The Sympathetic Undertakers and Tam Oburumu's Haters
I have a recourse to review the 1991 satirical prose of Biyi Bandele-Thomas's classic " The Sympathetic Undertakers and Other Dreams".An inspiration to my yet to be published novel " The Satanic Angels and Other Satires".
Biyi took me to a tempestous journey beyond the conventional metaphysics of prose to the self consciousness rejuvenating the mind towards dictatorial independence.
The privilege of having my fresh hands upon this literary monument came during my days at the higher institution in 2003. From an academic recommendation, the novel swiftly became my personally academized religious 'BibleQuran' in the struggle against bad leadership in Africa.
The testimonies Biyi Bandele brought beneath the squelchy feet for African commoners,particularly writers like me, who are bearing the brunt of educational decline and moral decadence, are soothing despite the clear mockery the book lashed on the incompetent Nigerian military and political leadership. A leadership mirrored by tyrants in khaki and mufties without an understanding of the concept of democracy.
Rayo, the protagonist of Biyi Bandele"s Zowabia, the fictional country in sub-Saharan Africa represents the other side of persons whose stand for truth and creativity are mistaken as pride or arrogance, thereby become the victims in a society they so pledged to redeem. They are hated, attacked and discriminated by same people they set to free from mental bondage while the oppressors walk around with stolen pubic funds with accolades! This is the real scenario of present day Nigeria. A country of devilish leaders and stupid followers whose mental rancidity has gone above medical clue.
This Biyi Bandele's satire ironically compares the horror I have to see in Nigeria of today and the shameful history that trails Its ugly past. It's an edited history stained by the remorseless ,cunning, dubious and divisional instincts of religion, ethnicity and barbarity .
The plot, though hilariously represented but fearlessly frown at the brutes and dead-brains we have today as political leaders. It juxtaposes the craze for illegal wealth and adverse effects of such deformities on the society. This is also what's playing out in today's messy Nigeria where her youths have become fraudsters, leaders fraudsters, followers fraudsters .A disturbing trend with a gloomy future if things are not corrected.
Tere is a negative character in Bandele's creation , who unfortunately symbolizes today's ladies in contemporary Nigeria. She dated two brothers with different traits damming the consequences through her own advantages she established as a perfect seductress. She is driven by fame, wealth and prosmicuity to seduce her romantic victims. Tere is the connotation of multiple Nigerian ladies.
I have read many satires but Bandele's bravery in telling the Nigeria tragic story in a comic narrative is breathtaking. The representation of the average Nigerian man who is black-veiled by cultural or traditional redundancy . A verve stagnation, sometimes a backslide to the premodial age. There is no improvement in the African man, particularly the Nigerian man whose domineering ego over the female folk has locked his psyche in the cage of primitivity and incompetence.
There is sheerly no productivity in a nation with such characteristics outlined in " Sympathetic Undertakers and Other Dreams ". This is the reflection of Zowabia, the shadow of Nigeria. This is why Tam Oburumu is hated by the devils in Bomadi constituency. That's why those who fight for freedom is hated,victimized and incarcerated in this nightmare, people call Nigeria. This is way Nigeria is being managed by proponents of corruption, nepotism, ethnicity, mediocrity and religious dogmatism. This is why every sector of the country is dead. From education to electricity, health, infrastructure ,to the economy is dead. This is why nothing good will come out of this country until we make things right.
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