Issues
Consciousness And The Tale In Africa
The tale demonstrates keen awareness of man and his environment. The tale is a narrative like the modern short story. It is not merely a narrative which tells a story but it has its grammar of discourse – form, rules, elements and structure. It uses the wisdom acquired in the world to explicate issues about men, women, children and their relations. It expresses these in Africa through Africa worldview.
The tale is set in either the world of man or the animal world. The time may be in the morning, afternoon, evening or at night. The undefined framework of time gives the tale an enduring relevance to man in society. Although it is set in the past, the lesson is always in the present.
The tale may be narrated in ten minutes or much more. It depends on the type of tale and the narrator. It is expected that the narrator hands down the tale as received from his predecessor to the audience without distortion but the mobility of the tale could be responsible for variants of it; this factor may influence the duration of narration.
The tale has a form. It is set in the past which is made clear through the formulaic opening ‘once upon a time’, ‘once in the animal kingdom’ and similar stock phrases. Any of these signals the beginning of the tale. The audience is expected to respond ‘timer’ or use a similar term. Narrator and audience are ready at this stage of co-operation for the tale to be told. The audience listens silently from this time until there is a verbal signal for participation.
The narrator situates his tale with a problem, a puzzle, a need or a quest for something. This may be done with an initial crisis which develops into further crises until the end – the problem is solved or there is an answer to the puzzle. The tale looks simple but on careful examination it is not an accidental brain work but a simple-complex form of narrative which Chinwezu, Jemie and Madubuike in Towards The Decolonisation of African Literature assert that it is not only a good work of literature but a form of Oral Literature comparable to the novel. The latter is lengthier but the former demonstrates the important aspects of the modern novel.
The formulaic opening, setting, initial crisis, its development, call and response technique, constitute narratology (Propp’s Coinage) or the grammar of discourse. These are rules which the narrator follows in simple tales; there are more sophisticated variants of the structure in epics and legends which are the ones that are lengthier.
There are different types of the tale. A set is about young girls or ladies who are taught how to relate to their parents, their roles in their homes, in their traditional schools and, their parents’ professions. They are taught to work very hard every where they find themselves.
They are taught respectability – they should respect their elder sisters, brothers and younger ones. They should respect their fathers and mothers who fend for them. They are made to know that respect helps to place them in good relations with others.
The older ones are taught to give polite answers to their suitors knowing that there are different men who act differently; some do not take rejection kindly. They are taught that inner most conviction should guide them although few may insist on materialism; good parents insist on character. Any man who has money to fend for a woman is regarded as a wise suitor not someone who has no money but believes that manna will fall from heaven. Girls who insist on materialism as the first principle of selection have suffered; spirits have married some of them for hinging their choices on materialism or for disobeying their parents.
The tale accounts for duplicity in polygamous homes where tricks and manoeuvres are used to outwit one another. The arrogant wife who steals away the husband’s heart from the other women is criticised, lampooned and ostracised from their meetings. If she repents she is accepted back into the society. Abuse is used as a minor means of correction.
There are sad instances about the poisoning of children or preventing them from obtaining valuable things through manipulation. There are also instances when the trickster motif does not work; it boomerangs on perpetrators of crimes. One instance is the occasion in which a woman prepares food for her son and the children of a late co-wife. The orphans go to visit their aunt who feeds them. Their brother offers them food to eat on their return home; they thank him, adding that they have eaten in their aunt’s house. They give their brother the permission to eat the food. He eats and wails few minutes after. The mother returns to find the irony of the situation; she rushes out with the son to seek medication; the son dies at the end. This story is told in Bali’s Tarok Folktales. This consciousness of problems in polygamous homes is set in the past. Is there now complete redemption in the contemporary world? The consciousness of the tale does not undergo metamorphosis in the contemporary period rather complexity and new phases of the situation emerge.
