knows nothing about . He explains that the politicians in government pester him to join their political party , but he consistently refuses them . The moneylenders in this milieu are commonly called ‘ sogundogoji ’ among the Yoruba people , and Bassey ( Shylock ) is one of them .
Osofisan ’ s characterisation is also a potpourri of Niger Deltans and Yoruba people with names like Bassey , Tariboh , Tosan , Boma and Fowosanu , Basiru . ‘ S ’ ogun d ’ ogoji ’ is a loan scheme in some Yoruba communities that allows lenders to ask borrowers for twice the money they borrow , as ‘ ogún ’ means twenty and ‘ ogójì ’ means forty . Hence , if you borrow 20 million , you ’ ll be expected to pay 40 million Naira back . This leitmotif in both The Merchant and Love ’ s demands further exploration but for the want of space in this study .
Usury and Cutthroat Collateral
Osofisan ’ s creative output is termed ‘ writing forward ’ as he adapted foreign phenomenological realities through the lens of Yoruba epistemology . 17 The relentless intent of Bassanio , as illustrated above , leads them to Shylock to borrow money , which is at the point of the play ' s conflict and climax . However , in Love ’ s , the humanistic nature and self-righteousness of Fowosanu are the reasons for taking such a risk . Osofisan deploys another item as collateral , though – Bassey demands the family house of Fowosanu instead of the pound of flesh in The Merchant . This is a cutthroat demand for Fowosanu because a family house in the Yoruba traditional context cannot be traded for anything else . Basiru ( Bassanio ) puts it thus : ‘ He knows too . Mr Bassey knows that , by our custom , no one gives out his ancestral home and lives .’ 18 To have demanded this is to demand the life of Fowosanu .
Osofisan demonstrates the originality of his work in this context : unlike Antonio telling Bassanio that his goods are on the sea , Fowosanu tells Basiru
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