EPISODE 1
INCORRIGIBLE:
Jesus, Jesus, OMG, my husband look, look, look at the wall, Jesus, Jesus. I kept on shouting when I saw it:
Look I am tired of this thing for Christ sake, since I married you, I don't sleep like a normal man, what type of useless gift is this, look at how you are behaving like a kid, are you stupid? He said to me: but my love, you are suppose to understand me by now, I explained everything to you before we got married, you said you will bear it: I said.
Bear what? This is our sixth year of marriage, instead of me to hear a baby's cry, all I hear is yours: look the next time you try this rubbish, I will beat you and lock you in the toilet: Useless lady that behaves like a child.
If you know you cannot bear it, why did you allow me to... TO BE CONTINUED

EPISODE 4
QUA IBOE

(GOOD LOOKING, WELL DECORATED HUTS, SCATTERED ALL OVER A BIG COMPOUND, IT IS THE KING'S PALACE. THE URIMS COMES IN MURMURING AND MOURNING)

URIM AKWO;
(holding his waist) Urim Akpan, I fear the happenings in this our land

URIM AKPAN;
my dear Idip, it is very painful that we keep loosing our peole to this so called white witch

(they all sit)

URIM ETO:
my daughters are dead, from this same white witch sword

URIM AKPAN:
am sure when the white witch came, you were beating your wife or your wife was beating you

(the Abong comes in)

ABONG:
my dear Urims, the sorrowful incidents happening in this village makes me cry day and night

(Mbobo a young palace maiden runs in)

URIM AKPAN;
why are you breathing like this?

ABONG;
what is it?

MBOBO;
the white witch killed the prince and the queen, also she has taken the Princess away

ABONG;
what! guard, go and tell the Afe that his presence is needed immediately
(Afe comes in  before he finished he finished his command)
I thank the gods you are here. Afe what is happening to Idung, what?

AFE;
Abong! Abong! Abong! the ears that hears from the mountain seeketh help from above

ABONG;
Afe please speak in the language we can understand, because we do not understand you

AFE;
Abong, the answer to your question is a riddle that only the bitter heart can have a key to the answer but can never be the answer

URIM AKPAN;
we are all bitter in heart

ABONG;
Afe, we are all bitter in heart, I just lost my wife, the prince and I don't know the fate of the Princess

(Itoro, Bisong and Etim comes in)

ETIM;
Abong we greet you. my heart is determined, my treasure have been stolen and I am ready to cutoff that tree with my treasure

AFE;
Abong, only the Princess can solve the riddle

ABONG;
are you serious? I said the Princess is dead

AFE:
maybe or maybe not; only the bitter in heart can go and rescue the princess, because only the princess can stop the problem of this land

ABONG:
then I will go and rescue the princess, so that this land can stop experiencing this problem

ETIM:
Abong, Afe and Urims, my friends and I are ready to rescue the princess, as long as it will take that wicked witch out of this land

ABONG:
young men, I have my warriors, not the three of you, my warriors will do that for me

AFE:
no Abong, the gods have chosen the the three of them

ABONG:
but why the three of them?

AFE:
still the riddle I cannot answer, the gods only called them keys

ITORO:
Abong and my Urims (smiling sheepishly) my name is Itoro and not key

BISONG:
keep quiet

AFE:
go forth my idips but please don't allow your emotions overrule your quest to rescue the princess, I repeat, do not let your emotions over your quest to rescue the princess

ABONG:
go forth my children; may the gods be with you

ETIM:
I promised my dead sister that I will make sure that the white witch is out of this land, even if it is with the last drop of my blood, and I will. lets go
(they exit)

ABONG:
my dear Urims, lets wait for the next step
(he exit)

URIM AKPAN:
I am even scared of going back home
(they exit)

EPISODE 3
QUA IBOE

(THE TWO GOSSIPS ON THEIR WAY TO THE STREAM)

GOSSIP 1;
poor girl, why has death decided to swallow you painfully?

GOSSIP 2;
I heard her brother and his friends are on their way to the Abongs palace

GOSSIP 1;
what are they going to do there?

GOSSIP 2;
who knows? I have this strong feelings that Abong is the cause of this problem

GOSSIP 1;
mind what you say, how will the Abong be the cause, how will he invite a witch to suck the blood of his people?

GOSSIP 2;
any way I will keep my ears open to hear from people what the poor girl's brother will do in the Abongs palace

GOSSIP 1;
will they cry? can they fight? O! poor children, don't worry, the gods will save us one day

                                            A DANCE IN THE FOREST
A Dance of the Forests is one of the most recognized of Wole Soyinka's plays. The play "was presented at the Nigerian Independence celebrations in 1960, it ... denigrated the glorious African past and warned Nigerians and all Africans that their energies henceforth should be spent trying to avoid repeating the mistakes that have already been made."^[1] At the time of its release, it was an iconoclastic work that angered many of the elite in Soyinka's native Nigeria. Politicians were particularly incensed at his prescient portrayal of post-colonial Nigerian politics as aimless and corrupt. Despite the deluge of criticism, the play remains an influential work. In it, Soyinka espouses a unique vision for a new Africa, one that is able to forge a new identity free from the influence of European imperialism.
A Dance of the Forests is regarded as Soyinka's theatrical debut and has been considered the most complex and difficult to understand of his plays.^[2] In it, Soyinka unveils the rotten aspects of the society and demonstrates that the past is no better than the present when it comes to the seamy side of life. He lays bare the fabric of the Nigerian society and warns people as they are on the brink of a new stage in their history; independence.
The play was published in London and New York in 1963 by Oxford University Press (Three Crowns Books

                                           THE LION AND THE JEWEL



                                                       CHARACTERS:
Main characters

• Baroka – The Balè or viceroyal chieftain of Ilujinle, a Yoruba village in the realm of the Ibadan clan's kingdom. A crafty individual, he is the Lion referred to in the title. At 62 years of age, he has already sired 63 children.
• Lakunle – The progressive and absurdly arrogant Westernised teacher. He is in his twenties.
• Sidi – A beautiful, yet somewhat egotistical village girl who is wooed by both Baroka and Lakunle. She is the Jewel in the title.
• Sadiku – The chief's sly great wife, chieftess of his harem.
• Ailatu – Baroka's favourite, who loses her place in his affections due to her jealousy.

FULL CHARACTER ANALYSIS
Sidi

• She is the belle of Ilujinle.
• This is confirmed by her pictures that were placed in a magazine.
• She is being courted by both Lakunle and Baroka.
• She is very confident about her looks.
• She knows her value, and appreciates her cultural practices, as seen in her refusal to marry Lakunle without the bride price.
• She is a supremely confident young woman who believes that she can taunt the lion without repercussions.
• She is also resilient because she accepts her loss, when her taunting of the lion fails, and joyfully starts the wedding process.

