| A review of Wole Soyinka's "You must set forth at dawn" |
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| Sunday, 04 June 2006 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
 I recently acquired a welcome addition to my library entitled you must set forth at Dawn By Professor Wole Soyinka who needs no introduction. It is indeed very accessible and extremely interesting and easy to read. It is highly recommended by me and should be in every library in Nigeria Public and private.Prof Soyinka starts the book from where Ake the years of Childhood and Ibadan The Penkelemes years ended.There is some reference to Ibadan but this time not through his alter ego Maren who obviously was Prof Soyinka in Ibadan. His story is essentially the story of Nigeria written from a personal perspective since he came of age as an adult in the early 50's during the pre independence era. In the 60's he describes in detail his opinions of the politics of the time and his thoughts about the treasonable felony trial of the late sage Chief Obafemi Awolowo. His thoughts are that indeed some Nigerians from the Western Region had undergone training in Nkrumah's Ghana in paramilitary techniques but he agrees with the general opinion of the time that Awo knew nothing about this and was wrongfully jailed. However other members of the Action group had some knowledge. He does not mention the name of the Judge in The case but the Judge was Mr Justice Sodeinde Sowemimo who later rose to be the Chief Justice of the federation. He talks about the alliance between the Splinter party from Action group known as Democratic Party led by the late Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yoruba Land Chief S .L Akintola and the Northern Peoples Congress led by Sir Ahmadu Bello and on the opposing side the Action group led by Awo in alliance with NCNC then led by the Eastern region premier the one and Only Dr Michael Okpara ''Okpara Power''. He lets the reader know the high stakes political intrigues of the time. He also gives in details the help Okpara gave to action group financially and otherwise when Awo was in jail in Calabar. He gives credit to Mazi Ukonu from the Eastern Nigeria broadcasting service who set up a broadcasting station in Awo's house unbeknownst to Awo as a counter weight to the Western Nigeria government media outlet which was critical in the highly contested 1964 election. In the mid 60's he also gives details of his substitution of the tape for a broadcast by the Premier Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola for his own tape. There was reference to this in Ibadan the Penkelemes years but in this book he goes in to more details including his trial and eventual acquittal in the court of the Judge who was known other than the Honorable Mr Justice Kayode Esho who later became a Supreme Court Judge. He ends the 60's by discussing the civil war and the coups of that time. His meeting with Colonel Victor Banjo and Phillip Alale before the former invaded the midwest. He also recounts his last meeting with the poet Christopher Okigbo who later perished a day or 2 later at the warfront. He talks of his delivering a message to none other than Colonel later General Olusegun Obasanjo from Victor Banjo in a midnight trip through Ibadan.There have been varying accounts of the discussion this is Prof Soyinka's account. Obasanjo gave his own account in My Command. Basically what i could glean was essentialy Banjo wanted to Get to Lagos from Benin through the western region but Obasanjo was then the military commander of the West in the early days of the civil war and in my opinion rightly refused.This has also been discussed in the book a ''Break in the Silence'' which is a biography of Colonel Victor Banjo written by his sister Prof Adetoun Ogunsheye. He also said that Banjo was phoning a lot of people from Benin after the Mid West invasion including Him, General Gowon and even Awo. However the rest is history Banjo was recalled to Enugu tried for treason and executed along with Phillip Alale and Emmanuel Ifeajuna the University of Ibadan graduate, Commonwealth high jump champion of the Commonwealth games of 1954 who was also one of the 5 Majors that plotted the coup of January 1966. Further details of these events are in civil war books primarily The Nigerian Civil war by De St Jorre, Alexander Madiebo's the Biafran revolution which in my opinion is one the best written books on the civil war, Obasanjo's my command and for full details of Banjo's speech the crisis and conflict in Nigeria by Anthony Kirk green which is extremely detailed. Professor Soyinka was then arrested by government and jailed in solitary confinement for 22 months. The details of these are in the book ''the Man died'' He also talks about University politics and the intrusion of regional and National politics which led to the resignation of several lecturers from University of Ife in the mid 60's. Notable examples are Dr Later Prof Samuel Aluko who was forced to relocate with his family to University of Nigeria Nsukka also Professor Oyenuga an Agriculture expert who also resigned. The book is also an ode to long standing friendship which the author had with Femi Johnson the insurance magnate and actor and the economist Prof. Ojetunji Aboyade. The relationship were indeed touching and lasted several decades most especially with Femi Johnson. Prof Soyinka through numerous anecdotes tell of their hunting trips and other significant events in his life that particularly Femi Johnson played a role. Femi Johnson actually acted in Wole Soyinka's Madmen and Specialists and later by the dint of his hard work built the only other skyscraper in Ibadan apart from Cocoa House which he named Brooking House, He discusses
his relationship with various military rulers such as General Obasanjo and
IBB. He also gives an account of the Dramatist Prof Ola Rotimi's encounter with
members of the Armed forces at a check point after the civil war, there he was
flogged in front of his family and almost shot dead.Prof Ola Rotimi was famous
worldwide for his epic play'' The Gods are not to Blame'' which is his version
of the greek tragedy Oedipus Rex. He discusses his complex relationship with
Obasanjo including their collaboration in the FESTAC preparations and hosting
and also the search for the Original Ori Olokun which is a sacred mask to
the Yoruba that was excavated by a German explorer but somehow ended in
Britain during colonial times.This is an adventure story in itself. This was
indeed a forerunner for the valiant efforts of the recently departed late
Apena of Ife Chief Omotosho Eluyemi's actions as head of the National museum and
antiquities unit to get more of the looted treasures.
