WOMEN OF OWU BY FEMI OSOFISAN (SUMMARY)
About the Text
Text Women of Owu
Writer Femi Osofisan
Publisher University Press Plc
Year of Publication 2006, 2008, 2009
Genre Tragedy
This play was inspired by the reading of Euripides
The Trojan Women during the period of Iraqi war
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WOMEN OF OWU at a Glance
WOMEN OF OWU re-enacts the bitter and gory
historical experiences of the people of the then Owu
Kingdom which happened sometimes around 1821.
What is shown in this play is the aftermath
experiences of war, the defeat and the accompanied
sorrow and pangs of the survivors whole are women
of nobility and beauty.
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Characters
ANLUGBUA Former Owu war leader, son of Oba
Asunkungbade, ancestral founder of Owu Ipole, now
deified as Orisa.
LAWUMI Mother of Oba Asunkungbade, now also
deified.
ERELU AFIN Wife of Oba Akinjobi, the reigning Olowu
of Owu Iponle.
GESINDE Ijebu soldier, herald and staff officer of the
Allied Army.
ORISAYE Half-mad daughter of Erelu, votary of the
god Obatala.
ADUMAADAN Widow of Lisabi, son of Erelu.
OKUNADE The MAYE, Ife war leader, General of the
Allied Forces.
IYUNLOYE Erring wife of the Maye.
CHORUS LEADER
CHORUS OF OWU WOMEN
SOLDIERS
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Scene by Scene Summary
Scene 1
The play opens with the sad event of the war that left
the Owu City in complete ruin.
Two women sent to fetch water met with an old man
who asked to know what city it is that lies in utter
ruins, shouldering. The women in response gave the
whole account of the devastating war and the
brutality the allied forces from Ife, Ijebu and the
mercenary soldiers from Ibadan unleashed on the
city; how they destroyed every male, both young and
old, sparing only the beautiful women and those of
the royal line, to keep as booty, especially for the
generals.
They feared for the old man and advised him to run
for dear life before the soldiers would sight him and
waste him as they did to other men of the city. They
were shocked when they discovered that the old man
is Anlugbua, their ancestral god who also is one of
the founders of the city. The women at this revelation
raised alarmed and later expressed their
disappointment at Anlugbua's late coming; for they
believed if he had come, as they expected any god
would to defend his worshippers, the city would had
been spared.
Anlugbua told them that the oath he took many years
ago when he was departing prevented him from
coming to their aid unless either the priests, chiefs or
the diviners invoke his spirit as instructed.
The women, in describing the gory attack, gave
detailed account of what was responsible for the
people's plight.
Okunade, The Maye led the allied forces under the
pretext of rescuing the oppressed Owu people from
the despot king, Oba Akinjobi; and for seven years
his army camped around the city after failed attempt
to penetrate and invade it.
Okunade the notable craftsman had abandoned his
trade to train as a soldier and in the process rose in
ranks to become the Maye, to avenge his favorite
wife, Iyunloye, who was taken captive alongside
others, by the Owu soldier when they invaded the
Apomu Market.
Owu City was built round with very formidable walls
and gate which kept the invaders off.
Unfortunately for the people of the city, there arose a
drought in the third year of the siege, which brought
about untold hardship, hunger, disease and death
among the people. In the face of these suffering, the
people did not relent in sacrificing to the gods. The
famine had been severe that in the fourth year of the
siege, the city gate having being shut away from the
invaders, they endured till the seventh years when
one day the city woke up to see that their allied
forces had left after seven years of futile attempts.
They did not know that it was a tactics used to
deceive them.
While the city was celebrating the end of the siege,
they were shocked seeing their city set ablaze. This
forced them to axe down the city gate to escape
death. They soldiers who hid in the forest came out
at once and unleashed terror on the people.
Those who attempted to counter has lesser weapons
to fight back as they had only their cutlasses and
incantations as against the formidable guns the
forces acquired in the course of trading with the
Europeans on coast of Lagos.
A night prior this attack, Oba Akinjobi with some of
his chiefs had escaped from the city through some of
the secret exit routes.
In the process, the sacred places were desecrated as
the armies killed both men and women who ran
there to seek refuge.
Anlugbua and the women parted, both to nurse their
pains: Anlugbua to mourn the loss of a dear city and
worshippers; the women the loss of their beloved
ones and the bitter experience of slavery.
Scene 2
The air is pervaded with the lamentation of the
women as they mourn their losses. The marauding
allied forces had finally turned the once-flourishing
city of Owu Iponle, which they besieged for seven
year, into a 'relic of history.'
Erelu Afin, the queen of Oba Akinjobi, sprawled on
the ground, mourning. Her eyes already have grown
weary of shedding tears but now full o0f talk as she
counted her losses and the fate that is yet to befall
her.
