I once read the nobel laureate’s “JERO’S METAMORPHOSIS”, a play staged in 1960 (I was barely 2 years old then); and published in 1963. I also read Soyinka’s “THE TRIALS OF BROTHER JERO”.
In the former play, Jero was in possession of a confidential file which revealed government’s plans to transform the beach into a public prosecution ground and tourists’ centre. The satirical play was about the willy ways Jero tried to unite all the church leaders operating at the beach and make them form one church, with him as the sole leader. Soyinka was satirically decrying the hypocritical way Nigerians practised the Christian religion.
He was shocked at the obsequious and unquestioning devotion that converts and adherents displayed towards their manipulative spiritual leaders. In “The Trials of Brother Jero” first published in 1964, Soyinka mocked the proselytizing Church preachers, who did not even have churches (as did brother Jero) and so preached in public places. He highlighted the transformation of these leaders with religious titles of Bishop, Pastor and Prophet, to military titles such as General, Colonel, Sergeant, etc.
Soyinka depicted church leaders as deceptive, corrupt, fraudulent, politically ambitious and abandoning their flock in pursuit of mercantilist and mundane cravings. Thus, Like Karl Marx, Soyinka satirised these crafty preachers who deceived their somnambulistic followers.
The play exposed the contradictions in blind faith and slavish following, and satired the too many social and political imbalances in Nigeria of the 60s. The ills Soyinka kicked against in the early 60s are even worse today. Have you not seen viral videos where so-called Pastors urinated in the mouths of their hypnotised worshippers, or farted on their faces, or sat on their heads, with yet some other members washing his legs on their heads?
They are told that is the only way to get rich or experience paradise. Religion had been termed opium of the people by Karl Marx, used as an instrument to fight wars as beast in Europe, instead of using it to give solace to the soul of man. Soyinka had theorised along that line.
Soyinka’s works may have humour; but he deploys his lyricism and poetry to entertain, enlighten and throw up topical issues, steeped in European mythology and the Yoruba spiritual and cultural traditions. To have won the Anisfield Wolf Lifetime Achievement Award as Soyinka did 2013 is a testament to his global essence.
Perhaps, Soyinka’s most famous quote is “I don’t know any other way to live than to wake up everyday armed with my convictions, not yielding them to the threat of danger and to the power and force of people who might despise me” (September 2, 2021). He believes in standing up to what is right even in the face of adversity and danger. Wole Soyinka wrote 52 books in 64 years. The books consist of plays, novels, poetry collections, essays, memoirs and translated works. Soyinka has written virtually on every topic – corruption, racism, religion, tradition, colonialism, identity crisis, neo-colonialism, greed, societal decay, empathy, rituals; fate, freewill, African traditional religion, evil, good, parenting skills, material exploitation, birth and death, social justice, survival; perseverance and so on. Surely, this man in Wole Soyinka has not died. This is because he does not “keep silent in the face of tyranny”.
As you hit your nonegenerian year (90), here is wishing this unusual human being many more years on mother earth in good health and peace that passeth all understanding. Yours sir, is Genesis 6:3. Happy birthday, sir.