Baroka

• He is the king of Ilujinle.
• He is 62 years old, but still very vibrant.
• He is called the lion, due to his strength and vitality, as well as the fox, due to his cleverness.
• He is a very clever man who is able to get what he wants, as seen in the railway incident.
• He is very articulate and creative, as seen in his verbal parlay with Sidi.
• He believes that progress equates to sameness, but he tolerates it due to it's inevitability. 

Lakunle

• He is the local school teacher.
• He courted Sidi, but refused to pay her bride price on the grounds that it was a barbaric practice.
• He viewed his African heritage, in general, as lowly and barbaric.
• He dreams of a time when his village will be completely modernized.
• He is infatuated with Sidi.

Sadiku

• Baroka's head wife.
• She delivered Baroka's proposal to Sidi, and rejoiced in his defeat.
• She plotted, with Sidi, to taunt Baroka in his moment of defeat.

Supporting characters
Village girls, a wrestler, a surveyor, schoolboys, his assorted consorts and various musicians, dancers, mummers, prisoners, traders and so on.




                                         PLOT

The play takes place over the span of a day (Sunday). It is divided into three parts; morning, noon, and night.

Morning

A schoolteacher is teaching a class the times table when Sidi walks past carrying a pail of water on her head. The teacher peers out of the window and disappears. Two 11-year-old schoolboys start ogling her, so he hits them on the head and leaves to confront her. At this point, we find out that the schoolteacher is Lakunle. He is described as wearing a threadbare and rumpled clean English suit that is a little too small for him. He wears a tie that disappears beneath his waistcoat. His trousers are ridiculously oversized, and his shoes are blanco-white. He comes out and insists on taking the pail from Sidi. She refuses, saying that she would look silly. Lakunle retorts, saying that he told her not to carry loads on her head or her neck may be shortened. He also tells her not to expose so much of her cleavage with the cloth she wears around her breasts. Sidi says that it is too inconvenient for her to do so. She scolds him, saying that the village thinks he's stupid, but Lakunle says that he is not so easily cowed by taunts. Lakunle also insults her, saying that her brain is smaller than his. He claims that his books say so. Sidi is angry.
When they are done arguing, Sidi wants to leave, but Lakunle tells her of his love for her. Sidi says that she does not care for his love. Eventually, we find out that Sidi does not want to marry him because Lakunle refuses to pay her bride-price as he thinks it an uncivilised, outrageous custom. Sidi tells him that if she did so, people will jeer at her, saying that she is not a virgin. Lakunle further professes how he wants to marry her and treat her "just like the Lagos couples I have seen". Sidi does not care. She also says that she finds the Western custom of kissing repulsive. She tells him that not paying her bride price is mean and miserly.
Enter the village girls. They decide to play "the dance of the Lost Traveller" featuring the sudden arrival of a photographer in their midst some time ago. They tease the traveller in the play, calling his motorbike "the devil's own horse" and the camera that he used to take pictures "the one-eyed box". Four girls dance the "devil-horse", a youth is selected to play the snake and Lakunle becomes the Traveller. He seeks to be excused to teach Primary Four Geography but Sidi informs him that the village is on holiday due to the arrival of the photographer/traveler.
We also find out that the photographer made a picture book about the village based on the photos he took. There is a picture of Sidi on the front page, and a two-page spread of her somewhere inside. Baroka is featured too, but he "is in a little corner somewhere in the book, and even that corner he shares with one of the village latrines". They banter about for a while, Lakunle gave in and participated because he couldn't tolerate being taunted by them.
The Dance of the Lost Traveller
The four girls crouch on the ground, forming the wheels of the car. Lakunle adjusts their position and sits in air in the middle. He pretends to drive the "car". The four wheels rotate their upper halves of their bodies parallel to the ground in tune with the beat of the drum. The drum beat speeds up to a final crash. The girls dance the stall. They shudder, and drop their faces onto their laps. He pretends to try to restart the "car". He gets out and checks the "wheels" and also pinches them. He tries to start the "car", fails and takes his things for a trek.
He hears a girl singing, but attributes it to sunstroke, so he throws the bottle that he was drinking from in that general direction. He hears a scream and a torrent of abuse. He takes a closer look and sees a girl (played by Sidi). He tries to take photos, but falls down into the stream.
The cast assembles behind him, pretending to be villagers in an ugly mood hauling him to the odan tree in the town centre. Then Baroka appears and the play stops. He talks to Lakunle for a while, saying that he knew how the play went and was waiting for the right time to step in. He drops subtle hints of an existing feud between him and Lakunle, then makes the play continue. The villagers once again start thirsting for his blood. He is hauled before Baroka, thrown on his face. He tries to explain his plight. Baroka seems to understand and orders a feast in Lakunle's honour. Lakunle takes the opportunity to take more photos of Sidi. He is also pressed to drink lots of alcohol, and at the end of the play, he is close to vomiting.
The play ends. Sidi praises him for his performance. Lakunle runs away, followed by a flock of women. Baroka and the wrestler sit alone. Baroka takes out his book, and muses that it has been five full months since he last took a wife.

Noon

Sidi is at a road near the marketplace. Lakunle follows her, carrying the firewood that Sidi asks him to help her get. She admires the pictures of her in the magazine. Then Sadiku appears, wearing a shawl over her head. She informs her that the Lion (Baroka) wishes to take her as a wife. Lakunle is outraged, but Sidi stops him. Lakunle changes tactics, telling her as his lover to ignore the message. Sadiku took that as a yes, but Sidi dashed her hopes, saying that since her fame had spread to Lagos and the rest of the world, she deserves more than that. Sadiku presses on, dissembling that Baroka has sworn not to take any more wives after her and that she would be his favourite and would get many privileges, including being able to sleep in the palace rather than one of the outhouses. As Baroka's last wife, she would also be able to become the first, and thus head wife, of his successor, in the same way that Sadiku was Baroka's head wife. However, Sidi sees through her lies, and tells her that she knew that he just wanted fame "as the one man who has possessed 'the jewel of Ilujinle'". Sadiku is flabbergasted and wants to kill Lakunle for what he has done for her.
Sidi shows the magazine. She says that in the picture, she looks absolutely beautiful while he simply looks like a ragged, blackened piece of saddle leather: she is youthful but he is spent. Sadiku changes techniques, saying that if Sidi does not want to be his wife, will she be kind enough to attend a small feast in her honour at his house that night. Sidi refuses, saying that she knows that every woman who has eaten supper with him eventually becomes his wife. Lakunle interjects, informing them that Baroka was known for his wiliness, particularly when he managed to foil the Public Works attempt to build a railroad through Ilujinle. Baroka bribed the surveyor for the route to move the railroad much farther away as "the earth is most unsuitable, could not possibly support the weight of a railway engine". Lakunle is distraught, as he thinks just how close Ilujinle was to civilisation at that time.
The scene cuts to Baroka's bedroom. Ailatu is plucking his armpit hairs. There is a strange machine with a long lever at the side. It is covered with animal skins and rugs. Baroka mentions that she is too soft with her pulls. Then he tells her that he plans to take a new wife, but that he would let her be the "sole out-puller of my sweat-bathed hairs". She is angry, and deliberately plucks the next few hairs a lot harder. Sadiku enters. He shoos Ailatu away, lamenting about his bleeding armpit.
Sadiku informs him that she failed to woo Sidi. She told her that Sidi flatly refused her order, claiming that he was far too old. Baroka pretends to doubt his manliness and asks Sadiku to massage the soles of his feet. Sadiku complies. He lies to her that his manhood ended a week ago, specifically warning her not to tell anyone. He comments that he is only 62. Compared to him, his grandfather had fathered two sons late on 65 and Okiki, his father, produced a pair of female twins at 67. Finally Baroka falls asleep.

