THE LION AND THE JEWEL (BY WOLE SOYINKA)

Written by Africa’s well known dramatist, Wole Soyinka, the play has its setting in the village of Ilunjunle in Yoruba West Africa. It was published in 1963 by Oxford University Press.

The play is characterized by culture conflict, ribald comedy and love, where the old culture represented by the uneducated people in Ilunjunle, led by Baroka, Sidi and the rest, clashes with the new culture led by Lakunle, who is educated, school teacher by profession is influenced by the western ways.

Like the title suggests, The Lion and the Jewel (Three Crowns Book)  is symbolic. The lion is Baroka and the jewel is Sidi. She is the village belle. The lion seeks to have the jewel.

The play starts with Lakunle pouring out his heart to Sidi but she does not want to pay attention. If only Lakunle can pay dowry then she would marry him. But to Lakunle, that’s being barbaric, outdated and ignorant. If he could only make her understand. He says:

“To pay price would be to buy a heifer off the market stall. You would be my chattel, my mere property.”

Sidi does not pay attention. To her a girl for who dowry is not paid for will be hiding her shame for she will not be known as a virgin.

Her beauty has captured many souls, besides Lakunle. There is the photographer who took her photos and published them in a magazine, and even Baroka the lion, the bale/chieftain of Ilunjunle as well as other girls in the village. Sidi also brags a lot about her beauty. She is not afraid to speak of it in public.

Baroka has many wives though, despite his wanting Sidi for a wife. On seeing her in a magazine seated alone, he laments:

“Yes yes…………… it is five full months since I last took a wife…..five full months” (page 18)

Sadiku is Baroka’s head wife. As custom suggests, the last wife of the previous bale/chief becomes the head wife of the new chief once succeeded.

Her duty as a head wife is to lure any woman Baroka pleases to have into getting her. Sidi turns off Baroka’s proposal in the most demeaning way, through his head wife. She scorns him:

“Compare my image and that of your lord… an age of a difference….”

See how water glistens my face…. But he-his is like a leather piece torn rudely from the saddle of his horse.Baroka blames it on himself when he gets the news of his rejected proposal. He says:

“My man hood ended a week ago.”

Sadiku rather glad about Baroka’s confession tells the news to Sidi. Sidi goes to see Baroka on the grounds that she did not intend to reject his invitation and proposal well knowing that he would not be capable of doing anything. In an unexpected turn of events, Baroka manages to seduce her and win her over Lakunle.

************************************************************************

Wole Soyinka Wole Soyinka

Born 13 July 1934 (age 77)Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria

Occupation Author, PoetNationality NigerianGenres Drama, PoetrySubjects Comparative literature

Notable award(s)Nobel Prize in Literature1986

Akinwande Oluwole "Wole" Soyinka (born 13 July 1934) is a Nigerian writer, poet

and playwright. He was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature, where he was

recognised as a man "who in a wide cultural perspective and with poetic overtones

fashions the drama of existence",[1][2] and became the first African in Africa and in

Diaspora to be so honoured. In 1994, he was designated UNESCO (United Nations

Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) Goodwill Ambassador for the

promotion of African culture, human rights, freedom of expression, media and

communication.

One of the most prominent members of the eminent Ransome-Kuti family, his mother

Grace Eniola was the daughter of Rev. Canon JJ Ransome-Kuti, sister to Olusegun

Azariah Ransome-Kuti and Oludotun Ransome-Kuti, making Soyinka cousin to the late

Fela Kuti, the late Beko Ransome-Kuti, the late Olikoye Ransome-Kuti and to Yemisi

Ransome-Kuti.[3]

Soyinka was born into a Yoruba family in Abeokuta, specifically, a Remo family from

Isara-Remo on July 13, 1934. His father was Christian Clergy, Canon SA Soyinka (aka

"Teacher pupa" (light skinned teacher)). He received a primary school education in

Abeokuta and attended secondary school at Government College, Ibadan. He then studied

at the University College, Ibadan (1952–1954) where he founded the pyrates

confraternity (an anti-corruption and justice seeking student organization) and the

University of Leeds (1954–1957) from which he received a First class honours degree in

English Literature. He worked as a play reader at the Royal Court Theatre in London

before returning to Nigeria to study African drama. He taught in the Universities of

Lagos, Ibadan, and Ife (now [[Obafemi Awolowo University[[, Ile-Ife). He became a

Professor of Comparative Literature at the then University of Ife in 1975. He is currently

an Emeritus Professor at the same university.

