12/10/2024
VANISHING IDENTITY
Vanishing Identity relates the story of two brothers enmeshed in deadly rivalry over the inheritance of the throne of Omezue. The interesting plot takes off from Azu sacrificing his life to save his nephew who goes on a failed head-hunt and is condemned to death to Ibe, who takes the tortuous part to the throne Omezue upon successfully bringing home the head of a male, an adventure that earns him the head-hunt trophy, qualifying him to succeed the late Omezue who has just been buried with two live outcasts to serve him in netherworld. In a series of subplots, life soon takes a negative twist for Ibe when his wife bears a son and later a set of twins. Among his people, it is an abomination for a woman to give birth to twins. Thus, the people kill the twins and sacrifice two outcasts to the gods to cleanse the land, even as they quarantine Ibe's wife to prevent her from infesting other women with the twins virus. To check the emotional trauma resulting from his travails, Ibe marries another woman that bears him a son named Igwe. As age closes in on Omezue Ibe, Igwe gets entangled in a bitter rivalry with Ali, his half-brother over who would ascend the Omezue throne upon the demise of their father. Ultimately, Ali emerges the King upon their father's death, but Igwe fights on.
As the riveting subterfuge, suspense and intrigues in the novel hit the climax, Igwe masterminds the falling of a masquerade at Ali's feet and alleges that Ali, the King has beaten a masquerade. Given that it is a taboo for anybody to beat a masquerade in Igboland, Ali is ostracised and exiled as punishment, leaving the throne vacant. Unfortunately, Igwe's desire to occupy the throne does not materialise because tradition forbids a half-brother from inheriting the throne that can only pass from father to son.
Divided into two parts of fifty-two chapters each, the novel is a realistic portrayal of customs and traditional practices in Igbo land of Eastern Nigeria before its invasion by the West whose values came into remarkable conflict with the pre-existing order. Of significance is the action of the story that dates between the Stone Age and the early 15th century, encapsulating several aspects of the tradition of the natives that were guarded secrets even the missionaries could not access. Told in simple language laced with condensed metaphors, symbols, local speech patterns, humour and biting satire, the novel triumphantly recounts the vicissitudes of the anthropological heritage of the black race several centuries before the Europeans came around 1472 as has never been related in any other literary work of art on the subject matter. Thus, beyond the literariness of Isu-Oko's Vanishing Identity lies its evocative excursion into the historicisation of one of the dominant clans on the African continent. This apparent realistic portrayal of the people's socio-cultural nuances would significantly aid deeper intellectual inquiries into virgin issues in pre-colonial narratives of the Igbo.
