Consciousness, Literature and the Arts
Archive
Volume 11 Number 1, April 2010
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Consciousness, Criminality and Responses to Kuru (tortoise) in Ogoni Tales
by
Niger Delta University
Tales of Kuru (tortoise) are the most popular ones in Ogoni. They are about the trickster who is naughty, comic, treacherous, wise , murderous and crafty. I have wondered often why such an irresponsible character is given so much attention. This has led to this paper that dovetails into law, anthropology, history, sociology and African Oral Literature. I consider Lancaster’s Approach to Depth Psychology as an appropriate theory for the explication of the tales since it sheds light on characterization, text and innuendoes beyond the text (193-226) and quoting from relevant laws foreground character in Depth Psychology. Lancaster’s terms are used in the analysis of the tales to unearth the psychology of the trickster; they are put in quotation marks.
The tale “A Final Homecoming” is about the theft and death sentence passed on kuru. The judgment is reversed through wit and music. Kuru’s song performs the cathartic function of diffusing tension and releasing him from the wrath of the mob. There is disassociation of the tale from reality-the meaning conveyed negates the practice in the community. People are punished for stealing and not celebrated as heroes. However, I have said that tricksters seduce, triumph and attract people who praise and adore them (Ngaage 2002, 57-61). The trend dominates the political life of Nigeria; the Economic Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is battling with the excesses of political tricksters (Iwundu 2007, 109).
Okuguru is a tale as well as the name of an influential person in the community who prepares for the yaa manhood ceremony. He discloses his intention to kuru whose duplicity conceals his jealousy and the subsequent scheme of killing the cow. He uses the advantage of his small size to gain admittance into the stomach of the cow. The cow dies and the ceremony is terminated to the chagrin of Okuguru. This is a crime in Ogoni, Nigeria and other African countries – “a breach of a legal prohibition” (Dambazau 1996, 48; Mbiti 1969, 211).
Song comes to the service of the tale; it is used within the context for the revelation of the culprit.
Okuguru, Okuguru
Ye-ye Okuguru
I no longer graze
Ye-ye Okuguru
Kuru eats me up
Ye-ye Okuguru
I’ m dying, dying
Ye-ye Okuguru (Saro-Wiwa 1991,119)
In “Crime and Punishment,” Kuru rapes the wife of Kue. He is sentenced to death. The “phenomenality” is common to the trickster and is clearly incorporated into the “I – narrative.” He is vulnerable as an offender who is answerable to the law of the society. Ironically, the society is conscious of him and has uttered the punishment but the sentence is prolonged and changes to forgiveness. Moreover, heroic welcome is scheduled for his re-integration into the society. The dramatic action and sudden change avow that the law is flexible; it is influenced by personal traits, motivation and livelihood (Qadri 2005, 203). However, he is punished to deter offenders from becoming heroes (Saro-Wiwa 1991, 20).
Kuru is a character whose ego is influenced by his I D. The instinctual impulse informs his conscious tendency toward evil practices, even against the rigid regulation of the super-ego (Miller 1992, 372 - 378). This psychoanalytic explanation in psychology is akin to the legal interpretation of an impaired or a weak ego that results in social misdemeanor.
The kurus of social reality in Nigeria are political leaders who use the name of God arbitrarily even when they commit adultery, embezzle public funds, plot assassination and manipulate election results. They suffer from complexes which they conceal by manipulation and diplomatic sophistication.
In ‘The Scondrel,’ kuru is assisted by Hawk to fly and perch on a palm tree. They feast on ripe pulpy mass for a while before the latter is offended. He pleads with weaver bird to take him home. Also, he is offended; he drops him in a sea and is salvaged miraculously by a fish. Kuru deceives him and kills other fishes also. Freud’s primary process is at work in this tale (Lancaster 2004, 219). Kuru’s desires are irrational; they permeate the unconscious, flowing in the primary stream that negates communal acceptance. There is a glaring difference between communal thought and practice on one hand and the individual existential level and practice on the other hand (Tschumi 1978, 119).
A picture of deceit is glaring and jumps at the reader from the tale – deceit 1 of the Hawk, deceit 2 of the weaver bird and deceit 3 of the fishes form a picture of associationisms (Meyer 2005, 16). The trend is linked to the deception of his wife, friends, business associates, fellow competitors, in-laws, subjects and others.
The deceiver graduates from being trickery and is admitted into the class of murder. He murders the fishes and carries them in a pot, wailing that his mother has passed away. The trick disarms animals from knowing the content of the pot. Only monkey discovers the truth at the end. The circle of deceit runs its full course and terminates in selfishness.
