THE CONCUBINE; Characters, Setting, Style, and plot by Samson Mwita

THE TITLE OF THE NOVEL

The Concubine by definition: is a woman who, in some societies, lives and has sex with a man she is not married to, and has a lower social rank than his wife or wives. The book title (The concubine) is symbolic as its meaning is only revealed to the reader in the closing chapters of the novel.

It becomes clear that ‘the concubine’ is none other than Ihuoma – the beautiful lady and main character in the novel who is believed to be the wife of the Sea-King who is jealous and kills any man who falls in love with her. However it is revealed that if some rites are performed and the Sea-King is persuaded, then he could allow someone to live with her as his Concubine not his wife thus the name “The Concubine”.

That is the reason Emenike, Madume, and Ekwueme died since they tried to live with her as a wife not as a concubine. The author says; “well she could be someone’s concubine. Her Sea-king husband can be persuaded to put up with that after highly involved rites. But as a wife he is completely ruled out” (p.196).

THE SETTING

The novel is set in a pre-colonial rural Nigeria and the author mainly talks about African traditional way of life in its totality bringing together all aspects that constitute the life of a rural community including but not limited to its religious, social, cultural and economic practices.

To sum up the rural setting the following have been used to build the African authenticity and put events in their relevant African setting.

Ø  A number of Nigerian villages have been mentioned; Omokachi, Chiolu, Aliji, and Omigwe.

Ø  Traditional practices like belief in the witch doctors, the role of supernatural spirits on human life, gathering for night dances at the village arena, traditional marriages like early childhood betrothal, polygamy, spouse beating, taboos, and dressing styles (wrappers), etc. constitute a rural setting.

Ø  Economic activities like farming, hunting/trapping wild animals, and selling their agricultural produce at seasonal markets.

Ø  Time telling is also done by looking at the length of the shadows or the position of the sun during the day and at night they depend on the moon site or the cock crow. They also tell time by counting a number of market days to come or past market days.

Ø  Fetching water from the stream (well) and living in thatched houses also tell more about rural setting.   

THE PLOT

The plot is chronologically divided into thirty chapters narrated in a straightforward narration with few flashbacks. It shows how Madume’s fight with Emenike is attributed to the later death of Emenike. This makes Ihuoma a widow and Madume wants to use that opportunity to woo Ihuoma. As she refuses his advances one particular day he tries to stop her from harvesting the plantain from the land that caused argument between him and Emenike. In the process the cobra spits in his eyes resulting to his blindness and death.

Ekwueme the young man takes over wooing Ihuoma. After tirelessly trying to win Ihuoma’s approval and the discouragements from Ihuoma, he finally marries Ahurole a girl betrothed to him from childhood.  The marriage doesn’t work and in the process of mending it by applying a love potion it breaks completely apart and Ihuoma find herself submissive to the proposal of Ihuoma.

However divine inquiry suggests that it would be a misfortune for Ekwueme to marry Ihuoma as she was a wife of the Sea-king who was responsible for the death of Emenike and Madume. Ekwueme and Ihuoma insist to go on with the wedding preparation something that causes the death of Ekwueme.

THE STYLE

The Concubine is a unique novel written in such a way that we as readers see ourselves in it. The language used to depict the struggles, pain, love, hate, death and other issues treated therein are indeed a reflection of our humanity. The author has employed different techniques to deliver his message to the intended audience.

Ø  Dialogue – there is conversation between and among characters to bring events and characters to life. E.g.: The conversation between Nnadi and Ihuoma (p. 69)

“It is that wicked fellow, Madume, She managed to say between sobs.

Who? Nnadi roared

Madume

Did he touch you?

Yes

Did he beat you?

He as good as did it

Where is he? …..

Ø  Songs – to enrich his style he has made frequent use of songs to engage the reader to visualize the life of this traditional community. E.g. (p.80)

‘Aleruchi Oji,

She is a champion wrestler

A mighty leg twist

Sent her husband down

‘Aleruchi Oji,

She is a champion wrestler

Ø  Point of view – The story is told from a third person point of view. In most cases it is the author who tells the story, in some more specific cases he uses first person point of view to tell stories related to the supernatural world in which case a character like Anyika tells what he knows about the spiritual world.

