Chapter IV
Ogun Heroes: A trilogy
I
As we have seen in the preceding chapters, Soyinka has
~volved the concept of a dramatic hero based on the myth of
Ogun, drawing upon both - its creative and destructive
essence. It has already been discussed how in ~ ~~
Kongi's Harvest, ~ Bacchae Q! Euripedis, A Dance QL ~
Forest and Madmen and Specialists the Ogun heroes
dramatically render to us Soyinka's world view and interpret
his ideals for a new political and social order in Nigeria.
The present chapter will examine how the seeds of the Ogun
hero were latent even in his early plays, focussing on three
texts: !ha Swamp Dwellers,( 1958) ~Strong Breed ( 1960)
and Death and ~King's Horseman ( a play that he had
conceived in 1960 but after mulling over it for years,
finally wrote in 1975). 1 These have not so far been discussed
because in the context of myth and rituals ce~tain later
plays of Soyinka demanded more detailed and immediate
attention. The three plays to be taken up in this chapter
have certain thematic features that unite them concern
~ith a religious tradition - but Soyinka has no wh~re said or
written that they are part of a trilogy.
In terms of faith and rebellion the three plays mark a
distinct trajectory. In the first of the three, the central
190
character opposes the village priest and the customs of the ;
tribe, in the second, the protagonist attempts half-heartedly I
to follow the tradition, and in the third play the hero
submits himself to the self - sacrifice ritual completely,
testifying to his total faith. This· progression from
scepticism to an affirmation of Yoruba wisdom that saw the
human body as a divine embodiment which could be used as a
ritual object to enable the spiritual regeneration of the
society, marks the three plays as being three parts of' an
undeclared trilogy.
II
The Swamp Dwellers
~ Swamp Dwellers 2 is one of the earliest plays to
show Soyinka's concern with his own culture, landscape,
people and their belief systems, although at this stage he is
critical of certain practices that he considers superstitious
or outdated. Against this social space Soyinka introduces
his Ogun hero - a rebellious character with a social and
spiritual vision. Although the play bears the impression of
Synge's ~ Riders ~ ~ 5Aa (1932) it is systematically
structured on the Ogun myth narrative.
Alu and Makuri are a poor peasant couple who make a
living by basket making and working as barbers. They live
in the swamps on a subsistence level. Ten years before the
191
play has begun, Awuchike, one of their twin sons, has left
for the city in sea~ch of his fortune. And recently Igwezu,
·their second son, has also followed his brother with his
wife. Before his departure, he has planted his fields and
given the Kad iye, the Priest of the Serpent of the Swamps, a
calf as a ritual sacrifice. In the city Igwezu has met his
brother Awuchike who has been given up by ·the parents as
dead. Failing to thrive in the city Igwezu takes a loan on
his crop from his brother and sends a swivel chair to his
parents as he had promised them one. In the meantime,
Igwezu's wife Desu has deserted him to join his brother. When
the play begins Igwezu has returned to his village to collect
the crop at a time when the rains have destroyed it. On
hearing of the return of Igwezu the Kadiye visits their house
to get a shave from Igwezu. Igwezu subjects the Kadiye to
relentless questioning about his failed promises to protect
the crops, ignoring all pleas from his father that he should
not insult the priest. The Kadiye runs away, threatening
serious consequences for Igwezu. Fearing danger to his life,
Igwezu flees the village.
The only person who remains on the stage when the play
ends is a blind beggar - a stranger to the swamp - who had
sought shelter for the night in Alu and Makuri's hut. Tha
Swamp Dwellers thus focusses on how economic pressure is
impinging upon the traditionally organised village systems,
destroying its moral, social and spiritual bases. In the
192
process the impotence of the traditional belief system :is "-
also exposed.
The play opens to "Frogs, rain and other swamp noises.
The scene is a hut on stilts, built on one of the scattered
semi-farm islands in the swamps ... The walls are marsh stakes
plaited with hemp ropes". (p. 81) The fairly large room is
a family workshop where baskets are made, guests are received
and barbering is done. Hakuri stands by the window looking
out and Alu, his equally aged wife, who is clothed in
"adire", sits on a mat and strews the basket. Alu has a
flick which she uses frequently and yells whenever a bite
has caught her unawares. In this simple and realistic scene
Soyinka introduces the theme of the play: the abject living
condition of the swamp dwellers and man's constant struggle
against nature for survival. The barber's swivel chair that
later occupies roughly the centre stage pushing Alu and
Hakuri and their rushes to the periphery# stands for a
hostile force that is threatening the poor family and the
rural society. M"akuri looking out of the window draws our
attention to the outside world - the . vast immensity of
cosmic existence and its various social manifestations that
have constantly engaged man in a battle. The scene depicting
an existential situation of a poor peasant family tnerefore
juxtaposes man and nature, the rural and the urban, the
individual and the society. In this single scene the play
begins and ends.
193
Alu a11tl Makuri are anxiously waiting for their son, ~ho
after coming from the city has gone to the fields td see
for h:in,~·;P.lf the crops destroyed by the floods. Since it is
"near dusk" and raining, Alu fears that Igwezu might be
trapped in the swamp and might lose his life as she believes
her other son Awuchike did. In the meantime Soyinka takes us
through the romantic moments of Alu and Hakuri's married life
and the politics of religion of the swamps. Alu and Hakuri
have been living in the swamp where their ancestors have also
lived. Makuri says: "The land we till and live on has been
ours from the beginning of time". (p. 93) But, they farm only
some patches of land "where a man can sow enough to keep his
family", says Makuri, because, "All the land that can take
the weight of a hoe is owned by some one in the village" and
"Fresh cultivation of land is considered irreligious against
the Serpent of the Swamp". (p. 92) Hence, the swamps do not ' cater to the growihg demands of its people - a fact which is
evidenced by the younger generation who "are no sooner born",
as Makuri says, "than they want to get out of the village as
if it carried a plague". (p. 87) Igwezu and Awuchike who have
migrated to the · city at different points of time are
representatives of this younger generation. Alu and Makuri
have somehow survived by making compromises with the Priest
of the Serpent, the Kadiye. Alu and Makuri's life thus
emerges as archetypal and reminds us on the one hand of
Wordsworth's shepherd Michael and the leech gatherer and
their struggle for survival against the industrializing 19th
194
century England and on the other of Hori in Premchand's Hindi
novel Godan (1936) who insis~ed on suffering in the vill~ge
while his son moved on to the city. Soyinka here is concerned
with religious practices that had once sustained the
community but now seem stifling because they have failed to
change with changing times.
