Books by Wole Soyinka

Death and the King's Horseman  /  You Must Set Forth at Dawn: A Memoir  / Ake: The Years of Childhood  

Climate of Fear: The Quest for Dignity in a Dehumanized World  /  The Open Sore of a Continent: A Personal Narrative of the Nigerian Crisis

The Lion and the Jewel  / Ibadan  / Myth, Literature, and the African World  /  Interpreters  / Conversations with Wole Soyinka

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Kongi's Harvest of Intrigue and Hate  

By Arthur Edgar E. Smith    

The clash between the modern and the traditional forces in an emergent modern African society is a very familiar concern in all genres of African literature. Wole Soyinka is therefore not out of place in his preoccupation with it in  Kongi's Harvest.

This clash is enacted between the Oba [the traditional head] and the President, Kongi [the modernist and constitutional head] Though a constitutional head Kongi is essentially a dictator. In essence his modern dictatorship strives to absorb within itself the traditional system so as to destroy it as a contending power as well as capture its legitimacy, dignity, appeal, and power. This clash manifests itself from the very start in the Hemlock section. There the roll of drums and the anthem suggest the struggle of two opposing camps for supremacy. The traditional forces are being stifled out of life by the propaganda and the paraphernalia accompanying Kongi’s dictatorship. They have been rejected as rotten waste, for:

Kongi’s forces have thus scored one against the Oba’s.  They have confined the forces of tradition, the Oba and his retinue to waste the rest of their years in prison. Though the clash continues, the struggle is at a lower plane. Since they cannot meet Kongi and his force head-on they are relegated to battling with a junior representative, the superintendent of prison. This eclipsing of the forces of tradition is what is being mourned for by the opening dirge in ‘Hemlock’. The king’s umbrella can no longer shade them and this is seen as signaling the end, for as the Ogbo Aweri laments:

For though the end of the traditional ruler’s public role has been effected, it is by no means the end of the struggle. He still has mystical powers, dignity, and symbolic values all of which Kongi and his henchmen could give anything to get. Their complaints about the royal canopy taking too much silk and that the first of ‘the new yams melted / Melted first in an Oba’s mouth’ is symptomatic of the greed if not envy leading leaders on to capturing all the titles and prestigious roles and have them bestowed upon themselves. This is what Kongi is poised to do.  He wants to be the spirit of harvest and to get a public show of the Oba’s capitulation of power to him. But Oba Danlola maintains an uncompromising position and thus refuses to perform the ritual handing over of the first yam to him. As a result we are promised a protracted struggle between the two as is suggested in these string of proverbs:

Kongi’s wrong-headed conviction of the superiority of western civilization leads him to senselessly replacing traditional institutions by the former.  His transformation of traditional institutions to absurd modern versions is lunatic, for no thought is given to the superficiality that will possibly result.

Kongi demonstrates a paranoiac distrust of almost everyone around him.  Through coercion, he buys over all authority and traditional legitimacy all of which he then ungrudgingly bestows on himself.  He thus develops himself to the central repository of all powers.  The traditional ruler, Danlola, is therefore compelled to present him personally with the New Yam.  This will publicly acknowledge his supremacy and enable him to stamp his image on every mind as a charismatic and legitimate ruler.  Even his opponents are thus constrained to beg for forgiveness.  A dictatorship is thus exposed as a fragile, hollow, fake and weak institution that lacks belief in itself. 

It therefore has to lean on the legitimacy of the traditional power it seeks to destroy  But since they are afraid of its strength and efficacy they have to muzzle  it and absorb all its strength to survive.  As a result, the traditional is being strangulated by the propaganda and paraphernalia of Kongi’s dictatorship. A flurry of ‘Isms’ suffocate the air in demonstrating that Kongi’s ‘tree of life ’ is sprung from broken peat; and that Danlola and his forces of tradition are only its waste products [p61].  Amidst the strident trumpeting of propaganda, the people become as useless as putrid waste matter.  Words are bandied in total defiance of them.  For in the words of Danlola and his retinue’s song:

The presentation of Kongi and his henchmen is a biting satire of the modern dictators in Africa as well as elsewhere.  The composite picture is almost that of a madman. For after all, all dictatorships border on madness. The dictator, Kongi maintains total control over all the instruments of coercion that are in fact the lifeblood and modus operandum of all modern dictatorships. These instruments of coercion are well established  and manifested  in the mallet-swinging Carpenters Brigade and in the Superintendent who tyrannizes over the Oba. Their repressiveness  is a constant source of concern for the Oba as is evident in his speech here:

On stage they are supposed to be dehumanized  beings with stiff mallet-wielding arms pistoning up in the Nazi-salute. They are in this way presented as the coercive instruments of a totalitarian regime such as Kongi’s that perpetuates its rule mainly through the use of sheer force. Its repressiveness has become so entrenched in the society that when on his return from prison, Oba Danlola finds the outside world worse than even the prison   Frequent incidences of bomb-throwing thus  become the normal fare.. And as is characteristic of all dictatorships, the culprits or suspects are quickly apprehended  in readiness to be hanged.                                