Night

Sidi is at the village center, by the schoolroom window. Enter Sadiku, who is carrying a bundle. She sets down a figure by the tree. She gloats, saying that she has managed to be the undoing (making him impotent) of Baroka, and of his father, Okiki, before that. Sidi is amazed at what she initially perceives to be Sadiku going mad. She shuts the window and exits, shocking Sadiku. After a pause, Sadiku resumes her victory dance and even asks Sidi to join in. Then Lakunle enters. He scorns them, saying: "The full moon is not yet, but the women cannot wait. They must go mad without it." Sidi and Sadiku stop dancing. They talk for a while. As they are about to resume dancing, Sidi states her plans to visit Baroka for his feast and toy with him. Lakunle tries in vain to stop her, telling her that if her deception were to be discovered she would be beaten up. Sidi leaves. Lakunle and Sadiku converse. Lakunle states his grand plans to modernize the area by abolishing the bride-price, building a motor-road through the town and bring city ways to isolated Ilujinle. He goes on to spurn her, calling her a bride-collector for Baroka.
The scene is now Baroka's bedroom. Baroka is arm-wrestling the wrestler seen earlier. He is surprise that she managed to enter unchallenged. Then he suddenly remembers that that day was the designated day off for the servants. He laments that Lakunle had made his servants form an entity called the Palace Workers' Union. He asks if Ailatu was at her usual place, and was disappointed to find out that she had not left him yet despite scolding her severely. Then Sidi mentions that she was here for the supper. Sidi starts playing around with Baroka. She asks him what was up between him and Ailatu. He is annoyed. Changing the subject, Sidi says that she thinks Baroka will win the ongoing arm-wrestling match. Baroka responds humbly, complimenting the strength and ability of the wrestler. She slowly teases Baroka, asking if he was planning to take a wife. She draws an example, asking if he was her father, would he let her marry a person like him?
Sidi takes this opportunity to slightly tease him, and is rewarded by his violent reaction by taking the wrestler and slinging him over his shoulder. The wrestler quickly recovers and a new match begins again. The discussion continues. Baroka is hurt by the parallels and subtle hints about his nature dropped by Sidi. Sidi even taunts him, saying that he has failed to produce any children for the last two years. Eventually he is so angered that he slams the wrestler's arm down on the table, winning the match. He tells the defeated wrestler to get the fresh gourd by the door. In the meantime, Baroka tries to paint himself as a grumpy old man with few chances to show his kindliness. The wrestler returns. Baroka continues with his self-glorification. Then he shows her the now-familiar magazine and an addressed envelope. He shows her a stamp, featuring her likeness, and tells her that her picture would adorn the official stamp of the village. The machine at the side of his room is also revealed to be a machine to produce stamps. As she admires the pictures of her in the magazine, Baroka happens to mention that he does not hate progress, only its nature which made "all roofs and faces look the same". He continues praising Sidi's looks, appealing to her.
The scene cuts back to the village centre, where Lakunle is pacing in frustration. He is mad at Sadiku for tricking her to go see Baroka, and at the same time concerned that Baroka will harm or imprison her. Some mummers arrive. Sadiku remains calm, despite Lakunle's growing stress. Sadiku steals a coin from Lakunle to pay the mummers. In return, the mummers drum her praises, but Sadiku claims that Lakunle was the real benefactor. Then they dance the Baroka story, showing him at his prime and his eventual downfall. Lakunle is pleased by the parts where they mock Baroka. Sadiku mentions that she used to be known as Sadiku of the duiker's feet because she could twist and untwist her waist with the smoothness of a water snake.
Sidi appears. She is distraught. Lakunle is outraged, and plans to bring the case to court. Sidi reveals that Baroka only told her at the end that it was a trap. Baroka said that he knew that Sadiku would not keep it to herself, and go out and mock his pride. Lakunle is overcome with emotion, and after at first expressing deep despair, he offers to marry her instead, with no bride-price since she is not a virgin after all. Lakunle is pleased that things have gone as he hoped. Sadiku tells him that Sidi is preparing for a wedding. Lakunle is very happy, saying he needs a day or two to get things ready for a proper Christian wedding. Then musicians appear. Sidi appears, bearing a gift. She tells Lakunle that he is invited to her wedding. Lakunle hopes that the wedding will be between Sidi and himself and her, but she informs her that she has no intention of marrying him, but rather will marry Baroka. Lakunle is stunned. Sidi says that between Baroka and him, at sixty, Baroka is still full of life but Lakunle would be probably "ten years dead". Sadiku then gives Sidi her blessing. The marriage ceremony continues. A young girl taunts Lakunle, and he gives chase. Sadiku gets in his way. He frees himself and clears a space in the crowd for them both to dance.
The drama ends.

Themes

The most prominent theme of this story is the rapid modernisation of Africa, coupled with the rapid evangelisation of the population. This has driven a wedge between the traditionalists, who seek to nullify the changes done in the name of progress due to vested interests or simply not liking the result of progress, and the modernists, who want to see the last of outdated traditional beliefs at all cost.
Another core theme is the marginalisation of women as property. Traditionally, they were seen as properties that could be bought, sold or accumulated. Even the modern Lakunle falls victim to this, by looking down on Sidi for having a smaller brain, and later by thinking it will be easier to marry her once she's lost her virginity, since no dowry was required in such a situation.
There is also the conflict between education and traditional beliefs. The educated people seek to spread their knowledge to the tribal people in an attempt to make them more modern. This in turn is resisted by the tribal people who see no point in obtaining an education as it served them no use in their daily lives.
Finally, there is the importance of song and dance as a form of spreading information in a world where the fastest route of communication is by foot. It is also an important source of entertainment for the otherwise bored village youths.

Power and authority
Women in society
Masculinity
Colonialism
Culture vs. progress
Change
Old versus young 

Performance

Omonor Imobhio is ideally cast as the beautiful young Sidi, the "Jewel" of the title. She captures perfectly the essence of the uncultured "bush woman" who allows the power of her beauty to go to her head turning her world upside down. But Anthony Ofoegbu is the undoubted star of the show, garnering most of the laughs as the lovestruck modernising schoolteacher. Toyin Oshinaike was impressive as the "Lion" of the title, Baroka, despite struggling with his lines on a couple of occasions and Shola Benjamin was wonderfully comic as the mocking head wife Sadiku. The remainder of the fifteen strong cast, including musicians, all performed admirably.
In general, it was a colourful production with many genuinely funny moments. Despite the generally strong performances however, it has to be said that the direction went somewhat astray with the result that this production fails to capture the acerbic edge of the original play.