 CHARACTERIZATION

Ihuoma

v  She is the main character and the wife of Emenike. Ihuoma is Emenike’s twenty-two-year-old wife, married to him for six years. Before her marriage and move to Omokachi, she lived in the nearby village of Omigwe, where her parents, Ogbuji and Okachi, still reside.

v  She is a caring woman. She spends the majority of her time caring for her three children and her husband. She showed great devotion to her husband in every way she could think of. Even when he was sick she prepared dish after dish and tempted him (p.7). She also took care of Ekwueme until he fully recovered.

v  She is pretty and beautiful but not arrogant. Ihuoma is a beautiful and attractive lady whose beauty calls for the attention and admiration by all in her village. Despite her beauty she gracefully conducts herself in her duties of housekeeping and shows no arrogance.

v  She is sympathetic, supportive, gentle and reserved. Ihuoma was not hesitant to show her sympathy when it was needed. She offered to help in any possible way to see to it that someone’s life is restored to normal. She agrees to arrange a make-believe marriage with Ekwueme if that was the only option available and it worked. Speaking to Wigwe, she says in (p.184) “You don’t know how sorry I feel about the whole thing. I wish I could help you even more.

v  She is very intelligent. She would assess any situation before agreeing to take part in it. After her husband’s death she refuses many men who woo her for marriage considering the distress and shame she is going to cause to the village.

v  She is a good advisor and peace maker. She offered to advise other women especially when they were in conflicts. She herself avoided any serious quarrel with other women six years of her marriage. The author says “She found herself settling quarrels and offering advice to older women” (p 12)

v  She has a firm stand. After the death of her husband there is a high pressure mounting from her mother and other men from the village proposing her for marriage. She refuses to get married to any man as a way of making her forget about her late husband. She tells her mother “If you mean that I should get a lover, then let us discuss something else because I won’t.” (p. 40)

v  She is a widow. Ihuoma is left a lonely widow with her husband Emenike. The final chapters of the book reveal that her widowhood is predestined by the Sea King who becomes jealous when any man loves her, killing the man and leaving her a widow forever alone on Earth.

v  She is believed to be a goddess. Ihuoma is believed to be a goddess – the wife of a Sea-King, the ruling spirit of the sea who sought the company of human beings against the advice of her husband and was incarnated. That’s why she is quite right in everything almost perfect.(p. 196)

  Emenike

v  He is Ihuoma’s first husband, well respected in Omokachi as the “ideal young man” because of his striking appearance and intelligence.

v  He is a handsome young man. Apart from being an ideal young man he was well-formed, a favourite with the girls.

v  He is an average but lucky wrestler. While he was an average wrestler he had a devil’s luck of throwing people in a spectacular ways which onlooker remembered long afterwards.

v  He is involved in a land clash with Madume. During a journey through the forest near the village, he encounters Madume, a man he had recently quarreled with over rights to a piece of land.

v  He dies of lock-chest. He wrestles, with Madume but Madume’s sheer bulk overpowers Emenike, who is thrown against a tree stump and seriously injured. He survives only to die of “lock-chest” days later.

Madume

v  He is a husband of Wolu and a father of four daughters.

v  He is gender stereotypical. He fathered four girls with Wolu but he used to call then Wolu’s children because they were girls. He even thought of using his daughters’ dowry to marry another wife who would bear him baby boys. (p.4, 56) 

v  He is big-eyed (unsatisfied). One of the things the villagers didn’t like about Madume was that he was never satisfied with his share in anything that was good. (p 4)

v  He is a dishonest land grabber. He first quarreled with Emenike over a piece of land which belonged to Emenike. After Emenike’s death he also quarreled with Ihuoma over the same piece of land.

v  He is quarrelsome. Madume was constantly quarreling with villagers over land, palm wine trees, plantain trees and other such things. (p. 5)

v  He is jealous. He hated Emenike just because he managed to marry Ihuoma the most desirable girl from Omigwe that he loved. Also he hated Emenike since old men cited Emenike as an ideal young man. (p. 5) 

v  He is hot-temped and cruel to his family. He is very cruel to his children and harasses both his wife and children. Even after losing his sight he was still harsh to his wife.

v  He is lazy and unsuccessful. By the time he reaches his early thirties he had no any notable achievements to brag about. He had a small compound with only two houses because he hated thatching then in rainy seasons.

v  His actions become his downfall. Soon after his confrontation with Ihuoma, on the land he wrongly considers his own. He is blinded by a spitting cobra and shamed in the eyes of the villagers. In response to loss of his vision, he hangs himself.