Natural calamities like floods are not as much a
problem in the village as the static view of life imposed
the priest. Makuri has seen floods "only once or twice in
life time". (p. 97) But in the name of the Serpent,
Kadiye controls the fertile land that has the
take the "weight of a hoe". The floods have
potential
affected
whole swamp community but not the Kadiye because, as
by
my
the
to
the
the
Priest he is guaranteed prosperity through the compulsory
offerings in material terms. Now, conscioQsly or
unconsciously the Kadiye has become an inseparable part of
the superstitious world of the swamp, and an exploiter of
men forgetting his essential religious duty to create an
atmosphere for human e~pansion.
Soyinka presents the Kadiye as a "pot-bellied-pig" and
a sensualist, plunged neck-deep in worldly luxuries. When we
see him, he is "a big, yoluminous creature of about
fifty ... At least half [his] fingers are ringed" and _besides
this, he is attended by a servant whose duty is to brush the
flies off him with a. horse-tail flick". (p. 94) The Kadiye's
hypocrisy gets exposed when Makuri learns that the purpose of
his visit was not to offer prayers and sympathies to the
195
victims of the floods but to get shaved by Igwezu's tender
hands. The Kadiye's vow that he "would neither shave nor wash
until the rains ceased altogether" (p. 96) is meant to show
his concern for the flood affected people but, it fails to
bring any good to his people. The stasis and stagnation
brought about by the Kadiye prepares the ground for a change
and anticipates the advent of a rebel hero who would question
him and get justice to his people. Igwezu does just this.
Though Igwezu also went to city in search of a better
life he did not become rich: he could neither make money nor
could he ever forget his people where as Awuchike, his
brother, like Luke in Wordsworth's poem Michael got totally
corrupted by the city life and forgot his parents completely.
Igwezu's links with his family and community are indicated in
hi~ purchase of a swivel chair on borrowed money to send
home. In refusing to compromise with the city norms Igwezu
has "lost everything; my savings, even my standing as a man".
(p. 107) Hence, his wife has also deserted him in favour of
his brother. Awuchike "looked at my life, and she went to
him of her own accord ... " .(p. 107) says Igwezu. The land that
he had tilled and sown was his only solace but, the floods
destroyed the crop, completing his personal tragedy and the
sense of loss.
Igwezu is crushed by insults, humiliations and
failures. His wandering alone in the devastated fields and
his return home very late in the evening could be interpreted
196
in terms of _Qgun 's -disintegration and recreation of self iin
the transitional abyss. Naturally, Igwezu has plunged deep
into the dark world of his own miseries and has made some
new resolutions and harnessed a new energy from within.
However, only his actions can prove the true nature of the
Ogun spirit in him.
This aspect of action is highlighted when we see
Igwezu flashing the sharp shaving blade in one hand and
holding the Kadiye's chin in another, interrogate the priest
on his corrupt practices. Igwezu asks how a marriage blessed
by him could break:" the Kadiye blessed my marriage and
did he not promise a long life? Did he not promise
happiness?". (p. 109) And in anger he questions the logic of
sacrificial ritual: "If I slew all the cattle in the land and
sacrificed every measure of goodness, would it make any
difference to our lives". In a tone of finality Igwezu
rejects the Kadiye as the dangerous serpent of the swamps,
"You lie upon the land, Kadiye, and choke it in the folds of
a serpent" (p. 110). Igwezu shakes the very foundation of the
Kadiye's world. The questions Igwezu has raised reflect a new
knowledge in him and metaphorically, the light in it will
lead Alu and Hakuri into a new thinking. Igwezu thus seems to --
show the rebellious nature of Ogun. But that is not all
because the battle has begun and the war between him and the
Kadiye is not yet over.
197
An old blind beggar from the North, could be seen as a
proof of the immediate effect of Igwezu's ideas. The beggar
is a Mohammedan which is obvious from his dress: "He has a
small beard [and] the skull cap". (p. 86) He has journeyed on
foot from a place known as "Buganji the village of beggars",
in the North, in search of a place where he can find water.
The beggar's acceptance of Igwezu as his master, on one
level, is purely a material relationship as he wants to work
in his field and on another it is a token of his respect for
a rebel who has exposed the Kadiye. "You should go back to
the city" (p 110) the beggar advises Igwezu, sensing a threat
to his life. And his closing words with which the play
comes to an end " I shall be here to give account" (p.112)
hints at the continuation of Igwezu's new consciousness
through him.
The never-to-return youngmen heading to their unknown
destinies in search of living, leaving their old people to
their fate p~rallels the story of a poor Irish village family
in John Synge's play Riders ~ ~ ~. While Synge's play
opens with Haurya bemoaning the death of Michael her son,
Soyinka's play opens with Alu and Hakuri discussing the loss
of their son Awuchike in the swamp. There is a similarity on
the scenic level too: if it is the weaving wheel in Synge,
it is basket making in Soyinka - both reflecting a rural
family and their poverty stricken life. Michael and Bartley,
Haurya's two sons are victims of an economically defunct
village life that drives them away and the predatory sea that
~98
swallows them. Igwezu and Awuchike are also forced by similar
circumstances. In both the plays the vil~age youth come home
for a brief period to be immediately driven back to their
unknown destinies. The closing words of Maurya sum up not
only her fate but also of Alu and Makuri: "In the big world
the old people do be leaving things after them for the sons
and children, but in this place it is young men do be leaving
things behind for them do be old''. 3 And what is surprising,
Igwezu's last words seem to echo Maurya's apprehensions about
the old people; "Only the children and the old stay here.
Only the innocent and the dotards" (p.ll3).
Since Igwezu leaves the village to go back to .the city
it is not clear whether he can be regarded as an Ogun figure.
He accepts the advice of the Old beggar and runs for life
because he fears blood-shed. If we compare him with Soyinka's
other heroes, eg. Daodu in Kongi's Haryest who fails to kill
Kongi but refuses to leave lsma, Igwezu's action may fall
short of heroism. On the other hand Igwezu's departure may be
seen .as his total reject ion of the Kad iye and his world. In
~ Swamp Dwellers Soyinka attempts to create a hero who can
resist the stagnant spiritual imperatives of a decadent
society,_ but it is not clear if his protest can regene~ate
the society, or if it will remain at the level of an angry
outburst meant to settle a personal score. Soyinka returns to
his concern about man's relationship with the myth and
tradition of his society in a subsequent play ~ Strong
Breed to take up a different position.