IN DEPTH ANALYSIS
The Lion And The Jewel, one of Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka’s best-known plays, was first performed in 1963. It is very much a work of its time: like compatriot Chinua Achebe’s novels of the 1960s, or poems such as Song of Lawino (by Ugandan Okot p’Bitek), which appeared in 1966, it expresses the tensions felt in many newly-independent African countries between traditional beliefs or customs and the forms of modernity typically associated with the West.

Soyinka has been criticised for a writing style that betrays a Eurocentric bias, but this play is ultimately an affirmation of “the old” rather than “the new”. Whereas Achebe’s fiction tends towards the tragic and the tone of Okot’s poetry became darker and angrier in later years, The Lion And The Jewel offers a comic – and, it could be argued, problematic – resolution.

The tradition-vs-modernity debate may be a well-rehearsed one, but it shows no signs of going away. Certainly, James Ngcobo, director of the production currently running at the State Theatre in Pretoria, considers the material relevant. Soyinka’s play is strangely apposite in twenty-first century South Africa, but perhaps not in the ways that Ngcobo and his cast have in mind.

The narrative hinges on an unusual love-triangle. Lakunle (Fezile Mpela) is a schoolteacher who wants to marry Sidi (Nthati Moshesh) but refuses to pay a bride-price for her, ostensibly because it is one of many outdated practices of the Yoruba people that do not match his civilised opinions. Sidi, the “jewel” of the title, seems to return Lakunle’s affection but is constantly angered by his condescension towards her as an “uneducated bush girl” and by his highfalutin phrasemaking. Moreover, her sense of self-worth according to “traditional” criteria for desirability as a bride-to-be is (ironically) increased by her prominence in a recently-published book of photographs taken by a visitor to the village.

When the bale or autocratic head of the village, Baroka (Sello Maake kaNcube), seeks a new bride to add to his harem, Sidi’s growing reputation makes her the most eminent candidate. Sidi rejects his proposal – more out of egotism than fidelity to Lakunle or opposition to a polygamous system – but when she hears that Baroka is impotent, she decides to pretend that she will accept him, in order to taunt him when he is unable to perform in bed.

Not for nothing is “the lion”, Baroka, also known as “the fox”, for he has cunningly circulated a false rumour about “the end of his manhood” in order to lure Sidi to his bedroom, where he seduces her (or is it rape?). When Lakunle hears of this, he despairs – until her realises that Sidi, who is no longer a maiden, does not merit a bride-price. Thus, he thinks, the barrier to their marriage has been removed; and he asks her again to marry him. But Sidi, impressed by (or scared of) Baroka’s physical prowess, chooses instead to marry the chief.

Soyinka’s language is rich and unabashedly lyrical. It abounds in imagery, digressive soliloquising and verbal flourishes, marking his style off from the terse “realist” dialogue often associated with theatre since World War Two. The cast does justice to this aspect of the script, clearly enjoying bringing the dense text to life.

The staging is dynamic, with a multi-level set dominated in the centre by a wire baobab tree rising suggestively above and behind Baroka’s bed. The cast make full use of this space as actors and dancers move across the stage in sharp, coordinated movements; indeed, energetic dancing and drumming feature prominently, particularly in those scenes where Soyinka has constructed masques, charades or plays-within-the-play to echo Yoruba pageantry and oral literary techniques.

This insistence on meta-narrative – foregrounding the story-telling process at the very moment of telling a story – is present from the start of the play. Two schoolgirls (Gontse Ntshegang and  Lesedi Job), Lakunle’s pupils, argue over how best to present the tale, as the audience is ushered from the written word into a performed world in which the girls function simultaneously as narrators, as protagonists and as a kind of chorus.

These schoolgirls are not innocents, however; they taunt Lakunle, and they take a cruel pleasure in narrating his downfall. In fact, the story they tell should not really be rendered comically and, despite the strengths of this particular production, towards the end of the play I found myself disappointed with Soyinka’s views about gender as implemented onstage.

Ultimately, irrespective of whether the “traditional” or the “modern” prevails, the play appears to take patriarchy for granted. At first, when Lakunle uses his “book learning” to defend chauvinist principles, his arrogance is undercut by his bumbling speeches. The “ignorant” Sidi matches him argument for argument, and it seems that traditional ways are vindicated: perhaps it is a good thing that neither roads nor railways reach the little village of Ilunjile, bringing with them the false enlightenment of the city (Lagos or London).

Likewise, it seems that the urban corrupts the rural. Sidi becomes proud and disdainful when she sees her image printed in a book. The Christian Bible provides no better moral compass than “pagan” West African gods such as Sango.

But here the justification of the “old ways” breaks down. Baroka is comical in his obsession with still being able to father children at a ripe old age. We hardly feel sorry that this once-great “big man of Africa” has lost his manhood. This hints at a possible critique of phallocentrism – why should the procreating penis, sower of seed, be the basic premise on which a claim to power is built?

Unfortunately, however, the play does not explore this possibility; virility remains an unquestioned sine qua non of the right to rule. Sadiku (Warona Seane) is Baroka’s first wife, and has been responsible for procuring his other wives. When Baroka tells her that he is impotent, she is sent into a frenzied soliloquy in which she celebrates having “dried him up”, and bitterly affirms that it is in fact women who control men because they eventually exhaust men sexually: “Take warning, my masters – we’ll scorch you in the end!”

Now, this is patent hogwash. To suggest that women are actually in charge of patriarchal societies in Africa because, sooner or later, every man loses his sexual potency, is to accept that the phallus should be at the centre and to ignore that women across Africa are oppressed, raped and abused by men who operate on this basis.

That Baroka is finally able to “wow” Sidi with his virility and potency, to obtain her as a wife by a show of force (foreshadowed by his wrestling match with a servant), does little but perpetuate male-female relations that are built on deceit and sexual realpolitik. It really isn’t funny. 