Soyinka has played an active role in Nigeria's political history. In 1965, he made a

broadcast demanding the cancellation of the rigged Western Nigeria Regional Elections

following his seizure of the Western Nigeria Broadcasting Service studio. He was

arrested, arraigned but freed on a technicality by Justice Esho. In 1967, during the

Nigerian Civil War he was arrested by the Federal Government of General Yakubu

Gowon and put in solitary confinement for his attempts at brokering a peace between the

warring Nigerian and Biafran parties. While in prison he wrote poetry on tissue paper

which was published in a collection titled Poems from Prison. He was released 22

months later after international attention was drawn to his unwarranted imprisonment.

His experiences in prison are recounted in his book The Man Died: Prison Notes of Wole

Soyinka (1972).

He has been an implacable, consistent and outspoken critic of many Nigerian military

dictators, and of political tyrannies worldwide, including the Mugabe regime in

Zimbabwe. A great deal of his writing has been concerned with "the oppressive boot and

the irrelevance of the colour of the foot that wears it". This activism has often exposed

him to great personal risk, most notable during the government of General Sani Abacha

(1993–1998), which pronounced a death sentence on him "in absentia". During Abacha's

regime, Soyinka escaped from Nigeria via the "Nadeco Route" on motorcycle. While

abroad, he visited parliaments and conferred with world leaders to impose a regime of

sanctions against the brutal Abacha regime. These actions and his setting up of the Radio

Kudirat helped immensely in securing Nigeria's return to civilian democratic governance.

Living abroad, mainly in the United States, he was a professor first at Cornell University

and then subsequently taught at Emory University in Atlanta, where he was appointed

Robert W. Woodruff Professor of the Arts in 1996. When civilian rule returned in 1999,

Soyinka returned to a hero's welcome back in Lagos, Nigeria. He accepted an Emeritus

Professorship at Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) on the condition that the

university bar all former military officers from the position of chancellor. Soyinka is

currently the Elias Ghanem Professor of Creative Writing at the English department of

the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and the President's Marymount Institute Professor

in Residence at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California, US.[4]

On February 6, 2012 Soyinka stated he and other prominent Nigerians are on a list of

targets marked for assassination by Boko Haram [5]

Biography

Early life

Soyinka was born on 13 July 1934, in the city of Abeokuta, Ogun State in Nigeria's

Western Region (at that time a British dominion), as the second of six children of Samuel

Ayodele Soyinka and Grace Eniola Soyinka. His father, whom he often refers to as S.A.

or "Essay" in literalized form, was the headmaster of St. Peters School in Abẹokuta.

Soyinka's mother, dubbed by him as "Wild Christian", owned a shop in the nearby market

and was a political activist within the women's movement in the local community. His

mother was Anglican, although much of the community followed indigenous Yorùbá

religious tradition. Soyinka grew up in an atmosphere of religious syncretism, with

influences from both Christianity and his culture's traditional beliefs. The home of the

Soyinka family had electricity and radio (chiefly thanks to his father).

In 1940, after attending St. Peters Primary School, Soyinka went to Abẹokuta Grammar

School, where he won several prizes for literary composition. In 1946 he was accepted by

Government College in Ibadan, at that time one of Nigeria’s elite secondary schools.

After the completion of his studies there, Soyinka moved to Lagos where he found

employment as a clerk. During this time he wrote some radio plays and short stories that

were broadcast on Nigerian radio stations. After finishing his course in 1952, he began

studies at University College in Ibadan, connected with University of London. During

this course he studied English literature, Greek, and Western history.

In the year 1953-1954, his second and last at University College, Ibadan, Soyinka

commenced work on his first publication, a short radio broadcast for Nigerian

Broadcasting Service National Programme called "Keffi's Birthday Threat," which was

broadcast in July 1954 on Nigerian Radio Times. Whilst at university, Soyinka and six

others founded the Pyrates Confraternity, the first confraternity in Nigeria.

Soyinka gives a detailed account of his early life in Aké: The Years of Childhood, which

chronicles his experiences until about the age of ten.

Studies abroad and at home

Later in 1954 Soyinka relocated to England, where he continued his studies in English

literature, under the supervision of his mentor Wilson Knight at the University of Leeds.

