Soyinka's Kongi Harvest (1970)
Soyinka's Kongi Harvest (1970)
Soyinka was born in 1934; he is a Nigerian writer who completes his study in Ibadan University. Soyinka has played an active role in Nigeria's political history and reflects the reality of his nation after independence. Soyinka deals with fictional African place called Isma where power moved from the old tradition order of the Oba to the modern order of Kongi.
Kongi is already a ruler who feels that he has to legitimate his power and to be benevolent in the eyes of his people. In the "harvest festival", Kongi wants Oba to show publicly that he is the ruler by presenting the new yams to him.
There are a group of younger people against Kongi's rule led by Daodu, son of Sarumi, and Segi who was once the mistress of Kongi. Kongi arrested Segi's father and other people who opposed his power and put them in the jail. Kongi now wants to make a deal with this group that if they allowed the festival to happen calmly then he will release all these prisoners including Segi's father. Here, Kongi is a hypocritical because he intends to kill them after getting the agreement for his leadership from Oba.
On the day of festival, Oba offered the 1st crop of the year to Kongi but instead of yam there is a cut head of Segi's father. Accordingly, there was complete chaos and Oba was killed during this chaos. So, all the perfect planning of Kongi about this festival is totally destroyed and the festival turns to violence instead of benevolence. Thus, the harvest of Kongi was the hatred of people and violence because violence brings violence.
This play can be interpreted as a play of post-independence and what happened in more African countries not only in Nigeria. It can be the harvest of colonization or the universal desire to get power. Kongi's rule established by force and fear, so he seeds violence and harvests the hatred of people. Soyinka's aim is to confirm the idea of democracy and not the using of power in the rule.
There is a
Soyinka was born in 1934; he is a Nigerian writer who completes his study in Ibadan University. Soyinka has played an active role in Nigeria's political history and reflects the reality of his nation after independence. Soyinka deals with fictional African place called Isma where power moved from the old tradition order of the Oba to the modern order of Kongi.
Kongi is already a ruler who feels that he has to legitimate his power and to be benevolent in the eyes of his people. In the "harvest festival", Kongi wants Oba to show publicly that he is the ruler by presenting the new yams to him.
There are a group of younger people against Kongi's rule led by Daodu, son of Sarumi, and Segi who was once the mistress of Kongi. Kongi arrested Segi's father and other people who opposed his power and put them in the jail. Kongi now wants to make a deal with this group that if they allowed the festival to happen calmly then he will release all these prisoners including Segi's father. Here, Kongi is a hypocritical because he intends to kill them after getting the agreement for his leadership from Oba.
On the day of festival, Oba offered the 1st crop of the year to Kongi but instead of yam there is a cut head of Segi's father. Accordingly, there was complete chaos and Oba was killed during this chaos. So, all the perfect planning of Kongi about this festival is totally destroyed and the festival turns to violence instead of benevolence. Thus, the harvest of Kongi was the hatred of people and violence because violence brings violence.
This play can be interpreted as a play of post-independence and what happened in more African countries not only in Nigeria. It can be the harvest of colonization or the universal desire to get power. Kongi's rule established by force and fear, so he seeds violence and harvests the hatred of people. Soyinka's aim is to confirm the idea of democracy and not the using of power in the rule.
There is a