Analysis of The Blood Of a Stranger

The Blood Of a Stranger

- Summary or Plot Account of The Blood Of a Stranger
- Themes of The Blood Of a Stranger
- List of Characters in The Blood of a Stranger
- Devices use in The Blood of Stranger
- Setting of The Blood Of a Stranger


PLOT ACCOUNT
Maligu, the Chief advisor to King Santigi Mando V, declares that an unidentified white man would be their village guest soon, as written him in a letter sent by his brother from the city. He seeks and finds the cooperation of Soko, the priest of the village shrine, to prophesy that the land should welcome this guest. This manipulated prophecy is against the existing spiritual ordinance of the community not to accept visitors, which has been observed since the war in the land. It
is a difficult injunction for the people to accept. To them, strangers represent illness, disease, and aggression. However, because Soko is the ordained priest of the village that has always interceded between them and their forefathers, the people have no reason to question or doubt his divination; their forefathers must have sent this vision. They prepare therefore to welcome the visitor. Kindo, chief warrior and son of the king, feels otherwise and senses something is wrong
because of the strange alliance between Soko and Maligu on this news. Knowing that the two are fraudulent and dishonest, Kindo becomes
suspicious of Soko's claim that he received the vision to admit the stranger into Mando land. The white man symbolically called Whitehead, arrives and show little or no respect for the culture and traditions of the land. Kindo forces him to order and a seed of discord between them is sown. Whitehead soon takes Maligu into confidence that his true motive of coming is the diamonds on their land. He has given the king a false impression he is in the land to cultivate a tobacco farm,
build a school and help the village from the proceeds of the tobacco farm. Indeed his actual purpose is to have the farmers unsuspectingly harvest the diamonds for him.


Themes of The Blood Of a Stranger
1] The theme of Colonialist Arrogance and expectation -
Whitehead comes to Mandoland with a blatant air of superiority with is why after two days of arrival inn the land he refuse to pay homage to king sangi until kindo forces him. This is reflective of colonial arrogance inn history. Even though the real colonial colonial mission is to exploit, They still engage the owner of the land in service labour to advance that interest and also expect to accord him honour and for him for pittance. It is also a show of colonial arrogance that makes whitehead introduce gin spirit drink in place of the peoples local drink mamapama which is congenial with their system, whereas whitehead's drink intoxicates
and makes the animal of the people.


2] The theme of Patriotism and Resistance to Oppression -
The patriootic zeal of kindo saves Mando Kingdom from the hands of whitehead. when whitehead refuses to accord kig santigi his deserved respect, it is kindo who restore it by putting him where he truly belongs - beneath the king's feet. Kindo constantly monitors maligu and soko when he suspects they are in league with whitehead. He also interrogates whitehead on why he chose Mandoland and not another place. when whitehead get the people drunk and the woman become sexually provocative, It is kindo that also calls whitehead and maligu to order. kindo it is that also unveils the grand design to steal mando's diamond wealth. in the end kindo does not only resist oppression, he stamps it out by killing whitehead.


3] The theme of Irony of Culture -
Its is a cultural irony that the culture whitehead disregards by introducing the people to alcohol, tobacco, and hard core hallucination drugs, he also finds in it a substance to manipulate the culture by relying on key traditional beliefs that favour his ominous ploy. For example, he seizes on the decree of the death for anyone who kills in peacetime, so as to trap kindo. He also describes diamond as evil stones that should be handed over to him in a land purification ritual he trumps up.



4] The theme of Moral decadence and corruption -
Some characters in the play fail moral test. Whitehead for instance attempts to rape a county virgin, Kindo's woman, Wara. The attempted rape of this country virgin in this play symbolizes the rape of the country' natural resources that the colonial government is essentially after. it should be emphasized too that whitehead's deft manipulation of mondo society is aided and abetted by the corrupt priest of the shrine, Soko and the chief assistant to the king, Maligu who are hoping to gain personal wealth by assisting whitehead. Their ignorance of whitehead's true motive - he wants diamonds, whereas they think he is there to grow tobacco - is reminiscence of the general exploitative track of colonial history in Africa. While beads, tobacco and cloths were among the initial innocent exchange in a barter of goods for palm oil and other product between Europeans and Africans, It did not take long before Africans themselves became the battered goods of choice by European (the slave trade), who used corrupt local leaders to accomplish their scheme.




