By Simeon Mpamugoh
Oba M’oro – Ghost Catcher King is the title of the folk opera, a historical play written and produced by Ladepo Duro-Ladipo, heir to the legacies of the renowned dramatist Duro Ladipo.
The operatic performance of the stage drama took place recently in Ilorin, Kwara State. It is a story of the Yoruba during the reign of Abiipa who succeeded Alaafin Ajiboyede.
Set on Oyo Ajaka, the old Oyo Empire before the Yoruba got to Oyo-Ile, the present day Oyo, the play captures the reign of Abiipa who became the Alaafin of Oyo. The era saw the Yoruba in a stopover site in Oyo Ajaka where they were attacked by the Ibaribas which forced their exodus to their permanent homeland in the present day Oyo, (Oyo-Ile).
The play denotes Israelites kind of journey in the Bible as it celebrates the exodus of the Yoruba from one settlement to another before they anchored on Oyo-Ile, their permanent homeland. It demonstrates the era of Alaafin Ajiboyede who was on the throne and how he had wanted to relocate his people to their original homeland called Oyo Igboho but the dream was aborted by his death. Not distraught, his son and heir to the throne of Abiipa was determined to fulfil his father’s wishes in the play which was characterised by conflicts and oppositions from his chiefs (Oyo Mesi) to be led by the second in command Alaapini who conspired against him.
In the play watched by audiences from all walks of life, the reviewer notes that Abiipa’s second in command Alaapini ensures that he (Abiipa) does not fulfil the wishes of his father as later observed from the grapevines which was corroborated by his forefathers, the real owners of Oyo Igboho. He alleges that it was Abiipa’s father that killed his forefather because of the land.
For him (Alaapini), it was time for revenge on what his father did to his family, so he mutineers the conspiracy to frustrates the efforts of the new Alaafin to fulfilling his father’s dream.
Laced with intrigues, conflicts, oppositions, and large orchestra, the play which boast of seven scenes signposts the audience to the first attempts at the relocation bid where they paid homage to the Oracle who ordered a sacrifice to be performed at the entrance of Oyo Igboho so that the gods can be appeased to guarantee them smooth movement to the land. But this was met with resistance from the Mutineer-In-Chief Alaapini who led other chiefs (Oyo Mesi) to plant false ghosts (demons), and organized some hoodlums in the Igboho forest called Oro, (ghosts) to scare them away.
Like Pharaoh in the Bible, Abiipa played by Kolade Ezekiel threw the first sacrificial snake but Alaapini’s ghosts appeared to them and beat them up, letting them know that the sacrifice is not acceptable because Igboho is a sacred land that inhabits all the demons and belongs to them. As a result, many of them became scared. It turned out a huge problem for Alaafin Abiipa who did not know that those orchestrating the falsehood were members of his households who he confides in and plans everything together with. At the end of the day, the scene reveals how Abiipa’s effort and attempt were frustrated by Alaapini.
The cotton opens where the chief priest consulted the Oracle who revealed that the people in the Igboho forest were not really demons but those the King never expected will pose a problem to his wishes. “They plan and assist you in palace adminstration, eat and drink with you, they pretended they were supporting you yet they were the same people who planted the hoodlums and ghosts. They are backbiters, backstabbers and hypocrites”, the chief priest reasoned. At this juncture, Alaafin Abiipa was shocked at the revelation to the bone marrow but decides to keep everything secret and close to his chest.
Enter the scene of the intrigues as Alaafin Abiipa goes for the meat of the story. He and the Chief Priest went for the machineries of warriors from another town. With financial motivation doled out, he sent them to Igboho forest and they captured all the ghosts and brought them to the king who interrogated them. It was during the interrogation they discovered that Alaapini and his chiefs, four of them out of six in number, were the ones literarily putting the spanner in his wheel of progress. The other two who didn’t participate were rewarded with promotion. But what was the declaration of the Alaafin to his errant second in command and his chiefs? He ordered that all of them be imprisoned and the demons beheaded. He also called on their extended families to leave the town thus denying them access to the new town, Oyo Igboho.
Reflecting on the play to the contemporary society – which has been transformed into bilingual texts for global appeal – Ladepo Duro Ladipo, a University of Ilorin performance arts graduate and one of those at the vanguard of the return to the stage said. “In the present day society, our people have not realized the resources therein in our history: that there is nothing new again. If we really want to move into the future, we must see it from the past.
“The people like Alaapini in the live performance and the chiefs are still very much around in our society especially in leadership. They are motivated by greed and avarice and dishonesty such that what they are after is their own pockets. We are seeing a kind of replica of the characters of the people that are our leaders in the historical play.
“We have many of them present in our society. So this is a reflection of what has happened in the past and for any society to move forward, it must look at the past, learn from it so that it will guide her to move forward, especially in our leadership space. Thematics as relevant to today’s Nigerian society include:
Betrayal of trust, bribery and corruption, treason, greed and avarice, as well as evil and wickedness.
“The chiefs in the stage play represent our today’s senators, members of the House of Representatives and the ministers while the Oba (King) represents our President. And if we can revisit our past, we will be able to learn that those national characters: dubious, corrupt, and fighting and stealing government money are not different from the dramatists in the play.”
On the next city the stage will be moving to, Ladipo replies “we are planning talk with Bolanle Austin Peters of Terra Kulture because of her passion for classic and traditional play. She produced the musical dance drama Moremi and Oba M’oro is also musical. So the next shot at the play would be at Terra Kulture, Lagos.
Meanwhile the title Oba M’oro – Ghost Catcher King faces huge challenge of large cast and crew members that bringing it on stage, the producers will require a fat budget. But who will bail out the cat in the harsh economic situation of Nigeria where sponsors are lacking? The answer is waiting in the wind. Nonetheless, the stage play is a fitting entry for global theatre festivals. On the whole, the play deconstructs leadership in Nigeria where corrupt officials are not punished.