Before My Execution

Sanusi's BEFORE MY EXECUTION reminds one of Wole Soyinka's The Lion and the Jewel, a play. A literary classic and satire. It was written in the spirit of Decolonization, when there ensued a clash of the cultures. The Baale, a village Chief and the teacher sought the hands of the village 'belle', Sidi. Culture (The Baale) triumphed over the brash inexperienced school teacher with the employment of intrigues and experience.Sanusi's story does not portray a confrontation between the African and the Whiteman's cultures but sets out to present a reconciliation of the two cultures. Like Soyinka's play, the intermixture of cultures, intrigues and politics were used to tell the story.The writer pitches the culture of the people of ILU NLA, with the arrival of the Roberts (husband and wife) to the African village. They were invited by the Kabiyesi (the king); they were required to use modern medicine to fight the outbreak of smallpox in the village. A disease that the Ifa priest and other kingmakers had found out to have got out of hand. Old traditional methods of overcoming the spread of the disease had become less effective.The Palace, the kingmakers and the cults (like the Osugbo) had no alternative but to accept the efficiency and superiority of modern medicine. And Dr. Roberts and his wife were welcomed with excitement. The story is replete with Palace intrigues, and among the villagers. They all, argued that the past must reconcile with the present...that the Ifa Divination have their limitations. Even Balogun, the Generalissimo, whose skin was initially not penetrable by the needle that apply the vaccine, needed some incantation from him to make the exercise possible. The fortified skin against the enemies cooperated with the needle that applied the vaccine.The departures of Aremo, the son of Kabiyesi to foreign lands, in the company of the Roberts was hatched in the palace. Kabiyesi convinced of the efficacy of the Whiteman's secret and success with the vaccines, he detailed his son and his newly married wife, to accompany Roberts to other lands in Africa and the Whitman's country. The white chalk that cured many in ILU NLA from the debilitating disease of smallpox.... It was necessary to discover the secret.Politics and intrigues cannot be separated.... The Palace was at the centre of the intrigues. Sanusi demonstrated his knowledge of the African society; he depicted the kingmakers, the cultists (Osugbo), the Ifa priest and the market women and men, as the major players that run the society.The age-old method of removing a Kabiyesi that has become unpopular remained in vogue - 'the magical calabash'. The opening of the calabash will inevitably determine the fate of the king. Aremo escaped this because he was involved in an accident on the way to meet the Governor-General resident in ILU DUN. He died. A similar fate was to hang around the neck of his successor and son, Taiwo. Kabiyesi Taiwo survived the fate of the 'Calabash Death' with the help rendered by his mother (Ojebunmi), who had become a successful trader and political leader in ILU NLA. And Kabiyesi Taiwo's bravery and courage in the face of forces that were directed at him.After countless intrigues by the elites in the society, Kabiyesi Taiwo walked onto the scene of THE EXECUTION, and succeeded in dispersing his adversaries; with gallantry and a preparedness to damn the consequences.Sanusi kept a SECRET from the people of ILU NLA, but readers were led into the SECRET, earlier in the novel. That Kabiyesi Taiwo was one of the adopted twins by Aremo and Ojebunmi in their travels. They did not have a Biological child.The novel offers a refreshing angle to the debate, that the MODERN and the OLD can co-habit.The novel is a good read.