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| Image courtesy of Google |
Writing
within a context of a geographical region troubled by social, political and
economic problems, Francis Imbuga chooses to dramatize the society’s malaise in
his last play: The Return of Mgofu.
Perhaps prophesying about his death, seeing the close proximity between the
spiritual world and the physical one we inhabit, Imbuga, partly, invokes on
ethereal characters to warn the living that human life is precious and it
should thus be unreservedly protected. In particular, Thori and Thoriwa, both
husband and wife, adorned in their spiritual bodies have come back as
messengers from the land of those who died a long time ago to sensitise the
people on the need for good neighbourliness.
As
a matter of fact, Thori recalls that: “The only thing necessary for evil to
triumph is for good people to do nothing”. Reminiscing about an incident in
which clashes broke out; therefore, people getting displaced, maimed and others
killed, Thori decries that it is because the good people did not take any
action that innocent blood was shed. Contrasting the state of things in the
past and the present, the play appears to suggest that human beings have become
increasingly intolerant of each other owing to heightened greed for power and
the need to control resources for selfish gains.
It
is possible to deduce from the play that in the past people lived harmoniously,
were friendlier, and loving; thus, in a spirit of communalism they cared for
one another selflessly. Although this appears to be a romanticised state of
affairs, Thori and Thoriwa affirm the humaneness of their times by declaring
that they were keepers of other people’s children although they did not have
their own. Perhaps we can surmise that with an increasingly populous society
bedecked with suspicion, mistrust, dwindling resources, insecurity, incurable
diseases and economically insatiable leaders amongst other calamities, human
beings have no choice but to be mean to one another.
However,
Imbuga highlights the fact that there have always been good people in our
midst, that if they took action against evil deeds we would have a peaceful
society to live in. Indeed, Imbuga appears to insinuate that things go wrong in
the society because the morally upright are afraid to speak out or to take a
stand against those who break the law. Drawing from the ancestral lineage of
Mgofu Ngoda, the playwright demonstrates that troubled African nations can
revisit their roots, borrow a leaf from traditional values of peaceful
co-existence in a bid to tame an otherwise antagonistic trend that spells doom
for humankind.
Mgofu
Ngoda is a son of the Great half blind Seer who has to make a comeback to his
ancestors’ land from which they were alienated by clashes. While others chose
to hide in a shrine to escape the mayhem of animosity, the Great Seer argued
that: “The strongest oak of the forest is not the one that is protected from
the storm and hidden from the sun. It’s the one that is compelled to struggle
for existence against the winds and rains and the scorching sun.” This
symbolically suggests that African countries experiencing upheavals of varied
nature can weather the storm; they can learn from their mistakes in order to
lay the foundation of a better future for their people. Ironically, the people who
hid at the shrine ended up being burned from the very place they had imagined
was the safest – a holy ground. Paralleled to the 2007/2008 violence in Kenya
in which some people were burned in a church, the events reveal the disturbing
dehumanisation of people and the play’s conclusion that: “If they can burn a
place of worship, they are beyond redemption.”
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| Image of Imbuga courtesy of Google |
The
play also conveys political undertones by creatively castigating activities
that sugar-coat human misdeed. For example one character decries that “Charity
sees the need, not the cause” in a way making fun of countries and individuals
who thrive on giving hand-outs/donations instead of addressing the source of
the problems. Other issues at the centre of the play’s concern include land
clashes and how even priests – individuals placed on the highest moral pedestal
– connive to shed the blood of fellow beings. Specifically, the play
underscores how technology is sometimes exploited to fuel animosity as local radio
stations adopt mother tongue to spread ethnic hatred. This is suggestive of how
emerging modes of communication such as social media can negatively be adopted
in maligning others, organising terror attacks, syphoning public resources.
In
Mgofu Ngoda, we are invited to see the return of good and the possibility of
the triumph of good over evil. The reader visualises a new world order in which
human beings take charge of their actions. Imbuga’s play envisions a society
that is devoid of genocides, one that thrives on political tolerance; a
community of people who are selfless in serving and caring for others. In
essence, The Return of Mgofu is a
call for humankind to return to good practices by shunning ethnic, racial or
any other form of discrimination against fellow human beings. It is both
Imbuga’s farewell and clarion call to humanity to embrace the triple values of
peace, love and harmony irrespective of our gender, cultural, ethnic, racial,
political, social or otherwise economic disparities.
