Once Upon an Elephant by Bosede Ademilua-Afolayan is a riveting play set in an unnamed Yoruba community that tells the story of Ajanaku’s rise and fall as a tyrannical king. The fourteen-scene play intertwines betrayal of public trust, political usurpation, tyranny, familial secrets, and human ritual, culminating in a dramatic climax that challenges the abuses of power.
Ademilua-Afolayan’s Once Upon an Elephant opens with a controversial plan to crown Ajanaku, the younger son of King Akinjobi, as the new ruler. Serubawon, a manipulative and self-serving figure, orchestrates the plot by bribing his fellow kingmakers to support Ajanaku’s ascension, despite the disapproval of senior members of the Hunters’ Guild like Odejimi and Ogundele. They argue that Ajanaku’s rise defies tradition, as King Akinjobi, though gravely ill, is still alive. However, Serubawon thinks otherwise. He claims King Akinjobi’s sickness makes him unfit to rule. Odejimi insists that crowning a new king should involve collective decision-making, not Serubawon’s unilateral actions. This sets the tone for the drama in relation to the conflict between loyalty to tradition and the pursuit of power through questionable means.
In the following scene, a romantic subplot unfolds between Odekunle, Odejimi’s son, and Desola, Serubawon’s daughter. The two lovers meet in secret where they express joy at the prospect of formalising their relationship after the next harvest. However, Desola shares an ominous dream about their marriage. Although she is reassured by Odekunle, the dream foreshadows the tragedy that befalls her later in the play. The two lovebirds also discuss the political conflict between their fathers and the danger it poses to their union.
This is followed by the coronation of Ajanaku at the village square in scene three. It is a grand event, filled with festivities and self-aggrandising speech by the new king. Ajanaku’s rhetoric reveals his arrogance and his disdain for his predecessors. He equates himself with the animal he shares the sobriquet of “Ajanaku” with – the elephant. He portrays himself as a powerful leader who is destined to crush all opposition. The trampling feet of the elephant on shrubs, little animals, etc which he compares his crushing power on his opposition to is in fact definitive of the oppression and tyranny that will become the chaotic mainstays of his usurped throne. While some elders express support, Odejimi criticises the new king’s arrogance and disrespect for his predecessors.
In scene four, at Odejimi’s house, his wife expresses concern over her husband’s preoccupation with Ajanaku’s selection. She advises him to focus less on the situation, but Odejimi condemns the coronation. He calls it a betrayal of tradition. He is even more disturbed by how the people are “not seeing that things are wrong”. Iyale explains the rationale behind the people’s indifference by alluding to Iya Agba’s proverbial explanation of the situation. In Iyale’s words,
How do you want them to see it if it doesn’t affect them and make them cry? Our people don’t bother much about things that do not threaten their peace. Nobody tells the blind that fire is burning. If he cannot see it, he will feel the heat and smell of the smoke. When fire burns the dog, it will also burn the hunter holding the rope attached to the neck of the dog. That is if the hunter is foolish enough to hold on to the rope as the dog burns.
Iyale, in scene four of Once Upon an Elephant.
Odejimi dismisses this opinion outright on the basis that the referenced woman is insane, a position Iyale does not share with her husband.
In scene five, Ajanaku presides over a land dispute in his palace where a man and a woman present conflicting claims. Ajanaku’s greed leads him to appropriate the disputed land for himself. He disregards justice and fairness despite the evidence provided. It is unmistaken at this point that Ajanaku’s reign has spiralled into tyranny. The scene takes a dramatic turn with the arrival of Iya Agba who speaks in riddles. She references, for example in this scene and the subsequent ones, the tale of the elephant that was tricked to his death by the allure of power. Unsettled by this allusion, Ajanaku orders that he does not want to see her in the palace ever again, a pronouncement he makes in a condescending way: “We must not set our royal eyes again on her”. However, as we shall find out, from this moment onwards, Iya Agba remains a thorn in the king’s side till the end of the play. She cements her role as a central figure in the resistance against Ajanaku’s corrupt leadership and sets the stage for his eventual downfall.
