Introduction
Satire is a piece of art that involves exposing or criticizing people's or society's weaknesses in a humorous way in an attempt to correct human behavior. The play has several examples of this style.
Content
(i) Mulili. Mulili is satirized by the playwright through his actions and poor mastery of English language. We laugh at him as he thinks he knows too much, yet it is clear that he has only primary level education. For example, he says 'Kabito is a green grass in the snake'. It is laughable that such a person with poor reasoning, greed and ruthlessness is the chief adviser to the head of state.
ii) Boss. The playwright has satirized the wielders of power in Kafira, especially Boss, for his poor leadership. The main conflict in the play is developed through the demonstration by University students that lead to the killing of Adika. The protests is sparked off by the influx of expatriates in Kafira, whose effects would be joblesnesses in the country. Boss goes ahead to bring in more expatriates with the aim of demonstrating to the students that he is the one who calls the shots.
iii) Nicodemo and Kabito are also satirized by the playwright. This is because they are bitterly criticizing Mulili for his stupidity and greed, yet they perpetrate the same vices. Kabito reveals to us that he had spent the whole of the previous night being nice to people, (obviously bribing them), only to lose the tender to Mulili the following morning. Together with Nicodemo, they advocate for an extension of sitting even after the visit by a head of state is over, so as to pocket more allowances. This is evidence of their greed.
iv) There is evidence of satire in the way the system develops a practice of hiring people who are incompetent. For example Boss appoints Tumbo to chair the entertainment committee in spite of the fact that he lacks experience in matters to do with play-writing. He instructs Jusper to ensure that in his play, the words 'progress' and 'achievement' appear on every other page. It is obvious that there is very little of these in Kafira.
v) Satire has also exposed the incompetence and inexperienced of officials and general weakness of the regime towards the end of the play. It is highly ridiculous that Boss agrees to take part in the rehearsals for the visitor's play with prisoners and even goes ahead to order his guards to provide real guns for the prisoners leaving him exposed. By the time he realizes his mistake, it's already too late. He is a victim of his own incompetence and that of the entire system.
vi) The playwright has used satire to show how the regime seems to give little premium to learning. The entertainment committee recommends that school children be made to line up along the road which the foreign dignitary is going to use form the airport yet this is the term they are to sit for their examination.
vii) There is satire that comes out clearly from Jusper's revelation about a short prayer asking God 'to help us drop our Christian names'. We are also told that ‘changing name is item number three in the new development plan and Boss gave a fine example when he 'substituted his Christian name with something none of us can pronounce'. This clearly shows that the authorities in Kafira havetheir priorities upside down.
Conclusion -
It's clear that the writer's clever use of satire has enabled us to understand the problems that bedevil Kafira.
Musyoxx answered the question on March 1, 2018 at 18:28
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