SUMMARYThe play is about contrasts; old versus young and culture versus change. It is the story of Sidi, the village belle, and her dramatic 'relationship' with Lakunle, the school teacher. Lakunle is courting Sidi, but refuses to pay the bride price because he views this cultural norm, as well as many other traditional practices of the village, as barbaric. This young suitor is contrasted with Baroka, the Lion. He too courts Sidi, but he maintains the traditions of the village and views progress as something that promotes sameness, or a lack of difference. While Sidi views Lakunle as a bit of a nuisance, she sees Baroka as a challenge. When Sadiku, Baroka's head wife, reveals that Sidi's refusal of Baroka's marriage proposal has broken him, Sidi decides to taunt Baroka, and revel in his defeat, with her knowledge. She returns from this venture defeated, however. The lion had beaten the jewel. Lakunle offers to marry Sidi, despite her lack of virginity, but Sidi refuses and joyfully goes off to marry Baroka, the lion

                              WORKS OF WOLE SOYINKA AND THE YEARS

1958 The Swamp Dwellers, drama

1959 The Lion and the Jewel, drama

• introduction and reading questions by Paul Brians (offsite: Washington State University)

1960 The Trials of Brother Jero, drama

• introduction and reading questions by Paul Brians (offsite: Washington State University)

1965 The Interpreters, fiction (discussion)

----Before the Blackout, drama

----Kongi's Harvest, drama

----The Detainee, (BBC Radio Play)

1967, "The Writer in a Modern African State"

----Idanre and Other Poems

1969 Poems from Prison

----The Road, drama

1970Madmen and Specialists,

• introduction and reading questions by Paul Brians (offsite: Washington State University)

1972 The Man Died, (notes from prison)

----A Shuttle in the Crypt Discussions of individual poems

Ogun Abibiman, poems

1976 Death and the King's Horseman

1979 Season of Anomy, fiction

1981 Aké: The Years of Childhood, autobiography

---- "The Critic and Society: Barthes, Leftocracy, and Other Mythologies"

---- Opera Wonyosi, an adaptation of Brecht's Three Penny Opera

1982 "Cross Currents: The 'New African' after Cultural Encounters"

1983 "Shakespeare and the Living Dramatist"

1985 "Climates of Art"

1986 "The External Encounter: Ambivalence in African Arts and Literature"

1987 Six Plays

1989 Isara: A Voyage around Essay, autobiography

Mandela's Earth and Other Poems

1992 From Zia With Love

1995 The Beatification of Area Boy

1996 The Open Sore of a Continent: A Personal Narrative of the Nigerian Crisis

 

                             WOLE SOYINKA

Akonwande Oluwole "Wole" Soyinka was born in Abeokuta in Western Nigeria. At the time, Nigeria was a Dominion of the British Empire. British religious, political and educational institutions co-existed with the traditional civil and religious authorities of the indigenous peoples, including Soyinka's ethnic group, the Yorùbá people, who predominate in Western Nigeria.

As a child, Soyinka lived in an Anglican Christian enclave known as the Parsonage. Soyinka's mother, Grace Eniola Soyinka, was a devout Anglican; in his memoirs, Wole Soyinka calls his mother "Wild Christian." His father, Samuel Ayodele Soyinka, was headmaster of the parsonage primary school, St. Peter's. Known as "S.A.," Wole Soyinka calls him "Essay" in his memoirs.

Although the Soyinka family had deep ties to the Anglican Church, they enjoyed close relations with Muslim neighbors, and through his extended family -- particularly his father's relations -- Wole Soyinka gained an early acquaintance with the indigenous spiritual traditions of the Yorùbá people. Even among practicing Christians, belief in ghosts and spirits was common. The young Wole Soyinka enjoyed participating in Anglican services and singing in the church choir, but he also formed an early identification with Ogun, the Yorùbá deity associated with war, iron, roads and poetry.

Soyinka's mother, a shopkeeper, joined a protest movement, led by her sister Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, against the traditional ruler, the Alake of Abeokuta, who ruled with the support of the British colonial authorities. When the Alake levied oppressive taxes against the shopkeepers, Mrs. Ransome-Kuti, Mrs. Soyinka and their followers refused to pay, and the Alake was forced to abdicate.

Thanks to his father, young Wole Soyinka enjoyed access to books, not only the Bible and English literature, but to classical Greek tragedies such as the Medea of Euripides, which had a profound effect on his imagination. A precocious reader, he soon sensed a link between the Yorùbá folklore of his neighbors and the Greek mythology underlying so much of western literature.

He moved quickly from St. Peter's Primary School to the Abeokuta Grammar School and won a scholarship to the colony's premier secondary school, the Government College in Ibadan. At this boarding school he continued to distinguish himself in his studies, writing stories and acting in school plays, the beginning of his lifelong preoccupation with the practical aspects of theatrical performance.

After graduation at age 16 from the Government College, Soyinka deferred immediate admission to university life and moved to the colonial capital, Lagos, to work in an uncle's pharmacy for two years before entering university. During this period of personal independence, he began writing plays for local radio. In 1950 he entered the University at Ibadan. Two years later, won a scholarship to the University of Leeds in England, and left Africa for the first time.

In England, he joined a close-knit community of West African students. The petty racism they encountered in Britain seemed less important than the reports they read from South Africa of black Africans being subjected to legally enforced racial discrimination in their own country by the white-led apartheid government. Along with his fellow African students, Soyinka imagined a pan-African movement to liberate South Africa. He went so far as to enlist in the British program of student military education, in hopes that he could use this training in a future campaign against the apartheid regime in South Africa. He dropped out of the program during the Suez Crisis, when it appeared that students might be called up to serve in Egypt. As Britain prepared to leave Nigeria, students like Soyinka were excused from further military service.

After graduating from the University of Leeds, Wole Soyinka continued to study for a master's degree while writing plays drawing on his Yorùbá heritage. His first major works, The Swamp Dwellers and The Lion and the Jewel, date from this period. In 1958, The Lion and the Jewel was accepted for production by the Royal Court Theatre in London. Beginning in the late 1950s, the Royal Court was the major venue for serious new drama in Britain. Soyinka interrupted his graduate studies to join the theater's literary staff. From this post, he was able to watch the rehearsal and development process of new plays at a time when the British theater was entering a period of renewed vitality. His own next major work was The Trials of Brother Jero, expressing his skepticism about the self-styled elite of black Nigerians who were preparing to take power from the British colonial regime.

In 1960, Soyinka received a Rockefeller Foundation grant to research traditional performance practices in Africa. Nigeria was poised to become independent from Britain, and Soyinka's play A Dance of the Forest, another satire of the colonial elite, was chosen to be performed during the independence festivities. Soyinka joined the English faculty at the University of Ibadan. He also formed a theater company, 1960 Masks, to produce topical plays, employing traditional performance techniques to dramatize the many issues arising from Nigerian independence. His writings, including his 1964 novel The Interpreters, were bringing him fame outside his own country, but he faced increasing difficulties with censorship inside Nigeria.

Independence from Britain had not brought about the open democratic society Soyinka and others had hoped for. In negotiating the independence of the country, Britain had overestimated the population of the northern region, dominated by Hausa-Fulani people of Muslim faith, and given them greater representation in the national parliament, at the expense of the predominantly Christian peoples of the southern regions: the Yorùbá in the West and the Igbo in the East.

