The Gods Are Not To Blame
Encyclopedia
The Gods Are Not To Blame
is a 1968 play and a 1971 novel by Ola Rotimi
following To Stir the God of Iron and earning his M.F.A. in 1966 with Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again premiered at Yale
that year. An adaptation of the Greek
Classic, Oedipus Rex; the novel centers around Odewale who gets lured into a false sense of security; only to somehow get caught-up in a somewhat consanguineous trail of events.
. In this reworking of Oedipus Rex, and considering them in their respective light, different dramatizations of the myth of Oedipus were honoured at the festival of Dionysus circa 430 BCE and at the African Arts (Arts d'Afrique) play writing contest in 1969 CE. Rotimi's play has been celebrated on two counts: scintilating first as theatre and going on to also acrrue a significant literary aura.
Now years later, the child Odewale is King and married to Ojuola. An old man Alaka, half clown, half philosopher, comes to tell Odewale that his ‘parents’ have died. However, Alaka also lets slip that they were not Odewale's real parents. Shamed by the suggestion that he is illegitimate, Odewale brutally forces Alaka to reveal the truth: that Alaka found him in the bush and brought him to the neighbouring Ijekun chief to be fostered.
He becomes the village leader.
After conquering the neighboring enemy he promises to find the murderer of their slain king, Adetusa, unaware of how well he fits the description of the nemesis that carries the curse of his new found kingdom, he finds that "he" was the killer, only killing his father because he felt insulted by him.
The terrible revelation that the Ifa Priest's prophecy has been fulfilled leads to the suicide of Ojuola and blinding of Odewale.
The Gods Are Not To Blame
, reflects critically on perhaps the most cherished myth of cultural transmission that civilization entertains about itself, as a means of explaining its own perpetuations. How Rotimi's play does so is not only by dramatizing this myth with certain ironic instance, but also by juxtaposing this myth with a Yoruba model of cultural transmission.
Yet, like any cultural artefact, the play could communicate more than one meaning, there are various theories to what or what not the title is trying to express and most of these arguments could be mobilized to challenge even the author's own reading of this drama.
For instance, the very distinction between the oppressing powers on the outside and the local population on the inside is, and was, just as untenable as the difference amongst the communities that the oppressors sought to exploit.
An alternative reading of the play is the argument regarding "free will" - given the Greek
idea that "attempting to avoid an oracle is the very thing which brings it about", and it is indeed this argument that Odewale himself deploys in one of his encounters with Aderopo.
in the play's relationship to the European Canon. The detail in question figures twice, initially at the end of Odewale's curse on whoever killed his father, and at the conclusion of the abortive encounter between Odewale and Baba Fakunle.
made its début in Nigeria in the year 1968. Nominated for an award at the ESB Dublin Fringe Festival 2003; Launched itself in February 2004, Bisi Adigun and Jimmy Fay's "Arambe Productions" presents what Roddy Doyle
describes as an exhilarating and exciting version of the play to the O'Reilly Theatre
.
The Gods Are Not To Blame
The Gods Are Not To Blame is a 1968 play and a 1971 novel by Ola Rotimi following To Stir the God of Iron and earning his M.F.A. in 1966 with Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again premiered at Yale that year...
is a 1968 play and a 1971 novel by Ola Rotimi
Ola Rotimi
Olawale Gladstone Emmanuel Rotimi, best known as Ola Rotimi regarded as one of Nigeria's leading playwrights and theatre directors.- Early life :...
following To Stir the God of Iron and earning his M.F.A. in 1966 with Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again premiered at Yale
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
that year. An adaptation of the Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
Classic, Oedipus Rex; the novel centers around Odewale who gets lured into a false sense of security; only to somehow get caught-up in a somewhat consanguineous trail of events.
Introduction
The novel is set in an indeterminate period of a Yoruba kingdomYorùbáland
Yorubaland, or Yorùbáland , is a cultural region in Nigeria, Benin, and Togo that includes the indigenous territory and cultural reach of the Yoruba people.- History :-Settlement:Oduduwa is regarded as the legendary progenitor of the Yoruba...
. In this reworking of Oedipus Rex, and considering them in their respective light, different dramatizations of the myth of Oedipus were honoured at the festival of Dionysus circa 430 BCE and at the African Arts (Arts d'Afrique) play writing contest in 1969 CE. Rotimi's play has been celebrated on two counts: scintilating first as theatre and going on to also acrrue a significant literary aura.
Plot
The book begins with an Ifa Priest's predictiction of a newborn son of King Adetusa and his Queen Ojuola that will grow up to ‘kill his own father and then marry his own mother!’ The baby's feet are tied with a string of cowries...Now years later, the child Odewale is King and married to Ojuola. An old man Alaka, half clown, half philosopher, comes to tell Odewale that his ‘parents’ have died. However, Alaka also lets slip that they were not Odewale's real parents. Shamed by the suggestion that he is illegitimate, Odewale brutally forces Alaka to reveal the truth: that Alaka found him in the bush and brought him to the neighbouring Ijekun chief to be fostered.
