Ogun gives Soyinka Kongi Harvest for birthday
Felix Omoh-Asun
(as published by Compass Newspaper of Monday, 27 July 2009 00:00 )Felix Omoh-Asun
INSIDE June 12 Hall, Kuto, Abeokuta, Ogun State, last Monday, the 75th birthday celebration of the Nobel Laureate for Literature, Prof. Wole Soyinka, turned into... a dramatic thrill with a grand performance of Kongi Harvest.
The play published in 1967 by Soyinka, a professor of drama and literature set the hall in frenzy with pregnant pangs of suspence, bursts of laughter and all the traits of holistic entertainment. Even in the deep technical and reflective nature of the production marked by peculiarities in the use of language as well as long span, the audience felt no boredom throughout the presentation.
The play once again brought to the fore the intrigues and power play that mark the Soyinka theatre. Dwelling on the bane of the Nigerian (African) state as the playwright usually does, the play served a healthy dose of traditional music and spectacular costumes with a large cast strength of over 50 artistes. It was a quintessential Soyinka drama served in the eminent dramatist's honour in his home state's theatre.
Rich description, elaborate scenes, and fascinating characters are interwoven in a narrative style laced with side-splitting humour and elevated language.
Sponsored by the Ogun State Government as a mark of honour to the globally renowned writer, who hails from the state, the play is a reminder of the relevance of the Nobel Laureate to the political, social and national development of the nation. Although, Soyinka was not present in the venue, given his engagements outside the country, his people came en mass to watch the play - outsitting the space in the auditorium.
According to the artistic director of the play, Tunde Awosanni, Kongi Harvest is more relevant now than ever before. Considering the bent of the play, its thematic thrust and current political developments, the University of Ibadan Theatre Arts teacher who has an expertise in Soyinka dramaturgy, said that Kongi Harvest is for today's audience. "The elements in the play make it very relevant to the present democratic experience," he reasoned.
The scholar who described the performance as his own gift to the playwright on his 75 birthday, further said this of the production: "It is a deep and profound play. It is a clash of tradition and military, of betrayal of traditional society, of military dictatorial nature and of the Yoruba worldview and the emerging military force. This is my gift to Soyinka at 75."
The worsening political situation in Nigeria in the mid 60s, just as today, is Soyinka's inspirational canvas for Kongi's Harvest. First performed at the Dakar Festival of Negro Arts in 1965. The play is woven around the establishment of a dictatorship in an African state. A venal politician; an uncommitted, corrupt traditional ruler, and the ruthlessness of a man driven toward power are all sub-factors in the drama.
To Awosanmi, Soyinka's Nigeria of the 60s is a country in transition, attempting to mould itself out of a variety of tribal cultures and a turbulent European colonisation. Soyinka did not romanticise his native land nor was he willing to see African culture as a flat symbol of primitiveness. He was as willing to charge Nigerian politicians and bureaucrats with barbarity and corruption as he was eager to condemn the greed and materialism of the West.
In Kongi Harvest, Soyinka tends to interprete his personal experiences of social protest, harassment by the authorities, incarceration, and exile into a broad framework of historical and literary references. Imprisonment and death are set as handy hammers to repress those who fail to understand and fall in line with dictators' schemes. New offences are continually being created. Charges such as treason and unsubstantiated links to (then dreaded) Communism are easily framed up against whosoever the rulers desire to bring to book. Those present at Segi's and Daodu's protest are therefore easily liable to being charged with treason.
Indeed, the play centres on the community of Kongi and the harvest of clashes, blood and manipulation. This clash is enacted between the Oba (Segun Ogundipe), the traditional head and the President, Kongi (Agboola Kunle)- the modernist, power-hungry constitutional head of state. Though a constitutional head, Kongi is essentially a dictator. In essence his modern dictatorship strives to absorb within itself the traditional system so as to destroy it least it becomes a contending power. Kongi also crave to capture the Oba's traditional legitimacy, dignity, appeal, and power. Kongi's Harvest is, as the playwright put it, a play "about power, pomp and ecstasy", the power of autocratic president Kongi, the pomp of detained King Danlola, the ecstasy of Segi and Daodu who oppose the dictator. It conveys Soyinka's bitter satire of the recurrent features of dictatorships, the nuances of sycophants surrounding the dictator, the dictator's megalomania, the ideological focus, the propaganda blared at the population, the repression of the dissent, and the economic implications of such political features -mismanagement and corruption.
The playwright's inculcation of a royal parade of drums and the singing of an anthem represents the orchestrated struggle of two opposing camps for supremacy. The director used those theatrical properties to capture how traditional forces are being choked out of life by the elaborate propaganda machinery and intimidating paraphernalia of office marking Kongi's dictatorship. Those elements of his politics which are strange to the people further attract general rejection and hatred to him.
But as the play progresses, it becomes glaring that Kongi's forces still secures some edge over the Oba's traditional institution. Soon, the Oba and his retinue of courtiers are confined in prison. Though the clash continues, the struggle for supremacy begins to wane from the incaceration since the Oba and his people cannot meet Kongi and his force on even platform. They are relegated to battling with a junior representatives of Kongi's government such as the superintendent of prison.
The ending of the play leaves no hope of purging the society of despots. A human head presented to Kongi instead of the harvested yam, a symbolic refenrence to all the people he had killed.
The struggle by Daodu and others to overcome Kongi's destruction is doomed. Even Daodu and Segi that openly condemn Kongi's rule and represent the forces of courage, eventually ended up as victims of the government's clampdown on disidents as the play end. Unable to mobilise the necessary support to counter Kongi's regime, they timidly withdraw to seek solace in a night-club.
The artistic director, did not mince words when asked how the production was achieved. He told Nigerian Compass that producing it was not by any means, simple. Getting credible actors and actresses to fit into the characters was one herculean task, he remarked. And the saving grace was that, he has followed Soyinka and taught his plays over the years. Hence, directing Kongi's Harvest was like working on one of the plays he has understudied over a long period.
