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V 12 TilE GODS ARE N01 Tü BLAME
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0-if:COND CHiEF: We have also ~or Baba Fakunle, the ._
~ grcatest of ail medicir.cmen in this world. He "'._ill ~ -
here soon.
F!RST CHIEF: Which ofyou ~ where Aderopo~now?
T:-!IRD CITIZEN: Has the sickness killed him?
[TOWNSPEOPLE wail a dirge.]
ODEWALE: Peace, peÇ>ple, peace. Ail we ask you is: where ~
Aderopo? We did not say cry for hifü:the poor man is
rJ>t èead yet. ---
TOWNSPEOPLE: Where is he then? R"'! .
ODEWALE:[To OGUN PRIEST.] Elderone, you tell them.
PRIEST: We ·have sent Aderopo to Ile-Ife, the landof
-OtunmiJa;toasl< the all-seeing god why we are in pain.
ODEWALE: [To fOWNSPEOPLE.] Nowyou know."
Those of you who thought that we, my chiefs and 1, ~
while you suffered, what have you now to.say?
TOWNSPEOPLE~ ankourkingfor - ---:ODEWALE:
No, no, dOilO't thank me. I. am oJ!!Y doing ~y
duty. Do not thank me. Jnstead, let me as~ you one
question. Now, you have ail corne hi re, sprawling,
~. r~g tears on one another, ~~ me to
do my duty, and help you. But what about you
yourselves~ . What hJ!Yc you do~ to help. yourselv~s?
_Answer. Or is the land at peace? Are not people ailing
and dying? - --
. TOWNSPEOPLE: Wc arc sutfcringrny lord, we are ODEWALE:
Ycs I know. But what have you d0në about it, 1
ask. You th~re-Marna lbeji - what dffyou do to savc
yO'tir twins rrom ~ ? It is sickness that man c'ân
~~ not death. What' djg._you do,to cure theirsiékness?
Nothing? Oh, 1 see, your body is too weak, your bones
suddenly gonc soft, you cannotmove, you cannot go
into the b~d eut herbs to""6oil for your chlldrent;;-
.d rink. -I~ rhat so'! Àiiswer. 'The land is bad', you ail ....-
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ACTONE Sccne J.. 13 v .
cry, 'we ~ much, we ~ ·, you moan. Yet each one of
yÔU lies down in his own small -hut ·and ~ nothing. Now ~ of dbing_ no~ing, you have~l~e.li.!s..e
lobsters, carrying your large heads of complaints to my
door-step. Well, let me tell you, brothers and sisters, the
iuin ofa land and its peoples begins in their homes .. Ifyou, ,,
, in your own small buts âf.Ç.SO helpless, so crippled that
you now ç_ome to me, a si ngle man, ç_xpccting magic,
then, let rrie tel!Jou that we ~ soon ail die, hand
in hand, in one big grave; band in band, 1 ~· sajli.!:!g lit
cach. other's cyeballs, and .smelling the rot of our gross,
corrùpt bodies. If you need help, search for it first among
yourselves. Do not open your noses at me, l c~~t bel(!.
Why? Because 1, Odewale, son ofbgundele, 1 em cnly a
person, human: like you, and you, and ... you. -
SECOND WOMAN: Your highness ... I have tried, in my own
' h0use, l have tried ... 1 b~ omCherl?s, drank them, ·
yèt sickness remains. -
ODEWALE: What herbs did );:OU boil?
SECOND WOMAN: Asufe çiyçjç l~ODEWALÈ:
Y-e-s.
SECOND WOMAN: Lemon-gràss, teabush, and some limeskins.
OpEWALE: That's good. And nothing happened?
SECOND .W, OMAN: 1 and my household drank the medicine, yet .
we do not ~ better, my lord,
ODEWALE: For how long did you boil it?
SECONI> WOMAN: As soon as it ~Q.~. 1 ~ it down.
