Travails of the female gender, Michael Olatunbosun |

The play: “Morounmubo: Beauty from Ashes (2019, Winepress Ibadan),” is written by Yemi Ajagbe. The playwright, Yemi Ajagbe, studied at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State and University of Benin, Edo State. She is a prolific writer and poet. She has to her name: “The Triumph of Childhood Trials,” a novella, and a collection of short stories, titled: “King Little Finger and other stories.”  

The play is a commentary on the travails of the female gender in a society plagued by the sting of patriarchy. It discusses themes of physical and emotional abuse suffered by the female gender and the collective silence that fuels these strands of abuse. 

In this play we meet Tanwa and Morounmubo, mother and child, in a dialogue in which Morounmubo laments the atrocities of men in relation to her mother’s present unsavoury situation. 

Morounmubo swears to avenge her mother’s sorry state, blaming men for rape, violence, child marriage, female genital mutilation and general discrimination against women. 

But Tanwa’s mother tells her not to hate but to love. Not to blame others for all problems, saying: “There is no excuse for failure.”

Of course we learn from the play that Tanwa is the only female child of her parents, Adisa and Jenrola. We read that Adisa had threatened to throw her out of the house if she failed to give him a female child after six male children. So Tanwa finally arrives.

We read from this play Morounmubo that Adisa over-pampers the child Tanwa to the extent that even as a five year old girl, her father makes her lie on his chest. And at age 12, when her mother corrects her, Adisa beats her and compels her to apologise to Tanwa, her own daughter. 

The play is a lens into the unspoken, yet dehumanising experience that is visited on the female child, especially an incestuous relationship aided by a mother. In this play, an over pampered child, Tanwa, is not allowed to go to school. Instead her father, Adisa volunteers to be her home teacher. Even at age 13. But the twist in the whole matter is that father and daughter are now locked in an incestuous relationship. However, their incestuous activity is discovered by Jenrola, and in the course of their altercation, Jenrola stabs her husband with a knife, and he dies. 

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So Tanwa is now in the city with her brother, Tade. And everywhere Tanwa turns, trouble is always waiting. So she falls into the deceptive hands of Durojaye, and the betrayal of Mr Mohammed, her English language teacher who volunteers to help her improve her English, but turns out to be a brute. 

The play also highlights the commodification of the female gender and the lack of consequences for criminality. Honourable Felix picks her up in her unconscious state, a consequence of the violation she suffers in the hands of Mohammed. Tanwa’s brother, Tade and Hon Felix reach an agreement to marry Tanwa off to Felix, even without her consent. 

In the house of Hon Felix, she sees the devil in him. He is a combination of a paedophile, a sadist, and brutal human. She ends up killing him before walking out of the house. She escapes from there and lands into the predatory hands of Sola, whose mother operates a brothel. But after bouts of sexual exploitation and slavery, Tanwa is sent packing once again.

Afterwards, Tanwa chanced upon Mosunmola, a childhood friend, who is in town from the United States of America. Mosunmola is concerned about Tanwa and her way of life. So she counsels Tanwa to turn a new leaf, and find a niche for herself in the modelling business.

As a 100 level student of the university, Tanwa bumps into Dele, a final year student. He offers her an accommodation in his place as she is unable to secure one from the school. But in the end, it ends up in a brawl and an unwanted pregnancy.

In this play, Mosunmola and her husband take Tanwa with them to the United States where she now meets Dapo, a writer who decides to marry her, even with her pregnancy. 

In a dramatic twist, it turns out that Dapo is the brother of Dele, the man whose pregnancy Tanwa is carrying. And the world comes crashing down on her.

The play, Morounmubo, is a five-act play, and it discusses some themes and motifs like the dark repercussions of gender based violence, incest, and societal penchant for patriarchy, among other things. And it is beautifully written for the delight of all lovers of books. 

. Olatunbosun can be reached via 08023517565 (SMS and WhatsApp only) and miketunbosun74@gmail.com.

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