discourse of modernism and traditionalism in wole soyinka...
TRANSCRIPT
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Discourse of Modernism and Traditionalism in Wole Soyinka’s
Kongi’s Harvest
K.Sindhu
Assistant Professor of English,
PeriyarUniversity,Salem, Tamilnadu
India
In Kongi’s Harvest, the single leadership-figure of The Trials of Brother Jero is replaced
by two rival authorities, with each of the rivals (Oba Danlola and Kongi) representing certain
facets of alternative leadership value-systems. What is being presented is, in essence, the
aftermath of a confrontation between a modern dictatorship and a traditional, hereditary-
monarchical system. As the conflict between competing authorities is seen to be already
effectively resolved (with the traditional authority of the Oba replaced, to all intents and
purposes, by that of Kongi‟s political dictatorship), the satiric thrust of the play is predominantly
aimed first at Kongi and then, by implication, at those contemporary leaders whose style of
leadership provides the model for the Kongi figuration. In a consideration of the play‟s function
as a value-debating forum, it is interesting to note that the playwright has directed attention
towards the general nature of the play‟s didactic reference.
This play is not about Kongi, it is about Kongism. Therefore, while it has been suggested
with some justification that there are some resemblances between the characters of Kongi and
that of ex-president Nkrumah, it must be emphasized that Kongism has never been dethroned in
Black Africa. There are a thousand and more forms of Kongism - from the crude and
blasphemous to the subtle and sanctimonious. A current variety may be described as neo-
Peronism, the cult of plaster-cast sanctity.
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Thus Kongism is seen, by Soyinka, to be a representative African phenomenon. The
projected nature of Kongism can best be defined by an examination of the twin figures of Kongi
and his superseded opponent Oba Danlola. The manner in which these two figures are deployed
within the text contributes to a process that defines Kongism and the system it has replaced. By
contrasting the alternative leadership-models, Soyinka enables the play to operate as a dramatic
forum; as a forum for consideration of the values that underlie actual (and, often by contrast,
legitimate) temporal authority.
The figure of Kongi, as the title of the play suggests, looms above all others. Soyinka
achieves a satiric definition of the figure by selecting key targets (as representative of the
Leader‟s way) and then attacking them with wit, with parody and with ridicule. The action of the
play is hinged around the formal presentation of the New Yam, symbol of a leadership that has
been authenticated. Kongi insists that the Oba, who normally would have the traditional
prerogative of receiving the yam, should formally present the New Yam to him. The presentation
has two functions: the new era of Kongi‟s Harvest would be opened and, in the process, the new
authority of Kongism would be legitimised. Kongi‟s concern that the ceremony should take place
is indicative of his attempt to remove any suggestion that he is a usurper of collectively-
sanctioned authority. Kongi, although shown to be in an obviously strong position, continues to
see himself as constantly under threat, both from the traditional forces and from the relatively
„enlightened‟ faction led by young Daodu. Kongi‟s continuing attempts to legitimise his
leadership provide the major satiric targets within the play.
Kongi replaces the Oba‟s traditional body of advisers with his own Reformed Aweri
Fraternity who work, as latter-day public relations men, to enhance the image of their Leader.
They speak of the Leader‟s vision of harmony and of the need “To replace the old superstitious
festival by a state Ceremony governed by the principle of Enlightened Ritualism” (Kongi’s
Harvest 85). Ritualism is seen as some sort of legitimising ceremony as essential to the proper
consolidation of Kongi‟s power. The Fourth Aweri suggests that Oba Danlola should “appear in
full antiquated splendour surrounded by his Aweri Conclave of Elders who, beyond the outward
trappings of pomp and ceremony and a regular supply of snuff, have no other interest in the
running of the state” (KH 85).
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Kongi also employs a rather pragmatic Organising Secretary who is often flanked by his
own intelligence service. All the panoply of one-man rule is at Kongi‟s call whenever the great
man emerges from his meditative „retreat‟ in the mountains.
