Obotunde Ijimere, the Phantom of Nigerian Theater

Abstract

Wọle Ṣoyinka in his recent Myth, Literature and the African World (1976) attempts to divest himself of the reputation that some of his earlier pronouncements have earned him as a denier of the existence of a distinctive Africanity, and to shake off the foreign sympathizers who have unfairly, he claims, exploited those early positions to bolster their racist denial of an “African world.” His intention in this book is to demonstrate his belief in the “African world,” to show how it is “self-apprehended” by the true African, and to “call attention to it in living works of the imagination, placing them in the context of primal systems of apprehension of the race” (ibid.: xi-xii). The first illustration he uses for this “apprehension of the race” is “The Imprisonment of Obatala,” a play by Obotunde Ijimere (1966). This choice is startling and baffling because Obotunde Ijimere is actually Ulli Beier, a German who was actively involved with Nigerian and especially Yoruba culture from 1950 until 1967. First Ṣoyinka's use of the play to illustrate the Yoruba world-view will be summarized. The myth of Obatala (the creator arch-divinity) is that while he was engaged in the creative task entrusted to him by the Supreme Deity, Olodumare, he became thirsty and drank some palm wine to slake his thirst. Unfortunately the effect of the wine put him to sleep. The Supreme Deity, observing the cessation in the creative process, sent Oduduwa (the ancestor of the Yoruba) to complete the task. Oduduwa did and, before Obatala woke up, he installed himself on the throne as the ruler of the people. Obatala did not forgive Oduduwa for supplanting him. Therefore, both he and his progency engaged Oduduwa and his progeny in a long contest aimed at regaining the ascendency (see Idowu, 1963: 71 ff; Adedeji, 1972). The annual observance of Obatala's festival at Ẹdẹ includes a mock battle recreating an aspect of Obatala's contest with Oduduwa, and in which the former is captured, incarcerated, and later released after the payment of a ransom (Beier, 1956; Rotimi, 1968).