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drama
The Strange Behaviour of
Bronze
a
play in two Acts, by
CHUMA NWOKOLO, Jr.
Characters
SORAMO -
Middle-aged influential woman leader
TANDU -
Intense 23- year old man, son of Agidi, skilled
okwe
player
AJILO -
Young schemer, he bears Agidi a grudge for the death of his
brother.
WONODU -
Near-blind merchant and wheeler-dealer
AGIDI -
Strong man and champion of Ikenga.
GOGO -
Ghost of Agidi’s Widow.
OSSY -
Skilled bronzecaster and smith, previously owner of Gogo
NTUA -
Friend of Ajilo and ambitious young villager
EZAMA -
Priestly high chief of Carcasus
OLD WOMAN -
Ghostly mother of Ajilo. Bears Agidi a grudge for death of
her son.
KADIBIA -
Elderly villager who becomes chief in place of Agidi
ANENE - One
of Agidi’s twin sons and younger brother of Tandu
NKOMA - One
of Agidi’s twin sons and younger brother of Tandu
ZOMIRI -
Wrestler who challenges Agidi to a duel.
TATA -
Young male villager
ALAM -
Young male villager
Synopsis:
This
play is set in Igboland. The year is 1000 AD and a life-size
bronze statue has
recently
been cast of Gogo, heroine of Ikenga, who lost her life in a
single-handed attempt to recover the children of Ikenga from
slave raiders. The statue has been vandalised and torn down
by Agidi, her jealous and resentful husband, who has
himself, since Gogo’s death, achieved a reputation for
bravery in Ikenga.
When the
play opens, Tandu (Agidi’s first son) has just returned from
a fifteen-year enslavement. He is determined to find and
rescue his younger brothers, the twins, Anene and Nkoma, who
were taken in the same raid in which their mother lost her
life. In the meantime, he struggles to penetrate the shroud
of his father’s secrets – from his vandalization of Gogo’s
statue, through his apparent reluctance to rescue his
remaining two sons, to his complicity in the death of the
‘Ikenga twelve’. Gogo’s ghost had always haunted her statue.
After it is torn down by her husband, Agidi, she continues
to haunt its plinth. She pines for the return of her lost
twins, but she is indifferent to her first son, Tandu,
because he is the child of a rapist. Agidi dies soon after
Tandu’s arrival. He leaves Tandu his legendary prowess. With
this newly-found power, Tandu sets about the rescue of his
brothers. He still hero-worships his mother, Gogo, unaware
that she had conspired to sell him to a slave raider, Ganazu,
who betrayed her by abducting not just the undesired child,
but her beloved twins – as well as other village children.
Tandu sets off on his quest, eventually arriving at
Carcassus, a powerful city state ruled by King Ezama. Here,
he discovers that Agidi had in fact come to Carcassus for
his sons, who had refused to return with him. This rejection
had crushed Agidi’s spirit. Although Tandu has risked all
for his brothers, they are now freemen with a fealty to King
Ezama. They feel no attachment to Ikenga or their brother,
and they rise against Tandu, who is also devastated to
finally learn the truth about his mother. The ghostly Gogo
is compelled to re-evaluate her feelings for her sons, but
it comes too late to save Tandu’s life.
Please note: Act 1:
Scenes 1 and 2 excerpted from The Strange Behaviour of
Bronze appeared in Maple Tree Literary Supplement
Issue #3, 2008. In this issue of Sentinel Literary
Quarterly we bring you Act 1: Scenes 3 - 5 of The Strange
Behaviour of Bronze.
ACT ONE ;
SCENE THREE
Funeral
mound has grown in AGIDI’S courtyard. Large spotlight.
Shrouded body,
around
which sit three men. Middle man is a weeping TANDU. KADIBIA
is drinking wine. Cowled line of mourners pass, making
comments, dropping gifts.
COMMENTS. He was a great man. Agidi! Cat of Ikenga. Rock.
Lion killer. Fire that
burns on
water. There is a gap in the train of people.
KADIBIA. (Severely)
It is not right, Tandu, that the bravest man in Ikenga
should be mourned by a baby. Pull yourself together. Lions
birth lions, for Ukoni’s sake! For once in your life, be a
man! For your father’s sake.
TANDU. I
killed him! I’m back six days and I kill my own father! (breaks
down. KADIBIA and OSSY exchange glances. They plainly think
he’s cracked.)
OSSY. Easy
now. We’ve seen the body, there was no blood. No wound.
TANDU. I
defeated him... I won our last game... (Breaks up again)
KADIBIA. (sarcastic)
Oho, the Lion of Ikenga lost a game against his son and died
of shock,
not so? Now listen, Tandu, mourners come from the lands
beyond the
Niger’s delta, to see what? A snivelling runt that passes
for
Agidi’s
son! This must not be!
TANDU. Papa
is dead!
OSSY. That
is part of what we’re saying! Just as you lost your father,
we have lost a mighty iroko - crooked, yes, but iroko all
the same. Do you see me shedding tears? Pull yourself
together. For once in your life. (whispers) Here comes the
delegation from Chai. Agidi was to fight their champion
today! Hush now!
WONODU enters with ZOMIRI and others, all dressed in black
robes, the colour of Chai. WONODU alone wears a leopard-skin
cape and a companion dogs his steps, fluting as he goes.
WONODU. (blind
man’s stick and braggart’s voice. His companion whispers to
him and he stops halfway to casket, feigns disorientation)
What mix up is this? Is this not Ikenga? Is this not the
seventh Eke market from harvest? We come for a wrestling
match in Ikenga and find a funeral. Can someone point us to
the venue of the wrestling match?
OSSY. Are
you the last people in the world to hear the news?
WONODU.
What news?
KADIBIA.
There will be no wrestling today, unless it holds beyond the
grave. The
bravest man
in all the world (beat) is dead.
WONODU. In
all your world perhaps. We have the man that answers to that
title here with us, Zomiri, the bravest man in all the
world. I take it then that the one you called Agade is
dead...
TANDU.
AGIDI!
WONODU.
Whatever he calls himself. I’ve heard many excuses to avoid
my Zomiri. This one is new. Well, if he chickens out of the
duel, he forfeits his titles to our cat, our lion, our...
ZOMIRI
PREENS AND POSES
KADIBIA.
Wonodu, you forget the customs of the honour duel. We can
substitute our man...
WONODU.
Then substitute!
KADIBIA. It
was no mere man that died. It was Agidi, lion of Ikenga. We
will mourn him well, seven days and nights and in that time,
there will be no wrestling in Ikenga.
WONODU. So
mourn him. We will stay one week, and then the duel. And
then we’ll take the fame and glory that has stayed too long
in this sad town, we’ll take it home to Chai with our
spoils.
TANDU.
Won’t you so much as pay your respects to Agidi...
WONODU. It
is Chai custom. Wrestlers do not fraternize with dead people.
It brings bad luck. Be well.
EXIT
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