Betrayal in the City

“It will be wrong for us to sit on this evil. We cannot outwit the ancestors” 

The ancestors of those who believe in old traditions play an active role in their daily lives. Nina insists that to ignore the shaving ceremony would be to risk the displeasure of their ancestors, resulting in various attendant miseries. 

“May you die the way Adika did” 

Mulili is so callous about Adika’s death that Doga utters what appears to be a prophecy by the end of the play, when Mulili is killed in the same way as Adika. Perhaps it is a coincidence, or perhaps there is more to Doga’s and Nina’s old traditions than Mulili believed. 

“How many naked body I have seen and I am still Mulili with my two eyes, natural?” 

Mulili is not frightened by Nina’s threat of a curse, although others would be. But he cannot take credit for his lack of credulity. It is simply a matter of where he was born, and what he has been taught. He has not arrived at his opinion due to effort and contemplation.