Udenta’s boyhood stories, a rediscovery of Africa
Title: The Re-discovery of the Alistoga/Retrospective Vision: Cultural Interactions Author: Udenta O. Udenta Publishers: Kraft Books, Ibadan Pages: 215 Reviewer: Sunday Agollo This book is volume five of Udenta O Udenta’s collected boyhood works, written between 1977 and 1979 when the author was between 13 and 14 years of age. The book comprises of one […]
Title: The Re-discovery of the Alistoga/Retrospective Vision: Cultural Interactions
Author: Udenta O. Udenta
Publishers: Kraft Books, Ibadan
Pages: 215
Reviewer: Sunday Agollo
This book is volume five of Udenta O Udenta’s collected boyhood works, written between 1977 and 1979 when the author was between 13 and 14 years of age. The book comprises of one detective story and thirteen short stories.
‘The Re-discovery of the Alistoga’ is a detective novel featuring exciting bullet-dodging fight scenes of a Secret Service agent named Law, in order to recover a stolen document of priceless value – the Alistoga. The young writer’s grasp of the techniques of the ‘thriller’ novel developed by Edger Allan Poe and popularised by Nick Carter and James Hadley Chase is amply demonstrated in this part of the work. The whereabouts of the Alistoga assumes the status of a puzzle, but human rationality is trusted to follow the minimum clues available to provide a solution. Law, the hero of the story, is not omniscient, but he is invincible and indestructible enough to be able to emerge unscathed from danger.
The secret service world is realistically revealed for what it truly is: a mafia, gangster set-up inclined to crimes, deceit, theft, violence, murder, torture, double-dealing, and terrorism, and Law is characterized as not being an outsider to that world. Hence, he prepares himself with sufficient arms as if proceeding for war, and ready to fight and kill. The Alistoga is commissioned and valued for the power and money it could give the IFG men; for the same reasons it is stolen by FRG, a rival mafia group, who sells it and doubles the prize it is worth to DB9, another rival mafia group, who hides it in Zambaran cave in the hope of re-selling it treble the original cost. From this mysterious cave, Law recovers the precious item.
The second part of the book sub-titled ‘Retrospective Vision: Cultural Interactions’ comprises 13 short stories reflecting the culture and life of pre-colonial Africa. The narrative is much like the Achebean model of fiction, except that a cynical, satirical and detached presentation combines to take the narrative beyond the range of cultural conversation to the level of critical appraisal and judgment.
All the stories are tales, steeped in culture, with moral, spiritual and ethical lessons at the end. The lead story, ‘The Burial of the Oboni Man’ portrays how members of the Oboni secret society are buried. The initial rites are clandestine, masculine and frightening, but the public dimension involving the acts of tested spiritualists, witch-doctors and magicians is magical, celebratory, ritualistic and yet thrilling. It demonstrates publicly those mystical powers that hold people down: one man eats and swallows a bottle like a loaf of bread while another uses a leaking basket to fetch water.
Another story ‘Obiajulani’ is about an only son who grows from a humble background to become one of the greatest lords of his clan. His father Okafor has been steadfast in his prayers to the gods who answer him by giving him a son with such a great destiny. The religious worldview of the soil is well illuminated in this story.
Yet another story, ‘ Odekwu and the Smallpox Epidermic’ tells the story of a man who died fighting the white-man in a clear case of insipient anti-colonial struggle, by refusing to take anti-Smallpox vaccination. The writer’s condemnation of Odekwu’s action is evident in the piece’s satirical note. A firm belief in ‘ancestral society alone could not guarantee protection from deadly disease. Here lies the folly in fanaticism and ethno-centrism: the victim interprets the vaccination exercise not in prophylactic terms but as an attempt by whites to impose autocratic and tyrannical domination.
‘In stories, ‘Maduka and The Courtma’ and ‘The New Converts’ the clash between the old and new is rehashed. The over-zealous court messengers defile the customs of the land by using public labor as alibi to torture the natives and impose white authority. But one man, Maduka is determined to challenge the emerging, new power. So, like Okonkwo in Acebe’s Things Fall Apart, he kills a court messenger and then commits suicide, apparently to avoid arrest or humiliation. ‘The New Converts’ shows the growing influence of people who have been converted to Christianity. Madu jumps justice in his land dispute with Okenwa and enlists the power of the white-man to possess the property, and more than that, he kills Okenwa’s family’s sacred python. As a result of the extreme behavior of the new converts against the native culture, old ways are soon replaced by new ways. Achebean influence is very vociferous in this story.
