Once Upon Four Robbers by Femi Osofisan is a social drama written against the background of the summary executions of armed robbers at beaches and other public spaces during the military junta of General Yakubu Gowon. The play looks into the motives of the robbers and the devastating effects their actions have on the community, while inviting readers/audience to reflect on the selective justice system that spares the elites, government officials, etc. who steal from public coffers but subjects the poor masses to harsh laws like death by firing squad. The law has since been repealed by the civilian government of Alhaji Shehu Shagari.
Osofisan’s Once Upon Four Robbers begins with the execution of Alani, the charismatic leader of an army of robbers, at the beach by soldiers. His execution is a portrayal of the rife execution of robbers in the 1970s during Gowon’s military administration. The execution is attended by members of the public who have come to make jest of the robber and be entertained. Also in attendance are three of the robber’s subordinates (Major, Angola, and Hasan) and his wife who is simply identified as Alhaja. The four robbers are very angry at the society when their leader who has been tied to the stake and blindfolded is shot by the soldiers. They promise to take it out on the general populace.
In their subsequent dialogue, the reader is apprised of a previous attempt to free the leader from prison, a daredevil attempt that saw the fall of many of their infamous henchmen. The robbers are left with just the four of them. With the death of the leader who is their uniting force, Major wants out. He strongly believes that they all have become walking corpses the moment the government issued the decree that condemns convicted armed robbers to public execution. His decision to walkway causes a rift with others who really want to exact their vengeance on the populace for the treatment of their leader.
The robbers are going back and forth on this issue and other related issues when Aafa, who turns out to be an ecumenical religious person, appears and offers the robbers a mystical solution. He provides them with a magical power: the ability to make people sing, dance, and fall asleep by simply playing a tune and singing a song. This power will allow them to rob without violence. However, Aafa gives them three conditions:
- They must never rob the poor.
- They must only rob public places, not individuals.
- They must never kill anyone again.
Reluctantly, the robbers agree to these conditions and receive the power. Aafa also warns them that they can only use this power three times.
The secret enchanting song can hypnotise and lull their prospective victims to submission and sleep. As a precaution, Aafa gives the four robbers a verse of the incantatory song each. This way, the song will not have any charming effect on the robbed if any of the robbers does not sing their part.
After this encounter with the Aafa, the four robbers go to the marketplace to test their newfound power. Each sings their part. The market women dance to the song and eventually leave their wares and money in the market, with each going to her respective house to sleep. By the time the women wake and come to their senses the following day, their money and goods are gone. The four robbers have successfully robbed them.
Consequently, the market women employ the services of soldiers to forestall such occurrence in the future. The government itself grants the women financial aid to lessen the impact of their heavy losses. So, by the time the robbers return for their second operation, the market women and soldiers are prepared. The soldiers are discussing with the market women. The women have made huge profits from their sales on this particular market day, the kind that will have taken them days to make. The soldiers, particularly the sergeant, can’t seem to wrap their heads around the fact that the women were actually robbed with a song. They are taunting the women about this seeming absurdity when the robbers come in from backstage with their song. Before the soldiers realise what is happening, they and the women are already dancing to the tune of the song. Both soldiers and market women dance while they take the leave of the market, their goods, and money. They are also deprived of their belongings by the robbers.
While the robbers relish their loot, one of them, Major, goes out with the soldiers and the women. He returns with a gun, which he has obviously taken from one of the soldiers. He holds his colleagues at gunpoint. He wants all the loot for himself. According to him, it is his ticket out of a life of poverty he has been condemned to since birth. He is unnerved by the dissuasive words of the three other robbers. However, his greed backfires, as the soldiers recover from the enchantment of the song and return with firing shots. Major is shot by the soldiers. The other robbers escape empty-handed, leaving their shot colleague for dead. The soldiers, after taking control of the situation, recover the loot. However, the sergeant says they should not declare this to the women. The soldiers agree to meet at a rendezvous chosen by the sergeant for the sharing of the loot.
In the next part of the play, the audience learns of the miraculous survival of Major. He has been sentenced to death by firing squad and his execution is slated for that day. Alhaja comes in, disguised as an orange hawker. She manages to convince, with her feminine wiles, the three non-commissioned soldiers preparing the execution stage to free Major. She subtly appeals to their sensibilities and awakens their sentiments about the divide between the poor and the rich, and the gulf of selective justice between the two social classes. The three soldiers leave the place with the resolve to break Major out of prison.
When it’s time for the execution, the sergeant comes in with his henchmen. They bring in Major and the three soldiers for execution. The public is present for the execution, including Alhaja, Hasan, and Angola. Alhaja could not control her emotions when the die is to be cast. She exposes herself with her emotional outburst. She is followed by Hasan. The market women waste no time in identifying the two as part of the quartet who had robbed them. The condemned soldiers also identify Alhaja as the woman who had persuaded them to break Major out of prison.
To the sergeant’s dismay, Hasan turns out to be his blood brother. Each reflects on the side of the law he belongs. In the end, the sergeant chooses duty over familial relation. He orders that Hasan and Alhaja be added to the list of people condemned to death: Major and the three soldiers.
It is at this point that Angola, who had distanced himself from any attempt to free Major because he still sees him as a traitor, comes into the picture. For the third time of use, he begins his part of the song. The condemned others take up the song. Before the soldiers know it, the people begin to budge to the enchanting song. The soldiers attempt to break this effect by stomping their boots on the ground.
The play freezes. The playwright leaves the fate of the robbers in the hands of the audience/reader. He brings up the debate of who is right between the soldiers and the robbers. If the audience/reader goes with the robbers, the enchantment of the song prevails even on the soldiers and the robbers are freed. They rob the hypnotised public of their belongings on the spot. However, if the audience/reader goes with the soldiers, the four robbers and the three condemned soldiers are tied to the stake and shot one after the other till there is a blackout.
In other words, the end of the play is open-ended, subject to the position of the audience/reader on the rightness of the two parties.
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