About the Author: John Pepper Clark-Bekeredemo was born on the 6th of April 1935. He is a Nigerian poet and playwright who has published his work as J.P. Clark and John Pepper Clark. Clark is most noted for his poetry collection “Casualties” which was published in USA by Africana Publishing Corporation in 1970 and which illustrates the horrendous events of the Nigeria-Biafra war. He also has a number of poetry collections to his name, including;
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A Reed in the Tide (Longmans, 1965)
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A Decade of Tongues (Longmans, Drumbeat Series, 1981)
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State of the Union (1981)
General Analysis: Song of a Goat is John Pepper Clark-Bekeredemo’s first play and contains one act with four scenes. The play portrays the early Old Testament as well as Classical Greek blood sacrifice rites with the mention of a goat sacrifice at its climax. The play resembles a classical tragedy and its language is often in parable and riddle form. The characters in the play are common people but they are depicted with dignity.
The setting is Delta Province, Nigeria, in a small village where the protagonist, Zifa, a man of property, is impotent.
Synopsis/Plot Summary: The play’s first “movement” opens with the masseur questioning Zifa’s wife, Ebiere, about her barrenness. The masseur asks if Zifa has a mistress and Ebiere responds that her husband does not have a mistress and at this point, the masseur realizes Zifa’s sexual deficiency. The masseur suggests that Ebiere have a child by Zifa’s younger brother, Tonya, something that has become acceptable to them, traditionally. Zifa’s aunt, Orukorere, warns them that if Ebiere sleeps with Tonya, there would be misfortune.
Ebiere rejects the offer and her husband rejects it even more vehemently, expressing his intention to hope that his condition would improve soon.
Tonya, however, does seduce the frustrated Ebiere. When Zifa discovers the infidelity, he flies into a rage and ritually slaughters a goat and forces his brother, Tonya, to put the goat’s head in a pot that is too small for it – symbolizing his illicit act with Ebiere. In his fury, Zifa contemplates killing his brother but Tonya takes his own life by hanging himself, in shame.
Soon after Tonya’s death, a neighbour reports of Zifa’s sleep like walk to the sea to drown himself. News also gets out that Ebiere miscarried.
In the closing of the play, the masseur returns to act as the choral leader and his final words provide an epitaph on the disaster.
Themes
Song of a Goat is almost a classical tragedy. Added to the mode of classic Greek tragedy are the traditions, myths, riddles and metaphors, indigenous to African folk drama. In African drama, these characteristics are both classic and modern. The play has most of the techniques of classic drama: foreshadowing (Orukorere’s prophecy in the first movement); sacrifice (Zifa’s ironic sacrifice of the goat); heroism (Tonya’s atonement by his suicide); metaphor (the use of the word “house” for Ebiere’s womb); gods (the divinity of the sea and its spokesperson, Orukorere); pride (Zifa’s refusal to accept his infertility); and redemption (Zifa’s sacrificing himself to the sea gods).
The classical theme of women’s supposed infertility is displayed in the person of Ebiere, who, like Caesar’s wife, Calpurnia, appears unable to bear children. Like Julius Caesar, Zifa refuses to acknowledge his own impotence. Zifa states, “Meanwhile I may regain my power. . . . Is it my fault I cannot lift up my lifeless hand?” In reference to Ebiere’s womb, Zifa declares, “I will not give up my piece of land.”
The masseur, a natural confidant of the people of the village, and a parental figure, attempts without success to convince Zifa that he must be a mature person and accept his failure to procreate: “One learns to do without the masks he no longer wears. They pass on to those behind.” The masseur’s advice foreshadows Tonya’s surrogate fatherhood. Like Oedipus, Zifa has consulted all the other “experts,” but to no avail. Zifa’s hubris will not allow him to admit that he has been drained of his manhood, for that admission can rob him of his masculinity and thus kill his spirit. As a classic tragic hero, he contributes to his own destruction.
Many other themes of African drama are revealed in this play. Among them are the conflict between the young and the old, rejection by oneself and others, symbolism taken from folklore, and the problem of sterility.
