AFRICAN DRAMA
KOBINA SEKYE: The Blinkards
How is African Life presented in the play?
Explanation
The Blinkards is about how people perceive the way of life of the African and that of the European. One viewpoint is that the European way is superior to the African.
In presenting African life as not only adequate but also appropriate for the African environment, Sekyi uses satire which makes Mrs. Borofosem and her condemnation of African life look ludicrous. The position of Mrs. Borofosem, members of the Cosmopolitan Club and others like them is that African life is crude. Mainly through the influence of African Mrs. Borofosem, characters like Okadu and Miss Tsiba adopt this stance towards African culture.
Mrs. Borofosem and her ilk assume that the things that Europeans do are what should be done and that the way they do them is the way things should be done. For this reason, she does and sees things through an obviously faulty perception of the European life she so highly extols. She naturally begins her attack on African culture at home. To her husband's chagrin, he must not sing Fanti songs! He must drop cigar ash on the carpet and not wear cloth. He is under obligation to kiss his wife at random and call her `cluckie' because "Mrs Gush my friend at Seaborne on the East Coast is always addressed by her husband as 'cluckie.
Through Mrs. Borofosem influence over Miss Tsiba and the ahyentarfo Mrs. Borofosem decrees that European dress be preferred to African cloths and African food and drink be regarded as unwholesome for civilized persons. It is ironical that Mrs. Borofosem herself does an about-turn to embrace African life, acknowledging that her earlier attitude has been a mistake.
Mr Onyimdze, Nana Katawerwa and Na Sompa and the atamfurafo hold a contrary view. For them, an African must look like and be African.
Mr Onyimdze is attached to his culture. However, he accommodates the European way. He does not reject European dressing; he wears his lawyer's robe and regards it as appropriate for his calling. However, after work, he takes it off, preferring African clothes. His diet comprises both European and African foods, hence when Miss Tsiba and Mrs. Borofosem visit Mr Onyimdze in his home, Miss Tsiba may choose between a cake and boredzentotoe.
The Mrs. Borofosem and Onyimdze factions clash continually until the advocates of African culture prevail through Onyimdze's winning of the court case for Nana Katawerwa. All in ail, African life is presented as adequate and suitable for the Africans. It is now left to Mr Borofosem, who has not defended African culture that strongly to admit that "Really, Onyimdze was right all along ..."