Background of the play
Arguably, there are two
types of citizens in any country: those who are patriotic and those who can
easily trade their countries for petty gifts. Dele Charley's The Blood
of a Stranger projects these two kinds of people as it successfully
demonstrates the evils of the African colonial encounter with the West, without
presenting the colonized as mere victims.
Plot Summary
The play opens with
Maligu, the King's advisor, receiving a letter from town that a white man is
coming to the village to do tobacco farming. Knowing fully well that the
village of Mando forbids the entrance of strangers and with the greedy intent
of making huge amount of money from the white man's stay in the village, Maligu
seeks and finds the cooperation of Soko, the priest of the village shrine, to
prophesy that the land should welcome the stranger. As earlier stated, Maligu
is aware that this manipulated prophecy is against the existing spiritual
ordinance of the community not to accept visitors, which has been observed
since the war in the land. To them, strangers represent illness, disease and
aggression. However, Maligu is also aware that the narrative can easily be
changed if he passes through Soko since Soko is the ordained priest of the
village that has always interceded between them and their forefathers. He
believes that the people will have no reason to question or doubt Soko's
divination, so he conspired with Soko to act against the will of the gods.
Soko agrees and calls the people together at the cave and passes the
manipulated message across to the people. The King and the villagers accept
everything Soko says, but the Chief of the warriors, Kindo, who is also the
King's son, rejects Soko's prophecy with valid arguments. But the King insists
on accepting the white man as Soko says.
The white man,
symbolically called Whitehead, arrives with his attendant and shows little or
no respect for the culture and traditions of the land. Kindo gets infuriated and
forces him to order. The white man's aide, Parker, is brought to the palace and
flogged by the village warriors for disobeying the King's order. The white man
is forced to kiss the ground before the king as a show of respect before they
are allowed to stay. This sows a seed of discord between Kindo and Whitehead.
Whitehead soon takes Maligu into confidence that his true motive of coming to
the village of Mando is get the diamonds on their land though he has given the
king the false impression that he is in their land to cultivate a tobacco farm,
build a school and help the village from the proceeds of the tobacco farm.
Mr Whitehead orders for
gin and hard drugs and gives them to the people. The people start misbehaving
after taking the hard drugs. This angers Kindo again and makes him to confront
Whitehead and accuse him of evil doing. But Whitehead explains that he has no
evil intention; he only wants to make the people happy. Then, Whitehead
and Parker go to the King to express their gratitude and review their promises to
the people, stating how difficult it will be to accomplish these promises
without the people's compliance. The King, while smoking the tobacco Whitehead
gives to him, tells the people to work hard for Whitehead so as to reap the
blessings that follow.
As directed by Whitehead,
Parker kills Soko on the day for the false virgin sacrifice. Kindo finds out
and kills Parker in return. Maligu then puts on the priest's mask to continue
with the false virgin sacrifice. While continuing with the sacrifice, Kindo
comes in and exposes all the evil plans of Whitehead and Maligu. In what can be
best described as retaliation, Whitehead and Maligu request that Kindo should
be banished from the village of Mando for killing a man (Parker) in a peace
period. The King, known as King Santigi, agrees and passes a sentence on Kindo.
Before Kindo leaves the village, he tells the people about the evil plans of
Whitehead and Maligu and the impending problems on the village. Kindo goes over
to Whitehead and kills him, then, leaves the village with his warriors.
Setting
As regards place, the
play, The Blood of a Stranger, is set in a fictional village
(Mando) in Sierra Leone. It is set at a time when the white man, under
religious disguise, came to Africa with the main intent of exploiting the
black man's resources.
Language/Diction
The language of the play
is simple. It is a mixture of Modern English and street language. The language
used also reflects the characters' societal statuses. As a King, King Santigi's
language is elevated and laced with wisdom and sometimes proverbs.