In the tale world people and animals compete for prizes and awards. Weaker ones like tortoise, hare or fox win using wit to overcome the tougher and stronger ones like elephant and lion. Smart men who lose make weaker ones give their prizes to them; they regain them through judicial process. The verisimilitude of the tale does not lack reality when situated in the world of men; it is a world of wit, people are engaged in the politics of prominence; not all win. Tortoise wins in a competition with lion in building houses of the same type and size. How does he do it being a weaker animal? He tricks lion and his workers with music which is not an evil thing at all. It is good to listen to music for relaxation, while at work and at home. The problem in the context is that of doing the right thing at the wrong time, singing and dancing without working. Tortoise’s workers listen to the music; lion and his workers abandon their work to their consternation hours later. Tortoise and his workers complete their work ahead of lion and his team. This story is told in Saro-Wiwa’s The Singing Anthill.
Traditional government is narrated in different ways. One instance is from Adedeji’s The Stories My Mother Told Me about the means of selecting a successor after the king’s death. The King does it himself asking two brothers to go into the forest to bring a special flower; the first would be made king. The younger one finds it; in his excitement discloses it to the younger one who kills him and takes away his flower. He runs home and gives the flower to the father who asks after his brother. He refuses to tell him that he is dead. He lies and tells him he found his clothes in the forest and that he could have been killed by a carnivorous animal. The king is not satisfied; he sends a hunter to bring back the corpse; he finds it and takes a bone and blows it; it sings and narrates the story of the death. The father becomes angry and orders the elder brother to be killed.
The sad story offers insight into the lives of the brothers and the consciousness associated with governance. The murderer reasons that if he succeeds in killing his brother, he would become king; his status will change. This is a continuous consciousness associated with economic and political power.
The last example shows the dynamism of the tale. There are many more instances which may not be cited here that have dynamic relevance to contemporary situations. Insights into various aspects of life show the continuous consciousness of the tale in the modern world in several ways; the tale is re-told through the media to teach children and entertain them. The tale is used in modern literature books in several ways to demonstrate the consciousness of the past which dovetails with the consciousness of the contemporary world. The tale is expanded and situated in every given period with economic and traditional items: manila, pound and naira are forms of money used at various times with historical reference to periods in Nigeria; these are found in the tale. A careful reading of the tale shows marks of the past and the present as the tale evolves to meet various needs and captures the interest of various generations.
Ngaage is of the Department of English and Literary Studies, Faculty of Arts, Niger Delta University, Bayelsa State
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This is an open letter to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Chief Nyesom Wike.
Your Excellency,
Sir, ordinarily, I would not be writing an open letter to you, but like a wise man once said, “Silence would be Treason.” So I prefer to stay alive than face the consequences of silence in the face of crime. With each passing day, and as the socio-political tides continue to turn, it has become more pertinent that more people speak up in a concerted MANNER to prevent the death of our party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), as we appear to be, in the words of W. B. Yeats, “turning and turning in the widening gyre” heading for an end where the falcon will no longer hear the falconer
It is unfortunate that since losing control of the Federal Government, with the loss of President Goodluck Jonathan at the poll in 2015, our party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has continued on a downward spiral. It is much more painful, that where it is expected that leaders within the party should rise to the challenge and put an end to this decline of our great party, some have instead taken up roles as its undertaker.
It will be hypocritical to claim aloofness to what I believe is your grouse with the PDP and I am not a hypocrite. It will be uncharitable on my part to discountenance the role you have played in strengthening the PDP from 2015 up until the last Presidential primaries of the party. It is my belief that your grouse against certain members of the party who you perceived worked against the party and abandoned it in 2015 and then came around much later to take control of the party, is justified. Also know that your decision to remain in the Party and stifle its progress on the other hand, as a sort of payback, stands condemned. For a man of your pedigree and stature, it is a dishonorable act, highly dishonorable and stands as testimony against all you claim to stand for.
At least, it can be argued that those who you hold this grudge against, abandoned the party completely and did not sit back while actively working to destroy it from within. But what then can be the argument on your own part, seeing that those you are currently working with against your party are the same people who set in motion, and executed surgically, the plans that not only ended our Party’s leadership at the centre, but ended up dislodging the first Niger Deltan to occupy Aso Rock as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. Is this not akin to “cutting off one’s nose to spite one’s face?” That will be worse than folly. Let us not throw away the baby with the bath water because we do not like the soap used in bathing the baby. It will be a grave mistake.