199
The Strong Breed (1960)
Eman, the young protagonist in ~ Strong Breed 4
saves an unprotected child from being the vehicle of the "sin
carrying ritual" by offering himself as a replacement. In
contrast to Igwezu, Eman is projected as a strong character
who belongs to the family of 'Strong Breed'. Moreover he has
concern for the spiritual health of society and reveals
leadership qualities. ~Strong Breed is centred around a
ritual called "sin-carrying ritual" whereby one man is made
to carry the sins of the community in a symbolic gesture. The
man is then flogged and humiliated on the streets and finally
driven into the forest. But Eman like Igwezu protests
whenever he sees injustice. Before the play has began, Eman
as a young boy has protested against the molestation of his
beloved Omae by his tutor. Disillusioned with life he
becomes "a pilgrim, seeking the shrine of secret
strength ... strange knowledge" (p. 143) for twelve years.
Failing in his search he married Omae throwing away "my new
gained knowledge"-· but only to lose her very soon. . When the
play begins Eman has taken shelter in Jaguna's village where
he works as a teacher and a doctor . Sunma, the daughter of
the village priest, Jaguna, is Eman's helper. According to
the local tradition, on the new year's eve an idiot or a
stranger must serve as carrier of the evils of the old year.
Sunma has recognised the dangerous implications of Eman being
present in the village on this night. The priests, Jaguna and
200
Oroge, "logically" chose Ifada, a poor idiot boy, to be the
carrier. But as Sunma had feared Eman tries to protect the
terror-struck boy and argues with the priests with a view to
save Ifada. Since Eman is a stranger in the village, he
willingly offers himself as the carrier not knowing the ways
in which the ritual of sin-carrying is performed in Jaguna's
village. Eman escapes into the bushes failing to withstand
the flogging and fails to complete the purification ritual.
Jaguna and Oroge consider the incomplete ritual a
sacrilege and to avert the tragic consequences, they hunt
him down like an animal.
When the play opens a mud ho_u.s-e" which is a clinic and
in the "space in front of it, Eman, in light buba and
trousers stands at--the -window, looking out. . . Sunma appears
agitated. Outside below the window crouches Ifada [a moron].
He looks up with a shy smile from time to time, waiting for
Eman to notice hi~". (p. 115) As in !.ha Swamp Dwellers the
window becomes significant in drawing our attention to the
vast immensity of the cosmic existence with which man has to
battle constantly.--
The opening scene of ~ Stron« Breed resembles that
of !he. Swamp Dwellets where fear is. a major presence. Sunma
gripped by an unexpressed fear is pleading with Eman to
leave the village for a day, reminding us of Alu's futile
request to her husband to go and look for their son in
the earlier play. In the background the horn of a lorry is
heard and it heightens the emotional frenzy of Sunma. Soyinka
201
employs an elaborate opening scene charged with emotion and
evnkes contrasting feelings - hate and love, pity and feir.
Sunma, the daughter of Jaguna is an original
inhabitant of that village and knows what sin-carrying is for
their community : flogging and driving the carrier out into
the bushes. She does not want either Eman or Ifada to be used
as a carrier because she loves Eman and has sympathies for
Ifada. Sunma therefore is lost between Eman - a stranger in
her village and Ifada. She screams at Ifada: "Just let him go
away... I don't want him here. [Rushes to the windows) Get
away idiot ... Go away from here "(p. 116). With the same
emotional intensity Sunma begs Eman also to leave the
village: "you will have to make up your mind Eman. The lorry
leaves very shortly. (p. 115). Tender at heart, Sunma
confesses: "I am woman, and these things matter ". (p. 117)
Sunma considers the carrier ritual barbaric and cruel and
therefore she tries to persuade Eman to leave: "why do you
continue to stay where nobody wants you" (p. 120) ... "people
want you out of their way" , "Two days Eman. Only two days".
(p. 121) Inspite of all this, Sunma fails to convince Eman of
the need to go away because she does not spell out her real
fear and, Eman has his reasons to ignore her request. Inspite
of all her efforts Sunma fails to save Eman because she never
lets him know the truth about the purification ritual.
Soyinka presents the sin-carrying ritual on a symbolic
level in the play. "A g_irl comes in view, dragging an effigy
202
by a rope attached to one of its legs" (p.118) and she asks
Ifada to beat the effigy thoroughly and hang it from the
tree, presupposing, on one level, the plight and tragic end
of Eman and on another, the playwright's sceptical view of
the carrier ritual. The suggestion is that it is a play of
children - morons and idiots. He also seems to be doubting
the spiritual an~ communal significance of the ritual. At
this point of time in his career Soyinka does not seem to see
suffering as a source of knowledge and spiritual strength .
which his later play~ Baccbae n! Euripedis dramatizes.
In his argument with the village priests about the
ritual, Eman finds their position rigid and unchanging.
Through this inflexibility we see the degeneration of the
real spiritual values of the society .and feel the need for
the rebellious individual to stand up against it. Jaguna and
Oroge are an embodiment of the deteriorated spiritual order.
Soyinka depicts them as crude_and cruel. How do they take the
ritual carrier, the source of their spiritual regeneration?
They catch him as if he is an animal, and the ritual is more
a hunt th.an a spiritual event."; .. (T)wo men emerge from the
shadows. A shack is thrown over Ifada's head, the rope is
pulled tight rendering him instantly helpless''. (p. 124) They
seem to have forgotten that the message of the ritual should
be harmony and not cruelty. Moreover, on the auspicious day,
Jaguna behaves in an inhuman and sacrilegious way. He strikes
Sunma, " so hard on the face that she fa.lls to her knees".
Only a rebellious hero can regenerate a debilitated society.
203
In ~Strong Breed Eman, the protagonist raises his voice
against the system and attempts to unite the essence and the '
self - the separation of which has caused a xupture.