He became acquainted then with a number of young, gifted British writers. Before

defending his B.A., Soyinka successfully engaged in literary fiction, publishing several

pieces of comedic nature. He also worked as an editor for The Eagle, an infrequent

periodical of humorous character. In a page two column in The Eagle, he wrote

commentaries on academic life, often stingingly criticizing his university peers. Well

known for his sharp tongue, he is said to have courteously defended, affronted and

insulted female colleagues.

After completing his degree, he remained in Leeds with the intention of earning an M.A.

Influenced by his promoter, Soyinka decided to attempt to merge European theatrical

traditions with those of his Yorùbá cultural heritage. In 1958 his first major play

emerged, titled The Swamp Dwellers. One year later, he wrote The Lion and the Jewel, a

comedy which received interest from several members of London's Royal Court Theatre.

Encouraged, Soyinka left Leeds and moved to London, where he worked as a play reader

for the Royal Court Theatre. During the same period, both of his plays were performed in

Ibadan.

However, by 1960, Soyinka had received the Rockefeller Research Fellowship from his

alma mater in Ibadan, and returned to Nigeria. In March he produced his new satire The

Trials of Brother Jero. One of his most recognized plays, A Dance of The Forest, a biting

criticism of Nigeria's political elites, won a contest as the official play for Nigerian

Independence Day. On 1 October 1960, it premiered in Lagos as Nigeria celebrated its

sovereignty. Also in 1960, Soyinka established an amateur ensemble acting company

which would consume much of his time over the next few years: the Nineteen-Sixty

Masks.

In addition to these activities, Soyinka published various works satirizing the

"emergency" in the Western Region of Nigeria, as his Yorùbá homeland was increasingly

occupied and controlled by the federal government. This had usurped the democratically-

elected, Yorùbá-based Action Group (AG) political party by installing the Nigerian

National Democratic Party (NNDP), an amalgamation of conservative Yoruba interests

backed by the largely Northern-dominated federal government. The increasingly

militarized occupation of the Western Region eventually led to a disequilibrium in power,

placing the more left-leaning Action Group and the Igbo-centric National Council of

Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC) in tenuous positions, as national politics began

catering exclusively to more conservative interests. This imbalance eventually led to a

coup by military officers under Major Kaduna Nzeogwu.

With the money gained from the Rockefeller Foundation for research on African Theater,

Soyinka bought a Land Rover and began traveling throughout the country as a researcher

with the Department of English Language of the University College in Ibadan. In an

essay published at this time, he criticized Leopold Senghor's Négritude as a nostalgic and

indiscriminate glorification of the black African past that ignores the potential benefits of

modernization. "A tiger does not shout its tigritude," he declared, "it acts."

In December 1962, his essay "Towards a True Theater" was published, and he began

working for the Department of English Language at Obafemi Awolowo University in Ifẹ.

Soyinka discussed current affairs with "negrophiles," and on several occasions openly

opposed government censorship. At the end of 1963, his first feature-length movie

emerged, Culture in Transition. In April 1964 The Interpreters, "a complex but also

vividly documentary novel",[6] was published in London. That December, together with

other scientists and men of theater, he founded the Drama Association of Nigeria. This

same year he resigned his university post, as a protest against imposed pro-government

behavior by authorities. A few months later, he was arrested for the first time, accused of

underlying tapes during reproduction of recorded speech of the winner of Nigerian

elections, but he was released after a few months of confinement, as a result of protests

by the international community of writers. This same year he also wrote two more

dramatic pieces - Before the Blackout and the comedy Kongi’s Harvest - aas well as a

radio play for the BBC in London called The Detainee. At the end of the year he was

promoted to headmaster and senior lecturer in the Department of English Language at

Lagos University.

Soyinka's political speeches at that time criticized the cult of personality and government

corruption in African dictatorships. April 1965 brought a revival of his play Kongi’s

Harvest at the International Festival of Negro Art in Dakar, Senegal, where another of his

plays, The Road, was awarded the Grand Prix. In June, Soyinka produced his play The

Lion and The Jewel for Hampstead Theatre Club in London.