Other women who are as well victims of the war, who
seemed to have accepted the whole as their fate,
made every attempt to placate her to also take
courage since the loss is irreversible. They took turn
to tell her that they were all witnesses of all the ills
that befell her, that the memory of the horrible death
of the princes as well as the rape of the princesses
stuck still to them. They also reminded her that they
too lost things of greater values to the war.
During the invasion, all the five princes who are sons
of Erelu Afin were slaughtered in the full glare of
other helpless survivors. The same soldiers also
raped the princesses who 'were engaged already to
be married to kings'.
The women in their sorrow cursed the soldiers who
wrought the terrible acts in their city while they
attempted to go back to their homes. They made a
pronouncement that they would be afflicted and
would not get back to their motherlands.
While in their lamentation, the women made
reference to The Apomu Market which was the
supposed root cause of their doom. Apomu Market
was notable for its uncommon merchandise and thus
had attracted people from different lands to do their
trading. There they trade in prized goods such as
gold, silk, ivory and slaves. This market had since
been in contention between the people of Owu
Iponle, the Ife and the Ijebu.
Some years before the war, the Owu forcefully took
control of the market forcefully from the Ife, killing
their traders and also attacked the Ijebu traders
whom they felt are threat to them. The Owu soldiers
looted the stalls of the Ijebu traders, killed many of
them and sold others as slaves.
Erelu Afin then observed that the soldiers as they put
out the fire and started packing their loot with the
readiness to embark of their journey home. So she
called the attention of the women to this. They all
realized at this point that it was pointless to contest
their fate as each of them would be shared out
among the soldier also as booty. Then the two
women who met Anlugbua arrived with the news.
The news of the coming of Anlugbua, their ancestral
father was welcome with much delight and they
immediately braced up, calling on other women who
already had reclined behind in their hiding places to
join them to confront the soldier. The coming of
Anlugbua suggested the intervention of the gods.
The women were soon disappointed when they got
the whole news that Anlugbau himself conceded to
defeat and had returned back to heaven as a helpless
victim.
Hearing this disheartening tale, they were
encouraged themselves to be prepared for a life in
slavery. So they danced on to the dirge the chorus
raised.
Scene 3
Lawumi appeared to Anlugbua you still remained at
the spot where he appeared to the two women of
Owu brooding over the destruction of beloved his
city. He made to move away from Lawunmi who he
knew was responsible for the act. Lawumi did not
deny but persuaded Anlugbua to wait to hear her
reason for allowing it. The meeting finally turned into
a historical discourse over what was responsible for
the fall of the Owu Kingdom.
Lawumi explained that she incited and edged the
allied forces on to perpetuate the destructive war
because of Owu Iponle's arrogance against her and
Ife which was the origin of the city of Owu. She went
into the account of the sins of the Owu in the past
how they started the fire: Owu's early attack on Ife
and Ijebu traders at the Apomu Market.
Owu Iponle held the belief that they were the
superior kingdom amongst all the seven Yoruba
kingdoms. That was one of the allegations Lawumi
leveled against them.
Owu, though founded by Oba Asunkungbade, was
founded on the help and blessings of Ife.
Asunkungbade was then a priest who married
Lawunmi, an Ife princess; and for this Lawunmi's
father agreed to crown him king. Thus Owu Iponle
became one of the seven kingdoms of Yoruba.
Owu prospered in the couse of time and became a
very formidable city and was very prosperous. One of
the reasons for Owu's prosperity was the slave trade.
It was an act that violated the law Sango amongst all
the Yoruba kingdoms. Sango had decreed that no
Yoruma should sell other Yoruba into slavery. Thus,
Ife attacked Owu at the Apomu Market which served
the Owu Kingdom as her slave market. It was the
source of Owu Iponle's prosperity.
Owu sent his army against Ife and raised it down,
reducing it to dust to retaliate the earlier Ife attack.
These are the details Lawumi gave for the dreadful
attack the allied forces made on the city of Owu
Iponle. She also was determined to punish the allied
forces because of their disregards for not sparing
those who ran into her groove for refuge and for
desecrating the sacred places as well as defiling
Orisaye who was Obatala's vestal votary.
For thes she persuaded Anlugbua to team up with
her in meting out the punishment. She informed him
that Esu, Orisa Oko and Ogun had already promised
to lend helping hands too.
Scene 4
Gesinde, an Ijebu officer and the herald to the allied
forces came just as the women had anticipated to
relay the decision of te generals to Erelu Afin.
Gesinde had since been known to the Owu Kingdom
being the one who had served as the go-between
who took the generals' messages to the Owu from
the day the kingdom was besieged.
