Review by Prof. Samuel Olajide Timothy-Asobele

If I qualify Adeola Sonola, a British writer, many readers will concur, who, have gone through the British General Certificate of Education (GCE) Syllabuses of the colonial era; most especially, the English Literature Curriculum of Old. In Beyond the Hago Gate will be found represented some of the best narrative styles of British adventure works. The Hago Forest is entwined in the romantic and epic cast of thought. Beyond the Hago Gate is an admixture of the weird atmosphere Lewis Carol painted in Alice in Wonderland; Collodi’s The Adventure of Pinocchio; Stevenson’s Treasure Island; Daniel Defoe’s Robison Crusoe; Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer; Sir H. Rider Haggard’s King Solomon’s Mine, and George Eliots Silas Mainer. All these travels and adventure children books, colonial British commonwealth overseas possessions or call them colonies subjects and pupils read with gusto and with rapt attention in the colonial days.

In The Adventure of Zogi, brightness and cruelty, love and hatred mingle just as we have in John Keats The Eve of Saint Agnes; John Keats love of old legendary and superstitions and love reappears in Zogi’s adventure into the old haunted mansion Beyond the Hago Gate. John Keats treatment of the Merlin Motif in The Eve of St Agnes line 171, a reference to the Legend that Merlin’s father was an evil spirit, to whom therefore he owed his life – a debt to be paid, re-echoed in Zogi’s adventure, where the Old Woman and her curse was a recurring decima in Adeola narrative. The Morpheus motif of Dreams and nightmares reappears in Zogi’s adventure, where morpheus, the God of Dream, was a constant presence. The atmosphere Adeola created in Zogi’s adventure not only reminds us of Alice in Wonderland of Lewis Caroll, but that found in S.T.C (Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s) poem titled Christabel, line 178, where supernatural happenings take place with some powerful unseen forces of evil à la Old Woman and her curse on King Bantu and Queen Binta, resulting in her childlessness/bareness. In The Adventure of Zogi the atmosphere is pervaded by the supernatural, weird frightful that admits that all is not well with Zogi and the Royal family.The Adventure of Zogi is cast therefore in the travel or calls it in adventures literature streak of Old British Empire, in which, the sun will never set, come rain or shine.

I have had cause to write two forewords to her collection of poems titled: The Beautiful Minds and Little Angels. A collection of children’s poems published in the United Kingdom in 2014. Even then, and more in The Adventure of Zogi, I see in the writings of Adeola, a colleague in the world of literature – fine literature. Her works qualify to be called an assemblage of world literature. Didn’t she at Oriental Hotel, Lekki, Lagos on 31st of May 2014 write: “Poetry breaks boundaries, knows no barriers because wherever you are in the World, whatever your background or race; as human beings, we all share the same feelings, emotions and experiences albeit in varying degrees and under different circumstances” (Adeola Sonola)And I to agree with her by writing that, “if one wants to sojourn within pages of multiculturalism and poetic beauty, then, Beautiful Minds is where you must begin and to Little Angels, I called a Kaleidoscope of children poems designed to give children visibility of realism of the world in which they live. Honest, but not harsh; realistic, but always hopeful. Adeola creates a safe environment for children to truly discover the facets of life” .In the review that follows we are to suppose that by the magic genius of Adeola’s creative ingenuity, she casts a spell over her readers like S. T. Coleridge in his Christabel and the supernatural becomes possible where the unreal merges into reality, thus leading the readers to that willing suspension of disbelief. Adeola’s treatment of the supernatural in Zogi’s adventure is not akin to the disappearance of the Weird Sisters in Macbeth or that of the supernatural being, Geraldine, in Christabel.

The weird Old Woman in the Old Mansion, in Zogi’s adventure, is an omnipresent being, who wreak havoc in the life of not only Zogi and his adventurers Loga, Nana, Zadua, Ferado and Pongo but in the life of King Bantu and Queen Binta. In both S. T. Coleridge and John Keats, the haunted Castle forms part and parcel of the plot. In the story line of Beyond the Hago Gate: The Adventure of Zogi, we are introduced into an eerie landscape to which Prince Bantu was raised. The Prince and the Prince’s mother encountered an Old Woman who cast a spell on the prince, and whose curse, stuck to, all his life long – with her interminable ghostly appearances, whereby, making life difficult for the prince. It was a battle san merci, between Prince Bantu and the Old Woman, hell-bent in making life unbearable for the prince.

Meanwhile, the story of Zogi and the escapade of his schoolmates to the Old Mansion in search of more treasures is laced with the occurrences of the weird, the supernatural and the unbelievable, which warrants our suspension of our disbelief. Because, as the story unfolds, Twinkle, the dog of Mr and Mrs Tombo, became an agent of the eerie atmosphere created in the storyline, along with the Transparent Apple, which added colour to the adventure of Zogi and his friends.