Theme and Motifs
A stranger to Kutuje, Odewale, arrives in a village bothered, saddened, and grief-stricken and very involved in tribal warfare with adjoining tribes for a long period of time, which has killed their former king; or so they believe.He becomes the village leader.
the people made me
KING,
me of Ijekun tribe,
they broke their tradition and made me,
unasked,
King of Kutuje. (⊕7)
Odewale The Liberator
Odewale as a heroic liberator who slays the oppressor, thereby precipitates an internal conflict within the oppressor's setting, before finally pacifying what then becomes a liberated community. Just as this narrative is delivered, it is almost immediately thwarted by certain information regarding this conflict. The war begins as the people of Ikolu 'killed hundreds, they seized hundreds and took hundreds more captive' (⊕5) and it ends as;
We attacked the people of Ikolu,
freed our people,
seized the lands of Ikolu,
and prospered from their sweat...
Ikolu is no more,
but Kutuje prospered. (⊕7)
After conquering the neighboring enemy he promises to find the murderer of their slain king, Adetusa, unaware of how well he fits the description of the nemesis that carries the curse of his new found kingdom, he finds that "he" was the killer, only killing his father because he felt insulted by him.
The terrible revelation that the Ifa Priest's prophecy has been fulfilled leads to the suicide of Ojuola and blinding of Odewale.
The Gods Are Not To Blame
The Gods Are Not To Blame
The Gods Are Not To Blame is a 1968 play and a 1971 novel by Ola Rotimi following To Stir the God of Iron and earning his M.F.A. in 1966 with Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again premiered at Yale that year...
, reflects critically on perhaps the most cherished myth of cultural transmission that civilization entertains about itself, as a means of explaining its own perpetuations. How Rotimi's play does so is not only by dramatizing this myth with certain ironic instance, but also by juxtaposing this myth with a Yoruba model of cultural transmission.
Argument
According to Lindfors,The Gods Are Not To BlameThe Gods Are Not To BlameThe Gods Are Not To Blame is a 1968 play and a 1971 novel by Ola Rotimi following To Stir the God of Iron and earning his M.F.A. in 1966 with Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again premiered at Yale that year...
does not necessarily mean the divinities of the Yoruba pantheon, rather it alludes to national, political powers - those that dictate the pace of the worlds politics. The title he says, implies that these political 'figures' should not be blamed or held responsible for our own failings.
Yet, like any cultural artefact, the play could communicate more than one meaning, there are various theories to what or what not the title is trying to express and most of these arguments could be mobilized to challenge even the author's own reading of this drama.
For instance, the very distinction between the oppressing powers on the outside and the local population on the inside is, and was, just as untenable as the difference amongst the communities that the oppressors sought to exploit.
An alternative reading of the play is the argument regarding "free will" - given the Greek
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
idea that "attempting to avoid an oracle is the very thing which brings it about", and it is indeed this argument that Odewale himself deploys in one of his encounters with Aderopo.
The Yoruba theory
Another detail within the play may signify the play's passage through, or displacement of an Oedipus complexOedipus complex
In psychoanalytic theory, the term Oedipus complex denotes the emotions and ideas that the mind keeps in the unconscious, via dynamic repression, that concentrate upon a boy’s desire to sexually possess his mother, and kill his father...
in the play's relationship to the European Canon. The detail in question figures twice, initially at the end of Odewale's curse on whoever killed his father, and at the conclusion of the abortive encounter between Odewale and Baba Fakunle.
Performance
The Gods Are Not To BlameThe Gods Are Not To Blame
The Gods Are Not To Blame is a 1968 play and a 1971 novel by Ola Rotimi following To Stir the God of Iron and earning his M.F.A. in 1966 with Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again premiered at Yale that year...
made its début in Nigeria in the year 1968. Nominated for an award at the ESB Dublin Fringe Festival 2003; Launched itself in February 2004, Bisi Adigun and Jimmy Fay's "Arambe Productions" presents what Roddy Doyle
Roddy Doyle
Roddy Doyle is an Irish novelist, dramatist and screenwriter. Several of his books have been made into successful films, beginning with The Commitments in 1991. He won the Booker Prize in 1993....
describes as an exhilarating and exciting version of the play to the O'Reilly Theatre
O'Reilly Theatre
The O'Reilly Theatre is a flexible studio theatre on Blackhall Road, central north Oxford, England. It is located within Keble College, one of the University of Oxford colleges. The theatre was completed in 2002....
.
Further Reading
- Martin Owusu Drama of the gods:A study of seven African plays, Omenana, Roxbury, MassachusettsRoxbury, MassachusettsRoxbury is a dissolved municipality and current neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was one of the first towns founded in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630, and became a city in 1846 until annexed to Boston on January 5, 1868...
, 1983 ISBN 0-685-06783-1
External Links
- "The Gods Are Not to Blame.", eNotes.com, 2006. Retrieved 2011-02-19.
- Bookrags Staff, (Emmanuel) (Gladstone) Ola(wale) Rotimi, 2005. Retrieved 2011-02-19.
- BBC World Drama: Stages of Independence - A celebration of 50 years of African drama, BBC World ServiceBBC World ServiceThe BBC World Service is the world's largest international broadcaster, broadcasting in 27 languages to many parts of the world via analogue and digital shortwave, internet streaming and podcasting, satellite, FM and MW relays...
, broadcast 16, 17 Oct 2010. Retrieved 2011-03-09.