SUMMARY OF THE GODS ARE NOT TO BLAME BY OLA ROTIMI EXPLAINED BY WIKIPEDIA

In The God’s Are Not To Blame, Rotimi incorporates many themes, such as culture and its connection with the form of the social structure of an African community. The culture represents "the way of life for an entire society", as noted in Pragmatic Functions of Crisis – Motivated Proverbs in Ola Rotimi's The Gods Are Not to Blame. All the messages conveyed, although bring the play together and provide the audience with insightful readings, the play may also serve as a symbol as to how some of the African societies model the structure presented in the play. The practices exhibited in Yoruban culture show the structure of both a social and economical factors. The leadership in the play forms a comparison to that of the King and many of the townspeople. One finds that their roles compared to King Odewale’s serve as a primary example of the social aspect. In the economic structure, one observes the resources the Yoruban culture considers vital to maintain wellness and health. During their time of sickness, the townspeople solely depend on the herbs used as an attempt to cure the "curse" put on the people.

Yoruban culture and influences[edit]
The Gods Are Not to Blame is influenced by Yoruba and Yoruban culture. Ola Rotimi had an immense knowledge and interest in African cultures, as indicated in his ability to speak several ethnic languages, such as Yoruba, Ijaw, Hausa, and pidgin.[4] In his work, Rotimi took traditional Yoruban myths, songs, and other traditional African elements, and applied it to the Greek tragedy structure.

The comical character Alaka, for example, represents Odewale’s childhood growing up in the village of Ishokun. Ishokun, in the play, is a small farming village, wherein Odewale learned to harvest yams. By juxtaposing Alaka in Odewale’s new environment, Kutuje, Rotimi illustrates the cultural differences between traditional Yoruban life, with that of the industrialized west. Rotimi, in response to the Nigerian Civil War, says that the root cause of the strife among Nigerians, of the bloodshed, was in their lingering mutual ethnic distrust which culminate in open hostility.[5] He says that in post-colonial Africa, much of the blame over the suffering incurred by native Africans was the result of the colonial powers. To this Rotimi argues that while some of the suffering may have been the result of attempted colonial conquests, the lingering animosity that is felt and dispersed among fellow Nigerians, by fellow Nigerians, cannot be blamed solely on an outside party. He felt that the future of Nigerian culture cannot continue to be blamed forces from the past, much like Odewale would blame the suffering of his people, in his kingdom, on the sins of the old king, Adetusa.

Yoruba theory[edit]
The Gods Are Not To Blame reflects critically on perhaps the most cherished myth of cultural transmission that civilization entertains about itself as a means of explaining its own perpetuation. Rotimi's play does so not only by dramatizing this myth with certain ironic instance, but also by juxtaposing this myth with a Yoruba model of cultural transmission.[nb 1]

Colonization[edit]
According to Barbara Goff and Michael Simpson, "the play as an allegory of colonization and, indeed decolonization"[6] The events concerning colonization in The Gods Are Not To Blame represent politics in African history. When the old man takes over Odewale's land it is a metaphor of colonialism. It's about having power over the land and Odewale no longer has the power because the old man took it from him, which is why he turns a hoe, which is a gardening tool, into a sword. The old man happens to also be his father, though Odewale is not aware of this at the time. His father father does to Odewale what European colonizers did to Africa.

Language[edit]
The use of myths with dances in the play. Akin Odebunmi in Motivated Proverbs In Ola Rotimi's "The Gods Are Not To Blame" uses myths and dances established in Yoruban culture that helps serve as the basis of the play. Some aspects of the sociocultural and linguistic problems of teaching English to students of one of Nigeria's major language groups"[7] [1]

[8] Odebunmi" Language,Culture and Proverbs". Simply suggest, the use of language is part of culture. Indeed, culture is the way of life.

Scholar Odebunmi says, the concept of this is to understand referring to the actual context of a word said in a play (dialogue) has developed similarities with speech and how it works in culture. In the Yoruban culture, like many others, have symbolic. Odebunmi (2008) then says, language, therefore, expresses the patterns and structures of culture, and consequently influences human thinking, manners and judgement. I believe this scholar is claiming to the idea that proverbs deal with issues in the Yoruban culture. Adewale a character in the play, as Ola Romiti explains in The Gods Are Not To Blame adds that was used for functional means.