Continuing the satiric attack, Soyinka has the Aweris decide to project a more modern
style for Kongi, as opposed to the old ways of traditional leadership. They see themselves as a
“conclave of modern patriarchs” and as “youthful elders of state” (KH 73). In contrast to the
pronouncements of the Oba and his followers (always surrounded in the text with Yoruba songs
and the wisdoms of proverbial language), the Aweris - from First to Sixth - speak in the language
of what they call “positive scientificism”. They quote from the Leader‟s last publication:
FIFTH. Ah yes. Nor proverbs nor verse, only ideograms in algebraic quantums. If the square of
XQY (2bc) equals QA into the square root of X, then the progressive forces must prevail over
the reactionary in the span of. 32 of a single generation. (KH 74)
The semantic sterility of this passage enforces, at the linguistic level, the negative quality
of abstraction that pervades Kongi‟s leadership position. The actions of the Aweris, because they
are presented as being sycophantic (if not totally committed) followers of the Leader, work to
define the Kongi figure. Attempting to overcome what they see as the “long-winded proverbs
and senile pronouncements” of the Oba‟s group, the Aweris create a pose of authority, a pose
that will elevate Kongi to the god-like status that befits the all-knowing autocrat with the power
of life and death in the palm of his hand. While the Aweris strive for elevation, the text (with
dramatically-enacted sarcasm) moves towards the deflation that is at the heart of satire. The
playwright stresses the posing nature of Kongi‟s leadership in a scene of great satiric
effectiveness. Having decided to control even the passing of time - by renaming the previous
years as, for example, 100 K.H. and B.K.H. (Before Kongi‟s Harvest) - Kongi begins to strike
poses for a press photographer. These are, the stage direction informs us, “a series of „Last
Supper‟ poses - iyan (pounded yam) serving variation”: “A Leader‟s Temptation”, “Agony on
the Mountains”, “The loneliness of the Pure”, “The Uneasy Head”, “The Face of Benevolence”,
“The Giver of Life” and “A Saint at Twilight”. Continuing the process of satire-by-naming,
Soyinka later has Kongi‟s Carpenters‟ Brigade marching in front of a huge cyclorama upon
which is a projected picture of various buildings... all clearly titled Kongi Terminus, Kongi
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University, Kongi Dam, Kongi Refineries, Kongi Airport, etc. Finally, of course, a monster
photo of the great man himself (KH 64).
Kongi, the figure who has silenced the royal drum, is presented as an epileptic who
“exhorts, declaims, reviles, cajoles, damns, curses, vilifies, excommunicates, execrates until he is
a demonic mass of sweat and foam at the lips” (KH 83). The abnormal physical nature of Kongi
enforces the view, carefully sustained throughout the play, that Kongism is a socio-political
aberration, an unnatural and loathsome canker on the African body politic. Kongi and Kongism
are the recipients of a full frontal satiric attack.
By contrast, Oba Danlola (precisely because he is not in a position to emerge as a
credible alternative leader) is not subjected to the same degree of satiric attack. Indeed, since he
is a figure projected as being close to the traditional roots of practical politics and commonsense
- the possessor, unlike Kongi, of a degree of self-knowledge - the Oba operates within an
authorially-controlled scheme of limited affirmation. The Oba‟s position within the text‟s satiric
framework is more ambivalent than that of Kongi. For, although the Oba and his values are
shown to be increasingly irrelevant in a state dominated by Kongism and are, therefore, targets
for satire, the Oba-figure (to the extent that Kongi‟s men react to him) operates as a logical
avenue of assault upon those who have replaced him. The play begins, in fact, with Oba‟s group
rendering a sardonic anthem to Kongi‟s “new race”. Throughout the play, the Oba and his group
snipe at Kongism while maneuvering to avoid the symbolic subjugation that is implicit in the
ceremony of the New Yam. Unlike Kongi, the Oba is associated with certain life-affirming
forces. In conversation with Kongi‟s Superintendent, the Oba remarks: Your man knows I love
to have my hairs. Ruffled well below the navel (KH 66).
