FROM "PREAMBLE TO APOCALYPSE"  WRITTEN BY MR. FIDELIS U. OKORO,

ARE ESSAYS BY NWANI UCHENNA WILLIAMS ON:

i. THE ROLE OF RELIGION TO WORLD CRISIS

ii. THE WOMAN IN THE EYE OF THE STORM (WOMEN SEEN AS BOTH VICTIMS & PERPETRATORS OF CRIME)

iii. SEX AND SEXUALITY.

I.                 THE ROLE OF RELIGION TO WORLD CRISIS

          To an extent, religion has served as an instrument of social harmony in many civilizations. Ibidem, it has paradoxically however, also served as a motivation for violence. From time immemorial, religious bigots who have led actions that resulted to so many crises have attempted to legitimize violence in the name of God.

          From ‘Preamble to Apocalypse,’ a play written by Mr. Fidelis Okoro, it notes that “religion originally meant to be a tow truck in the journey of life has become a bulldozer crushing every living cell in its path.” In the aforementioned play, it is evidently seen as characterized by the Islamicist, comprising the Caliph and his confederate in the jihad. They execute outrageous crimes and catastrophic acts on a large scale. They blast homes, cars, kidnap very young innocent girls and misuses them, massacre souls in their thousands, and carry out other contemporary acts of extreme violent attacks, and try to justify such acts as ‘holy warfare.’ Religious bigotry has immensely propelled conflicts between themselves thus:

        “Jew versus protestant
         Protestant versus Muslims
         Catholic versus Muslims…”

          While the belief differs, each tries to have its own belief or doctrine dominate, thus, wrecking havoc and leading to grave crisis in the course of trying to achieve it. Moreover, just like the popes sold indulgences to the crusaders promising them paradise if they died for the holy land, the Caliphs are doing the same to the jihadists. This is echoed in the expression found on page 115, lines 14-15:
                            “We constantly tear down the tent of tolerance while erecting the
                             mansions of bigotry.

Sadly, a sin is no longer a sin when it is carried in the course of jihading or
crusading. It’s always this religion versus that religion. Worse still, these religious scuffle are geo-political, each blending with a political group or sect while

Struggling to claim power. This is evident in the argument and struggle for power by the PJP and JPJ party in the play.

          Meanwhile, religion should be seen as a mountain and all climbers (people) should be free to choose to climb, how to climb, and why he’s climbing. It goes without saying; religion has been at the centre of most violent crisis around the world. It has spawned holocaust, ruination, and crisis on a large scale which has plagued this country and across frontiers more than any other thing.

ii.                     THE WOMAN IN THE EYE OF STORM

          Crimes, violence, shock troops, sexual abuse/assault et al are evidently portrayed in the play. It portrayed real life happenings. Here, women are seen as both victims and perpetrators of these vile deeds.

AS VICTIMS

          From the play, whenever the islamicist terrorist group strikes, the women suffer most. They suffer too when the crusaders attack their rival. At page 9, Suleiman (a character in the play) expressed:

                   “Any time men decide to slaughter for their many trivial

                   Interests, unbridled thirst for power, or vain pursuit of

                   Wealth, they would drag the hapless woman into the

                   Bargain as a sex slave or as a victim of rape.”

          Sadly, women are highly victimized in the event of any armed struggle. They are abducted, sexually abused, molested, infected with different deadly transmissible diseases, murdered and done many other atrocious acts. Where some become pregnant, they’re murdered.

          More so, from the play, the abducted girls (Chibok girls) are forced to perfectly learn the Quran, and change their names to Islamic names. True, the woman seen as victim of crime and other atrocious acts in the play is a perfect painting which captures modern day victimization on women.

                                     

 AS PERPETRATORS

          While women are seen as major victims on the one hand, they’re also perpetrators on the other hand. Can men really be said to be sexually abused? In the right sense, YES. So many men die-on-tops presently. Why? Because the demand for orgasm is exceedingly high.

          True, the Almighty God after creating the world and man rested. But since man produced the dictionary, and unfortunately the woman saw orgasm in it, both man and the world has remained restless. In the play, Ike (a character), made known that “a landlord died on top of his tenant, (page 106).” He further expressed that his wife bought him something supposed to be helpful to them. While he thought it was a ‘Rottweiler’, he was later clarified when he went to his doctor that the supposed item was meant to elongate and enlarge. If there’s a possibility to shrink out the whole contents of his central bank, he would have done so without further rumination. But unfortunately, it’s practically impossible. 

 He has to continue facing the grimmer prospect of restlessness. Orgasm! 

Women have gone to the extent of abducting men and raping them. 24 hour erections!

          Furthermore, women also perpetrate the act of transmitting STDS like syphilis et al. if they demand for supply from their men and didn’t get it; they go outside to get their supplies only to come back and transmit those diseases to them.

          Additionally, some innocent men commit suicide bombing following what they may have been told by the woman. In the play, Brig Usman (a character) said:

                      “The other wore his bomb in his pants

                        A newly married man

                        And entered a plane undetected…

                        Who knows what the woman must have told him?

                        A woman who has seen Tom, Dick and Harrison…

                        And he put a bomb in his pants to blow all to

                        Pieces.”

That is the power of the woman’s tongue!

          Ayatollah, madam President, and the pope were also seen fighting over three succulent men at the end of the play. What more could they be fighting for if not the indisputably bone of contention-orgasm!

iii.                              SEX AND SEXUALITY

          Sexual activity was evident throughout the course of the play, ‘Preamble to Apocalypse.’ This is seen from the invasion by the modern Boko-Haram sect on the chibouk girls. These abducted girls are sexually used as breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Many of them bleed through the mouth, ear and nose, and when they eventually get pregnant, they’re finished off. Worse still, these jihadist are promised of unending sexual life if they die, to have 72 virgins in heaven. The invention and use of gold cycle by the terrorist group really intensified sexual activity in the play. One of the abducted girls blurt out:

                                        “Shoot me! 
                                         What is life worth anymore?
                                         Sixteen men raped me yesterday alone!
                                         Shoot me!
                                        Better to freely die than to slavishly live!”

          However, the women were also initiators of sexuality or sexual activity in the play, never allowing men to rest. The Pope, President, and Ayatollah were in struggle for the succulent men to have salacious sex fulfillment with them.

          It is clear-cut why Bola made this mind blowing remark:

                                        “This is the cap that caps it all!

                                        We have sacrificed so much on the altar of this

                                         great god called ‘sex.’

                                         This weapon of mass destruction

                                         we live for sex

                                        we die for sex

                                        we eat for sex

                                        we drink for sex

                                        we exercise for sex

                                        we dress for sex

                                        we sing for sex

                                        we dance for sex…”