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Monday, April 11, 2011

Fake Prophet, Madam Boy’s Quarters, Iyobosa and other Nigerians



Fake Prophet, Madam Boy’s Quarters, Iyobosa and other Nigerians

In his gripping play, The Anger of Unfulfillment, Jekwu Ozoemene has captured the heart and soul of the disenchantment and discontentment of majority of Nigerians in his contemporary analysis of the Nigerian crisis.
The title of his captivating book of three plays is deduced from the indignation of the victims of the lingering anomie plaguing Nigeria as desperate times call for desperate measures in the struggle for survival and a sense of belonging. The author gives us a naturalistic montage of glaring realities of the challenges of living and working in Nigeria under a corrupt government of kleptomaniacs.

He takes us into the human trafficking ring of the fake Prophet, a tall bald and bearded middle-aged man with an imposing stature and his bootylicious assistant Madam Boy’s Quarters who must have been a Nigerian prostitute in Italy and their willing clients posing as the congregation of the fake duo posturing as ministers of a Christian fellowship. The well educated non-compromising and hopeful Adesuwa who uses her blog to expose the ills in the Nigerian society and her hopeless squatter Iyobosa, the flirtatious drama queen who has lost faith in the Nigerian Dream and exploits her sexuality to comfort herself show us the contrasts of two young Nigerian women who respond to the Nigerian crisis with positive and negative resolutions. Nari, aka “General Tinker-Tailor” the Niger Delta militant with his comrades Zino and Marshall tell us the raison d'être of their revolutionary mission for resource control for which they were ready to die. The Narrator who is also Greg the repentant 419 fraudster with the hilarious Ben and Orji binging at the local bar give us informed commentary on the social, political and economic malaise in the country.

Through these principal characters Ozoemene has succeeded to use the picture of each one to capture the psyche of the unfortunate victims of the corrupt ruling class.

The other plays address other unavoidable issues such as the fears and ignorance of the scourge of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in “Hell’s Invitation” where I could see another Adesuwa in the intelligent Stella who is the only female among four young men and they are all unemployed graduates from different tribes sharing a room with only one bed and discussing the nightmares haunting their Nigerian Dream. The exciting prospects of a dream job for one of them are soon threatened by the fears of having a compulsory HIV test. In the last play “This Time Tomorrow” Ozoemene takes us into the theatre world and probably reminiscent of his days with Theatre 15 at the University of Lagos where he studied English. The principal characters address the ethics and economics of the Nigerian family, social and political sensibilities of the old and young people in Nigeria.

Ozoemene’s characters are real people one can actually recognize among us in the Nigerian society and most of them like Madam Boys’s Quarters, Nari, Iyobosa, Orji, Bimbo, Aliyu, Papa Ruka, the eccentric Professor and his wife Folake,his brilliant and smart son Jide and daughter Keji with her sexy swagger are going to end up among the most memorable characters in Nigerian drama.

If you really want to know what life is like in Nigeria in the last decade of the 20th century and in the first decade of the 21st century and how her citizens have been reacting to the challenges of surviving and succeeding in spite of the embarrassment and harassment of a corrupt government, then you should read Jekwu Ozoemene’s The Anger of Unfulfillment: Three Plays Out of Nigeria. It is a good recommendation in every collection of must read books.


~ By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima
Thursday April 7, 2011.







Releases displayed in Africa/Lagos time
7 Apr 2011
21:11 AU Commissioner receives international recognition
20:16 IBM's MRSA Infection-Fighting Nanotechnology Caps Century of Healthcare Innovation
6 Apr 2011
15:00 Se espera que el consumo mundial de cemento alcance cifras récord
14:34 African Union / Press statement of the 270th meeting of the Peace and Security Council
13:12 La GSMA demande au gouvernement nig?rian de lib?rer la croissance ?conomique en soutenant le d?ploiement de l'Internet ? haut d?bit mobile
11:00 IBM Helps Bring Smarter Healthcare to Nigeria's Cross River State
10:53 Est? previsto que el consumo mundial de cemento llegue a nuevas cotas
09:25 DHL Spells Out Renewed Focus on Africa as Trade Grows
09:00 Global Cement Consumption Set to Reach New Highs
08:00 La consommation mondiale de ciment devrait atteindre de nouveaux records
08:00 Globaler Zementverbrauch erreicht neue H?hen
5 Apr 2011
14:00 Buick Baskets for Children in Need Nets 3,000 Pairs of Shoes
10:08 GSMA Calls on Nigerian Government to Unlock Economic Growth by Supporting Mobile Broadband Rollout La GSMA demande au gouvernement nig?rian de lib?rer la croissance ?conomique en soutenant le d?ploiement de l'Internet ? haut d?bit mobile



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