THE RETURN OF THE GOLDEN SWORD

By DIMABO ORUAMA

The epic drama enunciates King Dokubo’s caprice and insensitivity to his subjects and the royal family, who sees no injustice in his acts. Deluded by anger, the King is thrown into obscure wisdom, in choosing the heir to the throne among his three sons. He wishes to know who loves him most, as a prerequisite to succeed him. 

The youngest, Ibibo, finds himself in the King’s gambit when he tells his father, that he loves him more than the common salt. The latent truth ventilated the King’s fiery emotion and the Prince is banished. Father and son swear on cross-swords to meet like enemies anywhere in the world. 

Ibibo’s exit forces Lolo, his fiancée, out of her parents’ home with defiance to look for him against all odds, and tells her father that, "when a woman loves a man she builds a temple in her heart and worships him." The two innocent sacrificial lambs of families’ perennial feud struggle in the throes to the dictates of providence - a love saga of faith and trust that outweighs the romance of our time. 

The theme depicts and elucidates man’s fate and destiny in the arms of Nemesis. 

An African setting - Tantalizing, breathtaking and the end begins the story.

• Language: English
• Publisher: DIMABO ORUAMA
• Release date: Sep 26, 2017
• ISBN: 9781386896487

DIMABO ORUAMA

Dimabo Oruama was born in Kula, Rivers State, Nigeria on the 25th of April, 1954. He was educated at Nyemoni Grammer School, Abonnema and Rivers State University of Science and Technology. Port Harcourt. Although he was imbed with Science and Mathematics, his passion for indiscriminate approach to academics evoked an innate creative ingenuity to work on The Return of the Golden Sword between 1980 and 1983 while studying Quantity Surveying in the University. He served in the Rivers State Civil Service Commission as a career civil servant. He was appointed Commissioner, representing Rivers State on the governing board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) from 2005-2009. He is a Chartered Quantity Surveyor.

Book preview

DEDICATED TO THOSE

WHOSE HAPPINESS NEVER fades in the face of ordeals

of life, eat self-consolation when hungry, drink

optimism when thirsty and courageously

smile at the threats of misfortune

in their struggles.

And

MY EFFUSIVE THANKS TO

God Almighty, who stirred the inspiration,

guided the ideas and directed my pen

in making this work possible

MISSION STATEMENT

"When we surrender to our creator

In a deep sleep that confirms our exit

FROM THE CATAFALQUE to the shoulders of men

The image is lowered to the catacombs

While our journey in life is a mirage

But immortalizing our names

Makes us giants on the shoulders of time

–– Dimabo Oruama

The Return of the Golden Sword

This is a book of books.

–– Dr. Gabriel Okara

A COMPENDIUM OF OUR time that proffers an elixir

for socio-political conflicts and resolutions.

–– Sir Earnest Agbani Briggs

Intriguing. Oruama carves a niche at the top

echelon of play craftsmanship with a blast!

–– Zubairu Jide Atta

An insight into predestination, justice and

forgiveness.

–– Prof. Anyamebo K.

Okorosaye-Orubite

Author’s Note

THE RETURN OF THE GOLDEN Sword is entirely a work of fiction. The play has its presumed

locale in the ancient Kula kingdom in the Kalabari enclave of Rivers State in Nigeria. The

names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are independent works of the playwright’s

imagination.  Any resemblance to actual events, localities, persons, living or dead is

coincidental. The play has been performed and recorded on stage at the Muson Centre,

Lagos; Presidential Hotels and Rivers State Government House, Port Harcourt.

The play has been used as main text in a Ph.D. dissertation at the University of Jos, Nigeria.

Characters

DOKUBO  –THE KING OF Obia.

MINABO  – First son of the king

TOMBO  –Second son of the king.

IBIBO  –Third son of the king

AMAKIRI  –Paramount chief of Obia.

SOKARI  –The chief’s friend.

FAYE  -Servant

GBOBO  -Servant

INE  –The king’s wife and the mother of the three sons.

ADABA  –Chief Amakiri’s wife and Lolo’s mother.

LOLO  –The chief’s only daughter and Ibibo’s fiancée.

OBIA  - Town in Opu-Se Clan

KONGOMA -Town in Opu-se Clan

Kingmakers

Elders 

An old woman

Priest of the gods

A lead and fourteen virgins

A hunter

Other rulers, chiefs, drummers, messengers.