ODEWALE: No, no. You must boil it longer, woman, longer,
so that the medicines in the herbs can corne out in full
spirit to fi&!!! the sickness. lù>llit longer.
THIR.D WOMAN: 1 ~ mine longer-a long time: 1 even
dded dogo-yaro leaves to it.
ODEWALË: And how does tbe'body ~ THIR.? WOMAN: Not as well as the heart ~ . tny lord. J .... ,
14 THE GOOS ARE NOT TO BLAME
ODEWALE. Our talk is of illness, sister. To get fully
cured one needs patience. The mqtm moves slowly but by
daybreak it crosses-the sky. Keep on drinking the ·
medicine; one day you will see change. Patience.
FIRST CITIZEN. 1 don't even kpow what those herbs are.
ODEWALE. Ask your neighbour.
FOURTH WOMAN. My trouble'is that I drink medicine from
tierbs, my husband drin.lcs it too. But the children ...
I don't know how to give it to them so that they can
drink it ail.
ODEWALE. By trying often, the monkey leams to jump from
tree to tree without falling. Keep on trying.
Now, everybody go home . .. try. Get together, fonn
groups ofthrees-Ajanu
AJANU. My lord.
ODEWALE. Who is your neighbour?
AJANU. My neighbour?Aiyilara. the.palmwine tapper, my
lord.
ODEWALE. Who else?
AJA NU. The house on the left ot:inine belongs to Ogini, the ·
fisherman.
ODEWALE. Very well, the three,o(you.,-
BODYGUARD. My lord, Aderopo·bas.c.ome back from Ile-Ife.
~;; ·t:. ~i •: ' . [TOWNSPEOPLE cheer.]
ODEWALE. Let ~s not be h.SP.Pî y~t, ~~\1aven't_ heard what
: task the gods expectof l,ls •. , .. ...
TOWNSPEOPLE. It will be goo~ .. ,
Thetask will beeasy. ,. . · . .
ODEWALE. SO may it be: [f?.o~gJ:ify.J.P,p, all of yotJ;-:into th.e
bush! Go and get cutlass,~ -gQ o.n, 19p .8P4 P.ick herbs.
from the bush, boil them, drink them, qet up, go on
-in twos, threes, getup!
WOMAN. Women too?
ODEWALE. Women stay at home and look after the children,
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S2 IBE GODS ARE NOT TO BLAME
ODEWALE: Oh, he is more clever than that, woman. He
_ '2mugru that blind soothsaye:r from Oyo.
OJUOLA: Baba Fakunle? Baba Fakunle ~ you 'mùrderer'?
ODEWALE: And 'bed-sharer'-ask the Chiefs.
OJUOLA: And my lord takes him seriously.,. The old man's
mind is not sound. My lord should not take his words
seriously. Why, was it not th1s sameman-:= Baba
Fakunle who ... fëi;anges her mind.] My lord must not
take him seriously.
ODEWfllE: Who what? What were you going to sa;x?, What
are you trying to hide from me, woman? Or are you not to
be trustdëïther? -
OJUOLA: HeÎnade me ... kill my son.
ODEWALE: Kill your soiÎ!what son? What is this talk?
OJUOLA: Myvery first son - by my first lrusband.On the
ni1,1th day after the boy ~ born, my former husband
summoned this Baba F Jcunle to tell the boy's future.
ODEWALE: Weil? -
10JUOLA: Baba Fakunle sai< the boy had brought bad luck
to the earth; and thàîm must kil! the boy so that the
bad luck would die with him.
ODEWALE: And you killed him?
OJUOLA: [nodding.]~e bush. And when my husband died
too, this same Baba Fakunle said he was killed by his- .
own biood? -
ODEWALE: He ~d th,.t? That King Adetusa was ldlled by
one of his own 1,lood?
[OJUOLA nods again, l!J!!!!g lo contro/ her emoli~n.
ODEWALE hurries oj{to summon the CHJEFS.]
