Clearly, in line with his mango vision, there are several other very useful things that this gleaner and glimpser-glitterer might say about Pestle on the Mortar, but he will not dwell on them extensively. He can only touch them, one or two of them, as he moves to other aspects of the magnificent mango mind of the magnificent man. His artistic prerogative which is his artistic sense which is situated where his mango vision is situated tends to underline this obvious truth, to wit: “The deepest quality of a work of art will always be the quality of the mind of the producer.” Henry James (1843-1916), American-French-British novelist and theorist, said this long ago.
We do not need to debate this truism with respect to Olu Obafemi’s literary engagement as a playwright and dramatist or as a poet of a truly mango quality – which his moral passion in a large degree addresses – as I have discovered in a truly admirable way.
Olu Obafemi’s characters in Pestle on the Mortar do not turn their heads or the readers’ heads away from the truth of things – or away from the reality of things – about our polity. In whatever manner or guise they are drawn they give the impression of life as we see it, and the manner of seeing it and feeling it enjoyably as we enjoy mango juice as their created creator created them as he pondered and pondered in his mango world from where he flew and winged them to us who love to inhabit here and there where he has set up for us his art of mango delicacy. I should not overstate my deservedly enjoyable critical reading or remind my readers here and now – theoretically speaking – of the magnificence of our artist’s matter-form or form-matter through which we can make a detour “through other current thing-concepts”, to borrow Martin Heidegger’s words, to rejoice in what I am rejoicing in.
Olu Obafemi’s spectacular matter-form dramatically and poetically will promote a lasting interest in the play. In fact, its receptivity will ceaselessly benefit new art forms. The pictures it generates will captivate readers and an assembled audience of every generation.
Now the gleaner-glimpser-glitterer cannot but remark as follows in the form of a question: Did Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan ever read Pestle on the Mortar before she forayed into politics in Kogi State which is also the State of the author of this mango play? As already rightly indicated, the play was written and issued to the public in 1974. Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, who was born on December 09, 1979, clearly five years after the play’s birth, could not have had a juicy whiff of the play – until perhaps when she was near her last year(s) in secondary school or thereafter.
Why this reference to Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan in this discourse, and how relevant is it to our reading, interpretation and aspects of the public meaning of the play? She is easily today the generally accepted heroine in any discussion of the politics of Kogi State. She is also today the obviously popular heroine in the Nigerian Senate and in the National Assembly as a whole. Rightly or wrongly, she is the storm petrol, a positive one, in our national politics. Through the communal histories, juicily preserved records of the joys and griefs of cultural as well as historical, political and hypocritical characters, Olu Obafemi efficiently reveals the shadowing forth of wisdom Pestle on the Mortar holds for readers and the assembled audience – that Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan must have been part of – when the play had begun to create its significant mango public over the years.
If my critical presumption is not wrong in its entirety, there can be no doubt that the characters in the play in various guises – symbolically and unsymbolically – show that emotion, that political emotion, that Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan reflects upon and which ought to be a thing to be reflected upon rather than to be communicated to a sympathetic reader and audience in our country of ever fresh disorder. Pestle on the Mortar is a philosophical, poetic and developmental-oriented play which should be read – or ought to be read – as a meaningful and purposeful play about Olu Obafemi’s mango vision and mango world which he envisions for us. He employs what appeals to me as his mango rhetoric, ornament, form, including songs, not simply to un-conceal his passionate mango disgust for loathsome man in power of any kind but to point inwards at meanings to uplift humanity in a world that will perish without art, the kind that Olu Obafemi’s admirable quality of mind juicily contains and juicily sets forth. The end of Pestle on the Mortar is gripping in line with the mango playwright’s mango vision. But I will not quote it here. Allow me this freedom which is my splendid mango privilege.
Against my wish, I am coming to the end of this discourse which I should conclude with further mango references and illustrations – including those from select readers – literary gems who are literary gems of the first order – who shall join this glimpser-gleaner-glitterer to speak thus to enjoyers (and unenjoyers – if they exist) of this column: try and catch the colour of Olu Obafemi’s mango vision and mango world as we have tried – or as we have been trying – to define and plant them freshly, juicily and flourishingly in your modern artistic consciousness.
To be concluded.
Afejuku can be reached via 08055213059.
