James SECOND LIT-IN-ENG
African drama
10)
“vanity” portrays the folly of the living
who in spite of having been bequeathed with many legacies have arrogantly and ignorantly failed to honour their dead ancestors. He laments as follows: “They have left on the earth their cries. In the air, on the water,where they have traced their signs for us, blind, deaf and unworthy sons, who see nothing of what they have made in the air, in the water where they have traced their signs”. In the poet’s view, much of the problems bedeviling the African society stem from our disregard for African tradition and over- dependence on the Western culture. He laments further: “If we cry roughly of our torments ever increasing from the start of things”. Birago Diop argues that the solution to Africa’s many problems lie within us. He further expresses the African belief that dead ancestors have the ability to punish erring individuals and warns that if they are not respected or honoured, they would also not help the living in time of trouble- “And since we did not understand our dead, since we have never listened to their cries, if we weep gently, gently, if we cry roughly of our torments, what heart will listen to our clamourings, what ear to our sobbing hearts.
Q4) ALOHO
Aloho is the main character in the play. She is a
young and naïve university female graduate
desperately searching for a job. In her
desperation, she ignorantly becomes part of a
criminal network involved in drug trafficking in
spite of her friend’s constant warning to keep
away from notorious Ochuole. Aloho is arrested
and detained for drug trafficking. Upon her
release, she suddenly realizes that she is
pregnant for Chief Haladu-Amaka and
eventually dies during child-birth. The author
uses Aloho’s character to portray the ordeals of
many young and jobless Nigerian graduates,
how they are easily taken advantage of and
lured into crime in their desperation to eke out
a living.
OCHUOLE
Ochuole is Aloho’s classmate in the University.
She is portrayed as notorious and wayward.
Ochuole works as Chief Administrative Officer
at the Ministry of External Relations. She aids
Chief’s sexually immoral lifestyle by providing
him with ladies. She lures Aloho into drug
trafficking in the guise of helping her to secure
a job with the Ministry of External Relations.
9) the diction or language of this poem "Anvil and the hammer" by kofi awoona is tense and poetic and to a large extent portrays reconciliation . The word are carefuly emloyed to potray the theme of culture clash and the need to have a reconciliation culture identity . The words view of Africa and Europe are rendered in diction approach to each culture .
Take the instance "the tramping of the past , tender and tenure woving With fiber of social and washed in the blood of the goat in the fetish hut are lace with flimsy Glories of paved streets" Lin's 5-6
Almost all the lines have symbols and this helps to deeper the meaning of the poem
In the end the poet seeks a revival of African values
"see the old days for us our father " and plead a synergy of both cultures therefore, hopes lies in the reconciliation of the African and European culture
1)
Maligu's contribution to the development of the plot is very relevant.Maligu is the chief advisor to the king of the village and a wise man that is very verse in the human nature.It is this,he uses to buy Soko,the chief priest and even the king into his evil plan as suggested by the whitehead-the stranger.He makes the entire village believe that the stranger is to be accepted in order to better their lives.Whereas he is doing this against the interst of the people of the village.It is this eventually lead to the continous evil mechination by the whitehead since his idea is openly accepted and aided by evil agents.Even when his actions are resisted by the king's son and the chief warrior of the village.He goes on the discredit him before his father,leading to his banishment from the village.Infact,he is so grate that he succeed most of the principal characters.He is so determined in his evil machination that he is never deterred in any way and knows how best to influence any hard minded soul to his side no matter how devilish the plan is.In sequence,he starts with the purpurted letter written from the town,to Soko's support and the king's/villagers acceptance
No 11
This is a fairy long poem.. There are six stanzas however the poem has.the first part tells the story of a child who wakes up in a happy mood but gets swollen wen asked to go school.The fear of school rules and convention hindering his personal desires and individual preferences takes away his interest in school activities.the snag is that he is neither having his heart desires nor doing what his parents or teachers or the society expects of him.
In the last part,the poem explains why a child barred by certain rules cannot perform we using identifiable natural objects like caged birds and stripped tender plants. Bondage,conventions and rules can indeed impair a child's growth.