For, at every auspicious moment, the two intervened to bring about a joyful resolution of the quagmire the duo found themselves, in their treasure hunt, in the Old Mansion that was accursed. Adeola in her weird atmosphere creating called into action the forces of nature. The weird, spirits, flood, rain, dragon-like mammals, surfaced and enveloped the young school pupil’s escapade toward Hago Region, the forbidden forest in search of treasures. At each obstacle, against invasion of bats, self-replicating gates that bar their way to their treasure spot, the Transparent Apple turned to rope to ship them over their weird obstacles, thereby lifting them over to the other side of the gate. The Old Woman, a wrench of malicious verve, is a constant obstacle that obstructs their progress towards their mission. Her recurrent appearance to the Royal Family is a constant reminder to their cursed life of barrenness.

The royal family annual celebration or call it, festival, in which the whole citizens of Shakula are to converge, at Harlan Square, for the Female Dance competition in which, Meena, Zogi’s mother was tipped to win a prize, was thwarted by the absence of the kids now in the furlong Hago Forest in search of treasures. Here we are reminded of Tom Sawyer of Mark Twain’s creation in which Tom Sawyer was also absent, to reappear during his funeral bogey. Inspite of the weird atmosphere Twinkle, the dog, remains the guardian angels of the boys, with the collaboration of Zogi’s Transparent Apple. Inspite of the Ordeal of Zadua, Nana, Loga, Ferado etc Twinkle led them into the gate where it was written Danger turn back. They have at last found the King’s treasure but the Old Woman, their achillean heel appeared again to bar their way home. At the Harlam Square, the King and Queen emerged and the boys in supernatural carriages, in the full blown merriment of the annual celebration of the Royal family.

The carriages arrived at the venue of the celebration full-blown toys and other treasures were being distributed. We end this exposé on Beyond the Hago Gate (is a hidden secret who can uncover it?): The Adventure of Zogi with the Old Woman and the mysterious voice as on page 118 declared: ‘Your fear tied you down. There was nothing behind the Hago Gate. This is not over yet, I know your family’s secret and until you confess, this is not over I tell you this is not over,’ thundered a scary voice. ‘Who is that? My fear? What fear? What secret? What spell? Struggled King Bantu as he looked around to see where the voice was coming from. ’The king ordered the boys locked up in prison, but Queen Binta, pleaded their cause. The Old Woman voice was heard asking the king to release the pupils and the closed field opened, to which the king acquiesced/agreed. The Old Woman ended by showing her spirit of vengeance again, but luckily, the Diviner declared the barren Queen Binta pregnant.

The diviner ended in a note of desperation, that, if only the King knew what awaits them! And Adeola with classical finish ended The Adventure of Zogi in what looked like the incomplete way S. T. Coleridge ended his Christabel. Christabel was never finished wrote S.T.C. and the reason he never finished it, is not that he did not know how to do it, for he had the whole plan entire from the beginning to the end in his mind. His reason being. “I fear I could not with equal success the execution of the idea, an extremely subtle and difficult one”. We were informed that STC intended to complete Christabel in two more cantos. I have written reviews and forewords to many Nigerian writers books, writing in English and in French to wit: A Treasure trove of poems (four volumes) by Olusanya A. S. Anjorin; Mrs Olorunfemi Bisi Quelle heure-est-il, Je Comple, Les alphabets (in the j’apprends le francais series); Drama and Theatre in Nigeria, Yemi Ogunbiyi; Oral Poetry in Nigeria, by Nigeria Magazine; Improvisation a fote in Yoruba Theatre by Biodun Jeyifor; Hausa Performing Art, by Zikky Kofoworola; The Igbo Mask, by Melodi Enekwe; Mloko by Sanmsdeen Amali; Mmonwu A Dramatic Tradition of the Igbo by Ugonna Nnambuenyin; (in French), by John Abioye; Ogboju Ode Ninu Igbo Irunmale; Basic English Grammar for Schools and Colleges by Paul B. Iluromi etc.

They all appeared in my book, Literature Review: A Compendium of African Literature in Nigeria (forthcoming). Adeola Sonola’s The Beautiful Minds and Little Angels were roundly given visibility in this work. Beyond the Hago Gate is in a genre of its own, written as it were by a British writer of Nigeria’s descent. I say British writer, because the couleur locale found in Kunle Akinsemoyin’s The Gold Digger and The Kings Picture; The Drum and the Flute by Chinua Achebe, The Passport of Malam Illia by Cyprian Ekweenzi, The Magical land of the Shadows, by Kola Omodipe; Esther the Queen, by Kola Akinlade; Toby’s Birthday by Patrick Mokay; The Magic Cooking Pot, by Elizabeth Good Care, that point to their Nigerianness, are absent in Adeola Beyond the Hago Gate. The landscape and the personages and their names make Adeola a citizen of the world, thus, writing world literature that strikes a universal chord. The dialogue is apt, and easy to follow, the descriptions are realistic and some are imbued with the supernatural.

The use of language and the quality of language and the command of the English language is superb. This is an excellent outing in the prose fiction genre by Adeola and we can expect her to climb the rungs of the ladder of world class writers and to one day win some of the numerous literary prizes that abound in the Western Hemisphere.