In the following scene, Iya Agba appears again to confront the king. She engages in a heated exchange with the king. Ajanaku boasts about his conquests and demands that Iya Agba address him by his self-styled title, “Ajanaku, conqueror of lands and forests” when the latter calls him Olaniyonu, his birthname. But Iya Agba counters with accusations that hints at Ajanaku’s illegitimacy. She talks about Ajanaku’s complicity in the adulterer tag people have erroneously given to her. She asks Serubawon to tell him who his father is; she does not mince words about Ajanaku being a bastard. Her audacious revelations unsettle Ajanaku and his ally Serubawon, and for the second time in the play, Ajanaku orders that Iya Agba be bundled out of the palace.
In this scene, Iya Agba emerges as a fearless truth-teller in the face of tyranny, especially with how she exposes the questionable paternity of Ajanaku, adding that Serubawon knows who the real father is; and that Ajanaku is “doomed to fail”, regardless of his self-aggrandisement. She also criticises Omoyeni, Ajanaku’s wife, for leaving Delani who had worked for her father (Ajasa) to pay her bride price. She goes further to question the legitimacy of her pregnancy now that the palace has become a breeding ground for bastards. While her words are disregarded as the rantings of a mad woman, they no doubt unsettle Ajanaku and shake Serubawon. In the end, Iya Agba may be many things, but madness is not one of them.
Scene seven is about the visit of the two representatives of Oguno Village to Ajanaku’s palace. The village is a neighbouring village with kinship ties to Ajanaku’s village; the former pays tributes to the latter for protection. The Oguno people have come to Ajanaku to seek protection from invaders who have, in the words of Man I, “taken (their) children away”, and put “(their) people in bondage”. Odegbami tries to make Ajanaku see why they can’t afford to turn their back on them, given Oguno’s consistent tax payments, but Ajanaku is not buying any of that. He dismisses their plight and insists on immediate payment of inflated tributes as a condition for him to help them in their time of need. When one of the spokesmen, Man I (later identified as Gbeleyi), protests and criticises Ajanaku’s leadership compared to his father’s kindness, Ajanaku, in bid to drive home the point that he is not his father, describes his father’s death in dark outrageous words that reduce his father’s legacy to a gory sight:
Did you know how he died? I will tell you: first, he lost his voice, then his limb, and finally his eyes. He couldn’t move for several moons, confined to a spot like a vegetable, gradually diminishing like salt placed where dew can touch it. After that, he became completely lost to his ailment; decaying and smelling. No herbs could cure him. He lost every sense of time and of ever being a human being. He was simply reduced to nothing. He may have been kind but lonely when it mattered. He was alone and miserable. I am not my father.
Ajanaku, in scene seven of Once Upon an Elephant.
Everyone present is surprised by how Ajanaku spoke ill of his father just to prove a point. But Ajanaku does not stop at that. It is not enough that he unrobed his late father of his garment of honour and dignity. He also asks that Man I be stripped naked for challenging his authority. The concerned party, Gbeleyi, rather than be subjected to such humiliation commits suicide instead by stabbing himself with a knife. Ajanaku rises promptly and is ushered in by Serubawon and some elders. This is in congruence with the Yoruba tradition that forbids a king from seeing a dead body.
The other kingmakers discuss the recent issue afterwards. Ogundele does what an unrepentant sycophant does with his continued support of the king’s actions while blaming the deceased for his affront. Only Odejimi sees wrong in what the king did, and to an extent, Odegbami who tries to provide an explanation for the man’s actions which, according to him, stem from pressure.
This is how Ajanaku’s cruelty and hostility drives Gbeleyi to commit suicide; and his greed and imposition of exorbitant taxes drive the Oguno people to further doom. But Ajanaku’s ruthlessness is just unfolding like a multi-layered onion bulb.
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Further Reading:
- Themes in Bosede Ademilua-Afolayan’s Once Upon an Elephant
- Dramatic Techniques in Bosede Ademilua-Afolayan’s Once Upon an Elephant
- Characters in Bosede Ademilua-Afolayan’s Once Upon an Elephant
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