by
Obododimma Oha
Many people express dislike for the trickster, for being a trickster means deploying the powers of the mind unjustly, or taking advantage of the other creature through false pretences. Is that not why 419 con artistes are called tricksters and those they deceive have also come to be seen as insincere people or growing tricksters of fortune? But many people secretly admire the trickster for being intelligent enough to deceive the other. Yet that is not the end of the whole story about tricksterhood. Tricksters also outwit themselves once in a while, or become the very victims of their plans. Tricksters do not like it. They want the other to be the victim, to suffer, while they themselves rejoice.
When tricksters write their scripts and direct their evil drama, thinking others would be unfortunate victims, they do not put themselves in those sad roles. They do not know, as the Igbo would say, "Ka i ma nke a, i ma nke ozo?" (If you know this one, do you know the other one?). That is why it is an important part of life-skill to think about other actors, too, not just about self and the plans made by the self. The other has plans, too, and may be hiding it. In fact, hiding it is also a plan! Ka i ma nke a, i ma nke ozo? It is also about the next and nextness, which means that knowing the next is the greatest knowledge.
Tricksters that outwit themselves do so because they are extremely selfish. They want to gain all and the other would lose all. But all are not under their control. In fact, they have to break that pot of wisdom if they are not wise enough to carry it on the head and scale over a fallen branch. An Igbo folk narrative has it that mbe the tortoise wanted to be famed in the land as the only wise one. So, it thought that the best thing to do was to go round the land and collect all the wisdoms from people and save them in a pot. I do not know how it managed to fool the people. It must have bribed them with food or some thousands of Naira. Anyway, they surrendered their wisdoms to mbe and it stored the wisdoms in a pot like an eze mmuo! It carried the pot itself from hut to hut, until it thought that it had got all. It was this pot it carried on the head (to avoid being kidnapped or attacked) until it came to a branch that fell across the road and could not cross with the pot of wisdoms on its head. It was later advised by a passerby, maybe the fellow was from Ghana or Benin Republic, to put the the pot down, then cross....It was not happy with this advice, for it thought it had got all wisdoms stored in the pot. So, it angrily broke the useless pot and went on its way (since it took another person - - maybe a drunkard even - - to teach it the wise way to cross a fallen branch with a pot on its head).
So, you see, tricksters have every reason to be unhappy when they become victims of their evil plans. It would have been good if this experience had been another person's. At least the trickster would have laughed that fellow to scorn. It would have been nice if the other had displayed foolishness, while the trickster displayed rare wisdom.
Tricksters that outwit themselves wonder what has happened to the captain of the ship, that the Titanic should sink with them, just like that. You can see where the problem lies. The tricksters do not know that they, too, would go down with the Titanic. Tricksters have failed to insert themselves in the failing narrative and treacherous script. Tricksters do not know pthat they, too, would suffer, if not also marked by the ocean for devouring.
Tricksters outwitting themselves looks like retributive justice at work. Pardon me for I know little or nothing in this area. All I know is that tricksters have eaten out of the very plate with which other "unfortunate" characters have been served. And they have eaten to the point of their bellies bursting!
So, tricksters outwitting themselves is an experience from which other tricksters can learn. It is not enough for tricksters to celebrate tricksterhood because that professor of folklore devotes a chapter in a popular book to tricksterhood, or that tricksterhood is now an important topic in cultural studies. No, more than this, tricksters should learn, even from the experience of a trickster outwitting self. Those who hope to train to become renowned tricksters should also learn from the history and philosophy of tricksterhood.
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