This excellent collection of short stories returns us to the world of the West African men-of-words for whom education and entertainment were two faces of the same event. Aiyejina re-creates the role of the village story-teller of his native Ososo in his attempt to communicate the inner truths which would provide the psychological basis for resistance to the oga, the hierarchy of bureaucrats and militocrats who have scrambled for positions in post-Independence Nigeria. Oga controls the agencies of the public media and has perverted language in his own interest. He must then be challenged at the level of the word-made-simple and potent in its appeal to those who have thus far defied the flowery rhetoric which masks the ruthless use of force by which oga assumes control over the life-but not the soul-of the nation. Aiyejina's stories can be read as songs of resistance, signals of defiance towards the immature oligarchs whose corruption driven by ambition and avarice, catalyses the progressive demoralisation of the country.