Untitled - Memorial University of Newfoundland

victim. The Priest performs the customary rites and prepares the child for sacrifice:
NARRATOR: Priest of Ogun ties boy's feet
with a stringof cowries
meaning sacrifice
to the gods who have sent
boy down to this Earth (3) .
The audience would easily identify with the performance becau se animal sacrifices are
a part of lhe religious observance of many tribes. including the Yoruba, in an effort to
appease the gods, appeal for a good harvest or to purify the evil fro m the 1and. 27
The Nigerian J. P. Clark's Song ofa Goal portrays the custom of the Ijo people of the
Niger Delta which requires the offender of the gods to sacrifice a goat as an act of
propitiation. The refusal of the tragic character. Zifa , to offer the sacrifice at the
approp riate time brin gs death to his wife, his younger brothe r and himself.
Rotimi infuses both Aristotelian and Shake spearean concepts of tragedy into the
tragic character of Odewa1e while emphasizing his African roots . Odewale is presented
as one "nor pre-eminently virtuous or just. • The opening of Act one reveals a cross-
section of the Yoruba townspeople gathered together as a pitiful illustration of the
effects of the plague lhat has ravaged the once prosperous village of Kutuje, The
atmosphere parallels the attack:of the IkoLu warriors which was narrated and mimed in
the prologue. It was OdewaJe who had gathered the men of Kutuje then and conquered
the IJrolu peop le. Now, the townspeople have gathered to seek Odewale's help . Just as
be organized them to fight against the IJrolu; so he organizes them to fight againstthe
plague . In the stage directions. Rotimi stipulates the physical and emotional condi tion
8/