Once Upon Four Robbers

1.- Why is Aafa the same actor as the storyteller?

2.- Do you find any relation between the concept of “Poor Theatre” and this play?

3.-The epilogue: What end would you choose? Who are the robbers?

"Aafa: (Walking round the auditorium). A stalemate? How can I end my story on a stalemate? (…) No, I need your help. One side is bound to win in the end. The robbers, or the soldiers, who are acting on your behalf. So you’ve got to decide and resolve this issue. Which shall it be? Who wins? Yes, madam? Your reasons, please? And you, gentleman? Should the robbers be shot? Pleae, do not be afraid to voice your opinion, we want this play to end. Okay, I’ll take five opinions and we’ll let the majority carry the day… yes? (…) Ladies and gentlemen, the robbers win!"

4.- Why does the story takes place in a market? What does Hasan mean when he says “The world is a market, we come to slaughter one another and sell the parts”

5.- “Grey hair, they say, is of age. Grey hair is not sold in the market” (page 35). What does Aafa mean and what importance does this have in African society?

6.- What religious references can you find in the play?

7.- Alhaja is one of the female characters: what does the author make of African women? What are her options to survive?

8.- “Soldier 1: Fool, how can I overthrow goverment when I’ll be part of it? Let me tell you: all the fine fine palaces on Victoria Island and Ikoyi, all the better lands at Ibadan, Kaduna, Pitakwa and so on, I will declare them for goverment.
Soldier 3: Meaning, for yourself!
Soldier 1: With immediate effect!
Soldier 2: Thief man!
Soldier 1: Whetin. You never hear of African socialism?
Soldier 3: Thay will kill you one day, I assure you.”

What does soldier 1 on page 40 mean by “African Socialism”?

9.- “Sargeant: (…) Shut up, you fool! (…) (Looks round rapidly). Corple, take care of the money. And listen, you dogs who may have been cursed to eternal poverty! As far as we know, the robbers run away with the money! Is that clear? We found nothin, okay? Let us meet later tonight, at my brother’s house. And if I catch anybody with a running mouth…”

The attitude of the Sergeant towards money. What is Osofisan suggesting?

10.- “You run with the hunters, I with the rabbit” (page 42). What do the two brothers symbolize?

from Sentinel Poetry (Online) #46

Brief like a Poet

Amatoritsero Ede: It is a pleasure to have this opportunity to engage you on certain issues readers must have been curious about for years. You are known mostly as a playwright. But it is an open secret that you are a consummate poet as well. Does the one calling interfere with or overshadow the other?

Femi Osofisan: Not at all, I hope. Rather like having different limbs.

A.E.: Minted Coins, your first poetry collection, came out about a decade ago. It is an important collection, indeed, in terms of its deployment of language. I think it did win the ANA poetry prize In Nigeria in its year of publication. Do you have another collection out at the moment?

F.O.: I am glad you liked Minted Coins. Since then I've published other collections (Dreamseeker on a Divining Chain, Ire Ni, Pain Remembers, Love Rekindles!)

A.E.: Do you not think that perhaps you deny your readers more of your poetry?

FO: I hope I don’t do that. You must remember that I write poetry rather rarely. I tend to think more spontaneously in dramatic images and scenarios.

A.E.: There has been some criticism – I think by Niyi Osundare as well – bemoaning the absence of rigorous craft in the work of younger crop of Nigerian poets. Do you agree with this assessment?

F.O.: You can't really generalize. Yes, some are shoddy, mediocre, and yes, some are quite talented. The majority certainly seem to be in a hurry to be noticed, before they have developed their craft. They are aggressive, noisy, belligerent. Their voices tend to swamp the field and drown out the exciting ones. One of these days I will do a critical assessment, to point out where we should be looking. But I've been saying this for years now. Time is the real enemy!

A.E.: What about some poets in the third Generation who are doing, as far as I know, powerful work; or are the general critical accusations pervasive?

