CRITICAL VIEW AT MIDNIGHT CRY
BY ADZANDE, JAMES MSUGHTER
Reading of Midnight Cry, a collection of short stories by Paul Ugah is enriching one’s grasp of the contemporary Nigeria society. It is also a resource material for what has become a cliché in literary discourse that literature does not exist in a vacuum; literature is of a people, about a people in a historical geographical or cultural society. Thus, Ugah in Midnight Cry has consolidated the relationship between literature and society. Literature draws its raw materials from the society in which it is situated.
Midnight Cry reminds me of one of my University lecturers on creative writing, Prof. Moses Tsenongo who insists that there are too many issues to write on, in our contemporary society. The rise of maladies is on the other hand an opportunity for writers to put pen on paper for posterity and for social reengineering. The 12 short stories collected on 116 pages represent the Nigerian society in contemporary times and a look back to when the African culture held sway.
From the opening story, “Conspiracy of Silence,” we read the desperation of Nigerians who would do unthinkable things to get influence and affluence. The politicians are satirised for all to see what goes behind the smokescreen. In “Deception,” there is a woman who eats her cake and cannot have it anymore; she destroys her womb before marriage. Then, there is no child with the man she claims to love. The epistle coming from her mother exposes the long time deception. In “Web of Love,” three suitors try to marry the most beautiful lady in the village – Aladi, in the end; the least of them according to the social strata wins her love because of his honesty.
Also, in “Woeful Tales of Resurrection,” religious radicalism is represented where everyone is a true prophet and knows when “The sons of Man” will come to take the ‘chosen’ to “my father’s house where there are many mansions.” “Freedom” is a satire of the post-independence Nigeria society. The demand of basic amenities to the citizens is absence of freedom and the presence of colonial highhandedness. In “The Secret of Adamu” the issue of fake living is represented. The craze for cheap popularity is a common phenomenon in the Nigerian society. In the end, the truth will always prevail.
Going forward, in Midnight Cry, the title story, the herdsmen/farmers crisis is represented. Good enough, the writer touches on different segments of the society that use crises situations to achieve their selfish aims. This is a contemporary issue in Nigeria and other nations of the Lake Chad Basin. In “The Man Must Die,” domestic trivialities are represented. A woman visits the herbalist to kill her husband. In a twist of fate, the husband survives and becomes a better man through the sovereign God. An indication that, no one should predict tomorrow.
In “The Night Masquerade,” Ugah presents the consequences of poor or bad leadership in the society; he opines that divinities are angry because of corruption and other evil practices. There is a clash between culture and Christianity. The ancestry gods are fading away and Christianity with its alien God is taken over. This is the cause of vexation to the gods of the lands. In “Fruitless Search,” a lady is desperate for a husband after she rejects the love of her youth. She wishes to unwind time, but too late. She regrets her actions and attempts suicide. For her, marriage is the ultimate achievement for a lady.
Finally, in “Diary of a Dead Man,” a young man disappears from his ancestral home; goes in search of greener pastures, returns 20 years after and everyone thinks he is a ghost. This is a scenario where our youth have continued to migrate pillar to post to earn a living. Lastly in “Portrait of Honesty,” Ugah shows a way forward. He is not pessimistic and do not think the society cannot be salvaged. The Airport cleaner who returns 12 million naira she discovers in the course of her duty shows that there are still very honest people in the society. The recognition of this honesty is an indication that all hope is not lost for a society suffering these social maladies.
I see Ugah in the shoes of writers like Chinua Achebe. His precise language and clarity of purpose is commendable. He has kept to the outline of Edgar Allan Poe, regarded as the father of the modem short story; few characters, single events, single setting, and paucity of information. Importantly, he is a keen watcher of the degrading Nigerian society. As a journalist and social critic, Ugah believes that things can turn around someday. You can say Ugah is a revolutionist, but a modern one who believes in the power of the pen, paper and the ink.
