 1st Wiseman captivated my mind and heaped several possible interpretations on it. First, I envisioned the words ‘tie,’ ‘untie’ being employed in the same context. Second, how the two words lend credence to the entire play. By ‘tie’ the characters intend to salvage and see to the continuum of their revered tradition. While ‘untie’ is used to connote the total mutation of the tradition, if it has become barbaric such that total adherence to it constitutes a bane to modernism as well as development. Merging both words, and or contextualizing them, we could note worthily adduce that the characters intend to salvage the tradition before revamping it. Therefore, ‘tie,’ and ‘untie’ as used above are paradigms or fulcrums of the play.

    In movement one, we are introduced to a flashback from Otolofon, the 5th Wiseman and ruffle of royal heads, which is actually the very point from which the play begins. He reminisces into how the injunction that was given to the king upon his ascension to the throne of Shakaga, as the playwright puts it:

    VOICE: The land of short reigns and young kings. The king must be young to rule the land with the blood of the young. The blood of the young shouts the blessings of the gods. Rule the land with your young blood and achieve. The old and the wise among you are there to guide the youn. Esutu, may you not live long when you become king for a very long life on the throne makes a king a tyrant. Or a king becomes an old senile man abandoning the land to conflicts and usurpers. Esutu  at the sprout of the first white hair on your head, seen by the ruffle of the royal heads, you must drink poison, die and be taken to the forest where you will join your ancestors as a lion. Esutu, pledge your acceptance of the laws

    Esutu: I pledge that i will obey the laws…(20)

    From the foregoing, we witness that the king Esutu was given a myriad of injunctions to which he agreed. But the overwhelming reverence and concatenation of riches associated with the throne bedraggled and beclouded his sense of reasoning. Thus, he appeared irrational in the eyes of the people of Shakaga. As custom demands, the king is supposed to take poison and depart to the afterlife where he will metamorphose into a lion, at the sproud of his first grey hair, but he negates this traditional sanctum. He has a friend, a prince who comes from a different kingdom whose tradition holds something entirely contrary to that of Shakaga. This friend of his provides him with hair dye that help keep his hair as dark as possible, so that he gets in the way of tradition and remains King. It is a truth universally acknowledged that no living human who has tasted poverty before becoming affluent will even by any stretch of imagination think of falling back to poverty again. Efua Sutherland’s Marriage of Anansewa is a clear testament. We see Ananse who has tasted poverty before struggling to remain rich by receiving a junk of gift from different suitors who came to ask her daughter’s hand in marriage

    Although the king had already acquiesced in the plethora of traditional mumbo-jumbo given him by the custodians of Shakaga’s tradition, and by virtue of this oath-taking, he was charged with the onus of maintaining the continuum of the tradition, and to sternly mete out the laws on defaulters, but his unchecked ego catapults him to a situation of total insubordination to the law. Another striking point about the book is that while portraying the apotheosis of the culture of Shakapa as bedecked with gargantuan customary legal underpinnings, the playwright engineers a Kaleidoscopic movement from the old order to modernity so that what obtains in the old order is disdained and seen as mythic. The question whose answer is to be puzzled out is what more could King Esutu has done when his confidant, the prince from another kingdom keeps referring to Shakaga’s tradition as being mundane and antiquated?

  • ANA starts construction of writers’ village

    ANA starts construction of writers’ village

    The Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) has concluded arrangements to begin the construction of writers’ village at Mpape, Maitama extension of the FCT on Friday.

    Malam Denja Abdullahi, the National President of ANA made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Abuja.

    Abdullahi explained that the project had been on the drawing board since a piece of land was allocated to the association in 1985 by late Maj.-Gen. Mamman Vatsa, then Minister of the FCT.

    “Since then, ANA has been trying to develop the land, but due to paucity of fund and lack of assistance, the land remains undeveloped.

    “But about four years ago, we did a groundbreaking ceremony and with the aid of a developer cleared the place and do other earthworks on the land.

    “After the ceremony we entered into the process of development plans and getting approval for the building plan; we have been trying to do a lot of things.

    “The things that preoccupied us for the past four years were infrastructure-based, building drainage to control flood, and all that.

    “Now we are set to commence effective development of the Writers’ Village that can be seen. This is what we want to do and will happen on Friday,”Abdullahi said.

    The ANA president said that if completed, the structure would house the National Headquarters of the association, which is currently at National Theatre, Lagos.

    Abdullahi explained that the projects to be executed in the land will include library, chalets for writers and a hotel and conference halls that could generate revenue for the association.

    “So, those are the things we want to achieve after building the writers’ village.

    “We also want to use the foundation laying ceremony to embark on some developmental models which we already have.

    “Similarly, we want to use the opportunity to appeal to state governments in the country to donate a building each and name it after their States or a writer from their states.

    “We also want to call out to national and international bodies towards assisting ANA to achieve the dreams of Vatsa, a writer and a soldier who was so passionate to donate the land to the association in 1985.

    “ANA is the sole owner and has a legal right to the land even though it has gone through attempts by some people to take it away, “Abdullahi said.

     

  • Me and my Books: My poetry is all about profundity

    Me and my Books: My poetry is all about profundity

    Denja Abdullahi, a poet and award-winning writer is the vice-president of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA). His collection of poems include Mairogo: A Buffon’s Poetic Journey Around Northern Nigeria, Abuja Nunyi, The Talking Drum, A Thousand Years of Thirst, among others. In this interview with Edozie Udeze, he says that poetry is the mother of all genres of literature

     

    Who are your favourite authors in the world and why?