F.O.: It's just as I said above. One must sit down and separate the grain from the chaff.

A.E.: Does being a notable playwright affect the way you relate to the genre of poetry?

F.O.: I don't know. But again, I hope not. I find I am saying in poetry something different, or at least a different level of perception, from what I am saying in the plays. So I hope the two complement one another for whoever is listening...

A.E.: You were once the President of the Association of Nigerian Authors. I think during your tenure the All Africa Okigbo Prize for Literature was still being awarded. What has happened to that Prize?

F.O.: Well, the person to ask is Prof., Wole Soyinka, the person who endowed the Prize.

A.E.: As an important player in the literary field in Nigeria, what is your position on the controversy dogging the NLNG prize’s limitation vis-à-vis the ‘onshore’ and ‘offshore’ Nigerian writers respectively. Do you agree with Odia Ofeimun’s position?

F.O.: You know I was on the Board which decided the policy, and so I am equally responsible for it. The reasons we have presented elsewhere, and I am prepared to defend them any time. However, the interesting thing is that, after all the controversy started by Odia, some of us were sacked rather unceremoniously from the Board, and a new Board set up. And what was interesting is that this new Board reconsidered the decision, and reaffirmed it! But I am glad to have been sacked, because it now makes it easy for me to compete!

A.E.: How does funding or lack thereof affect the production of drama or literature generally in Nigeria.

F.O.: The answer to that is obvious. How can one put up a play without financial support? How many people read, in order to support a literary industry? But even in the developed world (I am writing this from Berlin, at this year's Congress of the International PEN), you should come and see the financial support that artists enjoy from various state organizations, ranging from the city councils to national bodies set up precisely for that purpose! But it's not only the developed world. In all the francophone countries, in South Africa...it's a shame when we tell them that Nigeria gives no such support. And that's why we cannot vie for any of the international positions that our smaller neighbours are seizing right before our eyes left and right! It's really painful, I don't want to discuss it any longer... And you know that it's the state that stimulates the private sector in our country. Once the state is indifferent, then you know that no private company will be interested either. Yet this is a country in which artistic talent is abundant, and artists have gone on to win us some of the most prestigious prizes...!

A.E.: Is there any connection in your opinion, between the lack of state funding for the arts in Nigeria, bad governance and its resultant economic depression?

F.O.: Of course! It takes enlightened people to understand such questions, to appreciate the value of art and literature...

A.E.: Thank you for your precious time.

Poems by Femi Osofisan

Crystals

There is a hole with jewels and eyes of quartz.
Time’s metamorphoses of the message I hoarded there…

Oh wind and water have wounded me
have stolen the secrets of our hidden trysts

into seashell and lily, distilled
into seafern, the filaments of our story’s song –

Salt and shingle have betrayed me
have unwrapped the scars I hoarded here,

Conspired with the clay’ mysterious alchemists
to emend my hidden laments into madrigals…

And all they say is now in the air,
like sails unfurled, balloons, and wings:
the seeds upright and attentive,
like summoned trumpets

The water gathers around me:
Time to kneel now and bow my head
The seagulls gather above me:
I bare my chest, my sunburnt loins

The words which follow are my escorts…

Locusts

Hurry, they say –
the afternoon is all a-clamour

& young men and women are scattering everywhere
like discarded leaves

offals on a crossroads abandoned…

The locusts are here
but there is only discord among the afflicted

The carrions are here
they bare their teeth on the silos of our soil
on the baskets of our riches, our pots of oil…

The locusts are landed:
continuous division among the victims
is what the conqueror needs

parasites in stiff khakhi cloth or flowing gown
they eat our harvests and our virgins…

Alone
I stand by myself in the fable
(for one can be lonely
even in a dream) –
the afternoon is like a scream on my shoulders.

