AFRICAN DRAMA KOBINA SEKYE: The Blinkards Comment on the role of Mr. Okadu in the play?

Answer Details

Mr. Okadu is one of the chief comic and satirical figures in Kobina Sekyi's The Blinkards. He is a young anglicised African, and Sekyi uses him to embody and ridicule the cultural blindness that gives the play its title.

He is a leading blinkard. Okadu is a young man who has come under the spell of European fashion and despises everything African. He affects English dress, English speech and English manners, and he looks down on his own language, food and customs as beneath him. In him the folly of blind imitation is concentrated and exposed.

He is a source of satire and comedy. Much of the play's humour flows from Okadu's absurd behaviour. His exaggerated attempts to appear European, his affected talk and his contempt for his own people make him laughable. Through this comic portrait Sekyi criticises the educated young Africans of the colonial period who were ashamed of their identity.

He represents cultural alienation. Okadu illustrates the danger of losing one's roots. By rejecting African values in favour of foreign ones he becomes a rootless figure, neither truly European nor properly African. He stands as a warning of what happens when imitation replaces genuine self-respect.

He serves as a foil. Okadu's shallow mimicry contrasts sharply with the balanced wisdom of the traditional and the sensibly educated characters, who keep their African dignity. This contrast sharpens Sekyi's message that education should not mean self-contempt.

The role of Mr. Okadu, therefore, is to personify the blind imitator of European ways. He advances the play's satire, provides much of its comedy, and serves as a foil that highlights the value of cultural pride that Sekyi wishes his audience to embrace.