    The writing world is diverse with unique styles, subject matters and brilliance that it is difficult for me to have favourites. Let us just say all good writers I have read are my favourites, and even those I am yet to read but hopeful of eventually reading.

    What sort of books do you like most?

    Books that explore people’s historical and cultural experiences in an epical sweep; whether poetry, plays or novels. I like profundity when it comes to books. Profundity of theme and style. There are too many books out there on the shelves and online begging to be read; anyone that catches my attention must have something unique about it.

    When you read a book, what are the salient things you look out for?

    What it says about the human experience, the underlying hilarity, the power of language in freshening even stale old concepts and larger-than-life characters that are in reality often life-like.

    When and where do you like to read?

    I read whenever and wherever I can have some moments to myself, away from work, family and the fulfillment of the rigours of existence. Those moments are getting fewer by the day, I must say. I read before going to bed, on the verge of sleep, in transit; by road and air, when I am not the one doing the driving or piloting (that is even when the journey is bereft of recklessness and turbulence) and whenever I am out of station, away from my usual habitué.

    What is your preferred literary genre?

    I have written more of poetry, so should I say poetry is my preferred genre? I love all the genres, I do not discriminate in my choice of genre.

    As a child, what books tripped you most?

    As a youngster, the pacesetter series greatly influenced me to contemplate the infinite world of the imagination. They were very realistic portrayal of life and living on the African continent in the popular sense. The stories and characters of that series, including even the authors, were engraved in my adolescent memory for such a long time that I penned one myself but I later lost the manuscript. The titles of the series still echo in my mind till today: The Undesirable Element, Stop Press: Murder!, Bloodbath at Lobster Close, Sweet Revenge, Sisi, Evbu My Love, Christmas in the City, etc. I later on discovered the African Writers Series and feasted on the titles accordingly.

    What book or books have had the greatest impact on you; why and how?

    Roots, by Alex Haley, for its epical sweep of the trauma of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. I was angry about the plight of the black race as I read the book. And this feeling was aggravated as I read the book at the time the TV series was first shown on national television. The African Night Entertainment, by Cyprian Ekwensi, with its quest motif, dreams, magic and expose into the northern Nigerian clime also was definitive in my reading career; so also the phantasmagoric world of D.O Fagunwa’s novels.

    At what point in your life did you begin to nurse the idea of being a writer?

    In my first year in the university, after experiencing a culture shock with the almajiri system at the Jos Main Market some many years ago; though my writerly sensibility goes way back before that encounter.

    How has writing shaped or moulded your life?

    It has made me conscious of the fact that words are double-edged, they build and destroy; their employment for either purpose is what our lives are all about.

    If you met your favourite author(s) face-to-face, what would you ask him/her?

    How did you get to do that? What the hell was going through your mind?

    Of all the works you’ve read, which character strikes you the most?

    Many are swirling in my head right now, but I will readily pick Mohun Biswas in V.S. Naipaul’s A House For Mr. Biswas. He is such a comically tragic character in a struggle of existence, like that of the average man who does not want to die in obscurity.

    What do you plan to read next?

    The much-hyped The Accidental Public Servant by Nasir El-Rufai, I just want to get it out of my reading view and of course the dashing account of the Nigerian Civil War as executed by the Third Marine Commando in Alabi Isama‘s The Tragedy of Victory. Of course if you ask me the one I would like to read first, I will go for Isama’s.

    Are you a re-reader and how often?

    There are so many good books out there still unread than to indulge in the luxury of leisurely re-reading. I only re-read strictly for academic or research purposes, and this takes various forms.

    How do you arrange your books in your private library?

    Mercifully on the shelves in the office; books for research on their own, unread stuff together in their own territory and already read ones that can be loaned out to curious friends and acquaintances at their own end. Of course, one does not have the resources of the Library of Congress. So, many other books, more than the one on the shelves, are in re-enforced Ghana-must-go bags at a dedicated depository at home, competing with other bricks and bats and getting on the nerves of madam all the time.

    What does writing mean to you?

    Writing is my alternate career that has in its way defined my main career. Writing takes you above the ordinary; it confers on you a sage-like quality and raises you above the common throng. If you are lucky to have written anything good, be sure it will endure and confer on you immortality.

    How do you get your inspiration to write?

    I am inspired most to write not by solitude or a serene atmosphere that most writers cherish, but by great activity around me, market place noises, festive music and other such ambience. When people and things are uninhibited, I derive inspiration from that and that is where I hit on some great writing ideas.

    You have written more of poetry, at least the published pieces. Why?

    It is so because poetry is the mother of all literary forms. Let me deal well first with the mother before I start dealing with the sons and daughters. I write other genres too which are largely unpublished. There was a time I declared in a published interview after my last published poetry collection A Thousand Years of Thirst that with that I had paid my debt to poetry, meaning I want to take a break from poetry. Niyi Osundare, the renowned poet who I have had an over two decades relationship with, which began with him being my subject of research as an undergraduate, read that interview and sent me a private email saying “Denja, how dare you!” He was more like, you cannot pay the debt you owe poetry. I replied that I was only joking literarily; that I was only expressing my wish to bring out my writings in the other genres and that poetry will always be part of me. Presently, I am working on a play and another collection of poetry; this time with a religious theme.

    What was the most important book to you in 2012 and which one for 2013?

    There Was a Country by Chinua Achebe for all the reiteration of the role of the writer in the society contained in it and for the issues it raised regarding the dynamics of perspective in narrating lived experiences. For 2013, none yet.