‘The Ogbanje Child’ and ‘Nneka’ return to the mythology of the people, and particularly to their belief that the gods are supreme and their judgment is inescapable. The former is about Ogbanje, children who are fated to die and be re-born in a vicious cycle that leaves their mothers miserable.
The tragic story, ‘How Chikwendu Avenged His Brother’s death’ is a pathetic tale of vengeance made more solemn by the mystery of blood. Chikwendu has sworn to avenge Okafor’s barbaric killing of his blood brother, in what is considered pre-meditated murder. So he spares no effort in doing that; after acquitting himself spiritually, he physically pursues the fleeing murderer beyond the wilds and the naked seas until he catches up with him and cuts off his head, fingers, ears and ‘mkparu ukwu (scrotum), saying, ‘Yes, die, evil one. As my brother died, so you have died. His soul will have rest, but yours will have none. He has been buried but you, the vultures will devour your flesh. I have kept my words’ (p.194). As artistically implied in the ‘nymphs of the forest all ran away but peeped with their shinning eyes from a distance’ (p.195), even nature applauds him in this foul deed!
In ’Nwakike The Great’ returns the African belief that those the gods give supernatural help ride the crest of success with effortless ease and no limitation. Nwakike is born weak and faces great odds, but one night of divine encounter changes his story from struggler to achiever, leaving in the sands a history of unsurpassed heroism and valor. In his sleep his late father gives him a well-designed dane-gun, with cartridges enough to last forever, a gourd-full of water with which to see spirits and know the past, present and future, and understand the language of animals. With the resources that places him in congruence with the Greek youths Bellerophon and Perseus who also received spiritual gifts from the goddess Athena in furtherance of a destiny, Nwakike’s story changes from ordinary citizen to a mythologized, superhuman being, leaving in the sands a record of unsurpassed heroism and unspeakable fame. Nwakike’s heroic feats as warrior includes the capture of a live lion with bare hands; defeat of a Mother Mermaid; the miraculous expulsion of an evil spirit; and a deuced, even fight with Nri Dwarfs – a fast-disappearing Wakanchi Race, featured in Udenta’s personal mythology as a symbol of evil. The stalemated outcome of this supernatural fight defines the balance and limits beyond which humans cannot go in interactions with spiritual beings. Nwakike survives through the confrontation unscathed and continues to live unto an unusually old age in the myths and legends of the tribe as his share of immortality became legendary in the lore of his tribe.
The twelfth story, ‘Uzu’s Quarrelsome Wives’ explores the flip-side of polygamy in the context of its legitimization in African socio-cultural space. A man can marry according to the strength of his arm but women’s nature, bickering and uncontrollable quarrelsomeness is a cause for worry. Thus, as his wives bicker and fight, Uzu’s household assumes a battleground of sorts, turning the entire neighborhood into an area of commotion. One man, Nwoke, even suggests that Uzu takes his wives to the oracle and make them swear the oath of peace. As Uzu considers this peace strategy the situation escalates, forcing the Umuekwe, a respected boys-only group of traditional peace-keepers, to step in. The price Uzu pays for his inability to control his troublesome wives, in the form of seizure of his livestock, does the magic. Thereafter, peace reigns in Uzu’s household, bringing the recurrent episodes of the quarrelsome wives with the troubles this brings him to a sudden end.
The last story, ‘The Spoilt Child’ is about women over-pampering their children. Chukwunyelu’s mother pets the boy of 12 years ‘like a baby boy.’ The boy does not go on errands as her other children; he even urinates and does not fetch water. His father always warns her that she would spoil the child but she replies that the boy is her only child. Chukwunyelu thus grows up lazy, weak and vulnerable. Once he provokes his friend, Ekwekwe, who beats him terribly, and when his mother learns of that, she becomes ashamed. Thereafter, she starts to exercise some firmness on Chukwunyelu which makes the boy improve and later be a success story in life.
Moving and breath-taking stories indeed, as deft appropriation of the African story-telling modes set the second volume of this book in sharp contrast with the racy volatile atmosphere of the first volume, which seeks to domesticate the detective fiction in Nigerian literature. Earthy, natural, folksy, mythic and steeped in magical realism, they have a charming simplicity and deep cultural overtone that recall the traditional, pre-colonial African world. Indeed, as stated in the blurb, the young writer’s grasp of the techniques of fiction is, to say the least, astonishing.
Agollo is an abuja-based independent researcher, literary editor and art critic.