5] The theme of Political social and spiritual decadence
The Corrupt leaders of the priest of the scared shrine and the chief adviser to the king, Maligu parodies the colonial legacy of political, social and spiritual decadence in sierra lone, the country. Over all, as tragic as the play (seemingly tragic for kindo) there is moral retribution in the end when whitehead is given a taste of his own recommendation - he is sacrificed rather than Wara. Thus the evil plotter becomes the sacrificial lamb of atonement and give hope for our flawed humanity

6]The Theme of The evils of African colonial encounter with the west -
The play successfully demonstrates the evils of the african colonial encounter with the west, without presenting the colonized as mere victims. kindo represent a major obstacle to whitehead's plan matching him wit for wit and always a step ahead of him he disciplines whitehead for not according deserved respect to king santigi and eventually kills him for his evil role in their land

7] The theme of Cultural Clash and erosion of customs

8] The theme of Justice always wins out against oppression

9] The theme of greed and ambition
The theme of greed and ambition runs through there play the characters involve in this. are whitehead , maligu and soko. The thr ee's sole ambition is to get rich. whitehead come to mandoland with dubious intent to cart the people's diamond wealth away and become extremely rich. The other two connnive with him to carry out his intention and also get rich
in the process. Greed sets in when they begin to distrust one another and hatching plans to eliminate each other for greater advantage on the diamond wealth

In short The Blood of A Stranger is a story of greed, selfish ambition, human deceit, corruption, and exploitation.



Role and List of Characters in The Blood of a Stranger

1. ROLE and Character analysis OF MALIGU in The Blood of a Stranger;

Maligu is the king advisor, he is refer to as the wise one because he is educated, he has lust for riches, maligu is one who say everything he sees, an attitude kindo doesn't like because it amounts to not having "backbone", Maligu is greedy and has an overambitious personality


2 ROLE and character OF SOKO in The Blood of a Stranger;
Soko is the village shrine priest league with Maligu to deceive the king and community with false prohecy in respect of the coming of a white man to Mandoland, soko is false, full of deceit and treachery, he is a "sincere liar" and very greedy, Whitehead calls him funny witch doctor because of his queer disposition.
He is a coward; despite his tough proposition on how to acheive their goals, he frets when it matters most: "i am not interested in getting money if there are too many dangers."

3. Role and character analysis of WARA in The Blood of a Stranger
wara is a stranger in mandoland too but has lived there long enough to detest being called stranger, and She is also in love with Kindo, She not born in Mandoland, her mother was taken prisoner by one of mando's warriors during the war; her mother ran away after giving birth to her.
Wara cautions kindo form doing anything which will anger the spirit, Wara is the only Kindo's woman that will be sexually assaulted by Whitehead. Maligu and soko lot abduction into a sack and then take to whitehead's compound. she fortunately escapes.



4. ROLES and Character analysis OF KINDO in The Blood of a Stranger
kindo is the son of the king and head of worriors of mondoland; a hunter and heir-apparent to the throne of Mando, Kindo is an upright defender of Mandoland; he is willing to defend his culture and his people even his own hurt. He is very young and only a boy when he fought in his first war.
Kindo is very sensitive instincts; feels evil in the air easily - very sensitive to a crooked situation, He is an ambitious character he is sturbborn and also impatient; Loves and protects the custom of his people, Kindo is boastful and keeps a dossier on people, He can speak reasonably like a wise elder. He is regid and unnfeeling; More concerned for the safety of his people.

5. Roles and Character analysis of SANTIGI MANDO V in The Blood of a Stranger

santigi mando v is the king of mondoland, father of kindo, He is an upright and a observer of traditional law and cultural norms. Santigi Mand V is manipulated into admitting a stranger into his domain, His rigid sense of justice propels him to banish his son, kindo from his land for killing parker.



6. Roles and Character analysis of PARKER in The Blood of a Stranger


Parker; Parker is an african who is the secretary, assistance, interpreter, adviser and the right hand man of whitehead, Parker often serves as whitehead's voice and solicitor advocate, he hates Maligu and does not trust him



Role and character analysis of WHITEHEAD in The Blood of a Stranger

Whitehead; This is the arrow head of the crisis in the play; every evil and a schemer. Whitehead is a crass, greedy, dictator who arrogantly believes he can deceive the entire land into granting him access to its diamond.
whitehead lies to the king and is people that he is in mandoland to cultivate tobacco.
He dies in the hand of kindo


SIMA
Sima; Another warrior of Mandoland


1st Man
praises the white man when his people are under the influence of head drug and gin spirit drink


Divices use in The Blood of Stranger
1] IRONY

2] SYMBOLISM AND ICONOGRAPHY

3]INCANTATION