"The gods are not to blame" by Ola Rotimi.

CHARACTERS.

NARRATOR.

KING ADETUSA = the old king of Kutuje.

QUEEN OJUOLA = his wife.

KING ODEWALE = successor to Adetusa. 

ABERO = Odewale's second wife.

ADEROPO = second son of Adetusa and Ojuola. 

OGUN PRIEST.

BABA FAKUNLE = a soothsayer.

BOY = his escort.

FIRST, SECOND and THIRD CHIEFS.

ALAKA = Odewale's boyhood friend.

GBONKA, OLOJO = messengers to Adetusa.

IYA ABURO = a mad woman.

ROYAL BARD.

ADEWALE, ADEBISI, OYEYEMI, ADEYINKA = King Odewale's children. (The ones mentioned first and 3rd are boys, while the other 2 are girls). 

AKILAPA , BOKINI, LABATA, AGIDI = royal bodyguards. 

Townspeople, Drummers, Royal retainers. 

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PROLOGUE: When King Adetusa and Queen Ojuola have their first baby, an Ifa priest (Baba Fakunle) prophesies that the baby will kill his own father and marry his own mother. The baby is given to Gbonka (the king's special messenger) to be taken to the evil grove and killed. Two years later, the king and the queen bear another son, Aderopo ("replacement"). 32 years after that first boy's birth, King Adetusa has met a violent death. Kutuje's neighbours, the people of Ikolu, take advantage of the king's death and attack Kutuje. They kill, seize and enslave many people in Kutuje. 

Odewale , "son of Ogundele from Ijekun Yemoja", hears of their suffering and comes to their aid. He helps them defeat Ikolu into oblivion and is made the king of Kutuje (against their tradition of crowning only natives). He inherits Queen Ojuola (who has 4 children for him). The first 11 years of his reign are blissful.

               ACT 1 

Scene 1: A strange sickness is afflicting and killing many people in Kutuje. While Aderopo is away to Ile-Ife to ask Orunmila the cause of the plague, King Odewale teaches the people how to use herbs. The king also sends Iya Aburo (a lunatic) for treatment and fosters her baby.

Scene 2 : Aderopo delivers the oracle's message, "The land is suffering because King Adetusa's killer is living in peace in your midst!" He offers to bring Baba Fakunle to reveal the killer's identity. Odewale swears by Ogun (the god of iron) to expose the killer, remove his eyes and send him into exile.

         

      ACT 2

 Scene 1 : Aderopo returns with Baba Fakunle (who is now blind). When Baba Fakunle says he has smelt the murderer and turns away without revealing his identity, Odewale accuses him of having been bribed. Baba Fakunle now calls Odewale the murderer and a bedsharer.

Scene 2: Odewale accuses Aderopo of being behind the seer's accusation in order to get the throne from him. Despite all intercessions, he sends Aderopo on exile. ''May my eyes not see Aderopo again till I die!", he swears by Ogun.

Scene 3: Odewale returns from the town to the palace and is greeted by the royal bard.

Scene 4: Odewale refuses to tell Ojuola the cause of his quarrel with Aderopo. He summons the chiefs to a meeting.

            ACT 3 

Scene 1:  

  Alaka, "son of Odediran", Odewale's boyhood friend from Ijekun Yemoja, comes to the palace to see him. "When Odewale left our village 13 years ago, he made me swear not to look for him until both of his parents are dead". Odewale is the "son" of Alaka's master. Odewale tells Alaka," I ran away from Ede (where I said you would find me) because a man died there in my hands. I caught an old man and several other people harvesting yams on my land. He called me a bush man and a thief and told his men (Gbonka and Olojo) to bundle me up. They said the land I bought belongs to the mother of their master. As the other 3 men attacked me, I used incantations to put them to sleep. The old man remained awake and used incantations to get me to drop dead. I used my hoe to strike him dead with a single blow and then ran away from the place in horror. I crossed five rivers before getting to this strange land".

Scene 2: Odewale explains his anger at Aderopo (over Baba Fakunle's comments) to Ojuola. Ojuola said that this same seer : (a) made her kill her first son ; (b) said King Adetusa was killed by one of his own blood. Odewale calls in the chiefs to hear that second part (which seems to vindicate him, as a "stranger" in their midst). The chiefs and Queen Ojuola agree that King Adetusa was killed near Ede (according to an eyewitness account). This reference to Ede makes Odewale uncomfortable (since he also killed a man there) . The eyewitness, Gbonka, is sent for. 

Scene 3: Alaka tells Odewale about his "father's" death in peace. Odewale reveals another past experience. "A man I considered my uncle once called me an impostor. I consulted an oracle which said I would kill my father and marry my mother but said I should stay where I was and not run away. That is why I ran away from home. My father has now died in peace". Alaka now says Ogundele and Mobike are not Odewale's biological parents. Further questioning makes Alaka reveal that he and his master (Ogundele) got Odewale as a baby (wrapped up like a sacrifice to the gods) from Gbonka. Ojuola now knows she has married her son and walks into the bedroom in dismay. 

Scene 4: Gbonka is led into the palace. He doesn't recognise Alaka until Alaka (as a younger man) prods his memory. When Odewale eventually knows his wife is his mother, he goes into the bedroom (where Ojuola has killed herself by pushing a knife into her own womb). Aderopo is sent for and he sees that Odewale has gorged out his own eyes with Ojuola's suicide knife. 

Odewale apologises to Aderopo (who says that is how the gods meant it to happen). Odewale now says," Do not blame the gods. It was my harsh temper that made me kill my father for insulting the tribe I thought was my own. It was that murder that made me run to this land where I married my mother". He tells the chiefs to give Ojuola a befitting burial and then goes into exile with all his children.