Re-Engaging the Silence of the Rampage in Nnenna Ihebom’s Rampaging Silence



Nnenna Ihebom’s “Rampaging Silence” is an apt example of a satirical excursion

into the dangers of intoxicating leadership, dictatorial tendencies and usurpation of power. Akajiaku with the help of his cronies forcefully took over the sacred Throne of Alaike and unleashed a level of mayhem never before seen in that ancient land. He forbade gatherings of any kind whether religious or political. The indigenes were also not allowed to raise their voices whenever they are talking. Any contravention of this rule was met with utter ruthlessness. This was the ugly situation in the town when Ikenna returned from a sojourn which he embarked upon for the good of his people. To his utter dismay things have fallen apart. The land he left was no longer the same town he returned to. Evil cannot last forever; Akajiaku was finally dethroned by Ikenna through the instrumentality of the gods of the land and the help of the entire villagers who called for the blood of Akajiaku and his cronies as a spiritual cleansing detergent for the bleeding land.



Ihebom in this epochal play successfully couched the predicament of leadership in our modern African society in an epic and ancient garb. The theme of the play is very current and in tandem with the situation of leadership in contemporary Africa which is bedeviled by incompetence, corruption, nepotism, cronyism, favoritism amongst other negativisms. One salient point in the play is the call for revolution by the playwright, a call which puts her in the pristine class of radical revolutionary playwrights like Esiaba Irobi , Femi Osofisan, Bode Sowande, Alex Asigbo amongst others. In Irobi’s play “Nwokedi” the blood of the corrupt politicians, Nwokedi Snr and Arikpo were shed to cleanse the land of the atrocities they committed. The situation as already noted is almost the same in Ihebom’s “Rampaging Silence” where as stated above, the people of Alaike called for the head of the usurper Akajiaku and his cohorts in order to revert the sacrilege they committed.



Another salient point raised in the play is the much orchestrated need for collective action as a means of changing the current evil, stagnant, repugnant and repulsive status quo. Ihebom urges us all to remember that revolution is a collective and not and individual action. The recent Arab uprisings and the current situation in Syria buttresses Ihebom’s thesis in her play. It is worthy of note that Ihebom has through the vehicle of her play become one of the rare female playwrights who rather than preach the over flogged theme of feminism, woe-manism or motherism in their plays opt for the seeming “unfeminine” path of revolution.



Tess Onwueme, Stella Oyedepo, Zulu Sofola, Julie Okoh Tracie Utoh Ezeajuh and most other female playwrights were not “woman” enough to toe the rampaging path of Ihebom in her play. The theme of most of their works predominantly revolved around feminine and domestic issues. It must also be stated there is an inference of feminism in the play as can be adduced by the insistence of the women of Alaike to join the raging revolution in the village.



In the area of diction Ihebom showed an excellent use and mastery of language especially in the manner in which she used simplified language to convey a powerful theme, this to the mind of this writer is not a mean feat, because the language of the play makes it very accessible both to the so called elitist and non-elitist readers. Anybody who has the barest knowledge of English language will definitely understand the play. The playwright is not also found wanting in the deployment of indigenous proverbs and idioms as propelling instruments for her simple but well crafted narrative. The characters of the play are realistic characters who one can encounter in every day life. The advantage of using such characters lies in the fact that they make the story believable and plausible. In other words the revolution canvassed by Ihebom in the play is believable, plausible and realizable because they were carried out by believable and plausible characters. But then this is not to run down the use of abstract or absurd characters in playwriting. They also have their own positive uses in creative writing.



The only way to sum up this brief critique of Rampaging Silence” is to pose the soul searching question, Are we truly and actually ready for this bloodletting revolution which Ihebom preaches, the revolution of rampaging silence?





NWOKEDI nwa NWOKEDI

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