 Ekwueme

v He is a son of Wigwe and Adaku. He was an only child for almost twelve years. Being the only chid he waswell taken care of and given the required attention of the only child until Wigwe accused Adaku of trying to make a woman out of a man (p. 131)

v He is shy of girls. Ekwueme was shy of girls and he had hard time to express his feeling to Ihuoma.

v He is a singer. He is a reputed singer who sings along with Wakiri, Adiele the drum beater, Mmam the drummer.

v He is a very hardworking young man. Ekwueme was a hardworking, dutiful and a sensible young man which is why among other reasons his father Wigwe loved and respected him. (p. 106)

v He has true love and a firm stand. Ekwueme showed strong conviction of love to Ihuoma and was not easily moved. Although he forcibly married Ahurole – a girl he was betrothed to since childhood his love for Ihuoma grew day by day and he died for it.

v He was betrothed to Ahurole at the age of 5. Ekwueme was engaged to Ahurole, when she was 8 days old and he was about five years old. Ahurole later turned out to be an overly emotional and often irrational mate making him unhappy in his marriage until Ahurole administers a love potion that drives him to passivity and then to the brink of insanity.

v He is an animal trapper and hunter. He is an accomplished trapper and is well-liked in Omokachi. He traps animals and supplies the meat in his family and his friends.

Ahurole

v She is a young woman from Omigwe, the daughter of Wagbara and Wonuma.

v She is Ekwueme’s wife betrothed to him since childhood. She was engaged to Ekwueme, when she was 8 days old and he was about five years old.

v She is a pampered wife. She would cry without any apparent reason something that gave hard time to her husband trying to understand her and brought a family quarrel most of the time.

v She is superstitious. Advised by her mother she used a love potion to win her husband’s heart something that broke her marriage completely apart.

v She is a fugitive. When the potion fails to elicit the expected results, and instead endangers her husband’s mental state, she flees Omokachi, returning to her parents’ home at Omigwe.

Wigwe

v The father of Ekwueme and Adaku’s husband living at Omokachi village.

v He is a traditionalist. He betrothed his son to Ahurole when he was only 5 years old and worked hard to make the marriage negotiations that were to take a year to last in six months. He did so partly because he was suspicious Ekwueme would marry Ihuoma instead and it was an abomination to break the childhood engagement.

v He is superstitious. He believes in the power of the witchdoctors like Anyika and Agwoturumbe and he consulted them whenever he had issues to be sorted out.

v He is remorseful and apologetic. After Ihuoma had given a hand of cooperation to ensure that Ekwueme’s mental health fully recovers, he apologised for his recent rudeness and felt full of remorse. (p.188)

v He has a thanksgiving heart.  He appreciated the service rendered by Ihuoma and thought of how to reward her but he ended up saying “Thank you my daughter. The gods will reward you” (p.184)

Anyika.

v He is a medicine man (the dibia) who said he came from Eluanyim and is believed to be the mediator between the villagers and the spirit world.

v He is superstitious. He believes in the power of the spirits and their influence on human life. For example he tells Madume that his injury at Ihuoma’s compound was a result of the sea spirits that had sworn to kill him there and said Emenike’s father was among them.

v He knows the ways of the village gods, and villagers consult him for rituals of healing or appeasement.

v He recognizes Ihuoma’s spiritual origins and predicts the fates of the young men who love her.

v In a way he is an honest and sympathetic witchdoctor. He for instance rejected Ahurole’s proposal to administer a love potion to her husband because he knew it has side effects to men. He says; “I am sure you have seen active and intelligent men suddenly become passive, stupid and dependent. That is what a love potion can do. So go and settle your differences with your husband peacefully. If you insist, then you must go somewhere else”

Also sympathising with the Wigwes he offered to pay for them the two manillas required for his divination to work since they had paid so much in the past.

Wakiri

v Wakiri the Omokachi village singer who provides comic relief for Ihuoma, Ekwueme, and other villagers by telling jokes. A gentle character accompanies his wit. He helps Ihuoma take care of affairs after Emenike’s death; he also provides Ekwueme with advice and support.

Nnadi

v He is Emenike’s brother and protector of Ihuoma after her husband’s death. He defends her honour and aids in maintenance of her home and lands.

Wagbara

v He is the father of Ihuoma and Wonuma’s husband who live in Omigwe village. He is a traditionalist as he betrothed her daughter to Ekwueme when she was only 8 days old. He is also a polygamist with two wives Wonuma (Ahurole’s mother) and Aleruchi and he has kept a timetable for his wives to feed him.

Wonuma.

v She is Ahurole’s mother and Wagbara’s senior wife. She is superstitious as she believes that a love potion would make Ahurole win her husband’s heart. She ends up breaking her daughter’s marriage with her witchcraft sending it to a devastating end.