Civil war involvement and imprisonment

The coup led by Major Chukwuma K Nzeogwu in January 1966 was counteracted by

another coup in July of the same year, this time led by a cabal of largely Northern

officers, placing General Yakubu Gowan in the position of head of state. Immediately

following the coup, sectarian violence erupted as many Igbo living outside of their

homeland in the southeast were subjected to violent retaliatory action, which many

considered to be of genocidal proportions. Droves of Igbos were forced to return home,

where calls for secession from the Nigerian state increased under military governor

Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu.

After becoming chief of Cathedral of Drama at University of Ibadan, Soyinka who had

gained considerable respect within Nigeria would involve himself in the destabilizing

political situation. In August 1967, he secretly and unofficially met Ojukwu in the

Southeastern town of Enugu, with the aim of averting civil war. For his attempts at

negotiating a peaceful solution to the conflict, Soyinka was forced to commence living

underground.

However, his involvement in the developing national crisis did not end here. Wọle

returned to Ẹnugu to meet with Victor Banjọ, a Yorùbá who had been swayed to the

Biafran side. Banjọ intimated to Soyinka a message of critical importance in regards to

Biafra's goals, which he claimed were "national liberation" for the whole of Nigeria. For

these efforts, Banjọ sought the support of Western military leaders; in particular, he

delivered Banjo's message directly to Lieutenant Colonel Olusegun Obasanjo, who had

recently been appointed to commanding officer for the Western Region. Four evenings

after Soyinka returned to the West, Biafran forces invaded the Midwest region, an area

which previously maintained de facto neutrality; this altered the terms and conditions of

the war drastically, as the Biafrans had turned into both secessionists and expansionists.

Following the occupation of the Midwest, Soyinka met Obasanjo face-to-face to relay the

goals of the Biafrans to the man in control of the West. Unfortunately Ọbasanjọ's

decision to side with the Nigerian federation had already been made. The invasion of the

Midwest eventually sparked counter-attacks into the Midwest by federal government

forces, signaling the commencement of civil war. Ọbasanjọ disclosed his meeting with

Soyinka to his superiors, who declared the writer a traitor and convened search parties to

obtain Soyinka for arrest, which they eventually did. Soyinka was then incarcerated until

the end of the unfolding civil war.

He endured imprisonment for 22 months [7] as his country slid into civil war between the

federal government and the Biafrans. Though he was refused basic materials, such as

books, pens, and paper, for continuing his creative work during much of his

imprisonment, he did manage to write a significant body of poems and notes criticizing

the Nigerian government. Despite his imprisonment, in September 1967, his play The

Lion and The Jewel was produced in Accra, and in November The Trials of Brother Jero

and The Strong Breed were produced in the Greenwich Mews Theatre in New York. He

also published a collection of his poetry entitled Idanre and Other Poems. Idanre was

inspired by Soyinka’s visit to the sanctuary of the Yorùbá deity Ogun, whom Soyinka

regards irreligiously as his companion deity, kindred spirit, and protector.[8]

In 1968, also in New York, the group Negro Ensemble Company showed Kongi’s

Harvest. While still imprisoned, Soyinka translated from Yoruba a fantastical novel by

his compatriot D. O. Fagunwa, called The Forest of a Thousand Demons: A Hunter's

Saga.

Release and literary productivity

In the late 1950s, Soyinka completed his first two important plays, "The Swamp

Dwellers" and "The Lion and the Jewel," both tackling the uneasy relationship between

progress and tradition in Africa.[9] His play "The Invention" was staged in 1957 at the

Royal Court Theatre. At that time his only published works were poems such as "The

Immigrant" and "My Next Door Neighbour," which appeared in the magazine Black

Orpheus.[10] In October 1969, when the civil war came to an end, amnesty was

proclaimed, and Soyinka was released from prison. For the first few months after his

release, Soyinka stayed at a friend’s farm in southern France, where he sought solitude

after the period of mental stagnation. From this experience emerged The Bacchae of

Euripides, a reworking of the Pentheus myth.[11] He soon published out of London a tome

of his poetry based on his experience in prison, Poems from Prison. At the end of the

year, he returned to his office of Headmaster of Cathedral of Drama in Ibadan, and

cooperated in the founding of the literary periodical “Black Orpheus”.

In 1970 he produced the play Kongi’s Harvest, while simultaneously creating a film by

the same title. In June 1970, he concluded another play, called Madman and Specialists.

