Gathering of the tribes

 

                        A review by Bayo Ogunmupe

     The Gathering of the tribes is the first full length novel by the attorney at law Evans Ufeli of the Lagos Bar Association, Nigeria. It is published in 2018 by Winepress Publishing, an imprint of Noirledge Limited, Ibadan, Nigeria. It has eleven chapters, 142 pages, with praises from various critics including a winner of the Nigeria Prize for Literature. The lead character and protagonist of the book is Ike Ibe who leads his group of progressive patriots sworn to bringing reforms to their town, Anieze. Their focus is that the public good and  prosperity of the town shall be the purpose of governance in the community.

     But this noble ideal of living is vehemently opposed by the diehard political establishment whose stocking trade is embezzlement and contract selling. In the ensuing battle of supremacy, violence and bloodshed erupt. In the narrative, Ufeli ensures Anieze's cultural heritage is venerated. Carnivals of dance entertainment featuring nubile damsels swinging to intoxicating  beats of Antilogwu drum at the Ukwata festival become the toast of the people. The Gathering of the tribes is a provocative metaphor showcasing how the Nigerian people are swindled of the proceeds of their oil wealth by Nigeria's rapacious political elite.

     The author ensnares the reader with warmth, intrigue and applause. Indeed, it is the customary football children play around the house that woke Ike out of his slumbers. A clasp of the ball that landed on his face snapped him back to reality. He had stayed depressed all day owing to the detestable political condition in his community. Anieze, a sprawling town of about 100,000 people is the centre of gravity of the game of cheat the prophet straddling the West coast of Africa. Ike who had grown up abroad in Western Europe and North America, cannot overlook the pervasive injustice going on in Anieze.

      Structured in the manner of our colonial past, Ike organized the people, convened an assembly where the people can add their input in the administration of the town. This time the assembly convened for a meeting to discuss matters of urgent pubic importance. The community needs basic amenities: good roads, portable water and regular electricity supply. Since Ike chairs one of the committees, the development committee, he is neck deep in the politics of the town. He was chosen to chair the development committee because he is one of best educated and cosmopolitan in the community.

     The novel is set in an oil producing community in Nigeria's Niger Delta region where oil spillage is rampart. Due to oil exploration by foreign oil companies, the Niger Delta has been bedeviled by oil spill which render the countryside uninhabitable because oil spillage has destroyed portable water, fishing and cash crop cultivation. So, these people rely heavily on imports of food and manufactures to thrive. This volume's theme is a replication of real life scenes common in the south east and southern Nigeria. It is common knowledge that oil spillage has ruined human habitat, farmlands and the well-being of the people.

     Therefore, Barrister Ufeli has brought into focus, the agonies  of the oil producing areas of Nigeria. To everyone's dismay neither the government nor oil companies is doing anything to alleviate the travails of the people of Anieze; in as much as they need relief from from poverty, land degradation, neglect and man's inhumanity to man. Corruption is so widespread that the one billion dollar oil spillage compensation given to Anieze could not be accounted for. It had been embezzled by hungry elite.

     Anieze leaders travel abroad every now and then, buy houses every where particularly in Dubai and London. They transfer huge sums of money into their foreign accounts. Their children barely know Anieze, while the town's youth struggle to attend school in abject poverty at home. Onyeonu Madu, the traditional ruler of Anieze would constantly assemble the townsmen promising them heaven and earth; cajoling them to be patient with his administration, as a way of hiding his culpability.

     Not long after Ike returned to Anieze, he was saddled with community projects as a way of keeping him from suspecting the village leaders' corrupt enrichment. Which is why they got him involved in the town's cultural revival. At such times the people display their harvest. There are big tubers of yam, cassava and other cash crops. The festival is observed by everyone. During this time the town's people travel to their ancestral homes where they perform traditional rites. At such times, people rejoice with their friends and relatives. Moreover, there is something alluring about the festivals which keep bringing tourists from far and near.

     All in all, The gathering of the tribes is an enthralling satire, but without the reprieve of humor to shield the reader from the pangs of scrutiny and reflection. The story nudges you into the embrace of an inexorable narrative which enthralls you with a familiarity of a comforting experience. It depicts the Nigerian reality where the leaders have betrayed the trust reposed in them through the looting of our common patrimony. Ufeli is seeking a paradigm shift in Nigerian politics to ensure the fulfillment of communal expectations as against the current greedy accumulation of wealth as the focal point of public service.

     A native of Etua, Delta State, Evans Ufeli was raised among the naval communities: the Air Force Base in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, the military bases in Kaduna and Lagos. He studied at the University of Jos, the Lagos State University and the Nigerian Law School. He also studied creative writing at the Writers' Bureau, Manchester, united Kingdom. He is now practising law in Lagos and he is a member of  the Nigerian Bar Association, Lagos Branch.