In a season, and better, in an age when more than the majority of our compatriots do not have the wherewithal that would enable them to eke out a living one cannot – and could not – be surprised that they will not – and would not – have no mango to suck and bite – as the gleaner-glimpser-glitterer has just indicated without qualms.

In dwelling on Olu Obafemi’s mango vision and mango world from which the former was/is derived, the point – being made is not in any way insignificant when viewed side-by-side our pre-eminent subject’s notion of art and of humanity.

Indeed, Professor Emeritus Obafemi’s notion of art or of humanity is amazing at least on account of its unique and most strikingly mango flowering and quality to satisfy his human interest – and that of the masses who, unfortunately, cannot – and could not – suck and bite, and bite and suck, the mango of life or of existence.

In a word, Obafemi’s mango world is one in which he enjoys the most striking and the most stupendous of pleasures relating to his art he employs qualitatively on behalf of us all, but more buoyantly on behalf of the people whose suffering he truthfully espouses and propagates. His execution of this gives him mango joy – and torment – at the same time that contrasts and tends to vulgarise his aesthetic vision.

The idea begging for more open or more visible illustration here pertains to the logic of the vulgarisation of his juicy joy by the actions and tastes of men who hold sway authoritatively outside the temple of the being-ness of the mango vine and its fruity fruit – which the powerful outside forces want to control and enjoy. Their taste buds and hearts, however, are dead to the conditions and concepts of the art of goodness which politics, vulgar or vulgarised politics, tends to annihilate.

Obafemi gives deep thought to this and responds with what the gleaner-glimpser-glitterer will juicily call here his theology of drama and of poetry – what might be called or referred to here as a positive theology, a positive moral drama or a positive moral poetry – which constitutes his pure mango art, which dwells extensively in any categorisation of our mango artist’s social commitment that promotes patriotic interests that broaden his mango vision.

The mango value of Obafemi’s art would seem to demand that his art, the being-ness of his creation or created-ness should be evaluated for its digestive juices physiologically, nutritionally, spiritually, materially or symbolically or/and un-symbolically. The evaluation would demand stirring contemplation and a kind of photographic explication, a kind of explication detexte, as the French reader, critic and writer would put it, for the purpose of establishing evidence for historical cultural, social and political occurrences that the mango of our subject’s thoughts underlines – or seems – to underline as the hallmark of the truth of his creative logic and beauty – reserved for his aesthetics – discernible in the expertness of his poetry, in the art of his poetry, that is.

A further reference to Mabel Evwierhoma, whose words have already been quoted, is apposite here. In her referred-to essay, this writer-critic talks about the historical interpretation of Obafemi’s drama – that is, about the interpretation of the plays in their feminist, social, communal, cultural, economic, productive and political aspects. But she particularly and comprehensively dwells on Pestle on Mortar whose significance, at least from the perspective of this gleaner- glimpser, is in the manner the playwright executes, highly symbolically, the conscious edifying concern of the play. Let me quote a portion of Evwierhoma’s essay somewhat extensively:

“A Pestle on Mortar denotes a context of idleness, rest, or accomplished tasks after work is executed……
Obafemi’s play takes a title from the woman’s domain or a domestic ground where the kitchen features. The cover blurb of the play informs the reader of the material and symbolic context of wood or its products as a crucial device. The pestle is the crusher, and the mortar is the receptacle of the matter to be crushed. Both need to be strong and not easily worn out, given the dependence on it, by humanity. This writer is witness to mortars and pestles that have inter-generational status and crossed many mother-daughter and mother-in-law and daughter-in-law generations, having tales of forebears and successors to narrate. She can also buttress the fact that the pestle is many a woman’s instrument of household or conjugal attack and defence, a post-feminist approach to household and relational ethos.”

This gleaner-glimpser-glitterer, as detached observer, would like to remark very urgently that Mabel Evwierhoma (FANA;FNAL), who is seemingly an un-detached feminist/post-feminist observer must have found much to admire and wonder at in her discussion of Obafemi’s evaluative handling of the playwright’s political emotion – and the two-in-one symbol of the Pestle-on-Mortar’s poetically musical noise – which requires emphasis.

As Andre Breton (1898-1966), French poet and art critic famously said, “The work of art is valuable only insofar as it is vibrated by the reflexes of the future.” Pestle on Mortar which Obafemi wrote in 1974 is more than valuable to me, the playwright and worthy critics and writers such as the present penner today. The play’s 1974 reflexes are being urgently and significantly vibrated now that was the future of 1974. In my re-reading and re-reading of Pestle on Mortar I have seen what I have called Obafemi’s mango vision in his mango world.
To be continued.
Afejuku can be reached via 08155213059.