In Western Nigeria, the results of a 1964 regional election were set aside so that a candidate favored by the central government could clam victory. With some friends, Soyinka forced his way into the local radio station and substituted a tape of his own for the recorded message prepared by the fraudulent victor of the election. This escapade caused his arrest and detention for two months, but international publicity led to his acquittal. Following his release, Soyinka was appointed to the English department of Lagos University, and completed the comedy Kongi's Harvest, which would be produced throughout the English-speaking world. Soyinka had become one of the best-known writers in Africa, but political developments would soon thrust him into a more difficult role.

The discovery of oil in the Southeast in 1965 further heightened ethnic and regional tensions in Nigeria. A 1966 military coup led by Igbo officers was followed by a counter-coup, which installed the young army officer Yakubu Gowon as head of state. Massacres of Igbo living in the North sent more than a million refugees fleeing south, and many Igbo began to call for secession from Nigeria. Hoping to avoid further bloodshed, Soyinka traveled in secret to meet with the secessionist General Ojukwu and urged a peaceful resolution. When Ojukwu and the Eastern forces declared an independent Republic of Biafra, Soyinka contacted General Obasanjo of the Western forces to urge a negotiated settlement of the conflict, but Obasanjo sided with the national government, and a full-scale civil war ensued. Soyinka's friend, the poet Christopher Okigbo, joined the Biafran forces and was killed in action.

Soyinka was accused of collaborating with the Biafrans and went into hiding. Captured by Nigerian federal troops, he was imprisoned for the rest of the war. From his prison cell he wrote a letter asserting his innocence and protesting his unlawful detention. When the letter appeared in the foreign press, he was placed in solitary confinement for 22 months. Despite being denied access to pen and paper, Soyinka managed to improvise writing materials and continued to smuggle his writings to the outside world. A volume of verse, Idanre and Other Poems, composed before the war, was published to international acclaim during his imprisonment.

By the end of 1969, the war was virtually over. Gowon and the Nigerian federal army had defeated the Biafran insurgency, an amnesty was declared, and Soyinka was released. Unable to return immediately to his old life, he repaired to a friend's farm in the South of France. While recuperating, he wrote an adaptation of the classical Greek tragedy The Bacchae by Euripides. Across the millennia, the story of a state destroyed by a sudden eruption of senseless violence had acquired a special resonance for Soyinka. Another volume of verse, Poems From Prison, also known as A Shuttle in the Crypt, was published in London.

Soyinka returned to Nigeria to head the Department of Theater Arts at the University of Ibadan. The 1970s were a productive decade for Wole Soyinka. He oversaw stage and film productions of his play Kongi's Harvest and wrote one of his most compelling satirical plays, Madmen and Specialists. His prison memoir, The Man Died, was published in 1972, followed by a novel, The Season of Anomy. He traveled to France and the United States for productions of his plays. When political tensions resurfaced, unresolved by the civil war, Soyinka resigned his university post and went to live in Europe, lecturing at Cambridge and other universities. Oxford University Press published his Collected Plays in 1974. One of his greatest works appeared the following year, the poetic tragedy Death and the King's Horseman. After a number of years in Europe, Soyinka settled for a time in Accra, Ghana, where he edited the literary journal Transition. His column in the magazine became a forum for his continued commentary on African politics, in particular for his denunciation of dictatorships such as that of Idi Amin in Uganda.

In 1975, General Gowon was deposed, and Soyinka felt confident enough to return to Nigeria, where he became Professor of Comparative Literature and head of the Department of Dramatic Arts at the University of Ife. He published a new poetry collection, Ogun Abibiman, and a collection of essays, Myth, Literature and the African World, a comparative study of the roles of mythology and spirituality in the literary cultures of Africa and Europe. His continuing interest in international drama was reflected in a new work, inspired by John Gay's The Beggar's Opera and Bertolt Brecht's Threepenny Opera. Soyinka called his musical allegory of crime and political corruption Opera Wonyosi. He created a new theatrical troupe, the Guerilla Unit, to perform improvised plays on topical themes.

At the turn of the decade, Wole Soyinka's creativity was expanding in all directions. In 1981, he published the first of several volumes of autobiography, Aké: The Years of Childhood. In the early 1980s he wrote two of his best-known plays, Requiem for a Futurologist and A Play of Giants, satirizing the new dictators of Africa. In 1984, he also directed the film Blues for a Prodigal. For years, Soyinka had written songs. In the 1980s, Nigerian music, including that of Soyinka's cousin, the flamboyant bandleader Fela Ransome-Kuti, was capturing the attention of listeners around the world. In 1984, Soyinka released an album of his own music entitled I Love My Country, with an assembly of musicians he called The Unlimited Liability Company.

Soyinka also played a prominent role in Nigerian civil society. As a faculty member at the University of Ife, he led a campaign for road safety, organizing a civilian traffic authority to reduce the shocking rate of traffic fatalities on the public highways. His program became a model of traffic safety for other states in Nigeria, but events soon brought him into conflict with the national authorities. The elected government of President Shehu Shagari, which Soyinka and others regarded as corrupt and incompetent, was overthrown by the military, and General Muhammadu Buhari became Head of State. In an ominous sign, Soyinka's prison memoir A Man Died was banned from publication.

Despite troubles at home, Soyinka's reputation in the outside world had never been greater. In 1986, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, the first African author to be so honored. The Swedish Academy cited the "sparkling vitality" and "moral stature" of his work and praised him as one "who in a wide cultural perspective and with poetic overtones fashions the drama of existence." When Soyinka received his award from the King of Sweden in the ceremony in Stockholm, he took the opportunity to focus the world's attention on the continuing injustice of white rule in South Africa. Rather than dwelling on his own work, or the difficulties of his own country, he dedicated his prize to the imprisoned South African freedom fighter Nelson Mandela. His next book of verse was called Mandela's Earth and Other Poems. He followed this with two more plays, From Zia With Love and The Beatification of Area Boy, along with a second collection of essays, Art, Dialogue and Outrage. He continued his autobiography with Isara: A Voyage Around Essay, centering on his memories of his father S.A. "Essay" Soyinka, and Ibadan, The Penkelemes Years.

Meanwhile, Soyinka continued his criticism of the military dictatorship in Nigeria. In 1994, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) named Wole Soyinka a Goodwill Ambassador for the promotion of African culture, human rights and freedom of expression. Less than a month later, a new military dictator, General Sani Abacha, suspended nearly all civil liberties. Soyinka escaped through Benin and fled to the United States. Soyinka judged Abacha to be the worst of the dictators who had imposed themselves on Nigeria since independence. He was particularly outraged at Abacha's execution of the author Ken Saro-Wiwa, who was hanged in 1995 after a trial condemned by the outside world. In 1996, Soyinka published The Open Sore of a Continent: A Personal Memoir of the Nigerian Crisis. Predictably, the work was banned in Nigeria, and in 1997, the Abacha government formally charged Wole Soyinka with treason. General Abacha died the following year, and the treason charges were dropped by his successors.