Soyinka has wished to make his protagonist Eman a very
strong character. The problem with Eman however is that he
fails to translate his spiritual energy into physical
strength. Like modern day intellectuals he fears physical
pain and physical assault. Eman by birth belongs to a family
of "strong breed" and from a very early stage in his life
he has been keen on harnessing the spiritual energy and
cosmic knowledge. In the play Soyinka through flash backs
informs us about Eman's past. The adolescent Eman in the
monastery says "I am becoming a man. For the first time, I
understand that I have a life to fulfill" and "A man must go
on his own, go where no one can help him, and test his
strength". ( p. 138-9) The early death of Omae, his wife, has
set Eman free, cutting off the only link he had with the
world and thereafter, he has devoted himself to spiritual
knowledge and social good. "Let me continue a stranger.
Those who have much to give fulfill themselves only in total
loneliness" (p. 125) Eman tells Sunma.
He has plunged in to community service: Eman has
cleared the bush and made a farm for Ifada, and he gives
tuition and medicine to the villagers. The Eman that ·we see
in Jaguna's village is thus a person ennobled and internally
strengthened by the experience of death, suffering and
travel. His spirit of inquiry and the protective urge in Eman
204
parallel those of the mythic hero Ogun. This heroic spirit in
him manifests in his attempt to save Ifada and argue with ~he
prie~ts to change them.
Intrigued by the arrest of Ifada by the priests Eman
comes forward to save him. He reasons with the priesti that
it is unwise to use a retarded and an unwilling boy as a
carrier. Failing to convince them, Eman insults them
indirectly by calling them a castrated lot.
Eman: Yes, But why did you pick on a helpless boy. Obviously he is not willing.
Jaguna... Ifada is god send. Does he have to be willing?
Oroge.
Eman ...
The evil of the old year is no light thing to load on any man's head.
A village which cannot produce its carrier contains no men. ( p. 128-9).
own
Jaguna and the priests who have been organising the
purification ritu•l for a long-time now are not willing to
change. It becomes inevitable that Eman should offer
himself as the "carrier'' in the place of Ifada. At this point
of time Eman does not understand the implications of the
purification ritual in the village. In his own village the
carrier is not driven out of the village, not beaten in the
street and not humiliated, and he thinks the situation is the
same here.
When we see Eman "crouching against the wall. tense
with apprehension" (p. 131) torn and bleeding. we learn that
Eman has replaced Ifada and has also escaped from the ritual.
205
After offering himself as the carrier he has found out that
it involves flogging and humiliation in the village streets.
Oroge·s words : "I think he is the kind who.would let himself
be beaten from night till dawn and not utter a sound . . . let
himself be stoned until he dropped dead" (p. 132) give us a
high expectation of Eman's physical tolerance. But
afterwards his escape gives us an impression that inspite of
being
This
such a strong character, Eman lacks consistency.
raises doubts about whether he has the Ogun spirit in
him. Eman shows a "inherited sense of responsibility to the
community and his tendency to flee when confronted with
testing situations"' as James Gibbs rightly observes. 5 It
seems Soyinka has sacrificed the integrity and consistency of
his Ogun hero for the dramatic needs. It looks as if Eman
dies a tragic death more because of the inherent flaws in his
character than the cruelty of the villagers.
Eman has sav'ed Ifada but he has failed to complete the
purification ritual and an incomplete ritual does not bring
about the necessary regeneration. The traditional
believe that an incomplete ritual is inauspicious
societies
and it
enta1ls far reaching negative consequences. In this sense
Eman has put the villagers in a tight corner, forcing them to
hunt him down. Jaguna feels "There is too much contamin~tion
about already" (p. 135) and hence the priests decide to kill
Eman to avert dangerous consequences. Jaguna's boasting
words,"when [he] sets traps, even elephants pay
their trunk downwards and the one leg up in the
206
homage
sky1 • (p.
144) forecast the fate awaiting Eman. And it comes true when,
"There is sound of twigs breaking, of a sudden trembling •in I
the branches" (p. 145) indicating the entrapment of Eman in
the forest. Even without showing the actual death death on
stage Soyinka conveys the tragic ending of Eman's life
through various dramatic devices. The description of the
villagers as "subdued and guilty" and the stage direction
"the effigy ... hanging from the sheaves" all speak of Eman's
death.
Eman is killed in a death trap and may be to some
extent a victim 6f his own short comings. But there is a
sudden twist at the end. The playwright supposes that Eman's
death has enlightened the village people. Oroge who has seen
Eman's dead body h~nging from a tree has found a rare sight.
His words, "It was no common sight " (p. 145) points to the
spiritual awakening in the villagers. Though Eman dies in
tragic circumstances Soyinka sees it as a positive
affirmation of the self-sacrifice, likening him to Christ.
A comparison of Eman with other Qgun heroes in
Soyinka's plays will tell us about the shortcomings in Eman.
The purification ritual involving public flogging appears in
~ Bacchae ~ Euripedis too, where Tiresias, the Greek blind-
seer-turned-YorUba-philosopher bas offered himself as a
voluntary flagellant in order to cleanse the rot of the old
year in Thebes. Though Tiresias complains of the beating by
the slaves, he does not run away from the ritual because he
207
has understood the the need for individual suffering for the
communal good. In his later plays the Ogun heroes of
Soyinka show a strong determination of will and suffer for I
the collective benefit. Though Ogun is a mythic character and
Gandhi a historical figure they have been leaders of people.
Gandhi in South Africa, as Atten Borough movingly depicts in
his film Gandhi had burnt the book of constitution preaching
apartheid, neglecting his own hands that were breaking under
the police attack. Eman bows out of the purification ritual.
Eman is thus only part an Ogun hero: he has saved the child
and kindled a fire in the encrusted souls of the villagers
but his death is far from being noble. T..h.e. Strong Breed is
therefore another attempt at perfecting the Ogun hero - an
ideal which seems to be fully realised in the character of
Olunde, in the play Death and~ King's Horseman.
Death and the King.·s Horseman (1975)
Death and thh King·s HorsemanS ( hereafter Horseman)
is based on a historical incident that happened on 4th
January 1945 in the Oyo state of Nigeria. The king's
horseman Olukun Esin Jinadu was making a ritual sacrifice of
his own self to accompany his deceased king on his eternal
journey. When Esin Jinadu was stopped in this act, arrested
and detained by the colonial district officer his son Murana
completed the ritual of self-sacrifice in his father's
place. 7 Soyinka has taken just the bare bones of this episode
and constructed a poetic and a complex play around it. He has
208
made a lot of changes in matters of detail, sequence and
characterisation and introduced several new elements: "The
action has been set bac-k two or three years to while the w-ar
was still on for minor reasons of dramaturgy " (p.144) and a
visit by the Prince of Wales to Nigeria has also been
integrated into the play. Soyinka's words " minor reasons of
dramaturgy should not be treated lightly because the
changes he has made have changed the historical setting into
an imaginary situation. Though the play is about the death of
a King's horseman and his son, Soyinka has not named his play
either as "The Death of king's Horseman" or "The Deaths of
the king's horseman and his son" which would have been closer
' ~" M+4 "" k~ to the original episode. Instead, he calls his playAHorseman.