Oba Danlola is projected as a figure full of life and colour. But it becomes clear that,
because of their distance from the real seat of power, these positive values have been divorced
from any possibility of enactment. The text makes it plain that the Oba is aware of the true
situation. In a typical passage of mocking self-deprecation, the Oba asks for more cola nut:
Some cola nut. Playing a clown‟s part
For the Eye and Ear of his Immortality
Has turned my blood to water. I need
The stain of cola to revive
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It‟s royal stain. (KH 119)
He knows that real power has left him. All that is left are the trappings. He quotes,
sarcastically, from the “Chieftaincy Succession Legislation Section II, nineteen-twenty-one” (KH
118), while rebuking the excesses of his praise-singer with “You‟ll be more at home
performing/At the Festival of Traditional Arts” (KH 119). In terms of the leadership value-
systems that are set up in Kongi‟s Harvest, it is crucial to recognise the fact that Danlola has
finally borne the New Yam to Kongi. Despite the strong satiric thrust aimed at Kongism, the
rogue (as in The Trials of Brother Jero) has triumphed. The play ends with the clang of an iron
grating as Kongi‟s rule continues.
Kongi’s Harvest, arguably Soyinka‟s most achieved drama, is evidence both of his skill
as a playwright and of his continuing commitment to a search for values that are not to be found
in the court of Kongi. Emerging as it does near the end of the period of civilian rule in Nigeria;
the play can be placed within a setting of rigged elections, corruption and political chaos that
constituted the prelude to civil war. The play proceeds from that experience. The satirically-
motivated design of the text works towards a rejection of the forms of leadership that it presents.
Two forms of civilian power-structures are specifically negated: one (the traditional) as being
outdated, the other (Kongism) as being morally and socially abhorrent. These negations are
indicative of the precise relationship between Soyinka the playwright and Soyinka the socio-
political observer.
The clash between the modern and the traditional forces in an emergent modern African
society is a very familiar concern in all genres of African literature. Wole Soyinka is therefore
not out of place in his preoccupation with it in Kongi’s Harvest. This clash is enacted between
the Oba (the traditional head) and the President, Kongi (the modernist and constitutional head)
though a constitutional head Kongi is essentially a dictator. In essence his modern dictatorship
strives to absorb within itself the traditional system so as to destroy it as a contending power as
well as capture its legitimacy, dignity, appeal and power. This clash manifests itself from the
very start in the Hemlock section. There the roll of drums and the anthem suggest the struggle of
two opposing camps for supremacy. The traditional forces are being stifled out of life by the
propaganda and the paraphernalia accompanying Kongi‟s dictatorship. They have been rejected
as rotten waste, for:
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Ism to ism for ism is ism
Of isms and isms on absolute ism
To demonstrate the tree of life
Is sprung from broken peat
And we the rotted bark, spurned
When the tree swells its pot
The mucus that is snorted out
When Kongi‟s new race blows. (KH 61)
Kongi‟s forces have thus scored one against the Oba‟s. They have confined the forces of
tradition, the Oba and his retinue to waste the rest of their years in prison. Though the clash
continues, the struggle is at a lower plane. Since they cannot meet Kongi and his force head-on,
they are relegated to battling with a junior representative, the superintendent of prison. This
eclipsing of the forces of tradition is what is being mourned for by the opening dirge in
„Hemlock‟. The king‟s umbrella can no longer shade them and this is seen as signaling the end,
for as the Ogbo Aweri laments:
This is the last
That we shall dance together
This is the last the hairs
Will lift on our skin
And draw together
When the gbedu rouses
The dead in Oshugbo. (KH 128)
For though the end of the traditional ruler‟s public role has been effected, it is by no
means the end of the struggle. He still has mystical powers, dignity and symbolic values all of
which Kongi and his henchmen could give anything to get. Their complaints about the royal
canopy taking too much silk and that the first of „the new yams melted / Melted first in an Oba‟s
mouth‟ (KH 127) is symptomatic of the greed if not envy leading leaders on to capturing all the
titles and prestigious roles and have they bestowed upon themselves. This is what Kongi is
poised to do. He wants to be the spirit of harvest and to get a public show of the Oba‟s
capitulation of power to him. But Oba Danlola maintains an uncompromising position and thus
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refuses to perform the ritual handing over of the first yam to him. As a result a protracted
struggle between the two as is suggested in these strings of proverbs:
The pot that will eat fat
The bottom must be scorched
The squirrel that will long crack nuts
Its footpad must be sore
The sweetest wine has flowed down
The tapper‟s shattered show. (KH 61)
Kongi‟s wrong-headed conviction of the superiority of western civilization leads him to
senselessly replacing traditional leader. His transformation of traditional institutions to absurd
modern versions is lunatic, for no thought is given to the superficiality that will possibly result.
