Exploring music, ritual in African drama

ONE of the most prominent contributors to African drama is the Nigerian playwright and novelist, Wole Soyinka.

In “Kongi’s Harvest”, Soyinka goes beyond conforming to the three-part structure embraced by Allison (1986) to also exhibit elements of ritual, which are characteristic of African drama. Good drama reflects rudiments of black vernacular tradition embodied in ritual, communal concerns, the use of music, poetry, dance, mime, and the element of spectacle (Wilson, 1976).

The playwright uses the tripartite structure espoused by Allison (1986) to examine how ideological conflict affects African societies.

Such a dramatic structure uses a basic plot; hemlock, exposition, comprising first part and the second half of second part; complication, second part; and hangover, which is the resolution.

African drama is characterised by dance, dress, ritual and music, manifested in the everyday life of Africans, as evidenced at weddings, funerals, and marriage and harvest ceremonies.

Music, in all its different forms, pervades all the above instances.

The drum is of symbolic import to ritual and music in African societies.

Though in most communities the drum is used at functions, its tone, pitch or sound can be altered to suit a particular situation.

Messages can be deciphered by interpreting the sound as is culturally accepted by a particular people or society. Music, therefore, plays a significant role in drama and society, since societal mores and values are usually expressed through specific genres of the art.

Whereas percussion is characteristic of weddings or such functions where rapture prevails, dirges and melancholy bells are the preserves of funerals, and other such solemn occasions.

The power of music can only be ignored at one’s peril, for where words sometimes fail owing to humanity’s tendency to allow attention to wander somewhere else in the crux of the moment, music captures the soul, and is usually difficult to ignore.

The late reggae superstar, Bob Marley once said: “One good thing about music: When it hits you, you feel no pain” (True Love, March: 2003). Such is the power of music exploited in “Kongi’s Harvest” in complement to ritual.

Although African drama is a genre derived from both African and English traditions, its aesthetics should be based on a purely African context or ideology, for the challenges purveyed by African playwrights are drawn from their own experiences of a society beset by imperialism, exploitation, neo-colonialism and betrayal.

Even though vernacular traditions influence the way in which Africans write, as is the case with Chinua Achebe in “Things Fall Apart” (1958) and Soyinka in “Kongi’s Harvest”, their ideologies are shaped by a specifically African sensibility.

This rationale is articulated in the following: “The artist has always functioned in African society as the recorder of mores and experiences of his society and as the voice of vision in his own time” (Soyinka, 1973:89).

Soyinka examines the ideological conflicts that weigh down not only on the Nigerian landscape, but the African society as well. As such, he contributes aesthetically to African drama through his poetry and prose.

In “Kongi’s Harvest”, the conflict established in the hemlock is predominantly between Danlola and Kongi, who are exponents of their own respective ideologies.

Danlola epitomises the old order of kingship, whose traditional beliefs and cultural affiliations are inevitably setting, like the sun in the west.

Kongi, on the other hand, is an exponent of the new order, whose overbearing inclinations are more venomous than the fangs of a black mamba, and exposes the follies of humanity.

Thus, the conflict between Kongi and Danlola works in a two-fold manner in that it surpasses individual differences, and encompasses the struggle at the deeper sense of the political and social order.

The ideological differences in “Kongi’s Harvest”, personified in Kongi and Danlola, are highlighted through the ritualistic structure of the play.

The ritualistic aspect of African aesthetics explores the dramatic facets of performance and spectacle.

The play closely follows African ritualistic traditions; the exhilarations associated with the preparations, the actual ceremony, followed by communal feasting.

The sacredness of the past is superimposed with modernity to lend the play an ideological tiff. The compounding of the past, present and future is emphasised through the ceremonial role of the king.

Social, mythical and historical time is also marked by such rituals.

The king’s divine and sacerdotal identity, central to ritual in “Kongi’s Harvest”, is expressed through eulogising, as illustrated, thus: “None but the king/Takes the oil from the crossroads/And rubs it in his ‘awuje’/The king is a god”.

Moreover, music enhances the dramatic aspect of the play as it reinforces the thin plot in creating dramatic effect. Song accentuates the depiction of Segi as a femme fatale of the play as captured in the following: “Do not stay by the sea/At night. . . / Do not play/With the daughter of sea. . .”

Music provides and heightens the contrasting styles of Kongi and Danlola.

Danlola’s music is melodious, and serves a social function, whereas Kongi’s is discordant, hence it proffers no social purpose.

The music of the Carpenters’ Brigade is offensive to the ear, and does not celebrate communal interests, but encourages deification and personal cults embodied in Kongi.

The discordant music is ironically picked out by the Reformed Aweri Fraternity.

Ideologically, scenes are sharply contrasted, not only by ritual and music, but also through language styles, purposes and effects.

The two contrasting worlds, which are explored in juxtaposition, conform to distinctive languages. Danlola’s language, associated with proverbs and poetry, taps into folkloristic wisdom and knowledge.

Danlola’s purposeful language earns him respect as illuminated here: “The rude shanks of a king/Is not a sight for children/ It will blind them.”

Here, language is used both metaphorically and literally to illustrate Danlola’s loss of status as a king, and forfeiture of his royal regalia. The natural images used are drawn from the cultural universe of the characters.

Kongism is, however, associated with abstract language divorced from reality and ignores the values of the people. Notably, Soyinka uses realistic and non-realistic aspects of drama.

He uses mythology through the exploitation of motifs, themes, imagery, language and symbolism.

The New Yam Festival is symbolic of the traditional values celebrated by Soyinka’s society.

Thus, the element of beauty or what constitutes the beautiful, as depicted in the play, has a bearing on African drama.

Nonetheless, on the flipside, in a multi-ethnic society like Nigeria, the use of mythology specific to one ethnic group, like Yoruba, may have limitations, as Ogun, the Yoruba god of iron and war, may not be seen in that light by other groups.

The use of mythology limits the universality of drama, because Africans share different mythologies.

Little wonder why Steve Chimombo’s poetry, which draws inspiration from an oblique style exploiting Malawian mythology, is said to be intensely private.

Although language is distinctively used to effect in “Kongi’s Harvest”, it is, however, non-realistic, and does not conform to realistic speech patterns.

Notwithstanding that Soyinka ideologically and aesthetically contributes to African drama in a big way, the traditional elements that he incorporates have a questionable artistic intention, which seems to be inspired by non-African aspects.

The ideological conflict that drives the play remains unresolved, as it tilts in Kongi’s favour. Kongi, whose authoritarian inclinations are a bane on regeneration, legitimacy and progress, is a modernist. Therefore, the tilting of the scale in his favour suggests the futility of traditionalism, and all that it stands for, which betrays society.