Seeing him, Erelu knew he had not come with good
news. As far as her memory could recall, she cannot
point to a particular time he had borne a single good
tiding. So she asked him to relay his order. Gesinde's
order was simple: the women should prepare
because they would soon be shared out to their
'future masters'. He was furious when a woman
asked if the sharing would be 'separately or together'.
By this response he confirmed their fear that there
would be no preference for none of them no matter
the status. He added that he would be taking Orisaye
to Balogun Kusa who had requested that she should
be added to his harem.
Balogun Kusa did ask for Orisaye because he realised
she was a virgin, having been betrothed to Obatala,
the god of purity and creativity, since birth.
When she could no longer protest what the generals
had decided about her daughter Orisaye, Erelu asked
him what their decision is about Adeoti, another
daughter of hers. Gesinde hesitated at first, finding it
her to tell but when he found his tongue said Adeoti
had been sent to a place 'where pain can no longer
reach her'. Although Erelu could not decipher the
whole truth of her daughter's whereabouts, she knew
this officer was hiding something important from
her.
She further probed what was decided for Kesobo,
whose husband, Sakula, died while defending the
city, and Iyunloye who was the actual cause of the
war.
As for Keosbo, she would be given to Otunba Lekki,
the general who killed her husband. Iyunloye's fate
would be announced at a later time at the arrival of
Maye Okunade, Iyunade's wronged husband. He
added that Okunade would soon be with them.
Erelu persisted at least she needed to know that had
been determined for her. To her utter dismay, it was
Balogun Derin who asked that she be allocated to
him. She lamented what her fate would be in the
house of the man she knew as a dog and a double-
dealing liar.
Having heard all and no mention of their case was
hinted, a woman in the chorus enquired what the
generals decided. She was hushed and told that
commoners like them would be visited after the fate
of the royal line is sorted out.
Gesinde then ordered one of the soldiers who were
waiting on him to fetch Orisaye whom her new
master had asked to be brought to his camp
immediately. He was stopped at the sight of fire and
warned the women against any attempt to commit
suicide.
Erelu seeing how Gesinde jittered scolded him for
being frightened at the sight of Orisaye running
around with a torch. She explained that such display
was the impact of shock she experienced through the
war that ravaged the city.
Orisaye, who was deranged, emerged with the torch
in her hand and pleaded that no one should take it
away but should get his instead. She already knew
what the generals decided and so began to tell them
what the torch was meant for. She knelt before her
mother to ask to stop crying for her and beg for the
mother's blessing.
In her ranting she declared what fate awaited her
prospective husband and her own end. Her ranting
which she claimed are revelations shown to her by
Obatala was dismissed as incoherent babbling and
futile prophecies on unsound lips.
Gesinde at last began to deride the prophecy,
imagining how Balogun Kusa who was revered and
feared from Nupe Kingdom down to the Dahomey
Kingdom could be smitten by a mad woman; and
wonder how the general could stoop to ask for a lady
who is known to all as unsound mind when there was
a bee-hive of beautiful ladies would be glad to marry
him.
As he made to take Orisaye away, he notify Erelu that
it would soon be her turn soon as Balogun Derin is
ready to set out. Orisaye was furious at the news of
her mother becoming a slave to Balogun Derin's wife
as declared by Gesinde. She cursed Gesinde for
uttering such bad statement. She announced to him
that her mother would die on Owu's soil rather than
being taken away as a slave. Gesinde asked her how
Erelu would die since he was ready to prevent
anyone attempting suicide. Orisaye in her right chose
to keep her response as a secret not meant for the
ears of an enemy.
Instead she declared that Balogun Derin whose
homeland was just three weeks away from Owu
would wander for seventeen years in suffering,
anguish and fighting without respite before reaching
it.
Orisaye danced as she was being led away. Erelu,
unable to bear this, fainted. The women rushed to
help her. When she came to, she was mad with them
for rescuing her from the claws of death; and
rebuked the woman who suggested they call on the
gods for help. She shifted the blame of it all on the
gods for being silent in times like this.
They remembered what state they were in the
previous day, that is, a day before the annihilation;
how the whole streets of Owu were thrown into
jubilation when they thought the invaders had left the
city gates, seeing they all had deserted their camps,
no smoke, or movement was perceived and no horse
in sight. This departure of the allied forces marked
the beginning of a new life for the city besieged for
seven years.
What the people of Owu thought was the end of
famine and travailed soon became a bloodbath. First,
arrows bearing torches were fired into the city. The
thatches of the roofs caught fire. In a twinkling of an
eye, the whole city was on fire and everyone began to
scurry for safety.
To be comtinued...
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