Francis Imbuga’s 1976 play “Betrayal In The City” resonated as an allegory of Africa’s political cancer. Boss, the head of Kafira State, has had several people killed, among them Kabito, a prominent cabinet member. University students are rioting against bad governance of their country. In the process, Adika is shot dead. His brother, Jusper Wendo Esquire, secretly kills the suspected murderer (local sub-chief’s brother) and fakes insanity. A shaving ceremony for the dead is underway, but on the eve of the event, Adika’s parents discover someone tried to exhume and burn the corpse.
Mulili is a cop who’s been blackmailing people and pretending to be a big shot. Eventually, his true character is exposed when rebels capture the head of state. They ask him to give one reason why they shouldn’t shoot Boss. Rather than defend his benefactor, Mulili encourages the rebels to kill Boss and starts cataloging his crimes right there in his presence!
As a literature student at Njiri’s High School in 1980, I was part of a cast that acted out the play in several high schools. Some of the lines are still embedded in my memory.
How Betrayal Works
Betrayal happens when a person facilitates harm to a trusted friend. I think betrayal is the most serious crime a person can commit against a trusting mate. Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus to the Sanhedrin council so they could arrest and consequently kill Him. Betrayal happened when Cain wooed Abel into the fields where he’d kill him. Cain exploited his younger brother’s trust and led him as a sheep to the slaughter. TRUST is an essential element in the facilitation of betrayal. Betrayal is abused trust!
Stories of betrayal are gut-wrenching. A few years ago, a clergyman insured a mentally challenged man for a million dollars. Shortly afterwards, the man was found murdered. The ‘man of God’ quickly filed a claim. In his haste to cash in, the gold-digger didn’t expect anyone to probe death of a mentally challenged pauper. But insurance companies never rush to write million dollar cheques without investigating death of policy holders. The story hit media headlines like wildfire. It gave scoffers license to scandalize Christians. Urgently needing money to establish his church, the trusted “man of God” worked out a strategy that’d provide funds to advertise his ministry and build a sanctuary for his congregation!
Now that is nauseating, isn’t it? If you only read that far, you could leave with the impression that “SOME” people are monsters, and that you’d never do anything like that. But have YOU ever betrayed someone? Have your words ever been the basis on which someone’s reputation was damaged? Has anyone ever been fired from a job on account of what you did or said? Did a marriage ever break because you misled someone’s spouse? Was someone’s life ever altered because you failed them at a critical moment? What does that make you?
Tough End-of-Times
“...in the last days there will be very difficult times. For people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will consider nothing sacred. They will be unloving and unforgiving; they will slander others and have no self-control. They will be cruel and hate what is good. They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God. They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly.” (2 Tim 3:1—5 ~NLT)
Self-obsession makes life tough and dangerous. But if we placed ourselves in other people’s shoes, we’d be more accommodating and less judgmental. We wouldn’t betray folks or cause them harm. We wouldn’t hurt those we claim to love, would we? No, we would seek to repair rather than rip up their injuries. We’d seek to understand rather than condemn because behind every poor choice, there’s an untold story of someone’s unmet need.
The passage above provides a checklist for personal evaluation. How do we carry ourselves in relation to money? Humility? Honesty? How much honor do we accord our parents? How thankful are we towards those who’ve been there for us in times of material, spiritual, or social needs? Do we slander others? Are we caring or reckless? Do we ever stop to calculate the effects of our words or actions on others? Do we make promises and then break them? Do we ever prioritize other people’s concerns above our own?
Everybody Does It?
Recently, I completed watching a 13-section documentary titled “Against All Odds, Israel Survives.” In an interview, a curator at Jerusalem Holocaust Museum told the investigating journalist that many people carried out atrocities against Jews in Hitler’s time simply because “everybody seemed to be doing it.” In other words, it’s easier to flow with the current than to question it. To gang up with others to hate someone is easier than to ask why? In psychology, Cognitive Dissonance refers to a state where someone is mentally conflicted when required to choose between opposing views. That should never be a Christian’s dilemma!
John, the Beloved disciple sounds a very sobering warning. “If anyone boasts, “I love God,” and goes right on hating his brother or sister, thinking nothing of it, he is a liar. If he won’t love the person he can see, how can he love the God he can’t see?” (1 Joh 4:20 ~Msg).
It’s never my objective to enslave anyone in a guilt trap. This article highlights the evil practice of betrayal so we can shun it. In our everyday lives, we encounter situations that force us to choose between two odds. Where do we stand when fellowmen are dehumanized on account of their ethnicity, faith, or social status? Do we, like the priest and Levite who hurried past a victim of highway robbers, find reasons to dodge responsibility? We must search our hearts and see if our attitudes are truly aligned to the faith we profess. The Kingdom of God is not a matter words but a demonstration of godly values!
The Okonkwo Effect
Chinua Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart” is perhaps Africa’s best read novel in English speaking secondary schools. A gallant Ibo warrior of precolonial Nigeria, Okonkwo led a tribal feud that seized Ikemefuna from a rival village. The young boy was placed under the care of Okonkwo’s household until his fate would be decided. For the three years he lived there, Ikemefuna became as one of Okonkwo’s children. He had more admirable qualities than his own son. Around that time, the ancestral spirits (egwugwu) ordered his execution.
Obierika, an elder statesman renowned for his wisdom, took his friend aside to advise him. “That boy calls you father; you will not have a hand in his killing.” Would the warrior heed such counsel? As they led the boy through the woods, a man thrust a machete into his side, and he cried out to Okonkwo. “Father, they are killing me!” The warrior, fearing to be thought weak, drew his own sword and cut him to the ground.
Okonkwo had a deceptive self-image. “Brave Warrior” summed up his identity and social significance. Protecting his illusion of masculinity meant more to him than heeding wise counsel. He was a pretentious coward who lived to impress. Even for a society that practiced human sacrifice, heartlessness was frowned upon, and compassion was a cherished human trait. Okonkwo was banished from Umuofia for seven years. In that time, the white man came and colonized his homeland! Hasira hasara!
So, what has Francis Imbuga’s political metaphor, Michael Greenspan’s documentary of miracles in the land of the Bible, or the late Chinua Achebe’s account of Nigeria’s history got to do with the practice of your Christian faith in 2018? I don’t know. It’s not my place to interpret that. A siren carries good news and bad news together. Bad news because something is going wrong, and good news because you’ve been warned. The hearer decides what to do with it. Where I grew up, folks frequently used an axiom whose meaning I am still trying to decode, mundu muugi ndari miheere ya uhoro. A contextual translation would say, “For a wise head, formula is not what gets information across.”