September 6, 2022
A LITTLE INSIGHT INTO ONE ASPECT OF THE BELIEF IN SPIRITUALITY AND MYSTICISM BY SOME AFRICANS
Greetings!
I am Harr Agina, and I bring you the premiere edition of Michael Shaibu’s “AfroCultural Dramas” miniseries on “Mysticism in Africa.” He titles it, “Boomerang.”
I cannot comment at the beginning of this drama without exposing too much. But I can tell you that it’s about three friends in an African village, with the wife of one friend being the antagonist. So, please go right ahead and find out about it yourself. I’ll have another word or two for you at the end of Michael Shaibu’s “Boomerang,” thus:
“AFROCULTURAL DRAMA” ON MISTICISM, “BOOMERANG,” 1:
- OUTSIDE; UNDER A TREE; AT DUSK.
A VILLAGE DRINKING JOINT OWNED BY A LADY. THERE ARE NOISY GROUPS AT TABLES DOTTED HERE AND THERE. AT ONE TABLE, AKU AND OTI SIT DRINKING AND CHATTING AS THEY AWAIT THEIR FRIEND ETU…
OTI: Guy, why can’t we too bring young girls to drink with us like all those?
AKU: Well, I won’t do that with you. I don’t want to give my own wife any worries.
OTI: Rubbish! What kind of worries? Come…don’t tell me you don’t plan to marry another wife o!
AKU: Marrying another wife has nothing to do with this. If and when I want to marry, it will not be from bringing women here to drink with me.
OTI (Laughs heartily): Relax! Stop taking small things so seriously. We are having fun here.
THEY DRINK IN SILENCE FOR A MOMENT…
AKU: Talking about having fun, are you sure you told Etu that we should meet here at the time we came? The fun is passing us.
OTI: Of course, I did. I don’t know what is keeping him. By the way, have you noticed how he is always looking kind of worried these days?
AKU: Well, I have. I even asked him about it. But he said there is nothing.
OTI: Not true. Come…have you not heard the talk in the village? All that talk about his wife?
AKU: What about his wife?
OTI LOOKS HERE AND THERE TO MAKE SURE NO ONE IS LOOKING THEIR WAY, THEN BENDS FORWARD AND LOWERS HIS VOICE…
OTI (Sotto voce): Don’t say I told you. But I have heard that his wife is sleeping with Egodede.
AKU (Shocked): What? Egodede the village champion?
OTI: That’s what I heard.
AKU: But it is not as if…
OTI (Cuts in): Shush! Shush!! Shush!!! There comes Etu now.
THEY FALL SILENT PRONTO. ETU COMES OVER TO THEM AND PULLS HIS SEAT. THEY ALL GREET. ETU’S DRINK IS BROUGHT TO HIM AND HE BEGINS TO DRINK. THERE IS UNUSUAL SILENCE AS BOTH AKU AND OTI WATCH ETU. ETU CATCHES THEM LOOKING AT HIM…
ETU: What? Why are you both looking at me like that?
BOTH AKU AND OTI TRY TO SHRUG IT OFF, SAYING NOTHING. BUT ETU INSISTS…
AKU: Look, we have been friends since forever. So I don’t think it is fair to hear something and not mention it. What is this we hear about your wife and Egodede?
ETU: I don’t want to talk about it.
OTI: But not wanting to talk about it does not stop it, man. Issues are meant to be discussed and resolved. And who better than us to discuss an issue of that…
ETU (Cuts in angrily): What is there to talk about? You tell me, if it were your own wife, how would you talk about it? Huh? Look, you two might mean well, but I don’t know how to talk about a thing like this. Thank you.
THEY REMAIN SILENT FOR A WHILE TO LET HIM CALM A BIT…
AKU: Look, Etu…whether it is true or not, we can imagine how painful this is. We can imagine that, because, being your best friends, we know how much you love your wife.
ETU: Thank you.
OTI: May I say something?
BOTH AKU AND ETU GIVE HIM A GLARE THAT SHOWS THAT ASKING THAT IS QUITE UNNECESSARY…
OTI: Look, I just want to voice an idea. Our people say when you see vultures and kites flying in circles in mid-air, there is wild bonfire there. Also, oyibo (white) people say there is no smoke without fire.
AKU: Get to the point, please!
OTI: My point is…if either Egodede or your wife or both of them had not acted or said something, people likely would not have added two and two together.
ETU: Is that not evident enough?
AKU: Besides, you have just explained your adages. You said you had an idea, get to it.
OTI: I suggest we, and I mean all three of us, go and talk to both Etu’s father in-law and then to Egodede’s father. They should caution their children. Whatever they are doing that is causing the village tongue to wag, let them stop it.
ETU: Nah! You know what it would lead to. Egodede is educated. He can fight too. I have seen where he alone beat 5 men his size before. With his English and his fighting prowess, he would just rubbish me and turn me into the laughing stock of this and all surrounding villages for a long time to come! No, I cannot do that.
AKU: Well, he may be educated and all that. But as for fighting, not all fights need to be physical. I suggest we do what Oti said.
ETU BEGINS TO THINK ABOUT IT…
Crossfade to…
- OUTSIDE; ON THE VERANDA; AT DUSK.
A WOODEN CHAIR IS WAITING WITH A SNUFF BOX ON ONE ARM. OLD ILABA WALKS OUT TO IT, SITS, PICKS THE SNUFF BOX, AND BEGINS TO PREPARE TO SNUFF. ETU, OTI, AND AKU WALK UP AND SQUAT TO GREET. THEN ETU GOES IN AND BRINGS OUT A BENCH ON WHICH HE AND HIS FRIENDS SIT…
ILABA: Is it well that I see all three of you like this? It is long since all three of you have come to visit me like this…now that you have plucked and securely installed in your own house, the so-called beautiful flower you wanted from my house then.
THE OLD MAN BEGINS TO CHUCKLE. BOTH AKU AND OTI JOIN IN. ETU ONLY MANAGES TO SMILE A BIT…
AKU: All is well sir. And it is so that all will keep being well that we came.
ILABA: Aha! I knew all could not be totally well and all three of you would come and visit me. So…what is amiss?
THE THREE FRIENDS BEGIN TO LOOK AT EACH OTHER…
ILABA: Aku…you talk to me. You have always been the one doing the talking all the time. Talk to me. What is amiss?
AKU DROPS TO A RESPECTFUL SQUATING POSITION AGAIN…
By Michael Shaibu.
You see, I told you guys once, that Mikey and I love suspense. Mikey wants you to start wondering what happens next. Now that Aku is about to ‘spill the beans’ about Etu’s wife’s alleged infidelity, what does Ilaba, Etu’s father-in-law, do? Are there some cultural implications, such as taboos?
And, what direction is Mikey taking this story, you wanno know; right? Honestly, even I don’t know what Mikey is doing at this point. I want to be surprisingly intrigued, or intriguingly surprised, just like you will be, when he gets to the exposition. I do know one thing for sure, though. Wherever it is that Mikey is going with this, it does have our “AfroCultural” InterCultural-Exchange messages somewhere. So please, let’s oblige him. Let’s tune in to his next edition of “AfroCultural Dramas” on African Mysticism, featuring “Boomerang,” episode 2. Thanks a million for your loyalty.