A blank copy of a work is perhaps better than the hardcopy for example Woolf’s assertion of the blank copy of the Lighthouse as her best written work ( Crapoulet qtd. in Woolf 2005,290). This refers to the strain towards the expression without language – a means of making meaning direct and vivid. Thoughts are difficult to discern except in “intentionality 2”, where there is correspondence between words and meaning in a work as the inner conscious stream of thoughts expressed in the works of Virginia Wolf and Henry James.
The tale is brief unlike the novel. Only events and actions of characters are depicted. Kuru’s utterances do not foreshadow his deceit. His thoughts are sublimated within his mind; only observable character traits are accessible for evaluation (Iwundu 2007, 43). Yet, Kuru’s character is popular in Ogoni as the trickster that writers strain to express through language. The tale is like the paradoxical unwritten work of Wolf discussed earlier; it jumps out on the screen of oral tradition.
The legal response to an adult who murders - stopping the breathe of a person –is death. This Nigerian situation may be applicable in other parts of the world. The flexibility of the law occurs when someone terminates another’s life through “grave and sudden provocation”.
A slightly different unwritten tale is “Tortoise and Lion”. Tortoise is a better hunter than lion. The earlier steals the animals trapped by the latter; he is caught and detained by a dummy–trap. He pleads guilty and is forgiven by tortoise. The stronger animal, but less intelligent king of animals, enters into another transaction with him. He is murdered. Kuru runs away from home and hides in a forest by the hut of Gbe. There he modulates his voice and sings a song of investigation, demanding to know the communal response to the person who has killed lion. Passers–by respond in a choral song that the penalty is death.
The communal consciousness derives from the belief that life is sacred and no one has the right to take another’s life. “The aspectuality” of communal consciousness and the context are factual; dialectical relation exists between the tale and the reality in the community.
Stylistic rendition of the tale has a stamp of peculiarity. Prose narrative and song synchronise in aesthetic expression of the ugly. Two crimes are committed simultaneously – stealing and murder. The earlier attracts a minor penalty of returning the stolen property and paying fine, while the former is death.
The tale “Tortoise, Dog and Antelope” is about a trade –by-labour between three animals. They agree to weed the farm of each other beginning with Dog and ending with Tortoise. The animals work in the morning and end in the evening. Tortoise turns up at an hour to the end of the work each day, but starts in the morning on the day of his own work. The animals refuse to help him cross the river by his farm. He is reported dead. His initial motif is hidden under a “concealing blind” that is not foreshadowed by words in the tale until there is progression in the “I –narrative”. He fails to play his role in the collective bargaining (Gelhaus and Oldham 1996, 77) agreed upon before contractual labour
Nalley’s The Adventures of Kuru is a collection of six tales that begins with the stealing by force of Ozim’s food, progresses to others as the chase of the culprit, committing other crimes as provocation, greed and violence. The stream of crimes reveals the true nature of Kuru, however, he is forgiven at last.
In the first tale “kuru and Ozim”, kuru visits Ozim in his home where a merry party takes place; Ozim and the wife doze off and sleep. He uses the opportunity to eat the food of Ozim; he runs away on hearing the voice of Saloeloe.
Kayode is quoted by Iwundu as saying that stealing by deception is punishable by three years imprisonment (Iwundu 2007, 20 -21). An additional offence is the unlawful detention of Ozim and his wife in their own home; he ties them with a rope to a piece of furniture. The House Arrest is a grievous crime since they are innocent citizens who are punished for their charity.
In “kuru in Fairy land”, kuru runs away from home with members of his family for fear of Ozim’s wrath. They are detained for trespassing.
kuru experiences nemesis for the crime committed against Ozim. Nemesis is conceptualized metaphysically in Ogoni ontology; the practical realisation is through ancestors who act as the police guiding homes and, gods
and goddesses who monitor and enforce moral laws ( Mbiti 1969, 83-85). It is a fundamental belief that retributive justice is enforced by them.
The tale “kuru and kite” is about the trial of kuru. It is an irony to be tried for looking like a criminal: “you look crafty, cunning and mischievous. But we will give you a chance to defend yourself” ( Saro-Wiwa 1991, 20). The criminal has his own psychological character traits –he lies, denies ever committing a crime, has a sweet tongue, stammers, evades looking into the face of an investigator, smiles hypocritically, is impatient and inconsistent (Iwundu 2007, 26 - 32). The traits are “slippages” that are buried in the mind but show on the face and the body and can be read psychologically.