Separating death from the horseman's episode, Soyinka gives
"death" an independent status, thus in various ways widening
the scope of the play.
The Horseman is in five acts and the action covers the
last quarter of a day: it begins in the evening and ends at
night. Soyinka wants the play to be staged non-stop with no
"interval". The play is knitted around two community rituals:
Elesin Oba's self-sacrifice and the English colonial
community's fancy-dress ball which is graced by the Prince of
Wales. Pilkings, the District Officer reacts with shock and
seriousness to the Elesin·s Yoruba ritual and orders his
Muslim police sergeant to arrest the person so that when the
Prince is in town its peace is not disturbed. In the ensuing
tussle between the district administration and the local
2oe
community Elesin Oba is arrested and detained. On hearing
about the fate of his father, Olunde sacrifices himself and
his dead body is p~es~nted befor~ his father who aiso
strangles himself to death. Soyinka juxtaposes the values of
the Colonial British community with that of the Yoruba
community. In the prefatori note he informs us that the
clash in the play is not cultural,between the alien and the ' indigenous but "metaphysical, contained in the human vehicle
which is Elesin and the universe of Yoruba mind the world of
the living, the dead and the unborn" and the "colonial factor
is an accident, a catalystic incident merely'". (p. 44-5) But
it is the text and not the author's Prefatory Note that
' contains the clue to the dramatic meaning.
The play opens with Elesin Oba entering the market
place in the evening followed by his drummers and singers.
"He is a man of enormous vitality, speaks, dances and sings"
and "Performs like a born raconteur, inflicting his retinue
with his humour and energy". (p. 149) Elesin Oba has come
mentally prepared to. perform the ritual of self-sacrifice: "I
go to keep my friend and master company". (p. 153) But the
Praise-singer wants Elesin to unite his disintegrating
society whose men have been dispersed, whose racial spirit
has been taken away and which has been deprived of its
spiritual comfort.
Praise -Singer: ... the white slavers came and went, they took away the heart of our race, they bore away the mind and muscle of our race ... the city fell and our people struggled through ·mountain and forest to find a new home (p. 148).
210
... there is only one shell to the soul of man; there is only one world to the spi~it of our race. If that world leayes its course and smashes on boulders of the great void, whose world will give us shelter? (p. 149).
The Praise-singer is not calling upon Elesin to
accompany the dead king, which going by the historical
context would have been more appropriate. Instead the
Praise-singer is pleading with Elesin for consolidating,
strengthening and saving the heart and soul of his community
through his self-sacrifice. The social situation described by
the Praise-singer in the images of "soul of man", "spirit of
our.race" and in the words "If that world leaves its course
and smashes on boulders of the great void" f~lly agree with a
tragic situation in the Yoruba concept: "the separation of
the essence from the self" and the disintegration of the
divine from the human that pushes an individual or a society
to the verge of ~estruction. Elesin Oba has been requested to
avert this tragedy by entering the "transitional abyss" so
that he energises himself and in turn, arrests the
disintegration ~f his society.
The Praise-singer's fears about the disintegration of
the society seem to be embodied in the persons enjoying the
fancy-dress ball, organised in honour of the Prince of Wales
by the colonial English community. They are more- powerful
than the Yoruba community and they impose their cultural
codes on others while they jealously guard their own, as the
following episodes illustrate. When-Amusa the police Sergeant
211
who reveres the Ogun refuses to share some information about
his culture with the En.lishman Pilkings. Pilkings tries
flattery and pretends not to "disturb delicate sensibilities
of Amusa, because he does not want a serious situation to go
out of his hands and troubles created when the Prince is in
town: come on Amusa, you don't beli~ve in all that ... I
thought you were a good Mosle1n". (p. 165) Once the job is
done Pi lkings warns Amusa: "And lets have no more
superstitions from you Amusa or I will throw you in the guard
room for a month and feed you pork". (p. 18) In a similar
incident Joseph - a recent Christian convert and a cook in
Pilkings· house is forced to interpret the meaning of a
particular style of drum beating, even when he is reluctant.
to do so. Enraged at his hesitation Pilkings scolds him:
"Its only two months since your conversion. Don't tell me all
the holy water nonsense also wiped out your tribal memory".
(p. 170) But Pilkings immediately realises his "unchristian
language" and confesses that he "just wanted to apologise to
him " ( p. 172) because he fears the Reverend would send a
"letter of complaint to the Resident" about his misbehaviour
towards the parishioners. Through these episodes Soyinka
shows us that the colonial English community is not
individualistic but communalistic. The church and the Prince
the spiritual and the temporal powers - are the two major
forces fostering the communal bond.
Amusa and Joseph are two examples of a disintegrating
community under an alien force that has eventually pitted the
212
indigenous people one against the other. While Amuse. reveres
the Ogun mask he considers the ritual sacrifice "a criminal
offense" indicating a division within him. Perhaps he hopes
to earn that reward, or a label, which most colonial
servants aspired for- "the most obedient servant of the
British empire~ when he reports to the district officer
about Elesin's ritual of self - sacrifice. Joseph is even
worse, he declares quite surprisingly Ogun "has no power on
Christians as if his cultural roots got cut the day he became
a Christian. Against this background of a disintegrating
community Praise-singer's pleading for the restoration of
the spirit of the race gains a significance. Soyinka is not
saying that whenever a feudal lord dies all his most loving
and dear ones should die to strengthen the spiritual bond of
the society. Instead, Soyinka seems to feel that communal
ceremonies have the potential of uniting people· and self-
sacrifice is a symbolic part of it.
The colonial administration is aware that the rituals
strengthen communal bond among people and the British empire
can rest and grow only when the the social structure of the
colonised is destroyed. The stopping of Elesin's self
sacrifice is thus directly linked to the well being of the
Empire. The Resident's apprehensions about the Yoruba ritual
highlight it.
Resident. If we allow these little things past us where would the empire be Tell me that. Where would we all (p.188)
213
slip eh? be?
