‘Lanke Omuti’: The drunkenness of a nation
* The Streets of Truth: Bariga as Theatre
By Makinde Adeniran
BARIGA wears its truth like weathered clothing—unfiltered, unpolished, unapologetic. Unlike the glitzy veneer of Ikoyi, Victoria Island, and Lekki, Bariga is Lagos with its mask off. It is the city’s conscience, whispered in alleyways and shouted in makeshift theatres.
During the BOAT Festival 2019, Bariga transformed into a stage of defiance. The Bariga Art Forum (BAF), in collaboration with Mainframe Films, revived Lanke Omuti, a Yoruba classic rooted in Amos Tutuola’s The Palm-Wine Drinkard and dramatized by Kola Ogunmola.
“Like the vulture picking endlessly at a carcass, eventually the bones will show, and the feast ends. So it is with the drunkenness of Nigeria’s ruling class.”
A Nation on Stage
BENEATH an abandoned Lagos State jetty—ironically built for progress but left unused—the street performance began. The air was electric. The audience? Residents, dreamers, skeptics, all seeking escape or answers. The opening refrain rang out:
“Were it not for drunkenness,
I would have been more responsible…
Every opportunity that came my way, I squandered…”
Femi Akinde (as Lanke) shone with presence and precision. He played the flawed hero—a man addicted to palm wine and delusion. His tapster, Alaba, dies in a fall, yet Lanke promises the impossible: to retrieve him from the Land of the Dead. Does this not mirror our political reality? We believe the unbelievable. We vote for miracles. And like Lanke’s friends, we cheer while drowning in false promises.
Symbolism and Satire: The Director’s Intent
SEGUN Adefila’s staging was steeped in layered meaning. His symbolist approach—from costuming to choreography—held up a theatrical mirror to Nigerian society. Lanke’s journey through mythical lands—forests, courts, kingdoms—was a metaphor for our crumbling institutions. Each stop reflected a truth: selfishness reigns, effort yields little, and the oppressed often protect their oppressors.
In Ilu-Ika (Land of the Wicked), Wale Ayodeji as Oba Ilu-Ika dons military camouflage. A striking costume choice—was it a jab at our selective justice system? Or the persistence of authoritarianism under democratic disguise? The city’s joy came only through cruelty. Its people ageless, as if trapped in eternal stagnation. Children played citizens—evoking inherited wickedness. The scene was tragic, comic, and deeply unsettling.
“He who plots evil for others will strike himself with it.”
— Yoruba Proverb
The Hangover of a Nation
LANKE wakes. It was all a dream. A drunken hallucination. But isn’t that our story, too? A nation drunk on nostalgia, lost promises, and electoral fantasy. We wake briefly—then drink again. No tapster returns. No progress is made. We circle back to despair.
“Serving humanity is not a choice—it is a sacrifice.”
As Adefila closed the show, the message was clear: leadership without purpose is just another round of palm wine.
Final Thought
LANKE Omuti is not just a play. It is a wake-up call. A folktale woven with modern grief. And Bariga—raw and unmasked—was the perfect place to tell it.
Until the leadership class sobers up, until the masses demand more than performance, we remain a nation drunk on delusion.
Adeniran (fta) is the President National Association of Theatre Arts Practitioners (NANTAP)
