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INTRODUCTION

The concepts of Love and Materialism is misconstrued in the world

view of some characters in Terhemba Shija's The Siege, The Saga to the
point that these characters come to see what is supposed to be a love
relationship as a means to an end and outlets for their repression and
egoism. These characters are caught in the mesh of trying to live the
kind of life that the society expects of them and trying to remain true to
themselves which eventually leads into lives of materialism, egoism and
sadomasochism which eventually leads to the destruction these
characters.

CONCEPTUAL CLARIFICATION

LOVE: The Merriam Webster Online Dictionary defines love as "an

unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another", "an
attraction based on sexual desire" or " an affection based on love.

MATERIALISM: Webster's Encyclopaedia Unabridged Dictionary of the

English Language defines Materialism as " Attention to or emphasis on
material objects, needs and considerations, with a disinterest or
rejection of spiritual values.

PSYCHOANALYSIS: This is a specific mind investigation technique and a

therapy inspired by this technique. The theory was propounded by
Sigmund Freud. To Freud, humans consist of impulses and drives which
are buried within individuals some of which they do not recognize. One
of the salient features of Freud's theory is the development of the
unconscious which is the largest portion of the mind which houses all
the impulses, desires and is core of the person. The unconscious is
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hidden but can be revealed by a careful study of the dreams, slips of

tongues, hypnosis and projective techniques.

LOVE AND MATERIALISM IN THE SIEGE, THE SAGA: A PSYCHOANALYSIS

The concept of love is reduced to materialism in the views of the

characters like Tokwase, Zanariah and Chief Gesa. Torkwase sees any
love relationship she engages in as a means to acquire material wealth.
This is evident in her relationship with Targema, her university
sweetheart, Torkwase has no iota of respect for Tagema because he
has no money to meet her extravagant needs hence her only reason for
dating him is for sexual gratification, she does not try to defend
Targema when her friend Stella says derogatory things about Targema
neither does she disapprove of the snobbish attitudes that Stella
displays towards Targema. Torkawse believes that all men are useful
for one purpose or the other as she opines :

" All men were useful for one reason or the

other. There were those who satisfied her
material needs on campus; there were others
who helped her out in her academic work like her
lecturers and of course, there were those who
satisfied her sexual desire for the sake of it. She
needed them all and could not afford to be
snobbish as Stella(22)

From the quotation above that Torkawse basically engages in

relationships for material reasons, a fact that she does not hide from
Targema when the latter attempts to coarse her into lending him some
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money, she states: "I am a woman. I need money"(28). Torkwase

believes that a boyfriend should be able to take care of her needs and
does not want to be seen as a frustrated girl who would spend her
precious money on a boyfriend. It is not surprising that she chooses the
Alhaji with the blue Volkswagen Santana GLX over Targema when the
latter comes to look for her in her hostel. Targema is shocked that
Torkwase goes to meet the Alhaji instead of coming to him even when
she saw him standing by. It becomes obvious to Targema that he
cannot be on the same pedestal with Torkwase and this alters his
personality to a great extent as is captures in the lines below:

" The scandal had been by far the most traumatic

experience Targema had had since his father had
mistakenly shot his elder brother. He had really
mourned in anguish and confined himself to his
hostel for a week... he thought of the possibility
of Torkwase running back to him for some kind of
help either here on campus or at home in Gboko
when he would take his sweet revenge by
publicly denouncing her. He would make her look
stupid. He would make her look worse than her
prostitute mother, Zanaria, he thought"(36)

Torkwase's materialistic lifestyle stems from the type of home she

grows up in. Her mother Zanariah is described as a very influential
woman who knows her way with men, Zanariah abandons her husband
Ornguga for the Leader who transforms her into a society woman,
after the demise of the Leader she becomes the concubine of Chief
Shagee who becomes the new leader of the people. The maternal love
that should exist between a mother and her daughter is reduced is
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materialistic relationship as Zanariah does not disapprove of

Torkwase's wayward life and will even send Targema on errands when
any of Torkwase's boyfriends are around which is captured in
Torkwase's reverie below:

" she thought about Targema's continuous at

presence at the Moonlight Plaza, the several
occasions other suitors showed up and her
mother fondly called and sent him on errands to
avoid his prying into her affairs"(100)

From the above, it is obvious that Zanaria never discouraged Torkawse

from living a wayward life. The only reason she allows Torkwase marry
Targema is because she sees that Targema has the potentials to
become successful. Zanaria's materialistic tendencies contributes a
great deal to Torkwase's flirtatious life as she was separated from her
father at a very tender age so she grows up without any father figure
in her life and the father figures(the Leader and Chief Shagee)
presented by her mother are not worthy to be called fathers as it is
revealed that Chief Shagee also has an affair with Torkwase. It is not
surprising that Torkwase becomes a dysfunctional adult, or how else
do we describe her fascination with the character, Major Tangele who
is described as a sadomasochist in the lines below:

" she loved her ex-boyfriend Captain Tangele

most because of his violent sex behaviours. She
loved the raw painful feeling of sadomasochism.
It lit up her life from the dormancy of aristocratic
living."(84)
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It is pathetic that Torkwase dates Tangele who mainly sees his

relationship with her as an avenue to let out the repressed feelings of
pains in his past as captured in the lines below:

"Her eyes reflected an admixture of agression

and sensuality which evoked a strange soldierly
challenge in Tangele to conquer her or possibly
avenge for his inadequacy of the past. He was
now the champion of the moment. The thought
of his past had often embarrassed him especially
as it related to his beggarly background.(85)

What is supposed to be a love relationship is reduced to an avenue to

release bottled up pains and emotions in the past and an escape from
the real world to the imaginary world.

