Review of Alápatà Àpáta by Prof Wole Soyinka

Yesternight, I finished Alápatà Àpáta, A Play for Yorubaphobia, Class for Xenophobile, by Professor Wole Soyinka. It was written in 2011. Prof Wole is the first African Nobel Prize winner.

An Interesting and hilarious display of satire. I was spellbound and glued to the book throughout the night. It was dedicated to Moses Olaiya, one of the greatest humorists in stage play in Nigeria.

It’s a powerful observation and picturesque of Nigerian society from the point view of an unlettered but successful butcher; the governor; the king; the teacher, and members of the society.

Alápatà and Apata are both Yoruba words. Alápatà means a butcher; Àpáta means rock. Corrupting the two words mean “The Butcher Of The Rock”. Alaba is the protagonist of the satirical play that perfectly portrays greediness, power corruption, and moral decadence that continue to permeate Nigeria, from those at the top and thoe at the bottom of the ladder.

Alaba, a butcher, is the lead character. He inherited the profession from his late father. He’s so good that his oriki includes “Alápatà ti n fi eran dara”, a butcher who is skillful at butchering meat. His mastery of ‘suya’ is unmatched. He is praised for his expertise on anything meat

After a successful career in the butchering of meat, Alaba retired from the business unexpectedly, and found abode on top of a rock doing nothing than observing enjoying his retirement.

Many people refused to believe that a man who is successful in his profession would abruptly retired to do nothing than stay on top of a rock.

Unknown to Alaba, beneath the rock lies resources coveted by politicians. On the rock, spiritual leaders coveted the spot for their religious activities.

This spot on which Alaba made his recreation abode generated conflicting interests and misinterpretations from members of the society. Government officials who were interested in using the resources beneath the rock to enrich themselves. Alada didn’t know that beneath the rock he found as an abode were minerals that “the whole world wants”.

Alaba’s choice of abode generates different interpretations and interests. To a Pastor, it is a place of revelations; to a herbalist, Alaba represents the Esu laalu; to a mechanic, he is a voice snatcher; to a government representative, Alaba is a stubborn distraction to the government and must be dealt with; to a student leader, Alaba is an agent of government spying on a government perceived enemies. “The government wants to undermine the solidarity between workers and students. The movement for the unity of intellectual and manual labour is terrifying them in their corrupt and decadent offices, so they set up spy points and recruit spies from the least expected places. Ex-butchers!” The students, therefore want revolutionary action from students and workers to stop Alaba from spying on the society.

A pastor joined passers-by in denigrating Alaba, but inwardly the pastor was planning his church on the rock because he believed Alaba must have been sitting there based on revelation.

The Pastor believed that Alaba’s retirement was not ordinary. As he said that:

“ he retired from the butchering of the flesh to the butchering of the souls.”

The government was hellbent on the removing Alaba from the rock by force if he refuses to ‘vacate’ a resource-rich area.

However, Prof Wole Wole Soyinka uses Alaba to convey a powerful message to Africans and those who care to listen to that solution to our problems is that we have “gone searching in Sókótó for what was right here in (our) sokotò”. Meaning that the solutions to our problems are beneath us but we are being held back by ignorance, greediness and self-seeking corrupt leaders who are only after their own pockets at the detriment of the populace.

Another lesson learnt from the book is that it encourages meticulous attention to detail as the teacher’s mistake on tonal marks.

A few I pulled from the books:

“These digital cameras are the curse of the world. They can broadcast photos of a man’s corpse long before he’s dead.”

“In a bent world, everything gets bent. Don’t expect justice.”