The irony of lawlessness

Lawrence Sunday (@Lawrenc05219878) Tweeted: I strongly detest this act of unlawfulness. They want us to be law abiding and they do the opposite. A system heading for ruin does even the unthinkable. Tym will come when the hunter will be hunted. Just a short while.. https://t.co/q5qhMvbJmp (https://twitter.com/Lawrenc05219878/status/1067149907054727168?s=17)

NOTES ON:THE GOVERNMENT INSPECTOR (NIKOLAI GOGOL)

Compiled by:  Lawrence Sunday Ogwang

Setting and background of the play

“The Government Inspector” is a comedy by Nikolai Gogol written in 1834 and performed in 1836 but it was published in 1842. The comedy is divided into 5 acts.

The plot is settled in Russia in the first half of 19th century, during the reign of Tsar Nicholas I. the general theme that runs agreeable to the entire play is mistaken identity.

In a small village, The Government Inspector is expected to arrive from the capital but instead, somebody else comes and everyone thinks he is the Inspector. All of that confusion cause funny scenes, anecdotes, unexpected events and misunderstandings.

The Government Inspector is intended to ridicule the extensive bureaucracy of the Russian government under the era of Tsar Nicholas as a thoroughly corrupt system. Universal themes of human corruption and the folly of self-deception are explored through this drama of Russian life.

The governor's famous line, as he turns to address the audience directly, "What are you laughing at? You are laughing at yourselves," illustrates this theme, which is summed up in the play's epigraph, "If your face is ugly, don't blame the mirror." The author wants to show the ugliness of Russia in a mirror. Which mirror becomes the very play with its famous title “The Government Inspector”.

“The Government Inspector” therefore, is a social and a moral satire that laughs out the human nature and the social conditions in Russia at that time. The author observed a wide scale of negative social behaviour and characteristics. This work is, as a matter of fact, is the result of the social evil that the play Wright wants to satirize.

General summary

 “The Government Inspector” is a comic

NOTES ON: THE ALIEN WOMAN (OCEN LAURY L)

Compiled By:  Lawrence Sunday Ogwang

Background of the novel (setting)

The Alien Woman is a novel written by Laury Lawrence Ocen and published in 1999 as his first novel.

The Novel is set in the period of 1990s. The climax of insurgency and insecurity in the greater North. The effects of LRA and cattle rustling by Karamojong are inescapable around the time. The spillover gave birth to grueling/demanding poverty, social break down of services such as Education and Health, an imbalance that roars its heads to the present day. It is not surprising therefore that Ocen Lawrence makes reference to some of these issues as part of his themes in the Novella (ch 14; pgs109 - 110).

Through his novella, Ocen L. takes us through Rural and town life and lays bare the conflicting ideas between the two – notably, the views on education; intermarriages and witchcraft as perceived by the folk of Bungatira.

Bungatira, an imaginary District in Northern Uganda is basically rural, its people practice witchcraft; they are against Education and believe that cattle and land are the only sources of wealth. More so, they are firmly polygamous. It’s only the family of Bicencio Olugo who stands in sharp contrast to the mentality commonly held in Bungatira.

Meaning and relevance of the title (The Alien Woman) to the Novel

The word Alien means: belonging to a different country, race or group, usually, the one you do not like or are afraid of. It is also used to describe something or somebody strange and perhaps threatening because of not being part of the normal existence.

In the Alien Woman, the word is mainly in reference to Margaret Nagawa. She is a Muganda young woman who falls in love with another young man from Northern Uganda, a Langi. Among the langi people, history has it that a person belonging to the Bantu speaking group is referred to as an ANAM, a foreigner who has come from across the waters (Beyond Karuma). Just because of this it warrants Maggy the name alien.

Although the title is mainly in reference to Margaret, the girl that Opito brings home Gladys is also treated like an Alien and the family of Olugo sends her away in shame.

Even the spirit that seized Opito in the form of Gladys is referred to as an Alien because it is something strange and brings fear.

Even when Opito goes into circumstantial marriage to Jacinta Ajwang, all is not well with the coming of the spirit.  People of the village (Abela) enlisted the help of a medicine man from Kiwola; Odukany. When Opito is freed from the clutches of the spirit, he is convinced that Jacinta can as well go with the spirit because she does not laugh and she is gloomy all the time. He fears Jacinta may be another Alien and as a resort, the marriage is called off. An attempt to reunite the two by Ologo’s only saw failures.

GENERAL SUMMARY OF THE NOVEL.

The plot centers on the family of Bicencio Olugo, his wife Awino Cerina and their two sons Fred Opito and James Obina and their love exploits.  

By Bungatira’s standards Olugo is a poor man, he has only one wife, no large heads of cattle and limited land. His only pride is his role as a local administration. Despite his lack of wealth, Olugo decides to send his children to school with the hope that after education of his sons, they should lift his family out of poverty, an idea ridiculed by villagers of  Bungatira especially Ogang Apur for whom Education is “too long a way of acquiring wealth” [pg 2] and sheer building of castles in the air [pg 3]. Ogang is wealthy but he refuses to educate his children. His conduct is odd, anti-social (pg 2) and he practices witchcraft.

Despite their humble background,

NOTES ON A COWRIE OF HOPE (BINWELL SINYANGWE)

 By Lawrence Sunday Ogwang

1)       THE BACKGROUND AND THE SETTINGS OF THE NOVEL 

A Cowrie of Hope is a novel written by Binwell Sinyangwe and published in the year 2000. It is set in the early nineties, a period that was, across the continent, marked by economic reforms and structural adjustments; changes in government or democratization; and the discovery and spread of the HIV/AIDS disease. To these add, and as part of the setting, drought. Thus, as the author puts it   ‘These were the nineties, the late nineties. They were lean years. They were the years of each person for himself and hope only under the shadow of the gods’ (Pg 14).

 These were the nineties becomes the singular refrain in this novel, an indication of the importance of such a decade. It is the turning point in the politico-economic structure of most African countries with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) adding as a condition, political and economic reforms, to aid.

It is in this period that Nasula, widowed and her husband's family having captured his property after refusing to marry his younger brother, had to find the means to see her daughter, Sula, through school. Wobbling/trembling on the edge of poverty, either she falls into starvation and death or abandoned her single-mindedness of schooling her daughter - an idea that had almost become a disease; she did not hesitate but chose the former.

The main action of the text takes place in a period of great crisis in the life of the protagonist, Belita Bowa, who, according to African practice, is named Nasula ( meaning the mother of let things be) after the birth of her only child, a daughter, Sula (Let things be).

2)     RELEVANCE AND APPROPIATENESS OF THE TITLE: A COWRY OF HOPE

Even when things seem to be going the dark way with the death of her husband Winelo, her Cowry of hope for life, for Nasula not all is lost.

It was better while we waited

Lawrence Sunday (@Lawrenc05219878) Tweeted: It was better while we waited. Now we have nothing to look forward to. We have killed our past and are busy killing the future! African leaders... (https://twitter.com/Lawrenc05219878/status/1045380920293888000?s=17)

The madness of a nation

Lawrence Sunday (@Lawrenc05219878) Tweeted: The current affairs including the poor governance system in Uganda is driving many youth crazy. All the same "When the madness of an entire nation affects a solitary mind, its not enough to say that the man is mad" (https://twitter.com/Lawrenc05219878/status/1045974877860253696?s=17)

Blood Ink

Lawrence Sunday (@Lawrenc05219878) Tweeted: It is sad that NRM govt is using blood ink pen to write our history. With confidence, I know one day the same pen will be used to write their history (https://twitter.com/Lawrenc05219878/status/1044927846261673984?s=17)