3 Themes In The Blood Of A Stranger By Dele Charley

Introduction

Common components in a tragic drama are greed, deceit, betrayal, crime, etc. and another universally known drama to support this claim is “Othello” written by William Shakespeare. In the drama "Othello" we see the greedy Iago with all sorts of betrayal attempts on Othello, Cassio, Montano, etc.

“The Blood of a Stranger” by Dele Charley is sure a tragedy in the sense that all the evildoers in Mandoland reaped the reward of their evil accordingly; where Kindo killed Parker as a way of avenging Soko’s death; the same Kindo also beheaded Whithead (the corrupt and greedy white man who came to Mando with the aim of exploiting their diamond).

3 Among the Themes in The Blood of a Stranger are:

1. Corruption and the aftermath of corruption: Virtually all the trusted leaders in Mandoland are corrupt. 

Their corrupt spirits are ignited by greed and the need to amass the wealth even at the expense of the villagers. Whitehead, whom the villagers_ at first, rebuked his arrival_ became a glorified figure in Mandoland, after falsely informing the people he came to create a tobacco farm in Mandoland. 

Maligu also capitalized on Santigi's reliance of his wisdom, as a sure tool to mastermind the corruption in the village. Soko, the trusted priest of the people, was also lured with ambition of becoming rich; Maligu convinced him against his well-known tradition of the land.

He who was the true voice of he people became the lying tongue of Whitehead and his advocates.

2. Clash of Culture: The issue of two conflicting cultural ideologies have been so reoccurring in African literature. 

Here in "The Blood of a Stranger" by Dele Charley, African culture is seen to compete with the western culture. Though the western culture was seen to be supreme at first but the people of Mando at the end of the drama came to their senses and threw away the embraced foreign culture like eggshells. 

With the use of symbolism, Whitehead symbolized Western culture and colonialists while Mandoland symbolized Africans and African culture

3. Greed: This fortified The Blood of a Stranger by Dele Charley. As a tragic drama, all perpetrated crimes in the book are as a result of greed; all the guilty characters want to get rich quick. Whitehead, Maligu, and Soko; they lied to the villagers in their own different ways.

Samuel C. Enunwa aka samueldpoetry
(the Leo with wings flying)

Read More