AFRICAN DRAMA
KOBINA SEKYE: The Blinkards.
Compare the characters of Mr. Onyimdze and Mr. Borofosem.
Both characters belong to the educated class and were both educated in England. Apart from this scant reference about Mr. Borofosem, a few more things are said about Mr Onyimdze while he was in England. He trained as a lawyer, and lived an almost recluse life, deliberately not allowing his ability to speak English to suppress his Fanti. Therefore, he spoke Fanti to himself whenever he could.
In Cape Coast, Mr Onyimdze, who is unmarried, establishes a law firm and is eugaged in active practice. Mr. Borofosem, however, has a wife, Mrs Borofosem, whom he allows to henpeck him and virtually direct what he does in the matrimonial home. He is not allowed to speak Fanti, though he loves to; he must be kissed by his wife, and he must smoke and leave the ashes on the carpet. He suffers his wife's domination indulgently, all for peace to prevail. He dare not speak Fanti while Mrs Borofosem is around and while he follows her to the Cosmopolitan Club.
Mr Onyimdze, however, loves his Fanti language, food, clothes and all. As soon as he returns home from court, he is in his element: he changes from English and formal dress, which belongs to the court, into African clothes. He is also indulgent, and accepts to educate Mr Okadu, whose sole desire to learn English is to be able to woo and marry Miss Tsiba, whose father has sent her to Mrs Borofosem to learn English and English manners. Seeing his mistake in encouraging the relationship between Mr Okadu and Miss Tsiba, who get hurriedly married in chu, he switches to the side of Miss Tsiba's grandmother, Nana Katawerwa, when she sues for the annulment of the marriage and asks Mr Onyimdze to represent her in court. By winning the bigamy case, Mr Onyimdze protects traditional values against western encroachment and brings back all those anglicised characters, like Mrs Borofosem, to appreciate their culture.
In the end, Mr Borofosem recognizes the wisdom of tradition: "The people of the old days were wise indeed: if only we would follow the customs they left us a little more, and adopt the ways of other races a little less, we should be at least as healthy as they were".
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