The reformed Aweri are the instruments of intellectual as well as spiritual repression , thus fulfilling the role of a propaganda machinery geared towards imprisoning the minds  of the citizens into seeing things the administration’s way.  The one address of the information system had already been hinted at in the ‘Hemlock’ section:

Such a propaganda machinery is as indispensable to the dictatorship’s survival as are the instruments of coercion. Though the propaganda in  its final form gets channeled through newspapers and the radio, they originate from a close arm of the dictatorial system, the Reformed Aweri fraternity. A closer glimpse at their emptiness is in the first part of the play. We hear them expressing their commitment to manufacturing an image to dress up and cover the regime’s ugly face. But indeed their effort looks most ludicrous.  For they appear as a pack of jokers throwing jibes at modern parliaments.  All they are preoccupied with is in selling out platitudes that are pleasant to the ears of those in power. This in effect exposes the big gulf between the image African dictatorships present of themselves from what they are in real fact. When not lying or deceiving the public they are engaged in inanities and superficialities. It is thus amusing to see an Aweri regretting that the four and a half  hour speech he had written had been surpassed by a neighbouring President’s seven hour speech.

Kongi parodies modern megalomaniacs who having been addicted to the irresistible taste of power and its accompanying stature and prestige start monopolizing all its symbols and roles. This attains such heights bordering on deification  At a reformed Aweri session,  members propose that they be recognized as the Magi as that would lead automatically to Kongi’s apotheosis.  Then likening himself to Christ, Kongi  wants his name along with the forthcoming harvest festival to mark the beginning of a new calendar with everything else dating from it.  His quest for monopolizing everything in the state leads him to equating himself to God.  For he wants his name to mark the start of a new calendar, in the same way Christ’s does the Christian calendar.  State bodies therefore work hard towards elevating their leader to a godhead.  The Reformed Aweri therefore propose as a first step their recognition as the Magi.  And the praise song of the Carpenter’s brigade compares Kongi to Christ by calling him a saviour whom they will sweat endlessly for:

So much does it become that Danlola cries out in disgust:

Kongi’s image boosting is directed at impressing the outside world.   He thus creates an attractive coat to hide his monstrous form inside.  In it he poses in a wide range of postures for the foreign correspondents to  paint a glowing portrait of him abroad.  Such captivating captions all add up into the desired effect:

An image of a pensive and devoted leader is thus sold out.  But no one at home is fooled.  Even in granting reprieve he resorts to propaganda. For this much emphasis is on the timing and pacing.

…we must make it a last-minute reprieve.  It will look better that way Don’t you think?  [p 117]

Kongi’s act of clemency remains a confidential decision until a quarter of an hour before hanging. 

The propaganda machine works as efficiently and consistently as the network of coercion to keep everyone in line. They execute their job with reckless abandon.  The Carpenter’s Brigade thus spits fire on all opponents.  For they have sworn to die in spreading ‘the creed of Kongism’.  For those too slow to accept Kongi and his government have their heads crushed with their heavy mallets as we saw from Mugade recently.

Even those enforcing Kongi’s hold on power are not exempt from his wrath or suspicion. The Organizing Secretary fearing falling foul of him takes scrupulous care in organizing the Harvest ceremony – with twelve long months spent on going continuously through every single step.  For he is haunted that ‘if anything goes wrong / He’ll have my head’ [p117]  When Daodu, Segi and their followers surge in, in protest, foreseeing the brute justice awaiting him, he exclaims:  ‘I’m done for, I know it.  I’m heading for the border while there is time.  Oh there is going to be such a clamp down after this…' [p129].  No one is then free from fear.  Under such a situation, it only takes a little slip for one to lose one’s life, one’s freedom or a visible part of one’s body.  Danlola therefore warns the little boy Dende to be wary of talking openly, for just a hint is serious enough to land oneself in detention.

There’s also Kongi’s pervasive spy network which Danlola often sees sneaking  in through the broken wall of his backyard many times in just one day.