Good readers can read the stream of negative behavioural traits through insight –facial and body movements help give cues of thoughts and actions of the trickster. Some characters express doubt when they hear Kuru making remarks that conceal the truth or deny the truth. When he travels suddenly from the houses of friends without spending the specified days of visit agreed upon; when he changes plans suddenly and abandons friends. His friends seek to know why he smiles sarcastically, whether he has cheated others.
He is delivered by kite that snatches him from the claws of death and is flown onto a ripe palm-tree. The trickster cheats in every situation.
The archetypal complex of cheating in the trickster is an accepted global abnormal syndrome; it is a recurrent feeling which manifests in various ways and is expressed differently in various traditions. The Ghanaian trickster, spider, has been conceptualized dramatically in the practical theatre of Ananesegoro by Sutherland (1985). Ananse, the trickster, presents his daughter to several persons for marriage at the same time. Suitors give her cash and material wealth; he makes a fortune from them through wit. He gives her hand in marriage at last to a wealthy man. He succeeds through wit.
The above situation is slightly different from the Ogoni tale about a context between Kuru and other suitors, who seek the hand of the most beautiful lady in marriage. The suitor who shall marry her must know her name, which is concealed from all suitors. Kuru hides on a tree and watches her gossip during which she calls the names of her friends unconsciously without knowing about the eavesdropper. He succeeds in knowing her name; he marries her having won the context. There are variants of this tale in other ethnic groups in Nigeria.
Kuru does not commit crimes alone. He is an anti –social character who harms helpers as in the next tale, ‘kuru meets young Rascal’. He is fed on his run-away trip from Ozim by young Rascal. He eats voraciously and pinches Iberi’s buttocks. The violence done young Rascal’s sister is an anti-social behaviour and a crime (Qadri 2005, 492). The motivation is not difficult to determine nor the motif; he is the archetypal trickster whose dominant trait is cheating. The disassociation from the crime and the favour done him enforce the complex syndrome. He is wise and foolish; his wisdom earns him favour, saves him and earns him friends quickly, as the situation shows, and his foolishness makes him destroy friendliness, degrading him to the status of a criminal.
The trickster suffers in various ways – detention, imprisonment, exile and death. He is humanised in “kuru and Bombom”; he confesses his crimes to him and others he has offended. He says:
I must confess that I have been wicked to
friend and foe. I have lied and cheated
and done all sorts of evil to whomever
I have met (Nalley 2003, 49).
Transformation takes place in one’s consciousness when one seeks the divine; one’s level of consciousness rises to pure consciousness, when one discards selfish and irrelevant motives, actions and practices. Although kuru is incapable of total transformation of the kind, he becomes reasonable and accepts policing by communal consciousness.
He is received by the community in “The Return of kuru”. He reconciles with Ozim the lion and chief of the kingdom. All the animals in the kingdom rejoice on his return and re-integrate him into the community as the prodigal. He is not celebrated as a hero of culture from whom good character traits should be emulated by members of the community. It would have meant moral degeneration and degradation of the society; rather it shows the capacity of the society to accept and accommodate reformed characters.
The punitive measures melted out to kuru have social relevance in the Ogoni community, Nigeria, Africa and other continents. Laws regulate individuals, curb their excesses and condition them to live in consonance with the manners and practices that uphold decent behaviour and peaceful co-existence. Whether at the metaphysical or existential level, the ontology of the community is breathing consciously its values into the members, who work in consonance with communal consciousness or group mind, the regulator, or fall short of it because of individual differences.
In conclusion, kuru is a wise animal in Ogoni Oral Literature that gets out of trouble using his wit. Yet he is a trickster, whose wisdom degenerates to craftiness, causing problems for enemies as well as friends. We can emulate his positive wisdom not his fraudulent practices. There are various responses to his crimes which are determined by gravity, occasionally, intervention and attitude. He is our own oral creation, a verisimilitude of the experiences we have garnered in our world. He is as old as the community – centuries old. Yet he has social relevance to old communal and new Nigerian laws; the social relevance of the tales is linked to the political, social or religious hero, who defrauds the public and becomes laudable through giving gifts, contributing to communal and national projects. Indeed, Nigerians are fearless and realistic people who curb the excesses of political, social and religious tricksters. The old consciousness of centuries is a relevant stream from which creative artists and historians draw; sociologists, lawyers, criminologists, anthropologists and historians can create mental rivulets from the tales into their fields for various research purposes.
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