Motherland, release me…

Exile song

Echo of sparrow and seagull:
drone of departing beings:
It is the same siren cry,
the exile’s song

bless us, motherland,
we the orphans left behind…

we have waited in the dust of depleted libraries
looked at the lean look of the classrooms
where young forlorn eyes stare back like waiting stakes

we have read our future fate in the gaunt bands
gathering noisily over the garbage dumps

Hearts are breaking
& loves dry out
the wind is strong
& a new season has come
hostile to sedentary breeds

Come, says the road
the air is impatient:
it is the same summoning cry,
the exile’s song

Seeking consolation still, I think of my friends
who have all escaped elsewhere
& of the letters they send back monthly in exultation:

Alone, I
take a long walk into the spaces they left behind…

Become the journey

So wait
no longer
for the coming
of the ferry:

Forget
the promise
of the
paddle:

Turn, beloved.
TURN NOW!

become
the journey itself!

The poems by Femi Osofisan featured here are taken from Dream Seeker on a Divine Chain (Ibadan: Kraft Books, 1993).

Adesola Adeyemi MA Candidate, Drama and Speech Department, University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg

1946 (June 16): Babafemi Adeyemi Osofisan aka Okinba Launko born at Erunwon, Ogun State, Nigeria. Father, Ebenezer Olatokunbo Osofisan, a lay-reader, church organist and school teacher died three months after his birth; mother, Phebean Olufunke Osofisan (retired teacher)

1952-58 Primary School education

1959-1963 At the Government College, Ibadan where he obtained his West African School Certificate in 1963. Wins the 1st T. M. Aluko Prize for Literature

1965 Higher School Certificate. Wins the 1st Western Nigeria Broadcasting Service (WNBS) Independence Prize with the essay "Five Years Ago"

1966 Enters the University of Ibadan to read French. Awarded the Western State and Federal Government of Nigeria's Scholarships (till 1969). Acts in James Ene Henshaw's Dinner for Promotion

1967-68 Attends Universite de Dakar, Senegal, for the year-abroad French language programme and associates with the Daniel Serrano Theatre. Acts in Dapo Adelugba's That Scoundrel Suberu, an adaptation of Moliere's Le Fourberies Scapin. Produces Moliere's The Doctor in spite of Himself and The Invalid, and his own Oduduwa, Don't Go, Behind the Ballot Box and You have Lost Your Fine Face

1968 Obtains Diplome d'Etudes Superieures, Dakar. Becomes the President of the University of Ibadan Dramatic Society

1969 Graduated BA (Hons) in French, University of Ibadan. Premieres A Restless Run of Locusts.. Enrolls on the Graduate Studies Programme at Ibadan

1971 Acts in Wole Soyinka's premiere production of Madmen and Specialists

1972 Weds Adenike Oyinlola Adedipe

1972-73 French Government Scholarship for Graduate study. Attends Universite de Paris III, Paris, France. Associates with Jean Serreau. Appointed Editor/Translator for the Ford Foundation, Nigeria. Commissioned as Tranlator of Kourouma's Les Soleils des Independences and Alain Ricard's Theatre et Nationalisme

1973 Appointed Assistant Lecturer, Department of Modern Languages, University of Ibadan

1974 Obtains his PhD with dissertation, "The Origins of Drama in West Africa: A Study of the Development of Drama from the Traditional Forms to the Modern Theatre in English and French." Acts in Jean Genet's The Blacks. Founds Opon Ifa, a poetry chap-book

1975: Publishes Kolera kolej (novel), A Restless Run of Locusts and Somewhere in A War Period (short story)

1976 PremieresThe Chattering and the Song at Ibadan. Translated into French by Nicole Medjigbodo and published as La Trame et la Chaine in Peuples Noirs, Peuples Africains, no. 13, pp. 90-118; no. 14, pp. 133-157; and no. 15, pp. 163-171. Publishes War's Aftermath (poem), Kijipa Ekun (short story), Oduma: Two Variations -- A Theme (poem) and Wole Soyinka's Ogun Abibimanin Opon Ifa. Stage adaptation of Kolera Kolej produced by Dexter Lindersay at Ibadan