Kongi demonstrates a paranoiac distrust of almost everyone around him. Through
compulsion, he buys over all authority and traditional legitimacy all of which he then
ungrudgingly bestows on himself. He thus develops himself to the central repository of all
powers. The traditional ruler, Danlola, is therefore compelled to present him personally with the
New Yam. This will publicly acknowledge his supremacy and enable him to stamp his image on
every mind as a charismatic and legitimate ruler. Even his opponents are thus constrained to beg
for forgiveness. A dictatorship is thus exposed as a fragile, hollow, fake and weak institution that
lacks belief in itself.
Therefore it has to lean on the legitimacy of the traditional power it seeks to destroy but
since they are afraid of its strength and efficacy they have to muzzle it and absorb all its strength
to survive. As a result, the traditional is being strangulated by the propaganda and paraphernalia
of Kongi‟s dictatorship. A flurry of „Isms‟ suffocate the air in demonstrating that Kongi‟s „tree of
life „ is sprung from broken peat; and that Danlola and his forces of tradition are only its waste
products (KH 61). Amidst the strident trumpeting of propaganda, the people become as useless
as putrid waste matter. Words are bandied in total defiance of them. For in the words of Danlola
and his retinue‟s song:
…there‟s a harvest of words
In a penny newspaper.
They say it all on silent skulls
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But who cares? Who but a lunatic
Will bandy words with boxes
With government rediffusion sets
Which talk and talk and never
Take a lone word in reply. (KH 61)
The presentation of Kongi and his henchmen is a biting satire of the modern dictators in
Africa as well as elsewhere. The composite picture is almost that of a madman. For after all, all
dictatorships border on madness. The dictator, Kongi maintains total control over all the
instruments of coercion that are in fact the lifeblood and modus operandum of all modern
dictatorships. These instruments of coercion are well established and manifested in the mallet-
swinging Carpenters Brigade and in the Superintendent who tyrannizes over the Oba. Their
repressiveness is a constant source of concern for the Oba as is evident in his speech here:
Their yam is pounded, not with the pestles
But with stamp and a pad of violet ink
And their arms make omelet of
Stubborn heads, via police truncheons. (KH 109)
On stage they are supposed to be dehumanized beings with stiff mallet-wielding arms
pistoning up in the Nazi-salute. They are in this way presented as the coercive instruments of a
totalitarian regime such as Kongi‟s that perpetuates its rule mainly through the use of sheer force.
Its repressiveness has become so entrenched in the society that when on his return from prison,
Oba Danlola finds the outside world worse than even the prison. Frequent incidences of bomb-
throwing thus become the normal fare.The characteristic of all dictatorships, the culprits or
suspects are quickly apprehended in readiness to be hanged.
The reformed Aweri are the instruments of intellectual as well as spiritual repression,
thus fulfilling the role of propaganda machinery geared towards imprisoning the minds of the
citizens into seeing things the administration‟s way. The one address of the information system
had already been hinted at in the „Hemlock‟ section:
Who but a lunatic
Will bandy words with boxes
With government rediffusion sets
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Which talk and talk and never
Take a lone word in reply. (KH 61)
Such propaganda machinery is as indispensable to the dictatorship‟s survival as are the
instruments of coercion. Though the propaganda in its final form gets channeled through
newspapers and the radio, they originate from a close arm of the dictatorial system, the
Reformed Aweri fraternity. A closer glimpse at their emptiness is in the first part of the play.
