Black Caps and Red Feathers

by John Nkemngong Nkengasong

In Black Caps and Red Feathers the reader is taken into Creature's subconscious on the garbage heap where he is tenant, and where he recounts his multitudinous and gruesome experiences in Traourou's underground prisons. Ancestral Earth, set within a traditional African background, indicts Akeumbin, the king and custodian of the earth of Allehtendurih, who is caught in the dilemma of stopping a plague caused by the reckless exploitation of the earth and showing affection for his fiftieth bride. In compliance with the Princes of Earth, the women who are the principal victims, bring pressure to bear on the King who condescends to the urgency of appeasing the Ancestral Earth. The common denominator in both plays is communal grudge against irresponsible leadership and its fallouts of indiscriminate victimisation that allow for the anticipation of a new or renewed consciousness.

98 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2010

About the author

John Ngosong Nkemngong Nkengasong (1959 – 11 June 2023) was a Cameroonian playwright, novelist, poet and scholar.

Reviews

[Phillip · Rating 4 out of 5]

Black Caps and Red Feathers: This is a complex play, taking on issues of power, violence, neo-colonialism, and traditional identity in postcolonial Africa, particularly Nkengosong's Cameroon. The majority of the play is essentially a monologue by Creature, a downtrodden inhabitant of a garbage dump who was systematically tortured on the orders of Traourou, the king, because Creature would not lie to give his clan false hope and quite their rebellious opposition to Traourou's rule. For his part, Traourou seems to rule with the help of (and at the will of, as it turns out) a country referred to as the Alps--presumably a generalized, fictionalized reference to Europe--which consumes the people of Creature and Traourou's country, especially their heads and testes. This reflects the neo-colonial condition of many African countries, in which dictatorships are propped up by European/American governments and/or corporations, with local rulers exercising despotic power as long as they greenlight the exploitation of local peoples, environments, resources, etc.
https://youtu.be/qbhiTSxOtTo

Ancestral Earth: I really like this play. I see it as a kind of Oedipus the King adaptation, in the context of neo-colonialism and environmental devastation through resource extraction and the abandonment of traditional methods of sustainable agriculture. The play opens with Mafua and M'meka leading a group of women to the palace of Akeumbin, the king. The women have come to seek redress for the environmental catastrophes plaguing the kingdom, which have lead to sickness (especially among children) and general suffering. At the palace they meet Lebu, Ntshe, Eseih, and M'mok, the princes of air, streams, soil, and fire, respectively. These princes (deities? I'm not 100% sure) agree with the women that the land has become polluted. However, Akeumbin refuses to listen, instead insisting that the priest/seer Alabi has seduced his beloved young wife Afingong (even though she does tell the king that isn't true). Akeumbin insists of persecuting Alabi, who continues to accuse the king of destroying the land by cutting down the trees and selling resource rights to foreigners. It is only when confronted by a mass act of disobedience that Akeumbin reconsiders and seeks advice in the shrine of his ancestors. The play wraps up with the voice of the ancestors blaming everyone in the community for the ecological devastation--Akeumbin for his neo-colonial selling out of resources, the women for burning too much land to plant extra crops, and even the princes for not adequately honoring their duties. The play concludes with the entire community determining that they need to make a major sacrifice and then establish long-term sustainability practices to protect the land and honor their ancestors.
https://youtu.be/ETVD9mmGSw0