Tunde Oyateru

The Day the Madman Knew Tunde Oyateru

Welcome to the neighbourhood; an interwoven collection of middle-class homes in the capital of a prominent country in West Africa. In the neighbourhood, you will meet Ogunmakin, a seasoned civil servant who has recently let go of his ethical inhibitions and has come into new-found wealth. This new wealth will create rabid paranoia and drive him to acts of madness.

You will also meet Amanda, a young banking professional who is saddled daily with the burden of delivering improbable targets and shouldering the responsibilities and guilt of being a first child in a struggling family, her open contempt for anyone with the opportunities and the life she wishes she could access makes her behave like a pariah.

You will meet Swetwaters, a Divisional Police Officer in charge of the Neighbourhood who is down on his luck and has not come to terms with a once-promising career that is now moribund. His lack of control over his fate grates and pushes him to irrational behaviour.

And of course, you cannot leave the neighbourhood without meeting the Madman, a physically overbearing errant who is often ignored by the neighbourhood but will quickly be used as a foil for their frustrations with life, with governance and the promise of a better tomorrow that never came.

The neighbourhood like any neighbourhood anywhere is full of colourful characters and narratives and at the heart of it is the madman, he offers them a chance to express their frustration, to try and seize control but also discover their humanity"