Abstract
Wole Soyinka’s A Shuttle in the Crypt chronicles the plight and sojourn of Soyinka in detention in a Nigerian prison and his attendant reaction to the perceived physical and mental sufferings orchestrated by such incarceration. Soyinka, in an attempt to prevent the Biafran secession becoming the Nigerian civil war, was wrongly misunderstood by the Federal authorities of Nigeria, who subsequently hauled him into twenty-five months detention. A Shuttle in the Crypt is a retrospective anthology uncovering the brutality and high-handedness of the military administration of General Yakubu Gowon in silencing dissent opinions about the prosecution of the Nigerian civil war of 1967 to 1970. This paper examines the inherent falsehood in Nigeria’s journey to nationhood as grounded in Soyinka’s A Shuttle in the Crypt, evaluating the artificiality of the Nigerian state as reflected in the narrative of ethnic differences, mediated by the objectification of the destruction of social and political equilibrium by the 1966 political crisis, which metamorphosed into the civil war of 1967 to 1970.
Keywords: Wole Soyinka, A Shuttle in the Crypt, nationhood, Nigeria, civil war, violence, postcolonial poetry
Literature and Society in Africa
In the early post-independence era in Africa, several poets, playwrights, and novelists sought to consolidate national unity and consciousness by producing works which celebrated the past as the harbinger of a glorious future. The most prominent example was Chinua Achebe in Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God. As the euphoria of independence continued to wear off and problems became increasingly intractable, many African writers felt they had no option but to incorporate socially relevant issues into their texts. Wole Soyinka consistently castigated the incompetence and insensitivity of many influential groups in society, including politicians, professionals, and the religious hierarchy.
An African work of art that fails to address issues of socio-political or historical significance is considered to be outside the scope of African aesthetics. As Achebe argues, literature gives us a second handle on reality, enabling us to encounter the very same threats to integrity that may assail the psyche in real life. Shatto Gakwandi identifies the social preoccupation of African literature as deriving specifically from nationalism.
Nigeria’s Political Crisis and Soyinka’s Incarceration
Nigeria as a nation has never played fair, and only exists as a nebulous contraption in the minds of most Nigerians. Independence did not bring about the desired expectations of political stability, economic development, peace, and harmonious inter-ethnic relations. The 15 January 1966 military coup led by Igbo officers signaled the demise of the first republic. The counter coup of 29 July 1966 ushered in anarchy, political disorder, and a pogrom that claimed many lives. The declaration of the Biafran republic orchestrated the Nigerian civil war which began in 1967 and ended in 1970.
Soyinka’s attempt to prevent the secession of Biafra from corporate Nigeria culminated in his journey to Biafra to meet Colonel Ojukwu for a crucial discussion. Upon his return, he was promptly arrested and kept in detention by General Yakubu Gowon. Documentation of personal experiences in prison custody by reputable African writers is gradually becoming a remarkable genre of African literature.
Phases of Peril and Roots
Tanure Ojaide in The Poetry of Wole Soyinka has described A Shuttle in the Crypt as shifting from the ironic attitude towards technological advancement, the celebration of nature, women, and cultural goods in the pre-October 1966 poems to a voice of anguish arising from the harsh experience of incarceration. A Shuttle in the Crypt is divided into seven sections: Phases of Peril; Four Archetypes; Chimes of Silence; Procession; Prisonnettes; Poems of Bread and Earth; and Epilogue.
In “O Roots” the poet supplicates for reinvigoration of strength and vigour to maintain his physical and mental stability. The roots typify a muse which the poet reaches out to, to gain inner strength and alertness as he adjusts to his confinement.
Four Archetypes: Joseph, Hamlet, Gulliver, and Ulysses
The four archetypes of Joseph, Hamlet, Gulliver, and Ulysses collectively provide a convenient mask for the poet to reflect on his experiences in prison during the Nigerian civil war. They are embodiments of principle, courage, and perseverance. They all had brushes with the establishment for identifying with truth and ideals.
“Gulliver” provides an allegory for the evaluation of Soyinka’s misconstrued role in the crisis between Nigeria and Biafra. Gulliver’s trial is analogous to the Nigerian political circumstances which necessitate Soyinka’s incarceration. Lilliput is allegorically represented as Nigeria, and Blefuscu as Biafra. “Ulysses” affords Soyinka an opportunity to embark on a pedagogical survey of historical subjugation of the ruled by the rulers.
Chimes of Silence and Prisonnettes
The narratives of Nigeria’s nationhood are carefully embarked upon in “Chimes of Silence,” a section which historicizes the prison experiences of Soyinka as described in “Kaduna 68.” Soyinka deprecates hypocrisy of exploitation of the prisoners by the prison officials in “Wailing Wall.” The nexus between state power and violence on citizens is further interrogated in the “Prisonnettes.”
Epilogue
Victimhood and martyrdom in Nigeria’s nationhood is eloquently evaluated in the “Epilogue.” This section contains two important poems: “And what of it if thus he died” and “For Christopher Okigbo.” These poems are tributes to two radical soulmates of Soyinka in the trajectory of political activism.
Conclusion
The paper has evaluated the hypocrisy in Nigeria’s nationhood as underscored by the realization that the past is not lost, but retrievable. Nigeria’s false nationhood is accentuated by the paper’s introspection into the confinement of Wole Soyinka in A Shuttle in the Crypt, which has unobtrusively shaped the narrative of Nigeria’s idyllic past from independence in 1960 to the political misfortunes of 1966 to 1970. The paper has conclusively demonstrated that Nigeria is neither unitary nor homogenous, but an ostensible canvas on which the social contradictions of ethnicity, inequality, and coercion are played out.
Works Cited
- Achebe, Chinua. Hopes and Impediments. London: Heinemann, 1988.
- Abou-bakr, Randa. “The Political Prisoner as Antihero: The Prison Poetry of Wole Soyinka and Ahmad Fu’ad Ngim.” Comparative Literature Studies, Vol. 46, No. 2, 2009, p. 285.
- Cook, David. African Literature: A Critical View. London: Longman, 1977.
- Emenyonu, Ernest. Literature and National Consciousness. Calabar Studies in African Literature 4. Ibadan: Heinemann, 1989.
- Gakwandi, Shatto. The Novel: Contemporary Experience in Africa. London: Heinemann, 1977.
- Howe, Irving. Politics and the Novel. New York: First Fawcett Premier Press, 1967.
- Kubayanda, Josaphat. “Unfinished Business: Dictatorial Literature of Post-Independence Latin America and Africa.” Research in African Literatures, 28.4, 1997, p. 38.
- Mutiso, Gideon-Cyrus. Socio-Political Thought in African Literature. London: Macmillan, 1974.
- Ngugi wa Thiong’o. Writers in Politics. London: Heinemann, 1981.
- Ojaide, Tanure. The Poetry of Wole Soyinka. Lagos: Malthouse Press Limited, 1994.
- Soyinka, Wole. A Shuttle in the Crypt. London: Rex Collings/Eyre Methuen, 1972.
- Soyinka, Wole. The Man Died. London: Rex Collings, 1972; Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1976.
- Soyinka, Wole. Art, Dialogue and Outrage. Ibadan: New Horn Press, 1988.
- Wellek, R. and Warren. A Theory of Literature. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1982.