Since 1994, Wole Soyinka has resided primarily in the United States. He has taught at a number of American universities, including Emory University in Atlanta, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and Loyola Marymount in Los Angeles. Since moving to the United States, he has written another play, King Baabu, a volume of verse, Samarkand and Other Markets I have Known, and his latest book of memoirs, You Must Set Forth at Dawn (2006). Although Wole Soyinka has always been reticent about discussing his family life, in this volume he makes a particularly touching dedication to his "stoically resigned" children, and to his wife Adefolake, for enduring many years of hardship and dislocation.

Although Presidential elections were held in Nigeria in 2007, Soyinka denounced them as illegitimate due to ballot fraud and widespread violence on election day. Wole Soyinka continues to write, and remains an uncompromising critic of corruption and oppression wherever he finds them.

EPISODE 2

QUA IBOE ( THE LAND OF PROMISE)

 

( AT THE FRONT OF AN OLD HUT AT THE MIDDLE OF A COMPOUND, ETIM IS SHARPENING HIS CUTLASS; HIS YOUNGER BROTHER EKAM AND SISTER ETIDO COMES OUT FROM THE HUT)

 

ETIM;

where are both of you going to?

 

ETIDO;

we are going to the stream

 

ETIM;

what!

(drops his cutlass)

how many times will I tell both of you that I will be the only one to leave this compound to do anything outside this compound?

 

EKAM;

but brother, is just to go to the stream

 

ETIM;

I said I will go to the stream myself, look, I don't want to repeat myself, go back into that hut and drop that pot, when am ready I will go and fetch the water

 

ETIDO:

okay brother only this once, I promise we will not go again

 

ETIM:

Etido you are the last child, I don't want to stress you, leave Ekam to go alone

 

ETIDO:

don't worry I will not stress myself

 

ETIM:

stubborn children, go

(Ekam and Etido exit. Itoro and Bisong comes in)

 

BISONG:

Etim my man, the only Idung man

 

ETIM;

both of you will not kill me; welcome, please sit

 

ITORO;

Etim where is Etido?

 

BISONG:

(coughing) Etim, Itoro don't want me to hear anything again; in the morning Etido, afternoon Etido, night Eti.....do

 

ITORO:

is it my fault that I so musch love Etido? I will marry Etido. I swear to our gods, Etido must be the mother of my children

 

ETIM;

Itoro take it easy, this is my only sister, did you hear me?

 

ITORO;

forget that thing, I must marry Etido, whether you like it or not

 

ETIM;

let me go inside and get something for us to eat

(he goes into the hut)

 

ITORO:

Bisong, Etido is the love of my life

 

BISONG;

okay, we that don't have love, let us die

 

(Ekam runs in carrying Etido and crying)

 

EKAM:

(drops her on the ground) the white witch have taken the life of my sister

 

ITORO:

(in tears) gods of our land, why my own, why my own love Etido?

 

BISONG;

white witch

(Etim runs out of the hut)

 

ETIM:

Ekam don't tell me is what am thinking?

 

EKAM:

the white witch killed our sister; I could only rescue her dead body

 

ETIM;

(carrying Etido up) Etido you cannot do this to me. I promised mother and father in their death that I will take care of you and Ekam, so now you mean am not man enough to take care of a home?

(drops her and picks up his cutlass)

white witch, tell me why I should not cut off your head, I don't care who you are but I promise you, I will see to your end, even if is with the last drop of my blood

 

BISONG:

I will join you too

 

ITORO;

oh my love

 

ETIM:

lets go to Abong's palace

(they exit)

 

TO BE CONTINUED

            QUA IBOE (THE LAND OF PROMISE)

      EPISODE 1

( IDUNG SOUNDS VERY NOISY THIS DAY, PEOPLE RUNNING FROM ONE EDGE TO THE OTHER, SOME FALLING, WHILE OTHERS COMING FROM THE FARM THROW THEIR FARM THINGS AWAY FOR A BETTER PLACE OF RESCUE; THE VOICE OF TWO GOSSIPS IS HEARD EVEN IN THE NOISE)

GOSSIP 1;

(breathing hard) my dear, this situation is very hard to understand

GOSSIP 2;

can you imagine? I guess the gods has forgotten us; even the warriors of Idung are weak

GOSSIP 1;

my dear idip, look at how people are running from one place to the other, to save themselves from dying

GOSSIP 2;

would you love to die by the sword of the white witch?

GOSSIP 1;

(in fear) the gods forbid, lets hurry before your words come to pass

(RUNNING WITHOUT LOOKING BACK THEY EXIT. EFFIONG WHO IS A WARRIOR COMES IN WALKING GENTLY AND WONDERING WHY PEOPLE ARE RUNNING, THEN UBONG ANOTHER WORRIOR HITS HIM WHILE RUNNING)

EFFIONG;

( holding UBONG) Ubong why are people running? in fact why are you running?

UBONG;

the white witch, that so called witch is killing people, I am running for my life

EFFIONG;

I have known you to be a very weak warrior. is it because of a common witch you are running?

UBONG;

Effiong may the gods of our land finish your tongue; Are you stupid or is it that you did not hear me? I said the white witch is killing people

EFFIONG;

I am the lion, I have battled in several rivers, forest, in fact I have killed spirits and even bigger witches. nobody, I repeat, nobody not even that white witch or what ever they call her, can defeat me

UBONG;

yes me too, I mean yes you can

(UBONG SIGHTS THE WHITE WITCH; THE WHITE WITCH LOOKS SO WHITE AND VERY SCARY. JUST HER LOOK CAN KILL A PERSON)

Effiong look at your back

(EFFIONG SEES THE WHITE WITCH AND RUNS AWAY WITH OUT LOOKING BACK; UBONG FOLLOWS HIM AT HIS BACK)

TO BE CONTINUED

EPISODE 10
BREAKUP
I was confused and didn't know what to do next; I just sat down on the bed crying; what have I done to myself, what type of life taking mistake have I done. I was confused till the extent that I had no other option but to drag her out,;
this was the greatest mistake I made because the guys of the guys in that area, gathered me up and poured patrol and threw a tire on me; then Caleb surfaced and saw me in that condition; I was speechless, at that time I preferred  the death; he asked them the problem and they showed him the letter I was holding while dragging her out; I was confused. Caleb looked into my eyes and said to me; my love, will you marry me? that was the last thing I heard when the fire took over.
                     END.