ÇQm.e in, ail of you, come, come, corne Jisten to
something.
[Enter CHIEFS. J
~ ~J-~
ACT TIIREE Scene 2 S 3
Wife, you tell them what you have just told me.
OJUOLA: [to FIRST CHIEF.} Wereyou notthe onewho S.
for Baba Fakunle when my former husband was slain?
FIRST CHIEF: It is the custom of our land to find outhow
our kings dië. .
ODEWALE: ~you send for him or did ~ou not?
· FIRST CHIEF: Cu~om demand_s_g; I <?_!?_eyç!
OJUOLA: ~ you not ail present when Baba Fakunle
said my first husband ~ lylh:d, by one of his own
bfood?
[ CHJEFS mumb/e vagueo/.)
ODEWALE: Answer, people.
CHIEFS: He said so. Indeed.
OJUOLA: So, why ~~)'E~n_o!_t.ell him, that same
· soothsaycr, that he lied, when he said again that it wa,
this king who murd~ the formêrkfng? -
ODEWALE: !.'.!!! a stranger in your midst. Why ~ouJg t!:Jet.
tell_hiin that he lied? That \.YQUld make me innocent.
· .-~ the cockroach be innocent in a gathering offowls? ·
FIRST CHIEF: My lord we meant no evii against you.
ODEWALE: Of course, you ail mean no evil against me. You
· ·ail love me. We are all close friends. [Sneering.} Like
he-goats and co'ëëiyams!
SECOND CHIEF: We would ask the Queen to help u~ the
King that, as the gods bear us witness, his tribe does
noharmtous- -
OJUOLA: But you give the King cause to ~uspect you all.
For instance, you ~ to ~ the Seer that he '!!!. a
liar. He h~ .~this King murderer. But OE.it not
this same soothsayer who some time ago ~ that my
former husband was slain by one ofhis own blood?
Which was a lie too. Not only was the former King not
slain by onè ofhis own blood,tîië bodyguard who came
back àfter the murder told us that the King was rushed"
54 THE. C:OOS I\RE NOT TO Bl.AMF.
upon and kil lt:d by tcn robbcrs. men he had n·:vc: ;sccn
beforc:. ls that not the truth'!
CHIEFS. lt is the truth: • (
OJUOLA. By ten thieves ncar F.c.ic. at a place whcre threc
footpaths mcet, and that
üOEW ALE. At whm:'!
OJUOLA. That was what the man who came back ,;,,ith thr.
King's body said, m:1 b r<l.
ODEWALE. That the King wa5 killed where;?
OJUOLA. By ten thievcs, near the town or Ed;:'
SECOND CHIEF. At the place where îhree footpaths meet oa
the way to Oshogbo.
ODEWALE.-At the place where three footp aths meet?
FIRST CHIEF. Yes, my lord.
THIRD CHIEF. On the way to Ede'
ODEWALE {impatient/y}. Why can't you people say one thing
and stick to it? Why, is everybody med? Once you said
the king was killed near Ede' next everyone talks of
Oshogbo, then Ede' then Oshogbo, Ede, Oshogbo,
Ede' Oshogbo-what's the matter?
Fl!lST CHIEF. The King was killed on the road to Oshogbo,
my lord, but the place was nearer to Ede than to
Oshogbo.
OJUOLA. At the place where three footpaths meet, one
leading to Oshogbo, one leading to Iwo and Ibadan,
and the third one going to Ile-Ife and-
ODEWALE. Enough! Will you give me time to think? What's
thematterwithyou ail, anyway?
OJUOLA [krieeling]. 1 beg of you. my lord, [ did not mean ·
to make Y<?U angry and
ODEWALE. When was he killed?
OJUOLA. My fonner husband?
ODEWALE. Who else are we talkinp 1 ' 'lUt?
OJUOLA [tearf ul/y]. My lord is so ...ngry 1 cannot even think-FIRST
CHIEF. ltwas the year before you came to us here.