The play, Melancholia, written by Professor Dul Johnson, was published in 2018 by Sevhage. It was first published in 2014 when it was shortlisted for the Association of Nigerian authors’ Prize for drama, and was nominated in 2018 for the Nigeria Prize for Literature.
The work: “Melancholia,” is a play on the political sphere in Africa generally, and Nigeria specifically.
It is a satirical discussion of the unstable system and money politics that has taken over the space. It mirrors the Nigerian and African political sphere through Mumude and his family, friends and supporters. The play is an interesting mixture of tragedy and comedy, a stark satirical portrayal of the political reality of our time, especially in Nigeria.
So in the play we meet Bawa Mumude, a politician who expresses interest to run for President and the extent to which he has to go to achieve this. In the play, we read that Mumude boasts to have earmarked billions of Naira to prosecute his campaign and how he sells his property and acquires loans from friends to achieve this dream. He says he hopes to recover these when he wins the election.
In the play, we meet Dangiwa, Mumude’s uncle who appears not to be enthusiastic about Mumude’s ambition, and how he does not believe that there can be real democracy in the country. So Dangiwa thinks that democracy is not guaranteed by the way politicians are going. And in the ensuing dialogue, Dangiwa says most politicians “are representing themselves”, and that the people don’t count when the politicians get into their cozy offices.
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The play, Melancholia portrays the politicians as having a completely different mentality: that of clearing your way and not feeling guilty. In fact, this is portrayed by the statement of Jatau, one of Mumude’s political associates, when he says: “You need the bulldozer mentality or else you go to sleep and forget politics. It is for those whose skins are tougher than that of the elephant.”
Added to this, the play shows that to thrive in politics, you have to tell lies, lots of lies, make promises of heaven on earth to the electorate, and mesmerise your opponents too!
In Melancholia, Professor Dul Johnson exposes the sycophancy of those who surround the people in power, who with their advice and disposition, give the man in power a false appreciation of reality. He also uses the play to discuss the rot in the public service, especially the power sector. The drama points out the difficulty in solving the problem, because the people who are appointed are cronies of the men in power, and that these people are basically incapable of solving the problems.
In this 2-Act play, the playwright plays up the illusion of victory by the losers in our elections. They perpetually live with the illusion, and even go about telling everybody that they won, but were robbed of their electoral victory. As seen in the work, Mumude does not seem to have come around to the idea that he may not have won the election. He carries on as president-elect, and that is possible in part because Jatau and his son, Kallo, indulge him.
As a multiple award winning film maker, theatre practitioner and academic, Dul Johnson has been able to show with this play, that most of those who get elected are nearly as delusional as those who lose elections. The illusion of victory also pervades the political space to the extent that those who, like Mumude, lose elections after having spent stupendously continue to live in a dream world like Mumude.
In this play, the playwright employs the imagery of darkness and a sufficient deployment of suspense to keep the reader till the end of the play to know whether Mumude wins the election or not. In fact, the reader is delicately led to the very last scene of the play to learn that several months after the election; Mumude is made to face the reality of having lost the election.
Ultimately, Melancholia is a beautifully written play with creatively crafted dialogue to drive home the message of the playwright. It is a sad commentary about the political class in Africa, and the problem of leadership and followership.
. Olatunbosun is a broadcast journalist, fact-checker and book reviewer at Splash FM 105.5, Ibadan. He can be reached via [email protected] and 0802-351-7565 (SMS only).
