Psychopaths in power: the collapse of the African dream in A Play of Giants

OLUSEGUN ADEKOYA

A critical investigation of Wole Soyinka's A Play of Giants (1984), this chapter discusses what the playwright himself calls the 'Aminian theme', that is, African leaders' obsession with power, a seductive drive that breeds moral corruption, dictatorship, delusions, economic distortions and ruination, megalomania, perversion and desecration of all that is good in African traditions. The problem leads to the evaporation of all dreams of greatness, nationalism, liberation from colonial thraldom, disease, ignorance and poverty, and of pan-Africanism nursed in the heady days of independence celebrations. The four despots caricatured in the play are Field-Marshal Kamini (late Idi Amin, deposed President of Uganda), Emperor Kasco (Jean-Bedel Bokassa, former Emperor of the Central African Republic), Benefacio Gunema (late President Macias Nguema of Equatorial Guinea) and General Barra Tuboum (late President Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo).

Although in real life the four giants have been removed from office and divested of power, either forcibly and ignominiously by rebels or naturally by the inexorable force of senescence and death, the ravages of their misrule and profligacy are still felt by the beleaguered peoples of their respective countries. The economies remain in the doldrums and ethnic conflicts generated by suspicion of political marginalization and military coups continue to cause confusion and social upheaval and destabilize the polity. Thus, A Play of Giants is still of immediate sociopolitical relevance to African peoples. Besides, some of the countries are still struggling to throw off the yoke of military dictatorship and establish democratic rule, while others already on the road of democracy are yet to assimilate its principles and live the culture.

In discussing the topic, this chapter examines such elements of drama as setting, plot, action, character and language, which are used by the playwright to elicit the sordid dimensions of despotism in the African political landscape. Dramaturgic devices employed by the author to signify the horrors of despotism are highlighted and discussed.

The 'giants' are in New York to attend the General Assembly of the United Nations. In response to the request of the organization's Secretary-General for a representative work of art from each member nation, say, a miniaturized bust of the president, they sit for a life-size group sculpture, at Kamini's suggestion, in what appears to be a vivid demonstration of the old African spirit of communalism but which, as events later show, is its outright bastardization. In reality, the suggestion stems from Kamini's megalomania. While seated, they engage in grim banter on the nature and dynamics of power, its privileges and trappings, and its specific manifestations in the countries over which they rule with a rod of iron.

A Play of Giants is set in the Bugaran Embassy in New York City. Its balcony adorned with framed portraits, its gold-gilt railings and the heavy throne-like chairs on which the giants sit for the sculptor reek of grandeur, opulence and power, and simultaneously reveal Kamini's megalomania. A prodigal president, Kamini has wasted the material resources of his country on frivolities and inanities and crashed the economy, which explains why he has brought with him the Chairman of the Bugaran Central Bank, to negotiate a World Bank loan of two hundred million dollars. Like the giants, the embassy looks full and gorgeous from the outside but is hollow and rotten within. For instance, the telex has been cut off because the embassy lacks funds to settle its bills. The playwright uses irony to punch holes in the grandiose edifice, which is emblematic of the giants' self-aggrandizement. Kamini appropriates and disposes of Bugara as if it is his private property. He tells Professor Batey, one of his African American admirers: 'This embassy is your own home. You must use it as if it is your own home. Madame Ambassador, I hope you are taking good notice. I want Professor Batey to have everything he wants anytime day and night' (p. 42). Thus, the setting reveals African leaders' profligacy and mismanagement of resources, which ensures the continued economic retardation of the continent.

The opening scene portrays the giants as ceremonial fops and stupid megalomaniacs whose lust for power is repulsive. The characters are placed on three levels of power: the reigning giants occupy the highest level; Gudrum, the Scandinavian journalist, is located on the middle level; while Sculptor, who has been hired from Madame Tussaud's in London, operates at the lowest level. A perfect representation of three-tiered capitalist society, the gradation approximates the amount of freedom and political power enjoyed and exercised respectively by the characters in the play. Inverted, the order depicts their different degrees of intellectual perspicacity and moral probity. Sculptor in this respect is the most perceptive and sensitive of the lot, while the ruling giants, the wreckers of the work of the earth's toilers, are the most depraved. A representative of the perpetually wavering middle class, Gudrum veers between sheer ignorance of Africa and dubious knowledge oriented towards promotion of self. She, too, like the giants, cuts an obscene and repulsive figure. Soyinka's sympathies no doubt lie with the workers, represented by Sculptor, whose labour in fact builds the world. Kamini's huge military dress uniform is covered with medals. In contrast, Kasco is dwarfish but is equally adorned with showy medals and, to boot, he wears a cloak of imperial purple, though his size somewhat deflates his ballooned ego and status. Gunema is in tails of immaculate cut. His decorations consist of a red sash and blue rosette and a couple of medals. Their heavy throne-like chairs are awe-inducing and show them to be monomaniacs who ape God.

There is good use of colour symbolism in the tableau. Yellow (the gold-gilt balcony railing) symbolizes opulence, purple (Kasco's cloak) royalty, red (Gunema's sash) danger and mysticism, and blue (Gunema's rosette) nobility. The life-size group sculpture is a graphic and symbolic representation of the play and...