EPISODE 9
BREAKUP
DEAR HELEN
           I WAS NEVER DATING CALEB, HE PAID ME AND MADE A PLAN WITH ME TO MAKE YOU JELOUSE; I REFUSED AT FIRST BUT HE PLEADED AND TOLD ME THAT HE WAS INLOVE WITH YOU AND WOULD NOT WANT TO LOSE YOU; HELEN I ACCEPTED AND PLAYED ALONG; THE CALL YOU HEARD ME RECIEVING WAS ACTUALLY FROM CALEB AND WAS ONLY ASKING ABOUT YOU, IF ACTUALLY THE PLAN WAS WORKING; I MUST SAY HELEN THE PLAN WORKED OUT WELL, THOUGH YOU CLAIMED NOT TO LOVE CALEB, BUT YOU ARE SERIOUSLY AND DEEPLY INLOVE WITH HIM; YOU ONLY FOLLOWED THE MR OKONDO BECAUSE OF MONEY.
         MR OKONDO IS A RITUALIST, I FORGOT TO TELL YOU, MR OKONDO IS MY FATHERS BROTHER, HE KILLED MY FATHER AND REMOVED HIS MANHOOD; HE RAN AWAY FOR SOMETIME AND SURFACED WITH YOU, I NEVER WANTED TO TELL YOU BECAUSE I KNOW YOU WILL NOT BELIEVE ME; MR OKONDO ONLY SUCK WOMEN'S BREAST FOR MONEY RITUALS, AND BELIEVE ME, THOSE GIRLS DONT LEAVE UP TO TWO MONTHS; YOU DONT NEED TO TELL ME BUT I KNOW YOU ARE A VICTIM;
      AM INNOCENT OF THE CRIME YOU ACCUSED ME OF; MY DEAREST BEST FRIEND YOU MURDERD ME; I FORGIVE YOU AND I STILL LOVE YOU AS A FRIEND EVEN IN DEATH
                                                                                                       CINDY

TO BE CONTINUED

EPISODE 8
BREAK UP
and said. how can a young girl like me skip lectures because of a man; it means right from the onset I was not serious; I felt like the ground should open and swallow me up; I could not help but cry out my eyes; where am I going to from here? I don't have anywhere to sleep or friends to stay with; I am married with 4 kids and I am not ready to breakup with my family for a useless unserious girl, that don't know what her parents sent her to school to do; he said to me;
I was surprised, is it not this same man that calls me all the sweet names in this life?
I went back to the house and met Cindy's corps waiting for me, I was confused, I don't know if I should cry, bury her, or run away; then I saw a note she left for me; TO BE CONTINUED

EPISODE 7
BREAKUP
immediately Cindy came into the room, I poured acid on her; she cried out in the room; I did not just pour little, I poured enough that would leave a big mark on her; she cried in pains.
I carried my bag and left the house, I locked the door with the key and left with it, so that she would cry and die inside; please don't get me wrong; I just had to do that; why would she follow my ex, is that not a big betrayal? yes I wanted her  to die in pains; she have no right to date my Ex as my best friend;
I met Mr. Okondo in his house with another girl, having sex; am I blind or something, Mr. Okondo with another lady?, I asked myself; hello dear how are you doing? he asked me; so Chief Okondo you are cheating on me? I asked him; O dear, you are too cheap to cheated on; although you asked me out and not me; in fact we started dating after a week, was it even up to a week? so dear, I don't deal with such girls as a friend, I deal with them as a dog they are; he said to me;
meaning what Mr. Okondo, do you know what I have sacrificed to be with you? I didn't attend my lectures, because you said I should be with you; I said to him; he laughed at me and said.......TO BE CONTINUED

BREAK UP
EPISODE 6
I went back to my room and met Cindy sleeping; I woke her up and told her that I don't want to see her again with my Ex because if I do, what she would see, she should take it;
four days later, I went to meet Mr. Okondo, and he told me that we would be travelling to some where, I asked him where and said it was a surprise; but actually the date he chose was when we were suppose to write our exams, I told him and he said I should forget about the exams that he was going to pay all the lecturers in charge of my lectures; what joy that filled my heart;
I told Cindy about my journey and she advised me not to go; I told her that Mr. Okondo will pay any fucking lecturer that is in charge; she left me to my fate;
while we where chatting, her phone rang, it was Caleb; I collected her phone and smashed it on the floor; how dare you, haven't I warn you never to have any thing to do with Caleb? I asked her;
she left the room with anger and also without saying a word to me;
this girl must be up to something, I smashed her phone, and insulted her and she did not say anything, silence is the most dangerous part of life; I must do something; I said to myself; 

TO BE CONTINUED

EPISODE 5
BREAK UP:
Cindy you are a disgrace, how dear you date my ex, Cindy my ex: so you don't have other guys, or are you that ugly that no man can ask you out except my foolish Ex? I said to her: I don't understand I thought you broke up with him? She asked me: and so what if I broke up with him: is it your fucking business? Look I don't care what you guys are into, but this relationship have... to stop: you cannot date my Ex: it is betrayal Cindy: it is betrayal: I said to her; but he is not your boyfriend, you don't have anything to do with him, so why are you bothered? She opened her foolish mouth to ask me: look Cindy, you are my best friend: for crying out loud this guy you are dating was my Ex: I said to her: well that Ex of yours is who I love, not just love, but I am deeply in love with: she said and left me:
How can my Ex do this to me, for Christ sake, he don't have to date my best friend: I said to myself.
I went to my Ex house and they told me that he just left the country: How can that poor thing that cannot even afford a 2 hundred naira cream leave the country? I asked the poor looking guy: oh so you were dating a guy you don't even know: well his father is the owner liver water company: he said to me: Liver water company, the biggest water company in this country and even outside this country? I asked him; yes, he said to me: but my ex was a poor man now: I said to him: My dear, this neck chain you are putting on now was from your Ex, and he bought it 3 hundred thousand naira: he said to me: but is it not this normal chain all this mallams carry on the road?: I asked: No dear: you see why it is not good to look down on people? Not everybody brake with their money dear: he said and went inside:
What rubbish? My room mate will never date my Bf, I will not allow that happen: TO BE CONTINUED

EPISODE 4
BREAK UP:
Just then Mr Okondo came with his car to come and pick me: I went out to meet him:
I told him how much I loved him and cannot do without him:
He smiled and took me to his house: as usual, he sucks just my breast: I really had fun:
I went back home and my room mate told me about the quiz we had, I told her I don't care, and told her that Mr Okondo promised me a car:
She asked me what I was going to do with the car: Can you imagine this useless question? I told her it was for Fun:
This fateful day, I found out that My ex was dating my room mate and friend:
Even if he wants to date, is it my close friend? I got seriously angry: Why should My best friend date my ex? TO BE CONTINUED

EPISODE 3
BREAK UP
The next day, caleb knocked on my door, I opened and he said he wanted to talk with me: I told him I was busy: He left disappointed.
Debbi are you not going for lectures today? My room mate / course mate asked me: No dear, I have an important date with Mr Okondo, and really I can't miss it: I replied;
But it is a 3 credit load course and you know how hard it is:
She said: Please... don't put your mouth into my business, I told her: she left me and did not say a word to me again:
I went to Mr Okondo's house and seriously it was fun: I had lots of fun, but the only thing he did to me was to suck my breast, he did not have sex with me: Mr Okondo is really a good man: He don't want to have a sex built relationship: I really love this man: seriously if I don't marry this man I will kill myself: I kept on telling myself:
Just then: TO BE CONTINUED