AFRICAN DRAMA
DELE CHARELY: The Blood Of Stranger
Examine Wara’s role in the development of the plot
Explanation
Wara is the main female character in the play. She is portrayed as attractive and a seductive dancer. We meet her early in the play when Kindo attempts to drag her into the sacred cave for sex and she resists the attempt. But for her, Soko would have come upon them in the cave. Both could have been charged with sacrilege. That they were not found out at this point advances the plot. As Kindo's girlfriend, Wara is naïve about the intrigues of the King's court. While Kindo jealously protects her, she is, at the same time, exposed to the machinations of Maligu and Soko in their attempt to get at Kindo. The plot is further complicated when Whitehead appears, lusts after her and attempts to rape her after Maligu, Parker and Soko abduct her. She beats off Whitehead's charge on her and runs away. Her escape from Whitehead, later helped by Soko, averts an early and inevitable confrontation between Whitehead and Kindo. Wara also plays the role of the sacrificial lamb that never was. Though targeted for sacrifice by Soko and Maligu because she qualifies as a stranger and, presumably, a virgin, she lives.
The plot unravels when Kindo asserts that Ware is not a virgin and the body on the sacrificial stone is not Ware's but Parker's whom he has killed. Kindo also kills Whitehead who has attempted to mar his relationship with Wara, as well as destroy Mando land's customary practices. Wara, in the end, proves that people can manipulate custom for their own interests by revealing to Kindo that she is not a stranger in Mando land,
Points to note:
(1) Ware's attractive personality, her skill as a seductive dancer and her relationship with Kindo.
(2) The cave scene and her presence of mind which enables her to extricate herself from the charge of committing sacrilege.
(3) Whitehead's lechery and her escape from being raped, which delays and complicates the play's denouement.
(4) Her being offered as a sacrificial lamb that never was, being viewed as a stranger, a virgin and Kindo's woman.
(5) Her proof that she's an indigence of Mando land, which shows how people attempt to exploit custom for selfish interests.