DIKE'S PLIGHT is a prose, African literature text with settings in the Eastern part of Nigeria. Its time line is the pre colonial era and tries to examine the cultures, beliefs and practices of some regions in the Eastern part of Nigeria. Many gory tales of the Ibos were revealed in this text; the cults, battles, conflicts, love and desires of men in power. The story which is centered around DIKE as the main character, reveals what envy, jealousy, hatred and desperation can make a man do. Other characters are not left out in their shortcomings and strengths, but in all, the various characters contributed differently in making the story intriguing and suspense-filled. The book is an 84 page book and would be suitable for senior primary school pupils and secondary school students. Adults at various levels can read it for pleasure, entertainment, education and the morality it portrays. Let us examine the extract below from chapter three. The headchief closed his eyes and raised his hands before reciting some strange incantations. "With the strength from above and the strength underneath, I put them together to command the shrine to split." Gently with a thin sound, the shrine opened. The recitation of the incantations was the only way to open the shrine and gain access into it. As foretold by IKECHIALA, the founder and herbalist that laid the shrine, the days in the shrine were faster than the days of the real world. Ikechiala said the shrine was a way one could meet with the gods of the land and only the headchiefs could enter it. Many who lived and died in the village had heard about the shrine but they had not set their eyes on it, not even for once. It was said that the shrine could only be destroyed by those born on any day of anniversary of the shrine. So the villagers saw it a taboo for a child to be born on any of the shrine's day of anniversary, and any child born on any of the days was killed. Now, the headchief entered into the shrine and a voice thundered within the shrine; "what brings you here my faithful one?" it was the voice of the gods of the land. "Oh great one" said the headchief as he bowed. "It is I, the headchief of Aboh land. I've come to submit to your excellent judgement, the thieves from Umudai whom we caught disturbing the peace of your children." "Very well, my faithful one, do to them as you've been doing to others," the same voice thundered and echoed back, "great one, your whish is my command," said the headchief as he bowed and left. When the headchief got out of the shrine, he told some of the chiefs to get the thieves tied up. They did so and the headchief sliced each of the thieves' throats with a sharp dagger. The other chiefs that already knew the activities and process, got a large gourd and collected the blood flowing from the corpses of the dead thieves They all took turns each by sipping on the blood they collected. A whole lot of practices took place which could not be comprehended: the eating of humans; quest for power; the shrine; the oaths; in a nutshell-the cult. Are these not what we see in today's political power seekers? Cannibals I dear say.....but an encounter with the book will definitely tell us more or all we need to know.
