Dramatic parables: ritual, anti-ritual, the “festival complex” or professional colleagues. More importantly, the imputation by Soyinka
of Sergeant Burmah’s predatoriness on the dead to the fact of his being
a shell-shocked, mentally-unhinged veteran of the Second World War
enables the playwright to credibly and powerfully endow this character
with a general “theory” of life that is at once utterly nihilistic and para-
doxically life-affirming. This can be seen in the following scene in which,
while Particulars Joe gives a running commentary on the charmed life of
the late Sergeant Burma, Samson powerfully reanimates the dead man
through mimetic ventriloquizing of his voice, mannerisms and embodied
“philosophy”:
.: We were made much of in those days. To have served in Burma
was to have passed your London Matric. Sergeant Burma looked forward
to retirement and his choice of business came as a matter of course...and
Professor offered him the business corner of the drivers’ haven... the
Accident Corner.
: Wetin enh? Wetin? You tink say myself I no go die some day? When
person die, ‘e done die and dat one done finish. I beg, if you see moto
accident make you tell me. We sabbee good business... sell spare part and
second-hand clothes. Wetin? You tink say I get dat kind sentimentation?
Me wey I done see dead body so tey I no fit chop meat unless den cook
am to nonsense? Go siddon my friend. Business na business. If you see
accident make you tell me I go run go there before those useless men steal
all the spare part finish.
.: Sergeant Burma looked forward to retiring and doing the spare
part business full-time. But of course his brakes failed going down a hill...
(The group begins to dirge, softly as if singing to themselves. A short silence.
Samson’s face begins to show horror and he gasps as he realizes what he
has been doing.)
(tearing off the clothes): God forgive me! Oh God, forgive me. Just see,
I have been fooling around pretending to be a dead man. Oh God I was
only playing I hope you realize. I was only playing.
.: Such a fire... such a fire... Nothing but black twigs left of the
veteran of Burma campaign... I went to break the news to his wife. You
know what she said?
: No no, talk of something else I beg you.
.: She said, I always told him not to gather dead men’s wallets.
And she was coming here to set fire to the whole store.
: Setfiretomystore!
.: That’s what I told her. Maybe the goods belong to your husband
I said, but the idea, was Professor’s.
: A spiritual ownership – more important than the material.
: I wish she’d burnt the whole place.