Exploring the Polemics of Religion and Politics of Interest using Esiaba Irobi’s The Colour Of Rusting Gold

Scholarship on the religion–politics nexus in Africa has shown that religious authority often extends into communal and political life, and that such authority can be appropriated for private advantage. Esiaba Irobi’s The Colour of Rusting Gold has, however, concentrated on the play’s Igbo cosmology, ritual aesthetics, language and tragic structure, leaving the political character of the diviner-healer’s power largely unexamined. This study investigates how the play represents the conversion of sacred authority into an instrument of personal and political interest. It is anchored on John Turner’s Analysis of Power, which sets the Standard Theory, in which power derives from the control of valued resources and the dependency this produces, against his three-process theory, in which power rests on group-based persuasion and authority, and coercion arises where such influence is lacking. Through qualitative textual analysis, the study examines relations of control, influence and dependency among the dibia Otagburuagu, the politician Nanimgaebi, the apprentice Ogidi and the community of healers. Findings reveal that Otagburuagu’s power rests on his control of healing, rain-making and the ritual oath, and on communal recognition of him as the conscience of the people; that Nanimgaebi treats this power as an electoral resource obtainable with money; that Otagburuagu’s retaliatory use of rain and the oath shifts his power from authority to coercion in defense of personal pride; and that his fall is completed when the community of healers withdraws recognition and dismantles the shrine through which his control was exercised. The study concludes that the play presents the politicization of religious office as a process that erodes the group-based authority on which religious power depends.