Go and tell him [the Prince] there is a riot just two miles from him? This is supposed to be a serene colony of His Maje-sty, Pilking-s? (p. 189_)
If the rituals are little things how do they come in
the way 6f the empire or why should the empire worry about
little things ? or Why does Pilkings stop the ritual when he
really wants to get rid of the people who create trouble in
his administration? "And as for that [Elesin Oba] believe me,
its good riddance "(p. 171). And what precisely is the duty
that obliges him to stop the self-sacrifice?
Pilkings: If they want to throw themselves off the top of a cliff or poison themselves for the sake of some ba~baric custom what's that to me? If it were ritual murder or something like that I'd be duty bound to do something? (p. 171).
Nobody knows what Pilkings "duty" is that calls him to
stop Elesin. Soyinka does not answer this, he leaves these
questions hanging~ expecting the readers to guess it. However
the inherent contradictions in Pilkings and the Resident tell
us that communal ceremonies are powerful uniting forces ·and
stopping them is ~ssential for the colonial administration to
divide and weaken the colonised societies.
On his way towards the market place where Elesin
intended to perform the self-sacrifice, he is suddenly --
possessed by a desire for women and a longing to live the
last few moments of his life in grandeur and splendour. "when
I come among women ... I have become a monarch, ... the smell of
214
their flesh, their sweat .. this is the last air I wish to
breath ··. (p. 148) Perhaps, because it is the last day of \
his life these mundane wishes haunt Elesin Oba. When he comes
across a beautiful bride in the market place, Elesin Oba
desires her. His description of the bride shows the intensity
of his longing for women.
Elesin: Not even Ogun with the finest hoe he ever/ Forged at the anvil could have shaped/ That rise of buttocks, not though he had./ The richest earth between his fingers./ Her wrappers was no disguise./ For thighs whose ripples shamed the river's! Coils around the hills of the IIesi-Her eyes/ Were new laid eggs glowing in the dark. ( p. 159) -
The women know that they are bound by communal norms,
religious and moral codes to fulfill the wishes of Elesin Oba
on his last day. The women clothe Elesin in the finest
clothes sold in the market and treat as one above them
because Elesin is making a transition from the human world to
the divine and ancestral. It is therefore a sacrilege to
disrespect Elesin. Iyaloja who represents the Yoruba
community puts this Yo~uba world view this way:
Iyaloja: Only the curses of the departed to be feared. The claims of one whose fort is on the threshold of their abode surpasses even the claims of blood. It is impiety even to plaoe hindrances in their ways. (p. 181)
In a celebrated communal ceremony, a bride is given to
the Oba which is a rare event in modern literature. Iyaloja
describes this as a meeting of the three worlds of the Yoruba
metaphysics the living, the dead and the unborn, the
harmonious co-existence of which protects the living.
215
Iyaloja. The fruit of such a union is rare. It will be neither of this world nor of the next. Nor of the one behind us. As if the timelessness of the ancestor world and the unborn have joined spir;its to wring an issue of the elusive being of passage Elesin. (p. 162)
Having his desires fulfilled, Elesin starts dancing; he
has got into a "trance" and the ''transitional abyss", "a dark
world-will" where the self usurps the cosmic energy. In this
communal act the ritual participants also gain spiritual
energy and while suffering with the ritual protagonist - they
share the experience of the renewal of the self. Elesin Oba,
like Kotanu in Iha ~. gives us an account of the
"transitional abyss".
Elesin: (his voice drowsy)
I have freed myself of earth and now It's getting dark. Strange voices guide my feet. [Elesin Dances on, completely in a
does his
trance ... Elesin's dance not lose its elasticity but gestures become,if possible, even more weighty".] (p. 186)
At this stage, when Elesin is about to complete his
self...,.sacrifice, he is arrested by the district
administration. We come to know of this only when Elesin is
seen in the next scene with his hands" cased in thick iron"
and "imprisoned". His failure is partly a result of his
delay due to indulgence in the sensual pleasures. Thus, the
administration's anti-Yoruba ritual stance coupled with
Elesin's delay obstructs the self-sacrifice leaving the
schism the severance of the essence from the self
216
unbridged. A ritual ceremony not completed incurs wrath of
the spirits, a Yoruba belief as we have seen in ~ Strong
Breed. The play thus anticipates disas~rous consequen~es.
Olunde, the eldest son of Elesin Oba was abroad in England
doing medicine, and after learning about the death of the
king he has returned to his town in the same ship as the
Prince of Wales. Like all the other Ogun heroes in Soyinka"s
world Olunde is also exposed to different cultures, people
and has travelled widely. In this he parallels Daodu in
Koogi"s Harvest, Diooysos in~ Baccbae ~ Euripedis and
also Igwezu and Eman in ~ Swamp Dwellers and ~ Strong
Breed respectively. He is a fine young mao dressed in a
sober western suit.
No sooner Olunde lands up in his city than be goes to
meet Pilkings, the District Officer, as he wants to stop him
from disrupting the sacrifice ritual. Although Olunde is a
son of the king's horseman and he is obligated to Pilkings
for arranging his education abroad, he does not have servile
manners. When he finds Jane using the Ogun mask for fancy
dress, an irritated Olunde protests: "And this is the good
cause for which you desecrate an ancestral mask". (p. 191)
Through this Soyinka here shows us that Olunde at heart is
very sensitive about his culture and he also focuses on his
keen analytical mind as we see in his conversation with Jane:
Jane .... The ship had to be blown up because it had become dangerous to the other ships, population would have died ... The captain blew himself up with it. Deliberately .. .
Olunde. yes ... I quite believe it. I met men like that
217
in England . Jane .... Such morbid news. Stale too. Olunde. I don't find it morbid at all. I find it rather
Jane. Olunde. Jane.
inspiring. It is an affirmative commentary on life. What is? That captain's self-sacrifice. ~onsense, life should nev~r be thrown deliberately away. ( p. 192-3)
As the Second World War is still on and Olunde has come
from England, a country engaged in the war Jane, probably to
while away the time, draws Olunde's attention to the
Captain's sacrifice of life (which must be a real incident).
Olunde having worked in hospitals in England has not only
known such incidents but has also seen men who have performed
such great feats 1 of bravery. Therefore, for Olunde, the
Captains episode, "is an affirmative commentary on life".
