“Africa’s past and present autocrats, all rolled into one, are here lampooned in the person of His Royal Excellency Bob Gbadarango Binyambutu Buthablaizi aka BGB², Celebrated Leader of Nubialand and Guardian of the Revolution. Steeped in a recognizable political ethic of self-aggrandizement, self-gratification, demagoguery, violence and neo-colonialism, Buthablaizi seeks to maintain his hold on power by fair or foul means. On the other hand are the forces of change, embodied in the exiled Mongo wa Swolenka and his group of home-based genuine intellectuals who must do battle, not only with an evident Gestapo machinery but also with belly-minded turncoats, to restore sanity to the land. In his one act tragi-comedy, Mongo Wa Swolenka, Mbuh Tennu Mbuh’s satirical project foregrounds the role of the intellectual in society from the Foucaultian premise that where there is power, there will be ‘strong’ opposition. The playwright’s eclecticism, witnessed in the intertextual interstices marrying aspects of African/world history, politics and literature to good effect, beautifully integrates characterization, humorous dialogue, poetry and apt diction in this wake-up call to African tyrants and intellectuals alike.”
