Song of a Goat

Although mainly recognized for his poetry, Nigerian writer John Pepper Clark also wrote plays, beginning with Song of a Goat, first staged in 1961. This one-act play, as well as its sequel, Masquerade (1965), engages elements of Greek tragedy with Nigerian cultural traditions and morals. Delivered in dialogue that recalls Shakespearian blank verse, Song of a Goat presents the story of Zifa, a fisherman and occasional ship pilot living in the remote Niger delta during a timeless age. He is cursed with impotence for having violated a cultural taboo, leading to tragic consequences for his entire community.

In the first movement of the play, Zifa sends his wife, Ebiere, to see Masseur, the town doctor and alternate oracle. Zifa and Ebiere have one son, Dode, but have failed to conceive during the years since his birth. They’re desperate to have another child, as procreation is a sign of well-being in their community. While they both know that Zifa is at fault, Zifa’s pride prevents him from admitting this. After examining Ebiere, Masseur assures her she is fertile, and their dialogue, like that throughout the play, relies heavily on metaphor and symbolic allusions. When Ebiere says, “I keep my house Open […] But my lord will not come in,” Masseur deduces that Zifa is impotent. He suggests that the best solution would be a ritually sanctioned sexual encounter between Ebiere and Zifa’s brother, Tonye.  This shocks Ebiere, who refuses the idea and leaves.

Zifa arrives after Ebiere exits, and Masseur confronts him about his impotence. Admitting it’s true, Zifa holds out hope that eventually, he and Ebiere will conceive again. But Zifa’s affliction is divine punishment for polluting the land by burying his father, who died of the “white taint” (leprosy), sooner than tradition permits. Masseur advises Zifa to accept the traditionally ratified remedy for his problem: assign his conjugal duties to his younger brother following the appropriate ceremonial rites for the transaction. This is too much for Zifa, who considers Masseur’s prescription an affront to his manliness. He says death would be a better solution.



The second movement opens with Zifa’s aunt, Orukorere, crying out that a leopard has caught a goat, which she hears bleating. Zifa’s neighbors have gathered, and, functioning like the chorus in a Greek drama, note that they don’t hear anything. Similar to Cassandra in Aeschylus’ tragedies, Orukorere has the gift of prophecy, but nobody believes her. Her powers are a curse precipitated by arrogance, for, beautiful when young, she spurned all suitors, and this angered the water deities. Orukorere now envisions the leopard as a threat to her family and declares she must find it. The neighbors begin to worry, but Zifa argues that his aunt is just drunk, as is often true. Falling into a trance, Orukorere begins to tremble; when she recovers, she reports that the leopard got away, or maybe it was a snake, instead.

Ebiere is bathing Dode at the start of the third movement. She is frustrated – sexually and otherwise – by the situation with Zifa, and this manifests as impatience with her son. Annoyed by his frolicking, she smacks him on the head. Tonye witnesses this and scolds Ebiere, to which she responds with a hiss. He compares her to a snake, provoking Ebiere to reveal her misery and finally her husband’s inadequacy. Following Tonye’s exhortations to be content with her husband and one child, Ebiere’s sexual desires overcome her, and she seduces Tonye. Dode, confused by the coupling happening before him, alerts Orukorere. She leaves them alone, understanding that the family is doomed, and lamenting, “I said there was a serpent in the house but nobody, as usual, will take me seriously.”

In the fourth and final movement, Zifa begins to doubt his wife’s fidelity when he finds Tonye in his bed, and Ebiere speaks admiringly of him, having heretofore disparaged Tonye. When Zifa questions Orukofere, she confirms his suspicions and urges restraint, saying that unlike bleating goats, men should endure suffering with silence. Because Tonye performed in Zifa’s place without the ritual transfer of sexual rights, he and Ebiere have desecrated the house. Zifa plans the sacrifice of a goat to cleanse his house of corruption, while Ebiere and Tonye, unaware they’ve been discovered, consider a future together. Meanwhile, Orukorere expresses grave misgivings about the cleansing rite, afraid the spilling of goat’s blood will end in tragedy. Heedless of his aunt’s warnings, Zifa kills the goat. He cuts off the head, demanding that Tonye push it, horns and all, into a small pot – an act analogous to sexual intercourse. The pot breaks and Ebiere faints. Zifa’s fury over his wife’s violation boils over, and he chases his brother into the house, where Tonye commits suicide before Zifa can kill him. Zifa then ends his own life by walking into the sea, and Ebiere dies giving birth prematurely.



Debate remains over the etymology of the word “tragedy,” but it may well derive from the Greek word “tragoidia,” which literally means goat song. The title of Clark’s play speaks to the climactic moment of the goat sacrifice, as well as the themes of death and sexuality symbolized by the goat. But the title also suggests ties to the traditions of Greek tragedy. The elements of classical tragedy include a hero who engages in conflict with forces beyond his control, such as those deployed by fate, or the gods, or internal character flaws. And there’s a sense of inevitable doom, that the hero will be defeated. Indeed, Zifa struggles against forces greater than him and falls. It’s not the curse of impotence that destroys him, but his own arrogance, which bars him from accepting a solution available in the ceremonial practices of his people. His defiance of cultural traditions causes his downfall. Clark’s play may follow the outlines of Greek tragedy, but at its center – in the playwright’s own words – are “the early religious and magical ceremonies” of the Nigerian people.