Soyinka draws our attention to a mighty force - war - that
transforms death into sacrifices and integrates the concept
of martyrdom into the play providing a context in which
Olunde's self sacrifice later has to be understood. In this
conversation, Olunde is perceptive and understanding whereas
Mrs. Pilkings comes off as an intolerant person. The h~roic
sacrifice of captain's life for her is a "morbid news. Stale
too". She fails to understand the significance of the
captain's self-sacrifice for his nation. She reduces the
heroic death of the captain to the Jevel of social diversion:
"the occassional bit of excitement". Soyinka is not
projecting Jane as a representative of English sensibility
and culture here. He has made this clear in the prefatory
note that the "colonial factor is accident,, a catalystic
218
incident merely". (p.144) Jane is not a highly individualised
character but an average English house-wife whose knowledge
of life is limited and narrow.
Olunde does not want Pilkings to stop his father from
the self-sacrifice. He believes what his father is doing is
an honourable act and has a metaphysical significance for the
Yoruba community.,Here Olunde is reflecting on the relevance
of self-sacrifice which considers the captain's heroic death
to be not very different from Elesin's. The only difference
is that one is secular and the other religious but both are
essential for the well being of a society. Olunde does not
see death as the eqd of life but a beginning of yet another
kind of existence. Olunde's continued debate with Jane throws '
light on these essential secrets of life.
Olunde.
Jane.
Olunde.
Jane ....
Olunde.
Mrs. Pilkings, I came here to bury my father. As I heard the news I booked ~Y passage home ... But do you think your father is entitled to whatever protection is available to him? How can I make you understand? He baa protection. No one can undertake what he does tonight without the deepest protection the mind can conceive. What can you offer him in place of honour and veneration of his people? What would you think of your Prince if he refused to accept the risk of losing his life on this voyage? This ... showing the flag tour of colonial possessions. However cleverly you try to put it, it is still a barbaric custom, it is even worse -its feudal! '
(waves his hand towards the background The Prince is dancing ... ) And this? Even in the midst of a devastating war ... [I] would call it decadence... Is that worse than mass suicide? Mrs. Pilkings, what do you call what those young me~~sent to do by their generals
219
in this war? (p 194-5).
Here it should not be taken that Soyinka is justifying
the human sacrifice against man slaughter in the wats.
He draws our· attention to the other possibilities of death
and his complete faith in the moral and spiritual value of
self-sacrifice. This is also a dtamatic hint that Olunde
would perform such an act if it fell on his shoulders.
Olunde's ideal world gets shattered when after
believing his father to have completed the ritual, he sees
his father alive. Olunde refuses to recognise him because he
expected his father to be strong and not let down people who
vested their fait~ in him. He considers that his father's
failure would "jeopardise the welfare of my people" (p. 198)
ELESIN, in hand cuffs, comes after pounding in the direction of Olunde, ... Olunde stares above his head into the distance. For several moments they hold the same position ... he moves for the first time since he heard [his father's] voice, ... and walks slowly down the wa'y his father had run. ( p. 202-3)
When the market women "intoning the dirge 'Ale le 'le'
and swaying from ~:tide to side" carry the dead body of Olunde
rolled up in the mat and open it in front of Elesin we learn
that Olunde has performed the self-sacrifice in his father's
place. Unlike his predecessors in the earlier plays - Igwezu
and Eman - Olunde did not run away from crisis, but like
Ogun, confronted the real enemy and restored the honour and
dignity of his people. Is Olunde's act a human sacrifice? Has
220
he blindly accepted the Yoruba custom of human sacrifice?
These are the questions which need to be answered to
understand the nature of his death.
The arrest and detention of his father and the
disruption of the ritual are to Olunde outrageous. The
British cultural hegemony over the Yorubas not acceptable to
Olunde because he considers them to be cannibalistic: in the
war, they are "wiping out their so-called civilization ... and
reverting to primitivism"' (p. 195) and elsewhere in one of
their African colonies, they are dancing in a fancy-dress
ball regardless of their own kith and kin dying in the war.
Olunde thus finds the English community as a whole morally
and spiritually impoverished. Against this background Olunde
finds a role for himself of saving the honour and dignity of
his people. In this act Olunde par-allels the sacrif-ice of the
English Captain who blew himself up to save his people in the
war. Olunde's death therefore cannot be treated as a human
sacrifice because the conflict between the Yoruba community
and the colonial administration has taken the dimension of a
war. Soyinka thus succeeds in reinterpreting Olunde's death
to highlight the·heroic spirit of Ogun in him.
The specific atnbience of the Yoruba culture is
evoked through language. Soyinka has used proverbs, like
"what tryst is this the cockerel goes to keep with such haste
that he must leave his trail behind? (p. 147) which puts a
question in a riddle and, "Because the nan approaches a brand
new bride he forgets the long faithful mother of his
.221
children" (p. 147) which, predicts the future. of Elesin Oba.
The song of "Not-! bird" sung by Elesin Oba narrates his
fearlessness of death and yet on another level it represeruts
ordinary man's fear of death providing a backg~ound to the
ritual of self-sacrifice. The metaphor of "plantain", "the
pith of it" and the new shoot which recurs so intermittently
in Iyaloja and Elesin's conversation helps Soyinka to explain
the co-existence 'Of all the three worlds in one - the dead,
the living and the unborn. Transforming the Yoruba metaphors,
idioms and the mythic imagination into English Soyinka makes
his play resonate with the Yoruba sensibility on several
levels.
The intermittent contrast between the Yoruba and the
colonial English community and their rituals enables Soyinka
to comment on the universality of self-sacrifice which is
performed in various forms and disguises. The Yorubas
recognise Elesin Oba as their spiritual leader whereas for
the colonial English community the Prince is that leader;
while Elesin Oba performs the sacrifice ritual, the Prince
risks his life while crossing the "Nazi-infested seas for
the sake of his-· community; the market women guard the
nuptial of Elesin Oba and the district administration
provides protection to the Prince participating in the fancy
dress ball; Oba has a bride of his choice while the Resident
dances with women of his choice; while the captain- blows
himself up Olunde immolates himself.
222
James Booth, in his critical essay "Self-sacrifice and
human sacrifice in Soyinka's Horseman" says "the
playwright's search for a vivid and dramatic metaphor for the
universe of the Yoruba mind" has led him to confuse an
irreducibly primitive human sacrifice with an authentically
African sacrifice of self " 8 . Analysing the play "at the risk
of reductionism" Booth ignores to consider the colonial
forces that had enslaved the Yorubas in their land and
conclude that the self sacrifice is a barbaric act and the
civilization preached by the colonial community is sane and
sacred. However, Soyinka is mythicising his immediate past in
the true sense of the term myth - sacralising a heroic act. A
creative exercise of' the kind is not unique to Soyinka. T .S.
