At Nembe Creek, at Escravos, at the American embassy in Abuja , at cocktail parties thrown by Shell or Chevron, or Agip, or Exxon, or Elf, or Halliburton, tings dey happen.

We have known this for so long. But do we really care? No, we don’t. Just like the rest of the oil guzzling world, as long as the oil flows, we are pretty okay.

…Then enters Dan Hoyle.

Dan was a Fulbright scholar in Nigeria from 2005 – 2006. He studied oil politics. He saw Nigeria in all her jaga-jaga self. He transformed what he saw into a one-man play called Tings Dey Happen.

I was privileged to see Dan perform his play at Culture Project, Mercer Street off Broadway in New York City on September 29, 2007. Thanks in great part to Okey Ndibe who dragged me out of the house and also gave an accurate account of the state of the nation in a forum that followed the 90-minute play.

The theater had a good number of Nigerians for that night’s performance because of the effort of people like Oyiza Adaba and Lisa Vives. It meant that laughter was wide spread. It was a special kind of laughter that disguised outrage. White people laughed at things that appealed to them while Nigerians laughed at things Nigeriana.

But beyond the laughter was a serious dilemma- what shall we do with the Niger Delta?

In a very intricate manner, Dan in Tings Dey Happen captures all the elements at play in the Niger Delta just the way they are. He is dispassionate in his portrayal, whether it is the prostitute prowling the oil industry workers, the militants hunting them for hostage or an ex-Texas farmer who as an oil worker is raising a family in Nigeria . He shows the complicity of the foreign expatriates as well as the moral bankruptcy of the indigenes appointed as liaison officers with the locals.

In Tings Dey Happen, some characters even struggle to do the right thing – condition casual observers may think absent from those mashed mangroves.

Dan dissects the Niger Delta like an aged surgeon, exposing the skeletons for all to see. Hop scotching from one character to another, he looks at the Delta but unlike many outsiders looking in, he sees more than the clichés. He shows no empathy. No gentleness. No pity. No love. Only a smart and well embedded scholar can capture the Niger Delta with all its complications as Dan does. Dan, in Tings Dey Happen, is a genius.

For a Nigerian far removed from the area and the real consequences of the conflict, Dan brings it to life straight up. For the foreigner familiar with the superficial look the international media gives to the region, Dan gives a human face to the stories.

The beauty of the performance is in its ability to present a complete picture without expressing an opinion. For every member of the audience, the moral responsibility is inescapable. Who is culpable? What is the way out?

There is a lot to be said of a white man speaking Pidgin English like a Warri boy, Queens English like a Scottish engineer, or New World English like an American Ambassador to Nigeria . But more importantly, there is a lot to be said on how one man got white people transported to the land where much of the oil that drives their consumer economy comes from. Witnessing the dynamics of the conflict that follow the adventure into oil exploration leaves an indelible mark. You cannot walk into the theater and walk out the same. Once you see it, you can never say you are unaware of the direct and indirect consequences of oil exploration in these lands.

Dan makes you a witness. Tings Dey Happen entertains you but also get your conscience implicated. Just like every one of us, what you do with that knowledge na your business. While many people will dump it outside the door of the theater, a few will take it on their shoulders and carry it wherever they go, doing all that is within their power to find a solution that will restore the humanity of the people of the Niger Delta.

The few who will do that are the essential few on which progress depends on.

While you are wherever you are, doing whatever you do, remember that things dey happen - things that have tremendous effect on your life and the lives of many. The question is, “what are you going to do about them?”

Will you do what we normally do when confronted with a difficult task? Nothing, as usual.

After the show, Dan announced that a staff of Aso Rock saw the play during the UN General Assembly and was so impressed that the presidency has now invited him to come back to Nigeria and perform. Dan will perform in Lagos , in Port Harcourt , and privately for Umaru Yar’Adua. You may ask, why not in Kaduna ? Anywhere near the oil pipelines.

Watching the play there in Nigeria by people like Yar’Adua will be like placing a mirror in front of people who never had one. But, then again, it may just be, for them, a good cartoon performed by a white man in yet another African jungle.

Rudolf Ogoo Okonkwo is the author of Children of A Retired God

Robot  Villager

# 1 ...Read the full article. Posted by Robot| 06.10.2007 16:54