Imprisonment and death are also available to repress those who fail to understand and behave themselves.  New offences are continually being created.  Charges such as treason and communism are easily framed up against whosoever they desire to bring them up against. Those present at Segi’s and Daodu’s protest are therefore easily liable to being charged with treason for  ‘To be there at all at that disgraceful / Exhibition is to be guilty of treasonable / Conspiracy et cetera, et cetera’ [p133].  The jail is thus only one step towards the grave.  For an ignoble death is the ultimate fate of every detainee.  One’s struggle to hold on to life, by escaping through the prison walls, leads therefore to a life pension being offered to the one who brings him back dead or alive:

The Secretary and the Fifth Aweri further substantiates the regime’s denial of life:

Kongi perpetuates his glorious image of a leader totally committed and engaged in the country’s development thus justifying his clamping down on his detractors:

Clearly formulated and articulated programmes are then in short supply.  Much more attention is given to make-belief and bandying absurd and ludicrous ideas as we find in the session of the Aweris  where a motif – the youthful elders of the state – is used as an image of their regime.  Such mindless fascination for superficialities makes them lose sight of the underlying meanings of words. Meaningless phrases thus dominate their pronouncements and deliberations.  The content and quality of his speech is therefore of far less concern to Kongi than its length – lasting four and a half hour.  But then the sooner he hears of the seven hour speech of a neighbouring president, he wastes no time in discarding his Corruption, another feature of contemporary society is portrayed.

The Organizing Secretary displays much ease and skill in operating in the code of the corrupt.  Though at first he appears as quite a  dutiful and upright executive, one of the Aweris later reports  his abuses of the privileges of his office.  In exchange for money, he gives detainees under his charge all comforts.  He receives as well huge bribes from visitors to the President, and much financial gain through his organization of the harvest.  This is all part of a syndicate to which the Aweris themselves are a party as seen in the First Aweri’s eagerness to have his own share:  ‘Has anyone been accepting money on my behalf/All I ask is my cut’ [p25].   

Kongi could be seen as representing the modern paranoid dictator. Instead of being a procreative force he engenders and spreads destruction, decapitating his opponents and showing no genuine interest in the fertility rites of the soil and of the flesh. Thus in Hemlock he is regarded as a monster which should have been scorched before it achieved its full destructive proportions. Kongi thus clearly demonstrates his repugnance towards creating a better future for his people.  He rather creates an illusion of personal as well as national well-being to the outside world and the gullible fools within. Through biting satire Soyinka registers his distaste for such ugly aspects of modern societies in Africa.

The ending of the play leaves no hope in us for the purging of such societies.  The struggle by Daodu and others to overcome Kongi’s destruction is doomed. This futility of action is first hinted in the proverbs from ‘Hemlock’ earlier quoted.  Even Daodu and Segi who are the only ones courageous enough to openly condemn Kongi’s rule, are in the end victims of the predicted general clampdown indicated by the iron grating that clamps on the ground at the end of the play. They had not been able to mobilize the necessary support to counter Kongi’s regimented and well-established instruments of power. This acquiescence and inaction are pictured in the timid withdrawal and uncommitted apathy of the various inmates of the night-club when the Organizing Secretary enters. 

Sources

Jones, Eldred Durosimi. The Writings of Wole Soyina. Heinemann    1983                                    

Moore, Gerald. Wole Soyinka. Holmes and Meier Pub., 1971.

Soyinka, Wole. Kongi's Harvest in Collected Plays 2. Oxford University Press, 1983.

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"An individual has to take a decision . . . take stock of himself and act—"The writer is first and foremost a citizen and the writer's responsibility is not different from that of a citizen. . . . People sometimes take a snobbish attitude, saying we cannot engage on this level because it's not pure enough for us. . . . On all levels humanity is involved. And wherever humanity is involved, that's my constituency.”—Wole Soyinka, the 1986 Nobel literature prize winner—the first black writer to receive the award. Soyinka: Writers are citizens first

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posted 28 April 2007

Arthur Edgar E. Smith was born and grew up in Freetown, Sierra Leone. He attended  Holy Trinity Boys Primary  and proceeded to the Prince of Wales Secondary School. He did his sixth form at Albert Academy and  went up further the hill to Fourah Bay College. He has taught English since 1977  at Prince of Wales, Milton Margai College of Education  and now at Fourah Bay College again he has risen to the rank of Senior Lecturer of English. Mr Smith is widely published both locally as well as internationally.  

He was one of 17 international scholars who participated in  a seminar on contemporary American Literature sponsored by the U.S. State Department from June to August 2006. His thoughts and reflections of this trip which took him to various sights  in Kentucky, San Francisco, Cincinnati, and Washington, D.C.can be read at lisnews.org. His other publications include:  Folktales from Freetown, Langston Hughes: Life and Works Celebrating Black Dignity, and 'The Struggle of the Book in Sierra Leone'. He holds a Masters in African Literature from Fourah Bay College.  A recent story of his could be read at mabaylareview.org .