Honourable Minister, sir, it is rather unfortunate that of all people, you have also decided to play the role of an undertaker not only for our party, but for our dear Rivers State.
I will like to take you down memory lane a little. Let me remind you of your emergence as Guber candidate of the PDP in Rivers State, against all fairness and justice in 2014. You will remember that despite the reality being that you as an Ikwerre man was poised to replace a fellow Ikwerre man in Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi in our multiethnic state, Rivers people overwhelmingly stood by you and pushed for your emergence as Executive Governor of Rivers State in 2015. I dare say that your popularity in the entire Niger Delta region was at an all-time high at this point.
I want you to understand why you were loved across board leading to your eventual emergence as Governor of Rivers State in 2015; it was because when it looked like all were against the second term ambitions of the first Niger Delta man to emerge as President of Nigeria, you became not just a pillar but a beacon of resistance by standing for Goodluck Jonathan. Rivers people, as grateful and rewarding as they can be, paid you back by ensuring your electoral victory against the incumbent All Progressives Congress (APC) led by your predecessor. On your emergence, where there were second term Governors in the region, you, a first term Governor, was seen by the people as not just the leader of the PDP, but the leader of the entire Niger Delta region. You earned it, and no one could dispute it.
In 2019, when your re-election bid was being challenged ferociously, Rivers people once again stood solidly behind you. Many were killed in the process of defending your votes. Do you remember Dr. Ferry Gberegbe that was shot and killed while trying to protect your votes in Khana Local Government Area? There are many more unnamed and unrecognised sons and daughters of Rivers State who sacrificed their lives so that you could emerge as a second term Governor of Rivers State.
In 2022/23, Honourable Minister, you oversaw a party primary across board that saw some candidates imprisoned and internal party democracy jettisoned for your wishes, leading to the emergence of flag bearers of our party all singlehandedly picked by you. You have on more than one occasion publicly stated that you paid for all their forms. Even those shortchanged in this process licked their wounds and continued to play their roles as party members to ensure the success of the party at all levels. In what will go down as one of the most keenly contested elections in recent Rivers history, with formidable candidates like Senator Magnus Abe of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Mr Tonye Cole of the All Progressives Congress (APC), and the vibrant youth driven Labour Party (LP), PDP emerged victorious across board except for Phalga Constituency 1 that was lost to the Labour Party. (Not that you did not loose in some other LGA’s but let’s stick to the official figures declared by INEC).
It begs the question, why then do you want to burn down Rivers State, when everyone who now holds political office emerged through a process designed and endorsed by you? Is it that you do not care about Rivers people and you are all about yourself? If so, I am forced to believe that those around you are not telling you the truth. The truth being that in a state where your words were law; where houses and businesses could be demolished or closed down without any recourse to legalities, where Executive Orders could be deployed to stifle the opposition, that your popularity is now at an all-time low. Probably because they are afraid of you, or of losing the benefits they gain from you, they fail to tell you that what you might perceive as a battle against your successor, has slowly but gradually degenerating into a battle against Rivers State and Rivers people. You know, there is a popular saying that, a man can cook for the community and the community will finish the food, but when a community decides to cook for one man, the reverse is the case.
LEAVE FUBARA ALONE
You have gone on and on about being betrayed by Governor Siminalayi Fubara. You point fingers forgetting that some of those same fingers quick to spot betrayals point straight back at you. It is not Governor Fubara that has betrayed the PDP by working against it in the just concluded General Election, and working with the opposition at the State and Federal level to destabilise the party. It is you, Honourable Minister. It is not Governor Fubara that betrayed Rivers people by instigating a political crisis with propensity to escalate ethnic tensions in Rivers State. It is you Honourable Minister. It is not Governor Fubara that has declared himself God over all in Rivers State and has no qualms with burning the state to the ground to prove a point. It is you Honourable Minister. It is you Honourable Minister who told the world that the APC was a cancer and you can never support a cancerous party. It is you Honourable Minister who ended up facilitating the emergence of the same “cancerous” APC that has accelerated the economic decline of this country and further impoverished our people with no remorse. All so you can be a Minister of the Federal Capital Territory? The lack of self awareness is gobsmacking.
