Scene 2

The District Officer’s bungalow with him, his wife and a policeman (a local man)
 Quick Quiz to Scene 2
(closed book)
Write ONE (or 2-3 if necessary) word(s) in answer to the following (lifting okay):
1. Amusa’s religion?
2. His reaction to the Pilkings’ fancy dress?
3. Joseph’s religion?
4. His reaction to their fancy dress?
5. What’s the Yoruba name for the fancy dress?
6. What dignitary (VIP) is attending the Ball tonight?
 Quick Quiz to Scene 2
(closed book)
Write ONE (or 2-3 if necessary) word(s) in answer to the following:
7. Pilkings’ reaction to all things ‘religious’ (Yoruba, Christian or otherwise)?
8. Jane’s general attitude?
9. The name of Elesin’s eldest son?
10. What is he studying?
11. Where is he studying?
colonial architecture in Ife
Nigerian police (1930s picture)
Nigerian police (1930s picture)
 P.24 – introductory stage direction

“They are wearing what is immediately apparent

as some form of fancy-dress”
Egungun
Egungun
 About the Egungun
(Wikipedia)
• Egungun, (egúngún with Yorùbá language tone marks) in the broadest sense is
any Yoruba masquerade or masked, costumed figure. More specifically, it is a Yoruba
masquerade for ancestor reverence, or the ancestors themselves as a collective force.
Egungun is a visible manifestation of the spirits of departed ancestors who periodically
revisit the human community for remembrance, celebration, and blessings. The
classification of Egun or Egungun types, might appear to be a fairly straightforward task,
but in fact it is extremely complex deciphering the comprehension of indigenous
taxonomies.
• In the Yoruba religion, the annual ceremonies in honor of the dead serve as a means of
assuring their ancestors a place among the living. They believe the ancestors have the
responsibility to compel the living to uphold the ethical standards of the past generations
of their clan, town or family. The Egungun are celebrated in festivals, known as Odun
Egungun, and in family ritual through the masquerade custom.
The British district officer and his wife use it as a
costume for a fancy dress ball!!!
 Amusa’s reaction
(staging)
• P.24 (stage direction): He peeps through and observes the dancing couple, reacting with
what is obviously a long-standing bewilderment. He stiffens suddenly, his expression
changes to one of disbelief and horror. In his excitement he upsets a flower-pot …
• P.24 (stage direction): stammers badly and points a shaky finger at his (Pilkings’) dress.
• “Mista Pirinkin, I beg you sir, what you think you do with that dress? It belong to
dead cult, not for human being.” (p.25)
 The different attitudes laid bare!

Let’s read again p.24 (start) – to p.26 (stage direction)

 Amusa sums it up in his own logic

AMUSA: Sir, it is a matter of death. How can a man talk

against death to a person in uniform of death? Is
like talking against government to a person in
uniform of police. Please sir, I go and come back.
 Pilkings’ attitude

• You don’t believe in all that nonsense do you? (to Amusa, p.25)
• mumbo-jumbo (p.25)
• pull yourself together (to Amusa, p.25)
• rubbish (p.25)
• When Jane asks him to be more delicate to Amusa: “Delicately my . . . ! Look, here Amusa,
I think this little joke has gone on far enough hm? Let’s have some sense. You seem to
forget that you are a police officer in the service of His Majesty’s Government.” (p.25)
 Pilkings’ attitude

• Roars (at Amusa, stage direction p.26)

• When they get this way there is nothing you can do. It’s simply hammering against a
brick wall (about Amusa’s attitude, p.26)
• You think you’ve stamped it all out but it’s always lurking under the surface
somewhere. (about the apparent ‘death’ that’s happening tonight, p.27)
• The whole affair is a “confounded nuisance” (p.27)
• …. I am getting rattled. Probably the effect of those bloody drums. Do you hear how
they go on and on? (p.28)
 Pilkings’ attitude

• These natives here? Good gracious. They’ll open their mouths and yap with you
about their family secrets before you can stop them. (p.31 – general disrespect for the
local people?)
• He calls the natives: “Sly, devious bastards” (p.31 for apparently hiding their barbaric
ritual suicides. ‘Bastard’ also offends the Christian, Joseph standing there).
• It’s only two years since your conversion. Don’t tell me all that holy water nonsense
also wiped out your tribal memory. (to Joseph, his domestic servant, a converted
Christian – Pilkings disrespects all religion, p.32)
 Pilkings attitude

“I don’t have to stop anything. If they want to throw themselves off the top of a cliff
or poison themselves for the sake of barbaric custom what is that to me? If it were
ritual murder or something like that I’d be duty-bound to do something. I can’t keep
an eye on all the potential suicides in this province. And as for that man – believe me
it’s good riddance.” (p.33)

We see here, that Pilkings should have let things be. He doesn’t like Elesin anyway who
caused him problems in the past with his son.
 Pilkings attitude

