AFRICAN DRAMA
FEMI OSOFISAN: Women of Owu
Examin the role of the supernatural in the play
Explanation
The supernatural looms large over the people of Owu and keeps the entire Kingdom under its influence. It is the combined acts of the gods and the blessing of Edumare, the Supreme God of the Yorubas that culminate in building and making Owu the safest of all Yoruba cities. But it is also the action or inaction of the same gods that leaves the same city in ruins. This is attested to by no less a goddess than Lawumi, the ancestral Queen mother and goddess of the Owus during her conversation with Anlugbua after the fall of the kingdom.
The fall of Owu does not come as a surprise to the gods, especially, Lawumi. The fall is even supernaturally contrived, aided and abetted. It is in fact the logical and deserved consequence of Owu’s condemnable acts of omission or commission.
One such act is the Owu people’s blatant show of arrogance not only to Lawumi but also to the Ile Ife, the cradle of the Yorubas. “Drunk with prosperity” the Owus throw caution to the wind and sack Apomu, Ife’s commercial satellite town, and send people away into slavery. By so doing they break the sacred law of Sango, the Yoruba god of thunder, that no Yoruba man shall sell his compatriot into slavery. For this, Owu must be punished by the gods and it is with the consuming fire power of the Allied Forces. The pervasive influence of the supernatural is also seen in the unfailingly gloomy prediction of the Oracle. Through the priest, the Oracle warns that prince Dejumo must be killed in his cradle or else he will ultimately bring gloom and doom to the Kingdom. However, Erelu, the mother, ignores the warning and spares the life of the son. The ill-fated prince grows up and abducts lyunloye after the sack of Apomu. The aggrieved husband, an artist-turned-soldier, leads the Allied Forces to invade Owu and deStroy it even beyond Lawumi’s wildest imagination.
But the supernatural influence is not over yet because the destruction of Owu does not leave Lawumi and even Ogun — the god of metallic ore’ unbruised. The gods agree to collaborate with Lawumi to avenge the apparent excesses of the Allied Forces in flattening and desecrating their shrines even as women and children throng there to seek refuge. And as Orumnila — the god of divination, predicts, the return of the Allied Forces will be filled with grief; Esu will create problems for them at every cross-road; Orisa Oko will turn forests against them while Anlugbua, the ancestral father and deity, will unleash storms on them on their homeward journey. With their lives largely ruled and controlled by the supernatural, the Owu people seem to have no doubt in their minds that all this will come to pass.