One can hear them expressing their commitment to manufacturing an image to dress up and
cover the regime‟s ugly face. But indeed their effort looks most ludicrous. For they appear as a
pack of jokers throwing jibes at modern parliaments. All they are preoccupied with is in selling
out platitudes that are pleasant to the ears of those in power. This in effect exposes the big gulf
between the image African .dictatorships present of themselves from what they are in real fact.
When not lying or deceiving the public, they are engaged in inanities and superficialities. It is
thus amusing to see an Aweri regretting that the four and a half hour speech he had written had
been surpassed by a neighboring President‟s seven hour speech.
Kongi parodies modern megalomaniacs who, having been addicted to the irresistible taste
of power and its accompanying stature and prestige start monopolizing all its symbols and roles.
This attains such heights bordering on deification at a reformed Aweri session; members propose
that they be recognized as the Magi as that would lead automatically to Kongi‟s apotheosis. Then
likening himself to Christ, Kongi wants his name along with the forthcoming harvest festival to
mark the beginning of a new calendar with everything else dating from it. His quest for
monopolizing everything in the state leads him to equate himself to God.Since he wants his name
to mark the start of a new calendar, in the same way Christ‟s does the Christian calendar. State
bodies ,therefore work hard towards elevating their leader to godhead. The Reformed Aweri
therefore proposes as a first step their recognition as the Magi. And the praise song of the
Carpenter‟s brigade compares Kongi to Christ by calling him a saviour whom they will sweat
endlessly for:
For Kongi is our father
And Kongi is our man
Kongi is our mother
Kongi is our man
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And Kongi is our Saviour
Redeemer, prince of power
For Isms and for Kongi
We‟re proud to live or die! (KH 116)
Kongi‟s image boosting is directed at impressing the outside world. He thus creates an
attractive coat to hide his monstrous form inside. In it, he poses in a wide range of postures for
the foreign correspondents to paint a glowing portrait of him abroad. Such captivating captions
all add up into the desired effect:
A Leaders Temptation…Agony on the
Mountains…The Loneliness of the Pure…The
Uneasy Head …A saint at Twilight…
The Spirit of the Harvest…The face of
Benevolence…The Giver of Life… (KH 100)
An image of a pensive and devoted leader is thus sold out. But no one at home is fooled.
Even in granting reprieve he resorts to propaganda. For this much emphasis is on the timing and
pacing. …we must make it a last-minute reprieve. It will look better that way ,don‟t you think?
(KH 117). Kongi‟s act of clemency remains a confidential decision until a quarter of an hour
before hanging.
The propaganda machine works as efficiently and consistently as the network of coercion
to keep everyone in line. They execute their job with reckless abandon. The Carpenter‟s Brigade
thus spits fire on all opponents. For they have sworn to die in spreading „the creed of Kongism‟.
For those too slow to accept Kongi and his government have their heads crushed with their heavy
mallets.
Even those enforcing Kongi‟s hold on power are not exempt from his wrath or suspicion.
The Organizing Secretary fearing falling foul of him takes scrupulous care in organizing the
Harvest ceremony – with twelve long months spent on going continuously through every single
step. For he is haunted that „if anything goes wrong. He‟ll have my head‟ (KH 117). When
Daodu, Segi and their followers surge in, in protest, foreseeing the brute justice awaiting him, he
exclaims: „I‟m done for; I know it. I‟m heading for the border while there is time. Oh there is
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going to be such a clamp down after this…‟ (KH 129). No one is then free from fear. Under such
a situation, it only takes a little slip for one to lose one‟s life, one‟s freedom or a visible part of
one‟s body. Danlola therefore warns the little boy Dende to be wary of talking openly, for just a
hint is serious enough to land oneself in detention.
There‟s also Kongi‟s pervasive spy network, which Danlola often sees sneaking in through the
broken wall of his backyard many times in just one day.
