A Review Of Ahmed Yerima’s HAZE by Omorodion Martina O.

Ahmed Yerima’s new play Haze questions the meaning of death and man’s existence. An existentialist play, Haze is an incursion into the innermost place of man’s fear of death and the sad realization that dying is as certain as living. The play which is written in 73 pages, has no movements or acts but the scenes flow into each other through the use of light and sound which the playwright notes are characters in the play.

In Haze, Yerima beautifully brings to the fore, the terror that gripped humankind with the outbreak of the novel coronavirus and the heightened sense of despair and helplessness. Although the central theme of the play revolves around the end of man- death. Yerima entwines masterfully other socio-political issues such as killer herdsmen, hypocrisy in the church, corruption, politics, gender based violence, greed and religion intolerance.

Haze tells the story of Dati the Soul Gatherer who has been reported to the Gatekeeper – the angel that guards the heavenly gates. Mori otherwise known as Iku, the angel of death has reported a case of subordination against Dati, his assistant and soul gatherer. Dati, it is discovered still has his human emotions of empathy even after spending a hundred years in limbo. This emotion interferes with the smooth administration of Dati’s job of preparing and gathering souls that have died before they are taken away by Mori. Dati still feels the fear and despair of these humans and tries to make their acceptance of death at the final moment less painful and cumbersome. This act of course, does not go down with Mori, who believes that Dati is making his work more difficult by trying to save the souls.

Through the re-enactment of the last moments that Dati spends with these dying humans, we see the foibles of human existence and beliefs. Achi dies at the hands of killer herdsmen who attacked the funeral procession of his late brother. Although Achi has served Ku (the god of death) all his life, and believes as the priest of Ku he is beyond death. He is shocked to find out that he is mortal after all and painfully accepts the futility of his life and service to Ku. It is the same way we encounter Pastor, Mummy GO, and Saida too. Their religious beliefs and lifestyle is tested at the point of death. The playwright depicts through the characters’ last moments the futility of life and the nothingness of their existence. Even at the death, man still tries to establish discrimination by religion, race and tribe.

The playwright creatively places the blame of the coronavirus pandemic on Mori and his power drunk cousins- Loimos/Arun (pestilence) and Baron Samedi (the holder of the keys to the cemetery). Not only that the playwright depict how religion failed man at his most intense time of need, he showed the irrationality of belief that fails even at the most critical time.

Despite the multiplicity of themes in the play, the play reads beautifully and has no loose ends. It has a tightly woven plot, employs poetic language and dark comedy to relieve the tension of the play. The character of Dati, is the only fully developed character in the play which might be a deliberate act from the playwright as the story revolves around Dati and his exploits. However, the character of Loimos is not clear. At one point Laimos is referred to as a female and at another point the masculine pronoun is used.

DATI: When we got to the highest mount, Loimos stood at the edge. With one long gathered puff, she inhaled and blew it out. There and then, he unleashed the plague that was to reduce the word. Yerima (60).

In Haze, Yerima has once again proven his mettle as an exceptional and versatile playwright. Safe to say, he outdid himself with this piece. It is then left to the creative director to put Haze on stage and drive home lucidly the message Yerima is trying to pass across to man. Haze comes highly recommended to the student of literature and to all readers in general.

Work Cited

Yerima, Ahmed. Haze. Ibadan: Kraft B. 2020