The text "Yemoja" by Popular Nigerian playwright Ahmed Yerima is a play text that depicts the Yorùbá River goddess Yemoja as well as other Yorùbá gods in human form possessing human traits. In the play, these gods are susceptible to human emotions like love, wrath, happiness, pain, and human vices, such as betrayal and deceit.
It's about 60 pages or so and is divided into five scenes. It's a good read and beautiful stuff. I would definitely recommend it, but I won't give out mine because if there's anything I've learned from lending my books, it's that when it's a good read, the book never makes it back home.
PLAY SUMMARY
In the play, we see young and charming Yemoja and her lover Ogun helplessly in love with each other but are forced to part as Ogun is summoned to war. Despite her pleas, Ogun still goes to war as his nature is inclined towards standing on business and putting it before pleasure.
Where the story gets juicy is when he gives his lover Yemoja his calabash of life which is also the secret of his strength and power for safekeeping with two instructions; to drop three drops of blood from the neck of a dog on it to summon him whenever she misses him strong enough and to never open it. Like that wasn't risky enough, he also entrusts his friend Esu (the trickster god) to keep his lover company till he returns from war, little does he know that Esu has a history with her and is still not over her six moons later.
It all goes south when Esu deceives Yemoja to open the calabash and it takes a toll on her body and she is in critical need of a healer to treat her wounded limbs. Esu then calls on his trusted friend Obatanla to heal her wounds at the cost of her spending a night with him before Ogun returns from battle, Yemoja in dire straits having not much of a choice agrees.
While Obatanla is dressing her wounds behind closed raffia curtains, Esu hears Yemoja's moans of pain outside her hut and mistakes them for moans of pleasure because come on, they can be mistaken, so he goes to meet Ogun at the war front to tell him all about Yemoja's misdemeanor and infidelity.
Ogun on the other hand is losing warriors at the battlefront and getting his nyash handed to him at the war he was invited to because his life force has been tampered with but he's not aware yet until Esu tells him that his love has taken another while he's away. Upon hearing this, Ogun goes to see for himself and finds Yemoja being extra friendly, making merry and giving wine to Obatanla outside her hut. Obatanla on the other hand is swayed by Yemoja's charm and beauty(don't forget, this is Yemoja the river goddess, she is very beautiful and has a captivating siren/mermaid-like aura). And also her persuasion to drink more wine and dance for her but he still maintains some sort of composure.
The thing is, Yemoja was entertaining Obatanla as a kind gesture for healing her, Esu misread the entire situation and Ogun saw what Esu told him to see as it appeared so. Ogun gets filled with rage and tells Obatanla to prepare for mortal combat in two market days time at the village square so he can make a mockery and example of him for all eyes to behold.
Obatanla goes to his good friend Sango and pleads with him to fight for him in two days, which he agrees to.
Fast forward two days later at the market square, after both fighters are introduced with chants and praises and all, as the fight is about to begin, Yemoja looking bitterly at the sight gets charged with emotions and refuses to be a prize for some champion of mortal combat between the two warriors goes into the sea and becomes one with it.
CHARACTERIZATION
One of the notable elements of this play text is the characterization. Yerima ate the characterization for real!
I say this because I saw each god embody his character in the world of the play. Yemoja is a captivating and charming beauty, which is a mythologically common trait with Sirens and mermaids and she's represented by a mermaid if I'm not mistaken.
Ogun: Yemoja's lover is very ill-tempered and a warrior by nature and has a thing for war which we can say is attributed to iron.
Esu is a trickster and a master of deceit and conflict so we see him orchestrate strife amongst his friends.
Obatanla: is a creator, restorer of good, healer, and goodwill and he plays this out through his character in the course of the play.
Sango is a warrior by nature and also vengeful and ill-tempered like Ogun, so much that he threatened to kill his son who wanted to be a farmer instead of a warrior, just like thunder and lightning, Sango possesses an unforgiving nature and an explosive and eruptive temper.
CHALLENGES ENCOUNTERED READING
I'm not really versed with Yorùbá gods or cosmology but with the little I know I must say I enjoyed this play text no lies, it was not complicated at all. It was like reading a play where I could tell what to expect from each character on account of the prior knowledge I had of them.
The part that I missed out on was the chants in the play. Since I understand little Yorùbá I was just picking apart the little bits I could understand. You know you can't have a Yorùbá play without Yorùbá chants and praises. I mean, that's the vibe right there, it's one of the key elements of African theatre in the first place.
I wouldn't even want them in English because that would take the Yorùbá essence right out of the play. Also, the praises, chant,s, and the gan-gan (talking drum) are some of the key highlights that uplift the play.
