Henry Akubuiro
A Time of Troubles, Oladele Olusanya, Xlibris, USA, 2018, pp. 367
I was swept off my feet after reading Oladele Olusanya’s Gods and Heroes, the first in the Itan — Legends of the Golden Age trilogy, a historical fiction that depicts the matrix of the Yoruba nation and the founding of its city-states. This new work, A Time of Troubles, is the second novel in this definitive trilogy, set in the 19th century to the middle of the 20th century, immersing us in the socio-political convulsions of that age.
In A Time of Troubles, Olusanya adroitly combines the art of historian and storyteller. His descriptions of how Lagos became a Colony of Britain in 1861 and how the British imposed a Protectorate over Yorubaland and the rest of Nigeria in the last years of the nineteenth century were exceptional pieces of prose and well researched history.
Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God chronicle the disruption of communal life and social fabric with the coming of Europeans in Igboland, leading to a clash of cultures. This clash is also evident in Olusanya’s A Times of Troubles. But the younger writer limns more heroic characters and a broader range of history in his historical novel. Needless to say, he recreates the Yoruba past, outlandish like no other in recent times, using iconic warriors as the fulcrum of the plot.
In this intervening period of strife among the Yoruba city-states, as detailed in the book, there is also colonial adventurism on the part of the British, who uproot the status quo, amid a formidable resistance by the natives.
Just like in Book 1, the intriguing tales here are recounted by Old Woman. The battles recorded in this books are not fiction. They actually happened in real life. These include the Battle of Osogbo, the destruction of Owu, the routing of Kurunmi of Ijaiye, the Kiriji War, the Battle of Imagbon, etcetera.
Beginning from where Gods and Heroes stopped, the narrator recounts: “As the Empire of Alaafin disintegrates, many Yoruba city-states followed the examples of Ilorin and declared their independence from Oyo… It was a time of anomy and civil dislocation throughout Yorubaland” (p. 3).
At this point in history, wars were fought to capture and sell slaves to white slave-merchants and no longer for ethnic pride or political alliance. The book takes us straight to the heart of a slave raid at Itanku village by a group of war boys from Ibadan, leaving a trail of destruction and anguish. The surviving captives, after a long trek, overseen by overzealous subalterns, reach the coast of Badagry in 1845.
Odumosu is one of the interesting characters that teem this work. At fifteen, we see him ferrying traders across the Ijebu-Lagos waterways to earn a living, but he is captured by slave raiders one day. Save for a British naval vessel on patrol, HMS Bournemouth, that intercepted the boat taking him and others to a slave ship, he wouldn’t have recorded the successes associated with him later in life when he becomes a business czar in Lagos and an ally of the British to root out slavery in Lagos and Ijebuland. His partnership with Madam Tinubu, aka Efunporoye, turns out to be a most rewarding experience.
Olusanya’s novel highlights the power play in Lagos with the deposing of Oba Akitoye by Oba Kosoko, who is later vanquished by the British in 1851 in an unprecedented show of power. Colonialism is now in full swing in Lagos. The bonding of the Saro, the Brazilian emigres and the educated Lagos elite in the new cosmopolitan Lagos adds zest to city life.
Away from the city, Olusanya returns the narrative to a bucolic setting. Through Osogbesan, an old Oyo Empire warrior, young Solaru learns the deeds of bravado of his people. This buttresses the relevance of oral tradition in the age of illiteracy. Solaru is, thus, inspired to become a warrior.
In Book 1, we saw the Fulani invasion of Ilorin. We see them once again attack the nearby Yoruba city-state of Osogbo in this new book. But, with the aid of Ibadan warriors, of which Solaru is part of, the dreaded Fulani army is humbled, Solaru earning himself a booty — the warhorse Jagun.
We follow the trail of Solaru as he flees Ibadan with his wife, Aarin — following the death of Mufu, his rival, during a failed reprisal attack by the latter —to Ikenne, where he becomes a successful farmer.
As the spirit of anomy hovers over Yorubaland, the author introduces Solesi, the drummer boy and war-boy from Ikenne, who holds his own in the Iperu War. We also see Pettiford, the black American former slave, fighting for Egbas against the Ibadan and Remo armies and wrecking havoc. Young Solesi is taken to safety to Ibadan where he is adopted by Ogunmola, the warlord. He returns many years later to Ikenne a hero. He grows old to see the old ways of his people pass away, with white men from Ibadan and Lagos introducing a system of administration, alien religion and culture, which traditionalists, like members of ogboni and osugbo cult groups, find hard to take in Yorubaland.
The unending wars in Yorubaland continue as strife returns to Ijebu. The Ibadan adversaries are at it again. The Ijebus will square up later with the British army from Lagos led by Colonel Scott, with Captain Campbell deploying the dreaded Maxim to massacre the belligerent Ijebus. Odusanya, aged sixteen, happens to be one of the survivors of that forgettable 1892 annihilation. With that comes a new order in Ijebuland as the British impose their administrative institutions and religion on the people with a treaty that now controls the entire Yorubaland. The last of the warriors, Odusanya dies of diabetes in 1954, a Christian.
This gripping story by Olusanya is embellished with traditional Yoruba poems and illustrations done by the author himself and Dipo Alao. This book, like Book 1, is issued by Xlibris and available in hardcover, softcover and e-book from Amazon and other online booksellers.