The Big Ear of the man himself
Has knocked twice on my palace gates –
Twice in one morning – and his spies
Have sneaked in through the broken wall
Of my backyard, where women throw their piss
As many times today. (KH 102)
Imprisonment and death are also available to repress those who fail to understand and
behave themselves. New offences are continually being created. Charges such as treason and
communism are easily framed up against who ever they desire to bring them up against. Those
present at Segi‟s and Daodu‟s protest are therefore easily liable to being charged with treason
for „To be there at all at that disgraceful. Exhibition is to be guilty of treasonable. Conspiracy et
cetera, et cetera‟ (KH 133).The jail is thus only one step towards the grave. For an ignoble death
is the ultimate fate of every detainee. One‟s struggle to hold on to life, by escaping through the
prison walls, leads therefore to a life pension being offered to the one who brings him back dead
or alive:
And the radio has put out a prize
Upon his head. A life pension
For his body, dead or alive. That
Dear child, is a new way to grant
Reprieve. Alive, the radio blared,
If possible; and if not– DEAD!. (KH 113)
The Secretary and the Fifth Aweri further substantiates the regime‟s denial of life:
SECRETARY. You don‟t know how he hates those
men. He wants them dead – you‟ve
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no idea how desperately.
FIFTH AWERI. I do. But tell him he can kill
them later in detention. (KH 114)
Kongi perpetuates his glorious image of a leader totally committed and engaged in the
country‟s development, thus justifying his clamping down on his detractors: The spirit of
Harvest has smitten the enemies of Kongi. The justice of earth has prevailed over traitors and
conspirators. There is a divine blessing on the second five-year Development Plan.
Clearly formulated and articulated programmes are then in short supply. Much more
attention is given to make-believe and bandying absurd and ludicrous ideas as we find in the
session of the Aweris where a motif – the youthful elders of the state – is used as an image of
their regime. Such mindless fascination for superficialities makes them lose sight of the
underlying meanings of words. Meaningless phrases, thus dominate their pronouncements and
deliberations. The content and quality of his speech are therefore far less concern to Kongi than
its length – lasting four and a half hour. But then the sooner he hears of the seven hour speech by
a neighboring president, he wastes no time in discarding his Corruption, another feature of
contemporary society is portrayed.
The Organizing Secretary displays much ease and skill in operating in the code of the
corrupt. Though at first he appears as quite a dutiful and upright executive, one of the Aweris
later reports his abuses of the privileges of his office. In exchange for money, he gives detainees
under his charge all comforts. He receives as well huge bribes from visitors to the President and
much financial gain through his organization of the harvest. This is all part of a syndicate to
which the Aweris themselves are a party as seen in the First Aweri‟s eagerness to have his own
share: „Has anyone been accepting money on my behalf. All I ask is my cut‟ (KH 86).
Kongi could be seen as representing the modern paranoid dictator. Instead of being a
procreative force he engenders and spreads destruction, decapitating his opponents and showing
no genuine interest in the fertility rites of the soil and of the flesh. Thus, in Hemlock he is
regarded as a monster which should have been scorched before it achieved its full destructive
proportions. Kongi thus clearly demonstrates his repugnance towards creating a better future for
his people. He rather creates an illusion of personal as well as national well-being to the outside
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world and the gullible fools within. Through biting satire Soyinka registers his distaste for such
ugly aspects of modern societies in Africa.
The ending of the play leaves no hope in us for the purging of such societies. The
struggle by Daodu and others to overcome Kongi‟s destruction is doomed. This futility of action
is first hinted in the proverbs from „Hemlock‟ earlier quoted. Even Daodu and Segi who are the
only ones courageous enough to openly condemn Kongi‟s rule, are in the end victims of the
predicted general clampdown indicated by the iron grating that clamps on the ground at the end
of the play. They had not been able to mobilize the necessary support to counter Kongi‟s
regimented and well-established instruments of power. This acquiescence and inaction are
pictured in the timid withdrawal and uncommitted apathy of the various inmates of the nightclub
when the Organizing Secretary enters.
This discourse analysis reveals the clash between the traditionalism and modernism. The
maniacal dictator Kongi has seized power from the traditional ruler Danlola. The deposed king is
imprisoned, and he immediately plots a return to power. The result of this analysis is Donlola‟s
corrupt practices of politics is seen, and the dictator Kongi is expected to rule the country with
new and better policies, but he sticks on the old corrupt rich negative legacy left by the westerns.