THE BLOOD OF A STRANGER BY RAYMOND DELE-CHARLEY

The Blood of A Stranger is an interesting play written by a Sierra Leonean writer and playwright, Raymond Dele-Charley. This play was performed at the 1977 Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC) and won an award for the best play.

The play illustrates how Europeans, with the active collaboration of some unscrupulous Africans, exploited and stole Africa’s rich resources during the colonial era.

STUDY GUIDE

PLOT

MALIGU

The Chief Adviser to Santigi (King of Mando) receives a letter to the effect that a white man (Mr Whitehead) is coming to Mando for tobacco farming. He approaches Soko, the corrupt priest of Mando and convinces him to prophesy to the king and the people that they should welcome the visitor.

Meanwhile, Mando has witnessed a number of wars in the past and has not been accepting visitors. To them, visitors mean sickness, disease and war. However, because they view Soko as a trusted intermediary between them and the spirit of their forefathers, they welcome Mr. WhiteHead.

KINDO,

Harvest of Corruption by Frank Ogodo Ogbeche

Harvest of Corruption is a play (drama) written by Frank Ogbeche to condemn the ills and foibles of the contemporary Nigerian society. The play is a satire illustrating how corruption permeates the fabric of the Nigerian society and affects institutions like the police force, the judiciary, and government ministries.

The play revolves mostly around Aloho, a naïve and jobless university graduate who is desperately searching for a job. Her meeting with Ochuole, a notorious old school mate of hers leads to a series of events which lend credence to the popular saying ‘You reap what you sow’.

About the Author

Frank Ogodo Ogbeche is from Yala in Cross River State, Nigeria. He studied Communication Arts and currently works as a Senior Council Affairs Officer in the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF). He is a member of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) and the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ),and has to his credit a number of plays and poems including The Intruder and the Promises of the Gods.


PLOT

The play revolves mostly around Aloho, a naïve and jobless university undergraduate who is desperately searching for a job. She meets Ochuole, a notorious old school mate of hers who is the Chief Administrative Officer at the Ministry of External Relations. Ochuole offers to help her secure a job by speaking with the Honourable Minister of External Relations, Chief Ade Haladu-Amaka on her behalf. Aloho is offered a job as one of Chief Ade Haladu-Amaka’s protocol officers. However, she does not know that Ochuole is actually being used by the Chief to perpetrate criminal activities especially drug trafficking. Madam Hoha’s hotel is the hideout for these criminal activities.

Chief Ade Haladu-Amaka gives Aloho a package containing hard drugs to deliver in the United States of America. Aloho unknowingly accepts the package and gets arrested at the airport by drug law enforcement officers. Chief Ade Haladu-Amaka bribes the judge and the prosecutors to set Aloho free.

Vanity by Birago Diop

Vanity

If we tell, gently, gently

All that we shall one day have to tell,

Who then will hear our voices without laughter,

Sad complaining voices of beggars

Who indeed will hear them without laughter?


If we cry roughly of our torments

 Ever increasing from the start of things

What eyes will watch our large mouths

Shaped by the laughter of big children

What eyes will watch our large mouth?



What hearts will listen to our clamoring?

What ear to our pitiful anger

Which grows in us like a tumor

In the black depth of our plaintive throats?



When our Dead comes with their Dead

 When they have spoken to us in their clumsy voices;

Just as our ears were deaf

To their cries, to their wild appeals

Just as our ears were deaf