1977 Assists Dapo Adelugba in directing Nigeria's drama entry to the 2nd World Black Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC '77), Wale Ogunyemi's Langbodo. PremieresWho's Afraid of Solarin?. The Chattering and the Song published

1978 Who's Afraid of Solarin and Like a Dead Clock Now (poems) published. Premiere of Once Upon Four Robbers at Ibadan. Promoted Senior Lecturer, Department of Modern Languages,University of Ibadan

1979 Founds Kakaun Sela Kompany, a semi-professional theatre group at Ibadan. Premieres Morountodun at Arts Theatre, Ibadan

1980 Presents "Beyond Translation: A Comparative Look at Tragic Paradigms and the Dramaturgy of Wole Soyinka and Ola Rotimi" at the Inaugural Congress and First National Symposium on Translation and Interpretation of the Nigerian Association of Translators and Interpreters (NATI), University of Lagos, Nigeria. Premieres Birthdays Are Not For Dying, The Inspector and the Hero and Fires Burn and Die Hard. Publishes Once Upon Four Robbers. Transfers his appointment from the Department of Modern Languages to the Department of Theatre Arts, University of Ibadan

1981 Delivers "Do the Humanities Humanize? - A Dramatist's Encounter With Anarchy and the Nigerian Intellectual Culture" at the 2nd Faculty of Arts Lecture, University of Ibadan. Visiting Professor, Universite du Benin, Lome, Togo

1982 Awarded the City of Pennsylvania Bell Award for Artistic Performance for his role in A Flash in the Sun. Oriki of A Grasshopper and The Midnight Hotel premiered. Publishes Morountodun and Other Plays. Appointed Foundational Editorial Board Member and the Arts Editor of The Guardian, Lagos

1983 Morountodun and Other Plays wins the first Association of Nigerian Authors' (ANA) Prize for Literature. Appointed Professor of Drama, University of Benin-City, Nigeria. Directs Farewell to a Cannibal Rage at the University of Pennsylvania, USA

1984 Esu and the Vagabond Minstrels premiered at Benin-City

1985 Appointed Visiting Professor of Drama, University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University), Ile-Ife. sets the record of a long run on a university campus in Nigeria with Esu and the Vagabond Minstrels at Ile-Ife. Promoted Professor of Drama, University of Ibadan.

1986 University of Ife Humanities Lecture -- "Wonderland and Orality of Prose: A Comparative Study of Rabelais, Joyce and Tutuola." returns to the department of Theatre Arts, University of Ibadan. Participates in the International Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa, USA

1987 Presents "And After the Wasted Breed?: Responses to History and to Wole Soyinka's Dramaturgy" at the Jahnheiz Jahn Memorial Conference at the University of Mainz, Germany. Another Raft, a response to J. P. Clark-Bekederemo's The Raft premiered at Ibadan. Farewell to a Cannibal Rage directed by Sandra L. Richards at Stanford University, USA. Maami (novella) serialized in The Guardian, Lagos. Minted Coins, collection of poetry written under the pseudonym Okinba Launko wins the ANA Poetry Prize and the Regional Commonwealth Poetry Award for First Collection.

1988 Elected President of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA). Presents "The Challenge of Translation -- Or Some Notes on the Language Factor in African Literatures" at the Symposium on African Literatures Before and After the 1986 Nobel Prize, Lagos. Produces the Yoruba version of Who's Afraid of Solarin? as Yeepa, Solarin Nbo!. Premieres Twingle-Twangle, A Twynning Tayle at Ibadan. Listed in Contemporary Dramatists

1989 : National Drama Consultant, Movement for Mass Mobilisation, Social and Economic Recovery (MAMSER), Abuja, Nigeria. Guest Writer, Annual Conference of the African Literature Association, Ithaca, USA. Serializes Cordelia (novellete) in The Guardian, Lagos and premieres Aringindin and the Night Watchmen at Ibadan.

