When Your Angel Arrives
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JANE What is confusing or strange about my questions? If you don’t hate me then you have to explain why you like me. Since you came to this house, you’ve refused to taste anything I cook. When I serve you spaghetti, you tell me you don’t eat worms, I serve you Irish potatoes, you say you don’t eat table tennis, I serve you chicken you tell me you are watching your weight. (Pause). And when Ebere tries to teach me how to cook your traditional dishes, you ask him to stop; that a man’s place is not in the kitchen. Even when I call you Mama to show my respect, you are still not happy. And now you’ve encouraged Ebere to kick me out. To bring another wife. What is my sin? Please tell me. Tell me before I leave. AMAKA (smiling) So I’m now in the white man’s land! Lucky me! Those girls back home must be dying of envy. But it is not my fault. Everyone has their destiny. If God has willed that I’d be here to enjoy life with my husband, no one can stop it.(Pause).Those girls back home; they can do anything to capture the heart of men dwelling in the white man’s country. But here I’m without stress, to enjoy the best of life; eat the best of food, do the best of jobs, drive the best of cars and in fact have the best of fun. OBI Our heavenly father, to whom all power belongs, on behalf of everyone here, I’m asking you to grant journey mercies to Mama. She is going home tomorrow. Father we commit her journey into your hands. When danger is in front, may she be at the back, when it is in the back, may she be in front, and when it is at the front and back, may she be in the middle. Please lead her safely as you did when she was coming. Father we ask you all these through Christ our lord.
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About the Book
When Your Angel Arrives is a play about the immigrant experience particularly in the Western world. Plotted around a black African immigrant who is under pressure from his visiting mother to cast off his Caucasian wife, the play deals with the challenges faced by immigrants and equally touches on cross-cultural marriage and black on black betrayal.
About the Author
Bio. A Nigerian-Canadian, Chima Osakwe is a PhD candidate at the University of Toronto’s Graduate Centre For Study of Drama where he also completed his M.A in 2003. He obtained his B.A (Hons.) from University of Jos, Nigeria in 1995 and received the National Council of Arts and Culture Award to the best graduating student in Theatre Arts. Other awards include University of Toronto Doctoral Fellowship, Ontario Graduate Scholarship and Utrecht University Pre-Doctoral Fellowship. Chima is majoring in Postcolonial Drama and Literature. He has published articles in African literature and several letters on African politics in various journals, magazines and newspapers. As a writer, director and actor he has worked in South Africa, Swaziland and Canada. About the Play When Your Angel Arrives is a play about the immigrant experience particularly in the Western world. Plotted around a black African immigrant who is under pressure from his visiting mother to cast off his Caucasian wife, the play deals with the challenges faced by immigrants and equally touches on cross-cultural marriage and black on black betrayal.