With the intention of gaining theatrical experience, along with the group of fifteen actors

of Ibadan University Theatre Art Company, he went on a trip to the famous Eugene

O'Neill Memorial Theatre Center in Waterford, Connecticut in the United States, where

his latest play premiered. In 1971 his poetry collection A Shuttle in the Crypt was

published. While Madmen and Specialists was exposed afresh in Ibadan, Soyinka took

the lead role as the murdered first Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo,

Kinshasa, in the Paris production of Murderous Angels. His powerful autobiographical

work The Man Died, a collection of notes from prison, was issued the same year. In

April, concerned about the political situation in Nigeria, Soyinka resigned from his duties

at the University in Ibadan, and began a few years of voluntary exile. In July, in Paris,

fragments of his famous play “The Dance of The Forests” were performed.

In 1972 he was declared an Honoris Causa doctorate by the University of Leeds. Soon

thereafter, another of his novels, Season of Anomy, came out, in addition to his Collected

Plays, published by the Oxford University Press. In 1973 the National Theatre, London,

which commissioned the play, premiered The Bacchae of Euripides in a "reputedly

misconceived" production.[11] In 1973 the plays Camwood on the Leaves, and Jero's

Metamorphosis were first published. From 1973-1975, Soyinka devoted himself to

scientific activity. He underwent one year's probation at Churchill College of Cambridge

University, and gave a series of lectures at a number of European universities.

In 1974 Collected Plays, Volume II was issued by Oxford University Press. In 1975

Soyinka was promoted to the position of editor for Transition, a magazine based in the

Ghanaian capital Accra (where he moved for some time). Soyinka utilized his columns in

Transition to once again attack the “negrofiles” (in his essay “Neo-Tarzanism: The

Poetics of Pseudo-Transition”), and military regimes, protesting against the military junta

of Idi Amin in Uganda. After the political turnover in Nigeria, and the subversion of

Gowon's military regime in 1975 he returned to his homeland and re-assumed his

position of the Cathedral of Comparative Literature at the University of Ife.

In 1976 the poetry collection Ogun Abibiman appeared, and a collection of essays entitled

Myth, Literature and the African World, in which Soyinka explores the genesis of

mysticism in African theatre and, using examples from the literatures of both continents,

compares and contrasts European and African cultures. At the Institute of African Studies

at the University of Ghana in Legon, he delivered a series of guest lectures and became a

professor at the University of Ife. In October, the French version of The Dance of The

Forests was performed in Dakar, while in Ife Death and The King’s Horseman

premiered.

In 1977 Opera Wọnyọsi, his adaptation of Bertold Brecht's The Threepenny Opera, was

staged, and in 1979 he both directed and acted in Jon Blair and Norman Fenton's drama

The Biko Inquest, a work based on the story of Steve Biko, a South African student and

human rights activist beaten to death by Apartheid police forces. In 1981 Wọle Soyinka’s

first autobiographical novel Ake: The Years of Childhood was released. From the memoir,

it is vivid to the five senses of man that he is an infant prodigy. The memoirs, Ake: The

Years of Childhood and You Must Set Forth at Dawn portray literature as a foundation of

pleasure. Both are sublime and classic. With a total of five memoirs, Soyinka is regarded

number one producer of memoirs in the world.

Soyinka founded another theatrical group (after Nineteen-Sixty Masks), called Guerrilla

Unit, its aim being to cooperate with local communities analyzing their actual problems

and then responding to some of their grievances in dramatic sketches. In 1983 the play

Requiem for a Futurologist had its initial performance at the University of Ife. In July one

of Soyinka's musical projects, the Unlimited Liability Company, issued a long-play

record titled I Love My Country, where a number of prominent Nigerian musicians play

songs composed by and provided with lyrics by Wọle Soyinka. In 1984, he directed the

film Blues for a Prodigal, which premiered the same year as a new play, A Play of

Giants.

The years 1975-1984 were for Soyinka a period of increased political activity. During

that time he was among the authorities at the University of Ife; among other duties, he

was responsible for the security of public roads. He continuously criticized the corruption

in the government of democratically-elected President Shehu Shagari, and often found

himself at odds with Shagari's military successor, Muhammadu Buhari. In 1984, a

Nigerian court banned The Man Died, and in 1985, the play Requiem for a Futurologist

went into print in London.