Eliot has also done it in his play "Murder in. ~ Cathedral"
(1935) which dramatizes the Christian ideal of self-
sacrifice. When the Bishop of Canterbury Thomas Becket is
returning from his exile, Canterbury women (the chorus)warn
him to return to France as death awaits him in the
Cathedral:"you come bringing death into Canterbury". 9 Becket
preferred staying in the cathedral welcoming those who are
jealous of the power of the Church to kill him.
What is essential in understanding Soyinka is that he
is a postcolonial subject striving to reconstruct the
distorted image of his culture, history and tradition. He
draws a bit from myths and history, a little from r~ligion
and rituals while restoring the perspective from which to
understand his civilization.
223
III
In the three plays discussed in this chapter
opens out a discursive domain where faith and culture
for space with iogic and economics. In his domain
Soyinka
jostle
gods do
not exist but the human beings who lived in the past, those
living in the present or those who may live in future, ie.,
the ancestors, the living and the unborn acquire sacred
status. Here the stress is more on the present because of
its vital position providing a continuity between the past
and the future. The dramatic heroes of Soyinka are therefore
situated in the present and they, first, realise their
essence and then s~t out to stem the rot in various
of contemporary
individuals because
life. Society
their struggle
requires such
guarantees the
inner
spheres
strong
smooth
contiriuation of lif~. Igwezri; So~irika'~ fir~t ever dramatic
hero in l:.M Swamp Dwellers is a victim the economic pressure
for change; he resists this pressure but fails to carry out
the collective responsibility for transforming his community.
The urge for change in Igwezu is not a result of a strongly
felt need for a spiritual reawakening of his society but
anger at a personal loss. His protest against the Priest
does not carry a greater significance at the level of the
community, but remains a short sighted diatribe against the
exploitative nature of the old customs. In ~Swamp Dwellers
Soyinka begins to look at the religious complexities of
Yoruba life as rich dramatic potential, but he does not go
very far in the direction of creating an Ogun hero.
224
In his search for a more dramatic and symbolic African;
religious ceremony Soyinka comes up with the purificatory
ritual of flogging as community cleansing in ~ Strong
Breed, but he does not find a dramatic hero who could
carry this off with suitable ideological conviction. Eman in
~ Strong Breed does not have a firm faith in the concept of
self- sacrifice. He may be sharing Soyinka's view that
suffering and ~logging in 'sin-carrying' ritual is only
symbolic and not actual. Therefore Eman ; walks out of the
ritual iTreligiously. For Eman suffering involves mind and
not flesh. Ina Stroni Breed is flawed by the presence of a
dramatic hero who ~s half-hearted in his commitment.
It is not clear what factors in Soyinka's further
development as a playwright make him use the ritual concept
of self-sacrifice in a positive manner. Christianity stresses
the element of suffering and martyrdom but Soyinka"s early
plays do not show any trace of this element despite the
fact that his birth and upbringing was in Christianity. The
Ogun myth, Soyinka's other dominant preoccupation, is the
story of a hunter god and its primordial association does not
have anything to parallel the refined human experience:
suffering. Soyinka underwent a deep introspection in jail
for nearly two years at the end of the sixties and it is
crucial that Horsemen, which in very categorical terms --
reaffirms Soyinka"s faith in self-sacrifice, came soon after
Soyinka's release from prison. We can say here by inference,
that Soyinka understood the essence of self-sacrifice, the
225
sacrifice of the flesh from his own suffering. The myth of
Ogun, the ritual traditions of his over culture ~ave of
course, consolidated and reinforced his own basic
understanding.
This early realization that the ultimate of all
sacrifices is life itself seems to have enabled Soyinka to
appreciate the concepts contained in the Yoruba rituals and
his historical heroes. Horseman thus opens a new phase in
Soyinka's work, combining the dramatic with the ritualistic.
What was, hitherto metaphorical the relevance of
purification ritual becomes real in this play not only
carrying an intense dramatic impact, but also conveying a
certain acceptance on Soyinka"s part of the cultural validity
of such a ritual. Soyinka valorizes the efficacy
ritual of self-sacrifice and its strength to unite
and resist alien encr6achment. This need not sound
of tne
people
totally
mystic. Fasting which Gandhi resorted to whenever his ideal
of an united and ~~rong secular India was at stake, is but a
slow death. Gandhi did not invent this but had learnt it from
his religious background. The myth of sage Dadheechi could
be cited here as another apt example of self-sacrifice. When
the gods approached Dadheechi for his back-bone he graciously
volunteered. These examples from our own culture may help us
to understand the ritual of self-sacrifice of the Yoruba
world. However, Soyinka's understanding of the ritual ~ay be
much more complex from the philosophical as well as dramatic
point of view.
226
Mapping
trodden by
out the vast immensity of
his forebears, imbuing their
the cosmic world
experience with
vita-lity, a-nd preserving them is essential for Soyinka at· a
time when his people are losing faith in thei~ pas~ heritage.
Soyinka therefore dramatizes the myths, rituals and religious
customs time and again in his plays to explore their
relevance to the contemporary African society and to use them
as symbols to understand the general human predicament.
227
Notes
l •
1 James Gibbs,~ Soyinka, Mac-Millan, London, 1986,p.117.
2 Wole Soyinka, Collected Plays ~. Great Britain, OUP, 1973; rpt. 1984. All references to this text.
3 James Synge, Plays, London, George Allen and Cenwick Ltd., 1933; rpt. 1988, p. 44.
4 Wole Soyinka, Collected Plays ~. All references to this text.
5 James Gibbs, ~ Soyinka, p.73.
6 Wole Soyinka, Six Plays, London, Methuen, 1984. All references to this text.
7 James Gibbs, ~ Soyinka, p. 118.
8 ·James Booth, "Self S-a-crifice and Human Sacrifice in Soyinka's Death a.nd. King's Horseman," .RAL., Vol. 19, Spring 1986, pp. 529-549.
9 T.S. Eliot, Murder~ th4 Cathedral, London, Faber, 1935; rpt. 1971, p. 19.
228
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