Retheorising The Pharmakos: The Nso Concept In Narratives Of The Igbo Of Nigeria

Abstract

Narratives written by Nigerians of the Igbo ethnic stock – those of Chinua Achebe, Buchi Emecheta, and others – have been read by critics as positing postcolonial and socio-cultural issues, thanks to Euro-Western theoretic lenses. However, there is more to these – the presence of the pharmakos figure, whose suffering is in excess of his sin or contrasts his (near) innocence. The pharmakos theory always undertakes to weigh a character’s punishment against his sin, with the consequence that a certain degree of innocence ends up being imputed to him. Therefore this article, in deploying such pharmakos sub-concepts as the mob, violence and persecution-inducing identification marks, will attempt to bring this figure to the centre of retributive suffering through the indigenous idea of nso. Nso (inexactly translated into English as “taboo” or “abomination”) is the code of order in the Igbo cosmology as ordained by the Earth goddess, Ani/Ala, which when broken beckons on sentence and transforms the seeming innocent personage into the guilty. This article will seek to rehabilitate the conventional pharmakos theory by opening up considerably the possibility of the pharmakos being suitably requited within the existing logic of persecution and suffering as an innocent, or not too guilty, figure. Following insights from the analysis of Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and Emecheta’s The Joys of Motherhood, this work will fundamentally contribute to the overlooked direction of complementing Western critical tools with indigenous methods in reading Nigerian or African literature.

Opsomming

 Verhale wat deur Nigeriërs van die Igbo- etniese stam geskryf is – dié uit die pen van Chinua Achebe, Buchi Emecheta, en ander – is deur kritici gelees as die postulering van postkoloniale en sosiokulturele kwessies, danksy Euro-Westerse teoretiese beskouings. Daar is egter meer daaraan – die teenwoordigheid van die pharmakos-figuur, wie se lyding meer as sy sonde is, of sy (amperse) onskuld kontrasteer. Die pharmakos-teorie onderneem altyd om ’n karakter se straf teen sy sonde op te weeg, met die gevolg dat ’n sekere mate van onskuld op die ou end aan hom toegeskryf word. Daarom probeer hierdie artikel – deur middel van pharmakos-subkonsepte soos die menigte, geweld en identifiseringsmerke wat aanleiding gee tot vervolging – om hierdie figuur die middelpunt van vergeldingslyding te maak deur die inheemse gedagte van nso. Nso (losweg in Engels vertaal as “taboe” of “gruwel”) is die ordevoorskrifte in die Igbo-kosmologie, soos bepaal deur die Aarde-godin, Ani/Ala, wat op vonnis afstuur wanneer dit oortree word, en wat die oënskynlik onskuldige persoon die skuldige maak. Hierdie artikel probeer om die konvensionele pharmakos-teorie te herstel deur die moontlikheid dat die pharmakos op gepaste wyse vergeld word in die bestaande logika van vervolging en lyding as ’n onskuldige figuur (of een wat nie té skuldig is nie), aansienlik te verbreed. Na aanleiding van insigte van die ontleding van Achebe se Things Fall Apart en Emecheta se The Joys of Motherhood, sal hierdie werk in wese bydra tot die oorgesiene rigting waarin Westerse kritiese hulpmiddels aangevul word met inheemse metodes in die lees van Nigeriese of Afrika-literatuur.