Torkwase marries Targema after several failed relationship but her

quest for materialism is still as intact as it was with her as a spinster.
She sleeps with her husband's driver in order to have a child for her
husband. One would have thought that her mother's tragic end would
have taught her a lesson but this is not so as she prefers to sleep with
the driver because she is not ready to give up her comfortable life with
Tergema even when she knows that Targema's oligospermia is the the
reason for her inability to have a child. When the secret of her
adulterous life is exposed, she seems to be more concerned with her
quest of becoming the First lady of the State, than with the shame she
has brought upon her family. In the quest to realize her dream of
securing her position as the would be first lady she meets her untimely
death.
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Chief Gesa sacrifices his three children so his son Chief Shaagee can
become the next leader of the Tiv people. Chief Shaagee does not like
the fact that his father sacrifices his siblings for him to become the new
leader, his discontent with his father is captured in the excerpt below:

"He thought his father was a very wicked man, a

selfish man who thought only about his survival.
How could you be so wicked as to kill your
children in order to acquire politacal power?
Who then would be the beneficiaries of success if
your loved ones were sacrificed in the
process."(73)

Targema is also caught in the mesh of materialism as he eventually

becomes like the people who castigates in the excerpt below:

"He spoke loudly and unreservedly about

exploiters and capitalist marginalizing the
peasants and the downtrodden of the society. His
dialectics spared no politicians nor businessmen
who were rich enough to own a car. To Targema,
these were birds of the same feather. He had the
rage and bitterness of an enlightened villager
who felt enstranged by the world around him and
was poised for a revenge mission."(21)

It is quite strange that someone who has this type of view about the
rich will nurse the thoughts captured below:

"...a blue volkswagen Santana GLX stood out

clearly....The owner of the car, a burly Alhaji
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stood by it jingling the car keys to the rhythm of

the soft music filtering from it. The man wore a
simple white kaftan, had a white cap and an easy
sliding shoes to match. Targema found both the
car's sophistication and its owner's simplicity
admirable. He wondered when he would ever be
rich enough to ride in such a car. Well, it was a
car of the exploiters, those who have robbed our
economy to make themselves comfortable. He
would not again think of being like them...."(35)

It is obvious from Targema's line of thought above that he is not really

against the rich but suffers from an inferiority complex which he hides
under the guise of a dislike for the rich because he sees his unrealized
dreams in the rich.

Tergema secretly admires the life of the rich, how else can one
interpret his association with Chief Shaagee:

" Targema as a lawyer in Gboko took his due seat

at the plaza. He was excited to belong to this
exclusive group of socialites which Torkwase kept
referring to when they were in the university. He
regularly shared a drinking table with the famous
Chief Shaagee. This was the new leader, the
uncle and the daddy of his girlfriend, whose
mention during his university days intimidated
him."(47)

Tergema's insecurity and inferiority complex is expressed in his desire

to become very successful to prove to Torkwase and Zanaria that he
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was not as unimportant as they make him feel. Tergema's becomes a

very successful to the point that he buys himself a house at the GRA,
buys three cars, among which is a blue GLX Santana car. He defends
chief Shagee in court and wins the case and eventually becomes a
gubernatorial aspirant alongside Chief Shagee.

In conclusion,the characters in the novel are controlled by their

desires to survive in a society where survival seems to be the exclusive
reserve of the fittest and these desire eventually leads to the making
or marring of these characters. Zanaria and Torkwase meets their
tragic end in the bid to retain their positions in the society, while Chief
Shaagee and Targema's effort to become the governors of their state is
futile despite the sacrifices made on their behalf because the polls are
eventually cancelled and are both united in grief over the murder of
Torkwase. This novel shows that the unconscious mind plays a salient
role in the life of individuals and maybe to a great extent determines
the quality of life that the characters live.
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WORKS CITED

Primary Text

Shija, Terhemba. The Siege, The Saga. Ibadan: Kraftbooks Ltd, 2015.
Print

Secondary Text

The Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English

Language. New York:Gramercy Books, 1989. Print

Internet Sources

"Love" The Merriam Webster Online Dictionary 1999.web. 13th

July.2015

Driskell, Nathan. Psychoanalytic Theory and Freud: Main Points

www.psychcomp.com/psychoanalytic-theory-freud-main-points.