• I had a sudden vision of our Very Reverend Macfarlane drafting another letter of complaint
to the Resident about my unchristian language towards his parshioners. (p.34)

Overall, Pilkings seems harmless. He needs to keep the peace (especially with the Prince here
tonight), and carry out his duties. At the same time, he moans about the locals, is very cynical but
he’s not a monster. Ultimately, he does have legality on his side. He can arrest Elesin! The Yoruba
however, believe they sit higher than this within their own religion: pre-birth – this life – ancestors.
 Jane’s attitude

Jane is a bit more complicated, more subtle than her husband. She navigates between some
sensitivity towards the local people (of any religion) and gently suggests to her husband
what he should do without nagging him. She keeps on the good side of her husband in the
end by complimenting him. This is the subtle art of being a woman and a wife in this part
of the 20th century. We see the same situation amongst the women and Iyaloja in the
marketplace. They know what Elesin is doing with the new bride is wrong. They say so;
but they appease him at the same time for fear of the ancestors. The man has the ‘power’.
They must serve. But their voice is heard.
 Jane’s attitude

She realises first, that their costumes offend Amusa: (p.25)

Pilkings: What the hell is matter with you man!
Jane: Your costume darling. Our fancy-dress.
Pilkings: Oh hell, I’d forgotten all about that. (lifts the face mask over his head showing his face.
His wife follows suit.)
Jane: I think you’ve shocked his big pagan heart bless him.
Pilkings: Nonsense, he’s a Moslem. [..]
[…..]
Jane: He is dead earnest too Simon. I think you’ll have to handle this delicately.
 Jane’s attitude

Jane comments about the fact that Olunde, Elesin’s eldest son, was fortunate to get away to
study medicine in England:
JANE: [..] Was that why he was so determined to get away? I wouldn’t stay if
I knew I was trapped in such a horrible custom. (p.30-31)
Next Jane is mindful that her husband also offends Joseph, a Christian convert:
Jane: Simon, You really must watch your language. Bastard isn’t just a simple
swear-word in these parts, you know. (p.31)
 Jane’s attitude

Jane understands the depth of a Christian CONVERT:

JANE: It isn’t my preaching you have to worry about, it’s the preaching of the
missionaries who preceded you here. When they make converts they really convert
them. Calling holy water nonsense to our Joseph is really like insulting the Virgin
Mary before a Roman Catholic. He’s going to hand in his notice tomorrow you mark
my word. (p.32, and indeed, Pilkings takes her advice and apologises to Joseph about his
earlier comments ☺ )
 Jane’s attitude

At the very end of Scene Two after all this subtle cultural and religious tension:
JANE: (rushing off) Won’t be a second. (Stops) Now I see why you’ve been so edgy
all evening. I thought you weren’t handling this affair with your usual brilliance – to
begin with that is.
Jane is rushing off to get ready for the Prince who she’s just been told is the reason why her
husband is so “edgy”. She knows what she is doing in what she says about his
“brilliance” ;)
 Amusa v. Joseph
Amusa, a Moslem, is still Yoruba tribal.
We have seen how Amusa with shaky
finger and eyes up-turned cannot speak to
the Pilkings while they mock the dead in
the costume of the returning ancestors,
p.24 – 26.
Joseph, a Christian convert, is not in awe
of Yoruba anything.
PILKINGS: Does the outfit bother
you? (p.28)
JOSEPH: No sir, it has no power.
Later, Joseph says: “…Master is a white
man. And good Christian. Black man
juju can’t touch master.” (p.30)
 Previous events
egungun v. Olunde
JANE: Oh Amusa, what is there to be
scared of in the costume? You saw it Let’s read again
confiscated last month from those egungun
men who were creating trouble in town.
You helped arrest the cult leaders yourself
from p.29 (bottom)
– if the juju ( like ‘voodoo’) didn’t harm
you at the time how could it possibly harm
to p.31(top)
you now? And merely by looking at it?
(p.26(
 Staging

• Just in staging, Wole Soyinka perhaps strikingly emphasises the insensitivity of the
colonial person in charge here.
• The whole of Scene One places tremendous spiritual importance on the Yoruba religion –
on going to the ancestors – and immediately following, we have the British unknowingly
mocking it because of their ignorance and also their probable sense of superiority.
• Adding the tango and the tango music after all the ritualistic drumming and praise-
singing of Scene One further emphasises this.
 Elesin Oba is still present in Scene Two….
… as has what he has done in taking new bride….
JANE: […] Listen Joseph, just tell me this. Is that drumming connected
with dying or anything of that nature?
JOSEPH: Madam, this is what I am trying to say: I am not sure. It sounds like
the death of a great chief and then, it sounds like the wedding of a great chief. It really
mix me up. (p.32)
Pilkings then dismisses Joseph curtly saying, “Oh get back to the kitchen. A fat lot of
help you are.” – but – JOSEPH is right. Elesin, wrongfully is taking a new wife this
night, his last night, and someone else’s intended wife.