The Making: Denja Abdullahi’s ‘Death and the King’s Grey Hair and Other Plays’

The next step was ‘where to set the play.’ He didn’t want to go too deep into the traditions of where the myth came from (Jukun society in Taraba State) because he wanted to avoid factuality intruding into the work. So since the myth happened within a particular tradition he simply imagined the life there, […]

The next step was ‘where to set the play.’ He didn’t want to go too deep into the traditions of where the myth came from (Jukun society in Taraba State) because he wanted to avoid factuality intruding into the work. So since the myth happened within a particular tradition he simply imagined the life there, got some landmarks and names within the environment which he reversed and hid. For example, when something happened in the land of Shakaga, what he is actually referring to was Gashaka. He totally avoided using any real names and also picked some songs from his own community which is far removed from the Jukunland– used Yoruba songs and introduced some Yoruba elements. “In a particular scene in the play there was a visiting prince from another land, which obviously was from Yorubaland and operated a different kind of monarchical structure. So that allowed me to use some Yoruba scriptures and quotes,” he explained.