Nobel Prize laureate

In 1960, he was awarded a Rockefeller bursary and returned to Nigeria to study African

drama.[12] Soyinka was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986, as one “who in a

wide cultural perspective and with poetic overtones fashions the drama of existence”

becoming the first African laureate. His Nobel acceptance speech was devoted to South

African freedom-fighter Nelson Mandela. Soyinka's speech was an outspoken criticism of

apartheid and the politics of racial segregation imposed on the majority by the Nationalist

South African government. In 1986, he received the Agip Prize for Literature.

Soyinka's Nobel Prize Lecture, "This Past Must Address Its Present," judged to be very

revealing, revelling, poignant, eloquent, is an eye-opener to the misdeeds of the

Apartheid South Africa. The Lecture is the most revealing and downright message

concerning the enslaved, colonized and disparaged Africans and International Affairs

since the foundation of Nobel Prize in Literature in 1901. It is an ideal legacy for people

interested in rhetorics, history and International Relations. The power of words cannot be

underestimated. They can move passionate hearts to reason and tears. At long last, the

disparate words moved the entire world to reason and tears, resulting in the release of

Nelson Mandela in 1990, after 27 years behind bars.

In 1988, his new collection of poems Mandela's Earth, and Other Poems was published,

while in Nigeria another collection of essays entitled Art, Dialogue and Outrage: Essays

on Literature and Culture appeared. In the same year, Soyinka accepted the position of

professor of African studies and theatre at Cornell University.[13] In 1990, the second

portion of his memoir called Isara: A Voyage Around Essay appeared. In July 1991 the

BBC African Service transmits his radio play A Scourge of Hyacinths, and the next year

(in June 1992) in Siena (Italy), his play From Zia with Love has its premiere. Both works

are very bitter political parodies, based on events which took place in Nigeria in the

1980s. In 1993 Soyinka was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Harvard University.

The next year appears another part of his autobiography Ibadan: The Penkelemes Years

(A Memoir: 1946-1965). The following year his play The Beatification of Area Boy was

published. On 21 October 1994 Soyinka was appointed UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador

for the Promotion of African culture, human rights, freedom of expression, media and

communication. In November 1994 Soyinka fled from Nigeria through the border with

Benin and then to the United States. In 1996 his book The Open Sore of a Continent: A

Personal Narrative of the Nigerian Crisis was first published.

In 1997 Soyinka was charged with treason by the government of General Sani Abacha. In

1999 a new volume of poems entitled Outsiders was released. His play King Baabu,

premiered in Lagos in 2001,[14] is a political satire on the theme of African dictatorship

and the "warped aspect of human nature that makes people think they have the right to

dominate others and also inflict very agonising experiences on fellow humans". [14] In

2002 a collection of his poems, Samarkand and Other Markets I Have Known, was

published by Methuen. In April 2006, his memoirs, entitled You Must Set Forth at Dawn,

were published by Random House. In 2006 he cancelled his keynote speech for the

annual S.E.A. Write Awards Ceremony in Bangkok to protest the Thai military's

successful coup against the government.[15]

In April 2007 Soyinka called for the cancellation of the Nigerian presidential elections

held two weeks earlier because of widespread fraud and violence.

Soyinka, along with theatre director Richard Schechner, actor Alan Cumming and

filmmaker Brad Mays was interviewed about The Bacchae as part of an up-coming

series Invitation to World Literature, which officially launched on Annenberg Media's

educational website in September, 2010.[16] The series, produced by Annie Wong for

WGBH Boston, began airing nationally on PBS in October, 2010. Soyinka continues to

serve as resource person globally while acting as inspiration and voice of conscience to

leaders[17] and recently in the wake of the Christmas Day (2009) attempted bombing

cautioned that the United Kingdom's social logic which allows every religion to openly

proselytize their faith is being abused by religious fundamentalists thereby turning

England into a cesspit for the breeding of extremism. He affirmed that freedom of

worship is logical and correct but warned against the consequence of the illogic of

allowing religions to preach apocalyptic violence.[18]

The muse of a wordsmith

Soyinka frequently refers to Ogun, a Yoruba God as a sort of inspiration to his art,

guardian of his personal being and "my companion deity".[8] It is obvious, through his

writings, however that his reverence to Ogun is not metaphysical and he proclaims

himself that although he has a fascination with Ogun, it does not go beyond his literary

interest [19]

Style and valor

With the wink and nod of a writer of smooth-hewn background, smiling at serendipities

and bypassing much luxury on the laps of man, Soyinka has continued to raise his voice

to the ceiling ever since he wrote his unique poem "Telephone Conversation" in 1962.

