The Strange Behaviour of Bronze

Chuma Nwokolo, Jr.

(excerpt from a play in two Acts)

Characters

SORAMO Middle-aged influential woman leader
TANDU Intense 23-year old man, son of Agidi, skilled okwe player
AJILO Young schemer, he bears Agidi a grudge for the death of his brother.
WONODU Near-blind merchant and wheeler-dealer
AGIDI Strong man and champion of Ikenga.
GOGO Ghost of Agidi’s Widow.
OSSY Skilled bronzecaster and smith, previously owner of Gogo
NTUA Friend of Ajilo and ambitious young villager
EZAMA Priestly high chief of Carcasus
OLD WOMAN Ghostly mother of Ajilo. Bears Agidi a grudge for death of her son.
KADIBIA Elderly villager who becomes chief in place of Agidi
ANENE One of Agidi’s twin sons and younger brother of Tandu
NKOMA One of Agidi’s twin sons and younger brother of Tandu
ZOMIRI Wrestler who challenges Agidi to a duel.
TATA Young male villager
ALAM Young male villager

ACT ONE:

SCENE ONE

Darkness. Spotlight on old SORAMO [gray wig, stoop, quavering voice] downstage
right. She sits with small ‘blackboard’ of goatskin stretched on a frame, on which is
written characters in an alien script. She addresses audience as pupils and fans
herself briefly.

SORAMO. It grows hot - but we must finish your history lesson. Raise the
window cloth, Akpata. And Udo, do sit still and stop fidgeting. Now,
where were we? (Points stick at the board and interprets script) ‘The
History of Bronze’. The first life-size bronze statue in all the world was
Gogo’s Bronze, and it was built here…
CHILD V.O: In all which world, Ma?
SORAMO: (severely) In all the world. And it was built right here in Ikenga.
Now pay attention, children, no backtalk now. (singsong) Bronze is
made from copper and tin.
Copper and tin to make your hoes.
Copper and tin to make your spears.
Copper and tin to make your gods...
but, copper and tin to make Gogo?
Now that was something new… (Light dims and flicker, she peers
into audience, her voice fades as the light fades. ) Akpata! Are you
dozing again? (Total darkness) Akpata!

SCENE TWO

Dark night. AGIDI’S courtyard. Sound of tokens falling into okwe. A minute passes.
Two spotlights slowly emerge. Light one: man-sized wooden box upstage centre with
carved panels. Near box, a raised clay bed. On walls, fierce masks, and a sword in a
scabbard. A masculine space demarcated by a line of shrubs and a tree stump.
Light two: AGIDI and TANDU, downstage left. They sit facing themselves on a small
bench; between them, an okwe board game. They play passionately.
AGIDI: You didn’t see that coming, eh kwa? Hit that drum again!
TANDU: Agidi!
AGIDI: That is my name! Your move.
TANDU: About Mama...
AGIDI: (Taps okwe impatiently, rocks tokens in his cupped palm) Your move,
TANDU: (plays) This stump was once her udala tree, I remember its bitter
fruit...
AGIDI: Fifteen years have passed since your abduction, you know,
TANDU: But a day didn’t pass without my thinking of her - and you of course.
Yet, her mementoes-
AGIDI: I hate history.
TANDU: her wall etchings
AGIDI: I don’t like art.
TANDU: ...her beads, her clothes, the yard is purged of her...
AGIDI: Oh! (Claps once, explosively as he loses game. Nods respectfully, he
seems shaken) That’s one game for you and none for me. We’ll play a
second game. You’re good; you’re very good. (They reset tokens for
another game)
TANDU: I had to be. This is how I saved up to buy my freedom: gambling on
games of okwe. (They play) About Mama...
AGIDI: Surely you understand, I’ve had two wives since her. Your move.
TANDU: Was that all she was then? The first of many wives? Mama was a hero!
You know that very well.
AGIDI: (cynically) Of course, eh? My own mother was a saint as well, eh? My
father didn’t think so, but there you are. The different roles of
motherhood and wife can make the same woman monster and saint...
eh kwa?
TANDU: Was that what she was for you then? Monster - and first of many
wives?
AGIDI: She was a great woman as well... I always give her that... three sons
she had for me... eh kwa? Your move,
TANDU: There was a bronze statue of her out here, (waves vaguely to centre
stage) I heard stories of my mother’s bronze statue in my slave days in
Teraka...