He details his reasons for
establishing the Federal road safety corps and his visit for a meeting with
Babangida a few hours before Orkar struck in his coup. He describes how
productive the meeting was as they discussed a lot of issues but unbeknownst to
both of them something earth shaking would happen just a couple of hours later.
He also mentions the effort of the Nigerian Literary triumvirate of Chinua
Achebe, John Pepper Clark- Bekederemo and himself to save the life of the
condemned General and poet Mamman Jiya Vatsa. Alas it was not successful. I
remember reading his book of poems on the Nigerian State capitals which were
then 12 in the early 70's.
He devotes a lot of
attention to the June 12 election and it's aftermath the civil resistance, riots
and eventual ascendancy of General Sanni Abacha as the Head of state. His exile
via Shaki to Coutonou in republic of Benin and eventual relocation to the United
States. His heroic and colossal efforts in the pro-democracy campaign are also
outline. He gives credit to other's such as Beko,Gani Fawehinmi,Femi Falana and
Olisa Agbakoba and Bola Tinubu. He however did not in my opinion really like
NADECO( National Democratic Coalition) though he sometimes co-operated with
them.He also obviously had an uneasy relationship with Chief Anthony Enahoro who
moved the motion for Nigerian's independence in 1956 by criticizing his Civil
service approach to issues. Their paths had indeed crossed several years ago
when Chief Enahoro was the Federal Minister for Information during the Civil war
and Professor Soyinka was then incarcerated without trial this is fully
discussed by Prof Soyinka.Incidentally in the 60's Anthony Enahoro was involved
in a long extradition battle between Nigeria and Britain for his alleged role in
what came to be known as Awo's treasonable felony trial. For details of Awo's
account i would direct the reader to Voice of reason and Voice of Wisdom by
Chief Obafemi Awolowo. Also Chef Enahoro wrote his own account of the
events. He had his own organization which later got expanded but had to
suspend some members because of people's fixation for posts and in the
case of a lady whom he actually knew the family and mentions in the book writing
bad checks and dishonesty. He also goes for the jugular and in my opinion
unfairly attacks the physical attributes of one of the members that got
suspended Jude Uzonwanne.I think his contributions to the democratic coalition
are indeed sterling but i await a fuller history because you need at least a
whole book to delineate all the activities that went on including Radio Kudirat
and the like and the efforts of Diasporan Nigerians like Bolaji Aluko, Kayode
Fayemi etc. Also people like Bagauda Kaltho, Ralph Obioha, Commodore Dan
Suleiman, General Alani Akinrinnade, Kudirat Abiola and the Man that paid the
Ultimate prize Bashorun MKO Abiola.I am not aware of any
comprehensive book that details the issues and this is certainly a start but i
would prefer it as a stand alone book. Prof Soyinka has done a great job
and this book is highly recommended.
My main draw backs about the book are the lack of of an index for cross refernce this is surprising since Random house the publishers are one of the top publishing houses here in the United States.I would also recommend Photographs in further prints although this would raise the cost of the book. I would advise the reader to get his or her copy or this welcome addition to our national bibliography written by Prof Wole Soyinka. Olumide Ogunremi
St Louis, Missouri
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Posted by Robot| 04.06.2006 00:52