A valiant writer, he believes that the promise of pen belongs to those who can take the

bulls by the horns. He has a unique style and a thorough command of language.

Political Philosophy

Granted that political philosophy is the participation, the contribution and the study of the

issues and concerns pertaining to the nature of the city, government, politics, laws, rights,

liberty and justice for mankind, Soyinka has associated himself with all these. Literarily,

philosophically and politically, he has done all the above, and excelled in all, as a multi-

talented political philosopher.

He was a peace maker (putting his life in harm's way & imprisoned) during the Nigerian

Civil War. In 1994, he was appointed by the UNESCO (United Nations Educational,

Scientific and Cultural Organization) as a Goodwill Ambassador for the promotion of

African cultures in Africa and in Diaspora, human rights, freedom of expression, media

and communication—as a result of his indefatigable savvies/activities as a political

philosopher who knows how to start a journey and how to end it.

Nigerian Literature

Nigerian literature was born in earnest with the award of Nobel Prize in literature to Wole

Soyinka in 1986. Soyinka, often referred to as the Bringer of Light to African Literatures,

has put Nigerian literature on the world map, and since 1986, hundreds of Nigerians have

proudly taken to studying Nigerian literature, as departments of Nigerian literature are

being created in all the universities across the country. Writers of different genres have

been published. Some have won prizes, while some are finalists in national and

international contests, adding their voices to the identity, authenticity, aesthetics and

glory of Nigerian literature.

The list of other Nobel Laureates in literature who believe in Nigerian literature includes

Naguib Mahfouz (1988), Nadine Gordimer (1991), Derek Walcott (1992), Toni Morisson

(1993), J.M. Coetzee (2003).

Centers, in Diaspora which have projected in large measure the Yoruba/Nigerian culture

—philosophy, religion and literature, for many years include Oyotunji African Kingdom

in South Carolina, United States and IWALEWA HOUSE of the Bayreuth University,

Germany. IWALEWA HOUSE was founded in 1981 by Professor Ulli Beier, a German

writer, scholar and connoisseur of Yoruba/Nigerian literature. A well-travelled writer in

Yorubaland, he was (may his soul rest in peace) an intimate friend of memoirist Wole

Soyinka.

Many opinions from the academic and non-academic circles are hoping that the Nobel

Prize Committee for Literature may decide in the future to award Nobel Prize twice to a

valiant and multi-talented writer/political activist like Wole Soyinka. Like Booker Prize,

that will be a precedent, if it happens.

The Wole Soyinka African Writers' Enclave

In 2011, under the aegis of African Heritage Research Library and Cultural Centre, a

writers' enclave has been built in honor of Professor Wole Soyinka. The location is

Adeyipo Village, Lagelu Local Government Area, Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria. The main

objectives of the Enclave, amongst others, are:

To promote African and World Literatures.

To provide a conducive atmosphere for the improvement of writers' craft.

To increase world-wide knowledge and appreciation of African literatures.

To raise the standard of African literature toward ensuring its active participation

in cultural and national development.

To initiate an endowment for a prestigious African Writers' Prize.

The enclave includes a Writer-in-Residence Programme which will enable writers to stay

for a period of two, three or six months, engaging in serious creative writing. Writers-in-

residence will receive monetary stipends. It is hoped that their works will impact

positively on the lives of all categories of literary audience—youth, adult and the general

public, throughout Africa and the entire world

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Sidi’s Choice of Baroka and the Victory of Traditional Valuesover Western Ones in Wole Soyinka’s The Lion and the Jewel

Lakunle

Lakunle is the schoolteacher of the village. He deeply admires Western culture and seeks

to emulate, often to comically inadequate effect. He is portrayed by Soyinka as clumsy in

both actions and words, throwing together phrases from the Bible and other Western

works in hope of sounding intelligent. He is "in love" with Sidi, but can not marry her

because she demands that he pay the traditional bride-price, something he refuses to do.

Initially we chalk up this refusal to his Western beliefs, and the belief that women

shouldn't be bought and sold, but later in the play he reveals his true self - when Sidi's

virginity is taken away, he leaps at the chance to bypass the bride-price by saying that she

can't really expect him to pay the bride price now that she's no longer "pure". He

represents one extreme of the play's central pendulum - the Western values.

