AFRICAN DRAMA KOBINA SEKYI: The Blinkards. Analyse the character of Mr. Onyimdze

Answer Details

Mr. Onyimdze is the moral and intellectual centre of Kobina Sekyi's satirical comedy The Blinkards. Amid a society of Fanti people scrambling to ape English manners, he stands out as the sane, self-respecting African, and Sekyi uses him as the mouthpiece for his own attack on cultural imitation.

A been-to who refuses to be blinded. Like several characters in the play, Onyimdze is Western-educated, a lawyer trained in England. Unlike the "blinkards" around him, however, he has not been dazzled by European ways. He returns proud of his own culture, choosing to speak Fanti, wear native dress and live by African values. His example proves that education need not mean self-contempt.

The voice of reason and satire. Onyimdze functions as the raisonneur, the character through whom the author comments on the folly on stage. With calm wit and irony he exposes the absurdity of those, like the Borofosems and Mr. Okadu, who imitate English clothes, speech, courtship and etiquette without understanding them. His ridicule turns their pretensions into comedy and guides the audience's judgement.

A cultural nationalist. He believes that Africans should develop along their own lines rather than become poor copies of Europeans. He defends traditional customs, including proper Fanti marriage rites, and argues that dignity lies in remaining true to one's heritage. In him Sekyi dramatises the early nationalist conviction that blind imitation is a form of slavery.

Sensible and level-headed in action. Onyimdze is practical as well as principled. He supports the young couple's union conducted in the customary way, and he handles those around him with patience and good humour rather than rancour. His steadiness contrasts sharply with the excited foolishness of the imitators.

A foil to the blinkards. Structurally, Onyimdze exists to measure the others. Set against Mrs. Borofosem's ridiculous Anglomania and Mr. Okadu's affected "been-to" airs, his rootedness highlights their emptiness. Every scene he shares with them deepens the satire.

Conclusion. Mr. Onyimdze is the wise, cultured and patriotic African who resists the craze for English imitation. As reasoner, satirist and cultural nationalist, he embodies Sekyi's own message: that self-respect and progress lie in loyalty to one's own culture, not in blind mimicry of the coloniser.