the diviner by eguriase s. m. okaka
GURIA CONCEPT & BOOKS
PRESENTS
THE DIVINER
BY
EGURIASE S. M. OKAKA
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ACTS 1
(In the King’s palace the elders are seen seated dejectedly as
the king enters from his inner chamber. All rise in greetings as he sits and
they do too.)
King: Speak now my elders!
Okolo: We are
troubled your majesty!
Okoma: The people are dying my king.
Okolo: Livestocks are dying in quantum , my king.
King: Hit
the nail on the head and stop talking in riddles.
Otolo: I
apologize your majesty! If my fellow elders speak in riddles it is because we
are both dejected and confused. It beats me hollow that nothing has been done
concerning the drought that has been plaguing us for some time now.
Otulu: When
it all started we thought it was ordinary. For two seasons now the heavens have
refused to drop their showers on us. Crops are dying, livestock is dying too. We,
the farmers have become jobless. The Hunter’s festival this year did not hold
because there is no animal to celebrate with. They have all ran away to the
neighboring bushes or villages. Our hunters now go to other villages to hunt. In
fact, your majesty something needs to be done urgently. Your barn is also empty;
your storehouse is the same, your majesty. Our situation is not ordinary the gods must
know something.
King: I
thought as much Otulu. We will not waste time again we shall send for THE
DIVINER at once. Otulu, goes to him and tells him the sun that shines in Edei
kingdom wants him. (Exit Otulu immediately)
Okoma: Your
majesty! The village palm-wine taper just died yesterday.
Okolo: Rumours
say he fell from the palm tree because he had not eaten for days.
King: W-h-a-t!
(Enters
the Diviner and Otulu)
Diviner: Your
majesty! The gods greats you! May epilepsy be bedmates of those who want to
spoil your reign?
All: Ise!
Diviner: May
your buttock last long on the throne of your fathers!
All: Ise!
King: What
are the gods saying?
Diviner: (sits down and divines. He shakes his head
to the amazement of all present) Abomination! (Shakes his head again) Abomination! Your majesty the land has
been polluted with innocent blood.
King: who
are the culprits, my Diviner?
Diviner: (He
looks close to his divination)
She is silent your majesty.
King: Silent!
Then go for appeasement immediately.
Diviner: I
shall go my king. But before the sun goes down gather all the villagers in the
palace. We shall use the option provided by the gods.
King: Go, my Diviner. (Exit diviner. To elders). Call me the Town-crier!
FADE
OUT
ACT
2
(The
Town-crier is seen delivering the king’s message around the village with his
gong)
Town-crier: (Bits the gong severally) The good people of Edei kingdom!
The good people of Edei king! Listen carefully: The king wants you to gather at
the palace before the sun goes to sleep. Both old and young, rich and poor,
male and female, good and bad! Failure to come will attract banishment. So do
not try to disobey this order. Each one tells one. (The message fades into the
distance as some villagers were seen
talking in low tones wondering what the king wants to say this time around)
Old Man: When the king calls like this you
know there is fire on the mountain. Well, the drought is enough trouble already.
Villager 1: Wonders
shall never end in this village. We are still waiting for the day the lizard
will give birth to a wall-gecko.
Villager 2: May
that day never comes.
Villager 3: Ise!
Old Man: May
the lizard never give birth to a wall-gecko.
Villager 3: Ise!
Fade
Out
ACTS
3
(In
the King’s palace, the king and his elders were seen already sits waiting
anxiously for the
Diviner
to come. The villagers are all gathered talking in whispers to one another not
know what the
Throne speak next)
King: I thank you all for coming! We are
all waiting patiently for the arrival of the diviner who is on his way here. (The
diviner promptly enters looking strangely at the crown of people. He then throws
his concussion upward which landed on the head of Ebi and Ebiba a couple among them. The diviner shakes his head to the surprise of all who were present
in the palace)
Diviner: Your majesty! The gods have just
revealed the culprits. Ebi and Ebiba confess what you did in the dark. (They
both falls on their knees crying)
Ebi: It was the woman I married. The
devil’s handiwork and hers.
Ebiba: We
buried a ten-year-old child alive the son of the late palm-wine tapper that was
declared missing few days before the demised of his father.
Villagers: Abomination! Abomination!
(Mime and muffled cries rip a through the
audience)
Diviner: Why?
Ebi: Because we want to get rich quick
then a native doctor from the nearby clan told us to sacrifice a ten-year-old
for the money ritual that we would be rich soon after we carry out the sacrifice.
The next day as we were weeding on the farm we saw this child hunting for
games, we decided to use him as prey. We killed the child?
Villagers: Ummm!
Ebi: Since that day we lost the peace we
once enjoyed. The money we were looking for did not come. Once again we became
poorer than before. When we went back to complain to the native doctor we were
told he died a day before we arrived. The money we were looking for ended up in
futility that added to the sadness and sorrows we had already. We decided to
run away from the village but each time we try we always meet a strange figure
at the boundary between the neighboring village and ours carrying a long whip
whipping us to go back.
King: What do the gods say? (Angrily)
My patience runs thin!
Diviner: It
is death, your majesty. (He goes into a
trance numbering some inaudible words to himself) Since they have defied
the land the goddess says they should be sacrificed on the same spot where they
buried the child or else the village will face more drought and strange death.
Villagers (Shouting) No! No! We have suffered enough! We
can’t die for what we know nothing about. Let Ebi and Ebiba pay for their sins.
We can’t die for the sins of another.
King: Calm down my people, calm down! He who invites the rains should
get ready for the thunder as well. Ebi and Ebiba lead the way. (They
follow forcefully with the help of the king’s guard)
THE END
THE DIVINER
BY
EGURIASE S. M. OKAKA
ACTIVITIES:
TRAINING
WRITERS
DRAMA
LECTURES
DRAMA
DIRECTING
SCRIPT
WRITNING (ETC)
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