1990 Resident Writer, Foundation Henri Clewes, La Napoule, France. Wuraola Forever, novel, serialized in The Guardian. Directs Wole Soyinka's The Road at the Arts Theatre, Ibadan. Yungba-Yungba and the Dance Contest premiered.

1991 Founds the Centre for the Study of Theatre and Alternate Genres of Expression in Africa (CentreSTAGE Africa), a non-governmental trusteeship organisation. Guest Writer, Annual Conference of the African Literature Association, New Orleans, USA. Guest Dramatist, African Studies Orleans, USA. Guest Dramatist, African Studies Association, St. Louis, USA. Visiting Writer, British Council, London, England. Visiting Writer, The Japan Foundation, Tokyo, Japan. Performs, with the Kakaun Sela Kompany, The Oriki of a grasshopper and The Engagement in six campuses in the USA. Becomes the Vice President (West Africa Region) of the Pan-African Writers' Association (PAWA). Grand Patron, Ghana Association of Writers (GAW).

1992 Ford Foundation Fellow, Africana Studies and Research Centre, Cornell University, Ithaca, USA. Fellow in Drama of Other Worlds and Visiting Professor of Drama, St. Alfred's College, Winchester, England. Visiting African Writer, Inter Nationes, The Republic of Germany. Guest Dramatist, National Black Arts Festival and the Emory University, Atlanta, USA. Aringindin and the Night Watchmenpublished. Abigail (Pirates of Hurt), novel, serialized in The Guardian. At the Annual ASNEL Conference on "Defining New Idioms and Alternative Forms of Expression", Bayreuth, Republic of Germany. Grand Patron of the Arts, Pan African Writers' Association (PAWA).

1993 Fellow, Ragdale Foundation for Playwriting, Lake Forest, Illinois and the Northwestern University, Evanston, USA. Resident Faculty, The Ohio State University Center for African Studies. Appointed Principal Consultant, Atlanta Olympic Games Committee. Dreamseeker on Divining Chain - poetry (under the name Okinba Launko) and Yungba-Yungba and the Dance Contest published. Yungba-Yungba wins the ANA Drama Prize.Founding of Opon Ifa Review, a quarterly journal of the arts, primarily for creative writing.

1994 World premiere of Nkrumah-Ni!...Africa-NI!, National Theatre, Accra, Ghana. Commissioned by the Guthrie Theatre, Minneapolis, MN, USA to write two plays. Writes and workshops Tegonni, An African Antigone, an adaptation of Sophocles' Antigone at Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA and publishes The Album of the Midnight Blackout. Ire Ni! (poe-drama) produced at the Arts Theatre, Ibadan for Wole Soyinka's 60th birthday.

1995 Nkrumah-Ni!...Africa-Ni! directed by Mel Neloufer at the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. Twingle-Twangle, A Twynning Tayle published. Presents "Medium of Change/Change of Medium: Reflections on Theatre Practice in Contemporary Nigeria" at the Africa Conference, Africa '95, London, England.

1996 Visiting Professor, University of Leeds, England. Produces Esu and the Vagabond Minstrels and presents "Warriors of A Failed Utopia? - West African Writers since the 70s" as the 2nd Annual African Studies Lecture of the Institute of African Studies Unit. British Council, Lagos commissions One Legend, Many Seasons, the stage adaptation of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. PresentsFiddlers on a Midnight Lark at the Alliance Francaise, Lagos, Nigeria

1997 Many Colors Make the Thunder-King produced by the Guthrie Theatre, Minneapolis, MN, USA (February 26-March 30)

It's the world's third largest film industry churning out more than 500 movies a year. What's the secret behind the Nigerian film industry's success?

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