Theatre
Let Me Die Alone
John Kolosa Kargbo · 1979
Synopsis
Senehun, a Mende kingdom, at the end of the nineteenth century. Chief Gbanya has thirty-seven wives and prefers Yoko, beautiful and ambitious, who heads the dancers; the colonial governor, his messengers and his soldiers humiliate him and levy the tax. Gbanya hands his chieftaincy to Yoko, in defiance of the custom that keeps women from power, and Yoko rules, protected by the Poro society; but her brother Lamboi and Musa, who covet the throne, kill Jeneba and accuse her of it.
Context
Three acts, performed at Senehun and then at Moyamba, in Mende country. The text follows fairly closely the life of Madam Yoko, who ruled the Kpa-Mende confederation in the time of the British protectorate, and sets the arrogance of colonial power against the internal rivalries of the chieftaincy. Included in the examination syllabuses of anglophone West Africa, the play is discussed every year in the examiners' reports. The year of publication differs according to the sources, 1974 or 1979.
Who it is for
In English. It helps to know that the Poro brings together initiated men among the Mende, and that the heroine forces its door.
Prizes and reception
An exam set text, studied in secondary schools in Nigeria and Ghana, and the title by which its author is known beyond Freetown.
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