THE novel, Monopoly of Wisdom (Fourth Floor Press; Ottawa, Canada; 2012) written by Afam Nkemdiche, a Nigerian educated in Britain and the United States is a flashback on Nigeria's struggle for independence in the 1950s. It tells the story of a king Obong Ufot, a tale reminiscent of the Calabari Kingdom in Cross River State, Nigeria. This Obong is a well-educated young man, full of wisdom, who is however desperately seeking solutions to the problems of his domain.Also, the name of his kingdom ' Okoko, looks like a place in Lagos State called Okokomaiko, but the setting is different. This Okoko community faces a decade long drought which has impoverished the kingdom forcing residents to flee to neighbouring countries. As the drought noose tightens with the land drying up, this formerly prosperous territory finds its inhabitants migrating abroad with the hope of finding new ways of livelihood.Caught within the ancient beliefs of his people and the foreign tradition, this traditional ruler finds himself torn between two opposing doctrines, two different sets of wisdom. Out of despair, he adopts the traditional, weather-worn beliefs of his people through the advice of his chiefs.Unfortunately, the ancient wisdom isn't a match to the modern problems of his day, culminating in disastrous consequences.Monopoly of Wisdom is a new voice in the discordant tunes that have been emanating from Nigerian federation. This book is both challenging and moving, it chronicles, through entertaining parable, the struggle to redeem the heritage of Africa.The book is rather large, containing 358 pages, 33 chapters and the author's biodata. The first eight chapters delineate the physical environment of Okoko Kingdom. It is a land of farmers, because the land is rich and therefore food crops of all types: yam, cassava, sugar cane, coca and coco-yam grow. Okoko is also endowed with other agricultural resources.Apart from farming, teaching is the second most important occupation of the people. The availability of primary and secondary school facilities encouraged many to go for teaching positions in order to keep up with modernity and educate Okoko indigenes. The landscape consists of extensive lava plains dotted with many extinct volcanoes.The animal life includes chimpanzees, gorillas, wild dogs, leopards and giraffes. The tree-studded savanna housed them. The riverine areas become the reserve of snakes, lions, crocodiles and many other species of animals.Much of Okoko region is available as pasture while a sizeable portion is arable land. One day, on their way to the farm, very early in the morning, Umana, the protagonist of this story, three of his sons, and eight farmhands among a handful of other farmers, joined four returning visitors at a school junction on the east main road to Okoko.Not unlike their ceremonial chalk marks, all the kingdoms in the region had distinct methods of salutation.Which was why Ekanem knew that the strangers were from Ikot Abasi, his maternal grandmother's birthplace.Scenes like this dotted the novel, making it pleasurable reading. From chapter nine to 12, we notice a description of family life where an argument as to the genealogy of Ekanem is the centre of the dispute. Had Mama Ekanem had not known her husband, Umana, as a teetotaler, she would have thought he was drunk of palm wine.But in their 34 years of marriage, she could not recall, once, when her farmer husband was ever drunk. She could not decipher the fact from jokes, for the charge that Ekanem is a bastard was too grave to be dismissed with the wave of hands.However, Ekanem's mother defended her son's genealogy, that he is a full-blooded Umana because he took after Umana's flat nose and broad forehead. In all, she succeeded in defending her chastity, claiming a good child is always accepted by the father but when a child behaves badly, the father disclaims him.From chapter 16, Ekanem began to understand the problems plaguing his kingdom. Laying awake on his straw mattress in the room he shared with his younger siblings, Asuquo and Ettas, Ekanem resolved to seek a second opinion on Victor's homily from his kinsmen. If Victor's explanation of the travails of Okoko was correct, then the people must have done something wrong for them to earn the wrath of the gods.Therefore, Ekanem thought the solution lays not in fighting their enemies but in seeking out what it was that had incurred the wrath of the gods.The explanation of his friend Victor, eventually convinced Ekanem of the curse of the gods on Okoko. This position was all the more convincing to Ekanem when seen in the light of his father's earlier remarks that, 'some of the profound secrets of life are revealed as a common joke from the least expected lips.
Click here to read full news..
