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Soyinka taught me how to write, criticize and be responsible to society–Yerima
(Vanguard)

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BENJAMIN NJOKU

IT was yet another glorious moment of testimony and flashback into the making of the man, Dr. Ahmed Yerima, the artistic director of the National Troupe of Nigeria, penultimate Saturday as the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA), Oyo State branch, paid homage to him in its monthly reading session as guest speaker.

The event, held at the Educare Trust Ibadan, was no less a moment of reminiscence for Yerima. Clad in white brocade , Yerima was in his best mood to reel out his story. Despite the fact that the reading kicked off a little behind schedule, and graced by an appreciable audience who did not leave the arena disappointed, as the guest speaker gave them value for their patience. Being an accomplished playwright and skillful actor, Yerima reeled out the story of his journey into creativity in manner that left his audience consumed in the euphoria of his tales.

He began his testimony that evening by acknowledging the fact that it was Professor Wole Soyinka who as his teacher then, at the University of Ife, taught him how to write plays that criticise society as well as show responsiblity to society. He equally admitted the influence of alien culture in his writing career, when he recalled how his momentous sojourn in England taught him that human beings are victims of society and those who create the problems in society.

Yerima, like a possessed worshiper of sango, led his audience into the story of his writing career properly.It all started at the University of Ife, where he encountered Professor Wole Soyinka as his teacher. Soyinka, he recalled had told him: "look since you have tried to scribble one or two things, in your secondary school days, at Baptist Academy, Lagos, why don’t you take to playwriting and the other things can follow later in life."

Thereafter, Yerima further recalled, "what I tried to do was to go through my problems that, I had as a student of playwriting and as a young playwright because I still feel very young at heart. And, I find myself making the same mistakes that I was making in 1977. But, what Soyinka did for me was to make me become aware of the society and community I was living in. And always to keep asking the question for whom does the playwright write? What is the responsibility of the playwright with the society? And, so my first plan, which I can refer to as my official first play written while I was in secondary school is called "Asylum."

Yerima also revealed that, when he grew up to read the play again after, he had been asked by one Segun Oye who is in Illinois to send the play to him in the United States, he was able to trace the development of his own mind, his own consciousness and his attempt to be angry because the problem "I have with the young playwright is that I am offended by everything in the society. And I am angry. And decided to put all that anger like I have done in Asylum ,in the plot and in the movement." Yerima also, said as someone who was born and brought up in Lagos, that, he has sentimental attachment to Lagos This, he noted informed the thrust of most of his plays which according to him acted as a direct response in view of the movement of the federal capital from Lagos to Abuja by the Federal government. His words "I was born in and brought up in Lagos. I still live in Lagos, so I have sentimental attachment to Lagos. And, in anger I wrote the movement asking why would they like to leave Lagos desolate. I write plays where only the blind man and beggar exist that are left behind. The bad people are left behind in Lagos. And the selected group are taken to the new promised land of Abuja. I think it was the level of consciousness that grinded me in my continued writing."

While noting that he started thinking more of society and what his responsibility was, Yerima said he knew there he could talk about the society and not talk about the history of the society. "And this is the basis of my three stays, The dry leaves of local trees. The play came out of the left over information and materials, he had used in I gathered when writing The trials of Ovarewen.

Apparently, one thing Yerima said, he learnt about writing when he left Nigeria for England, was that, he learnt about the minds of human beings. I started to look at the tragic heroes. Before I left I never used to explore tragic victims, not tragic heroes. Because, if you look at the history of Ogedengbe, the great historical names even "Queen Amina," you find that the characters like victims of their own society. So I used to write plays that would look at the chief character as victim and in Nigeria it is obtainable."

Yerima further reveal that in his plays, there is a running theme that weave them together. "I think, I write two to three types of plays - historical plays from the history I read. One of such plays still in print, is Aniogboli, The great and Irelu Kuti, the first Irelu of Lagos. Yerima said, in these plays he looked at the minds of his characters.

According to Yerima, his first and most loved play is Ovarenwen. He revealed that when he performed in Ola Rotimi’s Yerima of Ovarenwen, he had read also two other version of the man, before coming across Olu Rotimi’s play. He added that in his studies, he found that Ovarenwen was a victim of his situation as tough, vast and unrepetant king."

"When I now started doing my research, following my training, I started looking at Ovarenwen as a human being and I sensed that sometimes, the tragic hero is not blinded the most writers would want the tragic hero to be. That was why in writing Ovarenwen I created moments, I used them like Shakespeare used to use eclipse, create dialogue by the people’s dream, to recreate the tragic might of the character."

The skillful actor and dramatist, noted that what exist as the difference between his own Ovarenwen and Rotimi’s is that, "mine is more human". adding that "mine is a royal king that is up there, mine talks about his own fears for him". As a playwright, Yerima said he has a way of making the tragic hero invite the audience to the worries of his mind.

"The plays I love and recommend is the Nine Angel and other plays. These are social plays, where I write about people I know. It is consistent, thematically, with the social and undertone, which is more of satire. I used my own mistake and around me to correct my view of life. In this play, I talk to you as I am talking to you now."

A highly multi-talented artist and intellectual, Ahmed Yerima is the artistic director of the National Troupe of Nigeria. His published plays include, "Fragmented Thoughts and Speeches", "Essays in Dramatic literature", "Basic Techniques in playwriting". He co-authored recently the scholarly work "Ideology and Stage Craft in the Nigeria Theatre with Professor Olu Obafemi. Others are, "The Angel and other plays", "The Liman and Ade Ine", "Lottery Ticket", "Yemoja," "The Sisters", "Yafida", and of course, "The Trial of Oba Ovarenwen".

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