A Review of Draw No Blood
Draw No Blood is a novel written by Efemena Agadama, a writer and dramatist who has learnt his voice to civil rights issues in Nigeria and Africa. The writer's book gives a critical look at the dynamics of the Niger Delta struggle.
Draw No Blood is a book published by Dorrance Publishing, a US based but the story is original-capturing the exact problems that befall the Nigerian society. Efemena Agadama, a social activist and student based in the United Kingdom captures the intrigues, the fortunate and unfortunate players of oil bunkering, militancy and government’s culpability, even in the kidnappings of western officials of oil companies. It also exposes the reasons behind youth restiveness in the Niger Delta and how it has unfortunately turned into a business instead of a campaign for the saving of the indigenous peoples of the Niger Delta.
“The world only gives ears to violent agitation where blood spills from a fountain along a narrow course, creating a poll of floating deaths. The world only gives medicine after death – Dafur, Rwanda, Somalia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and the holocaust Jews. Have you all forgotten how promising trees were hewn down in their prime? What did the world do to stop it? Nothing!.”
This was one of the voices of the many informed militants that Efemena creates. The militants who sought not shed blood became gun totting when their means of livelihood where taken from them. Annoyingly, the elders who should have helped in several dialogues with government had become selfish and insensitive to communal concerns. Oil has changed the rich cultural systems of the people to the values of oil, guns and blood. Efemena, though a young writer allows his characters to spring up from the stories, as the events emerge, the characters are interlinked. Life in the Niger delta has been reduced to war or nonchalance, with one to choose from.
Even the captured feels for the people, as the gradually begin to understand their responses to lack of hope. Efemena’s authorial intrusion is strong and overwhelming but he fails in allowing the characters to engage in exhaustive discussions or interactions. The Nigerian Government does not care about the Nigerian people but when it concerns a foreigner and their international image, all hands are in deck. “The deaf do not need to be told the power of a needle. The deaf need not hear the sound of a wave with grinding muscles before running away”.
Efemena employs the language of poetry, rich broken English and well-oiled Niger Delta proverbs to convey the intrinsic message of psychological neglect. Efemena has a grasp on the songs of the Izon people which he employs in order to buttress the changes that has affected the Niger Delta. His use of fine and veritable expressions remain valid in understanding the restiveness in the Niger delta before the amnesty programme of the federal government. The book also posits that even the negotiators are culpable in the game of kidnap. These two-faced individuals are both friends of the government and the community.
Using the novel, Efemena captures genocidal actions of the government especially of the Obasanjo regime. Obasanjo, ordered the murder of a whole community in the Niger Delta sometime between 1999-2003.
Efemena is no doubt a philosopher of Thomas Hardy stock. His authorial intrusions are commentaries on life and existence that cannot be ignored. This technique was beautifully employed to hint the air of fear, disillusionment and uncertainty in the novel. It will take careful reading to understand the mix of intrigues and events that meet at the crossroads of suspense. Unfortunately, the average reader is not a patient one.
At the end the youths realize that they are grub left for the destruction of the community. They realize that their war for wealth redistribution is a futile one.
