NAME: GBENLE OLORUNOJE ISAAC
MAT NO: 170108041
COURSE CODE: THA 311
COURSE TITLE: MODERN AFRICAN DRAMA AND THEATRE
Collaborating with a Dead Man: The Cultural Politics of Ahmed Yerima’s
Otaelo
This paper by Lekan Balogun examines the influence that Shakespeare has on the
writers and cultures with which he has been in contact. From the perspective of
collaboration with Shakespeare through Othello , this essay also examines Ahmed
Yerima’s Otaelo , which dramatizes the debilitating and tragic effects of the Osu
practice among the Igbo people of southeast Nigeria and emphasizes the play’s strong
echoes of other plays by Shakespeare, including Hamlet , The Merchant of Venice ,
and Titus Andronicus .
Yerima collaborates with Shakespeare in a way that suggests an adoption of the
Kottian existentialist approach in order to use his play, Otaelo , to address a matter of
cultural and political concern in Nigeria.
Started as a form of religious devotion long before the British colonization of Nigeria,
the Osu is a system of social stratification that is sanctioned by age-long tradition, and
it survives today under several names including Adu-Ebo in Nzam in Onitsha, Oruma
in the Nsukka area, and Nwani or Ohualusi in Agwu area among many others. At its
very beginning, anyone could dedicate themselves as Osu regardless of gender, clan,
and/or tribal affiliation within the larger Igbo society. By dedicating themselves to
serve the gods of the land, these individuals gained respect and certain social
privileges, such as the status of a “priest” or “saint.” However, these privileges,
including immunity from prosecution or torture of any kind, exemption from tax
payment and all forms of communal labor, came at a price: having become an Osu,
such individuals were automatically ostracized from the rest of the society. An Osu no
longer had friends and could only marry other Osu; they lived in isolation, except
within their own very small and limited class. In spite of this cost, however, the
protection and benefits accorded to the Osu made it an attractive prospect to criminals,
and especially perpetrators of those crimes that were regarded as the most heinous,
namely, murder and incest. Hence the abuse worked both ways: just as criminals were
eager to avail themselves of protection from prosecution, Igbo society at large came to
regard Osu as a means of purging criminal elements and remaining peaceful. Over
time, the Osu practice began to lose its value because some people began to take
advantage of the gains it offered. The motivation to serve the religious needs of the
society was replaced by personal gain, hence the Osu practice became dangerous and
loathed.
As it is apparent, while criminals decided to become Osu in order to escape
punishment for their crime in the early stages of the Osu practice, Yerima’s adaptation
focuses on Otaelo, who is criminalized by society with the tacit support of Ala for an
offense that he did not commit. Thus, throughout his entire life, which eventually ends
in tragedy, Otaelo struggles with his identity and is treated worse than a slave. In
questioning the rationale behind the continued veneration of the Osu tradition in
contemporary time, Yerima takes on the big issues of identity, ostracism, abuse, and
vengeance, for Otaelo dramatizes through the tragedy associated with the Osu
tradition a “veiled allegory of internal colonialism” , and it is here that one begins to
see how Yerima moves out of Othello into The Merchant of Venice .
Umuagu, the prototype Igbo community and setting of Otaelo , is similar to Shylock’s
Venice in The Merchant of Venice in terms of the class stratification of society.
Shylock and his daughter Jessica are Jews.
Identity
Although Otaelo closely follows Shakespeare’s plot and the themes of jealousy and
intrigue in Othello , Yerima’s protagonist, Otaelo, questions why he is loathed by
society through echoing Shylock instead of Othello. Like Shylock, who questions the
basis of the social revulsion toward him and asks Solanio and Salerio, “Hath not a Jew
eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections ... If you prick us
do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? If you poison us do we not die?
And if you wrong us shall we not revenge?” (3.1.47-58), Otaelo demands some
answers from his adoptive father, Ebuka: “Always you want me to grovel in the mud
searching for who I am. Does blood not flow in my veins? Do I not cry, laugh or feel
the pangs of pain like anybody? Why must I always lose everything? Why can I not
just be a man?” (34-35).
Ostracism and vengeance
Otaelo detests both ostracism and the harsh treatment meted out to him by society. He
tells Ebuka: “What did I do wrong? Did I ask to be born by [my mother]? In obeying
the nature of birth and passing through her passage of life, I offended the earth. That
singular act, through no fault of mine makes me today an untouchable. Go old man, I
say go, you choke me with pity” (35). In the final effort to extricate himself from
social repulsion and the throes of the anguish resulting from his segregation, Otaelo
resorts to vengeance; the play thus ends in a manner that is similar to Titus
Andronicus .
In Umuagu, Yerima paints a dreadful picture of battle, anger, and vengeance that is
similar to the 4th-century AD Roman Empire of Titus Andronicus , with its waning
glory that is sustained by violent military campaigns. Loomba writes that empires like
this particular Roman Empire “need to expand, to annex territories and peoples
outside themselves into their boundaries, and as they do so, to underline differences
between themselves and those they conquer” (82). Umuagu is similar to this Roman
Empire, for it is not only territories that it conquered violently – people too are
similarly brutalized.