Some days back I came across a video where you talked about death and how you do not cry when you hear about the death of some people because you have no idea what might have caused it considering many a politician swear “over dead bodies” and still go back on their words. Those words made me think, and I could see the reason behind them. You see, in chosing to be God in the affairs of Rivers people, you have closed your eyes and ears to reason; you see nothing and hear nothing that can cause you to rethink on the path you have chosen. In your quest to “show Fubara” you have unwittingly united a vast majority of Rivers people behind him, so much that even those who despised him because of you, now like or love him, because of you too. In your scheming, I will advise you not to forget that “the voice of the people is the voice of God”.
Note that the war which you have or are waging against Governor Fubara, has gone beyond being merely political as you might see in your minds eye. It is now one that, fortunately for some and unfortunately for others, has evolved into a war against Rivers people. It is good to point out that no one has taken a stand against Rivers people and won. No one has gone against God and won. In your defiant characteristic manner, it will be unfortunate if you believe your own hubris and that of those around you on the possibility of you being the first to successfully go against Rivers people. It will be a needless gamble; one where if you win you create more enemies for yourself than you can withstand on your political journey, and if you lose, your legacy becomes an inglorious and irredeemable one in Rivers State, the Niger Delta, and Nigeria at large. For your sake as regards posterity, it is my greatest wish that you have a moment of sobriety and a deep reflection and introspection on this path you have chosen.
Honourable Minister, sir, what is left of your legacy is on the brink of being completely desecrated and relegated to the dustbin of our political history, and it will be a sad end to what I will say has been a wonderful political career that many can only dream of. The ball is in your court, and may God Almighty have mercy on us all and forgive us for our shortcomings.
Gabriel Baritulem Pidomson
Dr Pidomson is former Chief of Staff, Government House, Port Harcourt and former member, Rivers State House of Assembly.
In 2015, I made a conscious decision to invest my financial resources, my time, and energy into supporting Nyesom Wike’s gubernatorial campaign. I poured my heart and soul into ensuring Nyesom Wike emerged victorious even at the risk of my personal safety.
Again in 2019, I doubled down on my commitment. I invested a significant amount of money to procure campaign outfits for all twenty-three Local Governments Areas of Rivers State. I spared no expense in supplementing Wike’s election efforts in my own local government, and once again putting myself at great risk to safeguard the fairness and transparency of the electoral process.
However, despite my unwavering loyalty and sacrifices, I found myself abandoned and forgotten by Wike. Throughout his eight-year tenure, he failed to acknowledge my contributions or fulfill his promises and agreements. Even as a former Deputy Governor, Wike denied me my severance benefit.
My investment in Wike’s governorship was not just financial – it was a commitment of passion, dedication, and belief in a better future for Rivers State. Yet, his leadership style of dishonesty, greed, drunkenness and rash abuse of senior citizens brought me nothing but disappointment, misery and losses.
By the grace of God, today I speak not as a victim, but as a hero. I have accepted my losses, and I have moved on. And as I reflect on my experience, I cannot help but urge Wike to do the same and allow peace and development to reign in Rivers State.
Nyesom Wike, when you speak of investing in Governor Sim Fubara’s election, remember those like me who also invested in you. Remember the sacrifices I made, the risks I took, and the promises and agreements you left unfulfilled.
It is time for you, Wike, to let go of the past and allow Governor Sim Fubara the breathing space he needs to lead Rivers State forward. Allow him to focus on the challenges of good governance and the aspirations of the people. Spare him these unwarranted and ill-conceived political manoeuvrings founded on personal agenda and not for general good of Rivers State and her people.
I may have lost my investment on Wike, but I have not lost hope in the future of Rivers State. And together, we will continue to strive for a brighter tomorrow.
Long Live the Governor to Rivers State, Sir Siminialayi Fubara!
Long Live the Good People of Rivers State!!
Long Live the Federal Republic of Nigeria!!!
Engr Ikuru is former Deputy Governor of Rivers State.
Tele Ikuru
