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Ola Rotimi. Akassa You Mi: An Historical Drama. Port Harcourt, Nigeria. University of Port Harcourt Press (Africa Books Collective, distr.). 2001. xvi + 134 pages. L7.95 / $13.95. ISBN 978-2321-15-X
AKASSA YOU MI (The Akassa War) faithfully recounts the 1895 war waged by Koko King of Nembe (Nigeria) against the Royal Niger Company, which had taken for itself from his kingdom all commercial rights and privileges, thereby inflicting upon the land famine, poverty, and much other suffering. The results of the war-the English preferred to look on it as a mere uprising-- were relatively minor in themselves, but the military action stands out to Africans as a glorious symbol of resistance to colonialism, and to the entire world as an example of colonialism's iniquities.
None of the physical war is enacted on the boards, mainly the pourparlers leading up to it followed by ruminations. One detects shades of Corneille's Cid and French classical...