Themes in The
Blood of a Stranger
i. Patriotism and
resistance to oppression
Kindo's patriotic zeal
saves the village of Mando from the vicious hands of Whitehead. When Whitehead
refuses to accord King Santigi the respect he deserves, it is Kindo who
restores it by putting Whitehead and his aide, Parker, where they truly belong --- beneath the King's feet.
ii. Greed
The marketers of this
theme are Whitehead, Maligu and Soko. The sole aim of these characters is to
get rich at all costs. While Whitehead comes to the village of Mando with
dubious intent to cart the people's diamond away and become very rich, Maligu
and Soko connive with Whitehead to carry out his intention and also get rich in
the process. The theme of greed becomes evident when they begin to distrust one
another and deplore strategies to eliminate each other to have a bigger part
(if not all the parts) of the diamond wealth.
iii. The
arrogance of the colonial masters
This is projected through
the character of Whitehead. The claim that Whitehead is arrogant is an obvious
fact. And this is why he refuses to pay homage to King Santigi until Kindo
forces him to do so. This is reflective of colonial arrogance in history. The
colonial masters did not only exploit the African soil but also engage Africans
in service labour. This is portrayed in the play with Whitehead engaging the
people to pick the diamond pebbles for him for pittance. It is also a show of
arrogance that makes Whitehead introduce gin spirit drink in place of the
people's local drink, mampama. Symbolically, Whitehead tries
to impose his culture on the people instead of embracing the people's culture.
Other themes in the play
are:
iv. Deceit and trickery
v. The role of African
leaders in aiding colonialism. This is projected through the characters of
Maligu and Soko.
vi. Justice always
prevails over oppression. Of course this is seen in the end of the play.
Style
The Blood of a Stranger has linear plot structure
and is very straightforward. It is simple and easy to follow and understand.
The play is full of literary expressions such as personification (e.g.,
"the night grows old), metaphor (e.g., " Maligu is drunk in his
books"), simile (e.g., Kindo is as willy as a monkey) etc.
Characters in The
Blood of a Stranger
1. Maligu
He is the King's advisor
and refers to as 'the wise one" by the King because he is well read and
educated. He has lust for riches, and that is why he connives with Soko to
work against the spiritual ordinance of Mandoland.
2. Soko
He is the priest of the
village shrine and in league with Maligu to deceive the King and villagers with
the false prophecy. He is full of deceit and a sincere liar.
3. Wara
Wara is Kindo's
girlfriend. She believes so much in the customs of the people. No wonder she
warns Kindo not to offend the gods by calling Soko and the spirits fake. She
escapes rape in the hands of Mr. Whitehead when Soko and Maligu kidnap her to
Mr. Whitehead's compound. Wara later runs out of the village in order not to be
used for the peace sacrifice because when Soko prophesies that the gods demand
the blood of a virgin as peace sacrifice, his intention is to use Wara for the
sacrifice.
4. Kindo
He is the son of King
Santigi and head of warriors of Mandoland. He is very young and only a boy when
he fought in his first war. This shows that Kindo is brave. He has very
sensitive instincts, and this helps him to detect the crooked plans of Maligu,
Soko and Whitehead from the beginning. He is ambitious, stubborn and impatient.
He loves and protects the custom of his people.
5. Santigi Mando V
He is the King of
Mandoland. Santigi is an upright man and a rigid observer of traditional laws
and cultural norms. His attitude towards Soko's false prophecy validates this
claim though he is manipulated into admitting a stranger into his domain. He is
gullible.
6. Parker
Andrew Samuel Stevenson
Thomson-Parker (esq.) is an African who is the Secretary, Assistant,
Interpreter, Adviser and the right hand man of Whitehead. He hates Maligu and
does not trust him. Kindo flogs him thoroughly for encouraging the white man to
undermine African traditional values and cultural practices.
7. Whitehead
Whitehead is the white
man. He is a selfish manipulator. He manipulates Maligu's quest for riches and
makes him to do his biddings. He uses hard drugs, tobacco and gin on the people
to make them succumb to him. To achieve his evil plans, he plans to destroy
Kindo, whom he sees as an obstacle.
Minor Characters
1. Sima
Another warrior of
Mandoland.
2. Boko
Boko is a warrior of
Mandoland. He is very loyal to Kindo. He and Sima lead the arrest of Whitehead
and bring him before Kindo.
3. 1st Man
1st Man eulogises the
white man when his people are under the influence of hard drug and gin.
