Section A: AFRICAN DRAMA THE BLOOD OF A STRANGER — DELE CHARLEY How does the love for wealth and power influence the actions of the characters in the play?

Answer Details

In The Blood of a Stranger, Dele Charley shows that the twin appetites for wealth and power are the engine of nearly every treacherous act in Mando. Almost all the conflict, deception and bloodshed in the play can be traced back to characters who place personal gain above the welfare of the community.

Maligu is the clearest example. As the King's councillor and diviner he abuses his sacred office out of greed. Having secretly struck a bargain with the white trader Whitehead, who wants Mando's land for a plantation, Maligu invents an oracle claiming that the gods demand the blood of a stranger. His aim is to remove any obstacle and secure the reward Whitehead has promised. His love of gain corrupts religion itself, turning a holy pronouncement into a tool of private profit and setting the tragic machinery of the play in motion.

Whitehead represents the outsider's hunger for material wealth. He is interested in Mando only for what its soil can yield him. To gain a foothold he offers gifts and false friendship, exploiting the greed and gullibility of the leaders. His pursuit of profit brings a foreign, destabilising influence into a settled community.

King Santigi is weakened by the same temptation. Flattered by attention and gifts and eager to preserve his own authority, he allows himself to be manipulated by Maligu and welcomes the stranger against sound judgement. His concern to hold on to power blinds him to the danger, so that his throne becomes an instrument of the plot rather than a shield for his people.

Against these stands Kindo, the brave warrior whose loyalty is to Mando and to Wara rather than to gold. His resistance exposes the greed of the others and shows that not everyone can be bought. His defiance, however, comes at great cost, underlining how much damage the lust for wealth and power has already done.

In conclusion, Charley uses the ruin that falls on Mando to warn that when leaders and advisers are governed by greed and personal ambition, they betray tradition, pervert religion and endanger the whole community. The love of wealth and power is presented as the root of deceit, sacrifice and near-destruction in the play.