Description

Femi Osofisan & Dexter Lyndersay THE PLAY OF KOLERA KOLEJ SUDDENLY WITHOUT WARNING, though the epidemic had been earlier reported in neighbouring countries, and had even made several deaths in Ghana and Gabon - without warning, cholera struck the College. "Within the first two weeks, the Bursar was dead and buried; the Vice-Chancellor (an Englishman) prudently went 'on study leave,' and the corpses of a few hundred students were burnt near the College Chapel under the joint supervision of the "Professor of Religious Studies and the College Doctor." "It was the sort of situation to bring a bad reputation to the campus. Council met and decided. Following their instructions, the acting Vice-Chancellor (another Englishman) invited the press in order to clarify the situation and dispel the rumours circulating in the town." "When the journalists had assembled...a curious thing happened. The Vice-Chancellor was suddenly seen to double up, so suddenly in fact that his chin hit the lectern — and, even before the journalists could record this spectacular manner of beginning a speech, he had straightened up again and just as suddenly, his arms spread out beside him like a bird about to take off. Cameras flashed at once. The Vice-Chancellor had definitely invented a novel form of rhetoric. And once again, he had done it... this time, as he came up again, arms outspread, he added a low growling rumble from somewhere low down under his academic gown. The journalists recorded fast: the Vice-Chancellor had added a subtle variation — he had farted." "And suddenly, from his mouth and his anus, strange hot liquids began to gush out, and the Vice-Chancellor began to dance violently like a prophet mounted by the spirit." "The porters and the messengers, I believe, were the first to run for it." This is how the novel, Kolera Kolej begins, and this play is the dramatization first produced by the late theatre director, Dexter Lyndersay, and later extensively reworked by the author, Femi Osofisan, himself. This satire of postcolonial political life in Africa will send you laughing for days — until you sober up, and think of the life of the victims, that is, of the life of all of us.