Shango De Ima

It was difficult for me to pin down this play. I wasn’t really sure where the Yoruba culture stood on women’s rights. I’m not sure if this was the central theme of the play but it sure seemed that Shango treated all this women like crap. And that wasn’t what bothered me the most. The most troubling for me was that he didn’t seem to be punished very well. Olofi didn’t punish him. Shango didn’t even meet his death at the hand Ogun. He simply battled him forever and neither of them was the victor. To be honest I thought the play was heading towards Shango’s death. They kept hinting at his death through prophecy and continual comments referring his stay of execution after his father tried to kill him and eat him. I wonder if this is just me reacting to the otherness of the culture. I may be in a privileged culture that makes an attempt to see and treat women as more than the Mother (Obatala), the wife (Obba), and the Whore (Oshun).
By the end of the play it seems that none of the women have made a positive leap forward in way shape or form. Obba: “I was blind and dumb when I met Shango de Ima. I submitted to him in silence so as not to annoy him, and I wish to remain silent so I will continue to be both a pure and faithful woman to my husband.” WTF, you cut off your ears for the man and he still treated you poorly.
Shango’s punishment is that his power in cyclical? That doesn’t make any sense. This play kept reminding me of the Greek Pantheon of gods and their philandering gods. Probably because we just read The Bacchae. The Greek would often use their stories and worship of the gods as a way to explain happenings in their lives. An earthquake was the work Hephaestus at his iron work. Zeus messes around behind Hera’s back and that’s just the way things are. I imagine that this culture works in a similar way. However, I am not sure the exact purpose of this story. What exactly does it teach to its culture beyond female subservience? I’m not really sure how I would use this play as a Tool for a World Theatre. How do I use it a tool?