Children, men, women and audience

The ghost of Ibibo’s mother

PROLOGUE

ALL ACTIVITIES HERE in the prologue take place in Opu-Se clan, comprising fourteen villages. The

lights effects and the stage designs are subject to directorial instructions and cultural

background. The songs listed at the end of the play are to be applied as inserted intermittently

and instructed in the text, to be rendered by the village choir when and where necessary.

Greatness sometimes moves hand in glove with men’s innate folly that leads them to their

hamartia, mindless that leadership is seated on a tripod. Soon after King Dokubo’s enthronement

Obia witnesses a calamitous flood which threatens to ravage the community, putting the town in a

topsy-turvy. The grand situation precipitates an exodus for those who are adversely affected.

Though the remote cause is unknown, the governance of Obia, like the other communities is not

alien to the dictates of the gods of Opu-Se clan.  The people’s cries inundate the air, for solution.

The victims’ only alternative is to leave in their numbers, with lamentations, questioning the deity

of the land, what they have done to deserve the untold suffering. The people sing song number

one, Amatemeso (Deity) as they leave. Some walk across fords with their luggage and others in

fleet of canoes.

The saddening lamentations of the helpless masses cause great concern to the Monarch, their

focal point for an intervention. King Dokubo is momentarily worried, that the town would soon

be deserted.

During his ascension to the throne, he vowed to take up the cudgel on behalf of Obia. Now the

clarion call has come to act to the letters. He owns up to the offence, believed to have been

committed by his ancestors. It is revealed that the gods of the sea are angry and need to be

propitiated by some sacrifice. It is common knowledge that there cannot be a leader without a

people but there could be a people without a leader. 

King Dokubo, the mouthpiece of the people, evinces that the onus of the solution lies on him.

He calls the palace chiefs, elders and the high priest to let tradition follow its path to mitigate the

cause of the flood. Leading them, he makes stern pronouncement to the sea gods, that if the flood

recedes and the people return he will make sacrifice to appease them. The gods acted promptly

and Obia is saved from the ravages of the flood. Words are sent across to those who took solace

in other communities to return to their native land. The people return hilariously, with peaceful

song. Day in, night out, their voices penetrate Obia as they return with song number two, Deinte

Seri Minji (Peaceful flow Tide).

WIND OF EUPHORIA BLOWS across the land and the people now find peace, enjoying the benevolence

of the gods for years.

As pains of hard work are easily forgotten when success prevails, King Dokubo quickly forgets

the cause of the adversary to Obia as the people returned. Amidst the euphoria comes another

dark cloud, hovering over Obia, resulting from renewed anger of the gods. The flood recrudesces.

The rivers, the sources of the people’s livelihood are now devoid of fishes, and sudden deaths

and starvation have become the guiding angels in their lives. Diffidence and fear take control of

their activities, having envisaged another cataclysm.

It is revealed through the high priest that this is a mere visitation of the gods. That the king

should make the promised sacrifice to reciprocate their gesture without delay. The king is told

that the consequences will be more severe on the royal household if he fails.

A mantle of rulership often turns to a mountain of power on which the ruler stands to spite the

ruled. King Dokubo, principled, dares the message from the gods, and weds to his

institutionalised ego and pride, flouting the tradition to the detriment of the people. The people he

did promise to defend and protect are no longer factors in his calculations, forgetting that his roof

is also under the pregnant cloud.

As he damns the consequences his palace turns to a trouble pot. Irate youths, the fruits of new

generation, whose future is threatened, riotously take their protest to the nooks and crannies like a

moving forest, with branches of tree over their heads. They besiege the palace, demanding that

the king should in person perform the sacrifice to save the people.

The chiefs and elders led by Chief Amakiri, the king’s arch-enemy, throng the palace to

persuade him to find lasting solution to the situation but the irascible king remains obdurate,

spiting fire and brimstone. The combined force of both the youths and the elders instigated

another wave of anger in him. He stands his grounds, that he will not make the sacrifice.

The queen is worried. She tries to convince him to change from his despicable attitude toward

his people that has brought this horrendous problem to them but he places her and all others of the

same opinion among the fifth-columnists. As his  anger against her increases every minute, so his

Reviews for THE RETURN OF THE GOLDEN SWORD

[Zubairu Ibrahim · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

If you haven't read this book then you haven't read anything about governance. This factional book is a veritable tool that enables insight and understanding in humorous form,the intrigues in the corridors of lower. A true satire.
Some key milestones for me?
The moment that the King realised that indeed he had been wrong to doubt his son's love for him. Also,when they both met at the other kingdom where his son had become king.
The Asian world find this interesting.