AGIDI: You heard stories of your father too, eh?
TANDU: Of course, but...
AGIDI: Hit that drum again!
TANDU: (grudging) Agidi.
AGIDI: (Irritably, deflated) Oh, so her stories count for more? Eh kwa?
TANDU: It’s just that... it was a life-size bronze, they said... the first in all the
world - my own mother... and I never even saw it for myself...
AGIDI: (hotly) You do go on and on, Tandu! (pushes away game board)
Perhaps you’d rather go play with your mother’s precious statue
then?
TANDU: I just asked...
AGIDI: It’s too bad I’m alive and she’s dead - you’d rather have it the other
way eh kwa?
TANDU: No Papa! That’s not it at all! (They play a couple of silent, sullen,
rounds, then, quietly) What happened to the statue, Papa? (Sullen
silence from Agidi. Stubbornly) Papa, what happened to the statue?
AGIDI: (resentfully) They cut it up, eh kwa? Vandals. Ten years ago. They stole
it piece by piece, night after night.
TANDU: (horrified) No

AGIDI: Yes. Copper and tin becomes spear heads - and copper and tin is very
scarce, eh kwa?
TANDU: But... she died for Ikenga’s children... she...
AGIDI: … that was a long time ago – and a bar of bronze can buy a lot of goats
today, eh?
TANDU: But you are Agidi! How dare they do that to Agidi’s wife? (pauses,
plays a turn) Is nothing at all left of her statue?
AGIDI: (offhand) The plinth is somewhere in the banana bush.
TANDU rises, walks out left, sound of thrashing in bushes. He staggers in with a short
plinth and sets it down centre stage. Behind him follows a ghostly, bronzed GOGO
who inspects him curiously, then prowls stage, looking expectantly for her twins, in
vain. She has a white, chalked band across her eyes. Neither man can see her.
TANDU: How did it look Papa, was it a good likeness? Was she standing?
Sitting?
GOGO dusts herself, climbs on plinth, strikes a pose, he turns away.
AGIDI: (studiously does not look.) Your move.
TANDU: returns to game. GOGO stands, sits, stretches, shows signs of boredom.
GOGO: (sings, the men don’t hear)
Did they ask the mother hen
when the eagle swooped,
how her chicks that barely could walk flew and flew and flew?
Did they ask the mother hen
when the eagle swooped…
AGIDI: (suddenly raises hand, whispers,) Listen!
GOGO: (startled, almost scared, stands) You heard me! (Waves) Can you see
me...
TANDU: What? Crickets?
AGIDI: No, footsteps. Shush now.
GOGO is nonplussed. Sits, falls silent. NTUA and AJILO enter and steal across stage to
box. Spotlight dims over AGIDI and TANDU.
NTUA: He’ll kill us, Ajilo.
AJILO: If he ever finds out. Which he won’t. Come, he’ll soon return from the
hunt.
NTUA: What if he finds out?
AJILO: Agidi may be the Lion of Ikenga, but he is not Creator God. He cannot
be here and there at the same time. (Sees Gogo’s plinth) What’s that?
NTUA: Looks like Agidi has brought back the plinth from Gogo’s statue.
AJILO: (sniggers) His conscience must be getting him. Come, Ntua, today, we
discover the secret of his bravery.

NTUA: And the fate of the Ikenga Twelve. (Gets to box, hesitates)
AJILO: (considers) True, he was the last to see all twelve alive, wasn’t he? Go
on, open it up, it is almost dawn!
NTUA: There’s a clay seal on the box… and a…
AJILO: Give way! Clay seals have never stopped me before! (Pushes Ntua
away, addresses box) A thief has to be bold, just like a soldier. We will
break the seal. He will know that someone has been here, but he
won’t know who… (recoils and leaps away from box)
NTUA: What, what? A snake?
AJILO: (trembling) Worse, Ntua, far worse. That’s the mark of Ala! Why didn’t
you tell me there was a curse on the seal? I almost touched the seal!
NTUA: Well, I thought, like soldiers…
AJILO: This is evidence of a major skeleton, Ntua! To break that seal without
the tong that made it invokes the curse of Ala. Why should any honest
man resort to this?
Stage lights. There are green veils above, the colour of Ikenga
AGIDI: (stands) Because of dishonest men like you...(NTUA & AJILO start. they
begin a smart withdrawal. AJILO is sweeping the floor with a foot as he
goes) ...I didn’t lead the hunt today because my son returned, and I
thought...
AJILO: (recovers wits) Oh, the Lion of Ikenga! Ntua! Didn’t I say we shouldn’t
come to sweep the Lion’s compound at this time? Best to pick a time
when he was out, to sweep his comp... (gets far away enough and flees
with NTUA)
AGIDI: (concludes quietly)...and I thought: I’ve led the hunt for thirteen years,
and my son has just returned. Surely, after all that time, a man
deserves to take a break with his son. (broods)
TANDU: (gently) Play, Papa,
AGIDI: (sits, depressed, they play on) I’ve given all my life to Ikenga... fought
her wars... risked my life... honour duels... slave raids... and what
thanks do I get...
TANDU: You did what you had to do Papa.
AGIDI: Yes, I did what I had to do, (gestures in direction of NTUA & AJILO) for
Ingrates: You should pay those fools no mind, town gossips.
TANDU: I know. Play, Papa.