Sidi

Sidi is a young girl in the village who has just had her ego boosted by a visit from a

bigcity

photographer, who has taken her pictures and published them in a magazine. From

them on, she is extremely conceited, thinking herself even higher than the Baroka, the

Bale, the Chief of Illujinle. She refuses to marry Lakunle until he pays the bride price,

and eventually goes to visit Baroka because she believes that she will be able to humiliate

him by exposing his impotence. However, Baroka proves to be a cunning man and she

falls right into his trap. She is the needle of the pendulum; she wavers from end to end,

confused, before finally settling on the traditional side.

Baroka

Baroka is the leader of the village. He holds to his Yoruba traditional beliefs, but his

power is coming under threat from the Western influence. The issue that troubles him

throughout the beginning of the play, we learn, is his apparent impotence, a secret he

reveals to his head wife. We later learn, however, that this feigned impotence was only a

clever stratagem in order to lure Sidi into coming to his palace.

In the course of the story Baroka‟s qualities of cunning, discrimination and strength are

shown to advantage; Lakunle is provided with a number of opportunities to display his

talents but he fails recurrently. Finally Sidi‟s decision to marry Baroka reflects the

playwright‟s opinion that in the context provided by the play, Baroka is the better man

and his attitudes are the more substantial as well as worthy.

Conflict between Tradition and Modernity in Creative Writing

Sidi‟s Choice of Baroka and the Victory of Traditional Values over Western Ones in

Wole Soyinka‟s The Lion and the Jewel 31

Issues have been raised regarding the conflict between tradition and modernity in this

play wherein tradition wins over modernity through the final action of Sidi. Now, if the

play reflects a conflict between old ways and new ways, then who is the winner? We

cannot answer this very easily. If we say that Sidi is the prize, then we see that she has

been won by Baroka. And thus victory may seem to go to the older ways of life and the

older beliefs he represents.

But still we are confronted with some complications; the first is that Lakunle is not a

particular convincing representative of modern ideas. There is evidence that he

misunderstands some of the books he reads and he believes to be true. For example, he is

wrong in saying that women‟s brain is smaller than men‟s. Then he is much fascinated

by

the most superficial aspects of modern ways of life, such as, night clubs, ballroom, dance,

etc. He is full of half-baked modern ideas which he exploits in denying to pay the

brideprice to Sidi.

Baroka, the sixty-two year village chief of Ilujinle, on the other hand, opposes progress

because he believes that it destroys the variety of ways in which people live and that he

as well as Lakunle should learn things from one another. Baroka is anxious enough to

make Sidi his wife and here comes the love-triangle of Sidi, Lakunle and Baroka wherein

finally Sidi surrenders herself to Baroka. It is miraculous to know that a young man fails

before an old man in the game of love and at the end Sidi willingly accepts Baroka, not

Lakunle, as her husband.

Bride-price, a Sign and Symbol and a Complex Situation

There are several reasons behind Sidi‟s hesitation in accepting Lakunle. The basic reason

seems to be his refusal to pay the bride-price:

Ignorant girl, can you not understand?

To pay the price would be

To buy a heifer off the market stall.

You‟d be my chattel, my mere property.

No, Sidi! (The Lion and the Jewel, 8)

But Sidi is also uneasy about Lakunle‟s ideas, especially the role of women and the

duties of a wife. The language he uses, drawn from his „ragged books‟ (mainly the Bible

and the dictionary) adds to this uneasiness. She feels uncomfortable by the scorn with

which he is regarded by other villagers, even the children. She also hates his miserliness

which she considers „A cheating way, mean and miserly.‟

There are many inconsistencies in Lakunle which also may irritate Sidi. Although he

claims to detest Baroka‟s habits and powers, in fact he secretly envies them. In one

speech he wishes if he had the Bale‟s privilege of marrying many wives. Now, polygamy

is a familiar tradition in older, backward society whereas monogamy is a modern

phenomenon. Lakunle is contradicting himself here by trying whole-heartedly to uphold

modernity but ironically he cannot obviate his native identity and demands. Even he

seems to forget his principles at the end of the play when he eagerly embraces the thought

that since Sidi is no longer a virgin now, he cannot be asked to pay a bride price for her:

But I obey my books.

„Man takes the fallen woman by the hand‟And ever after they live happily.Moreover, I ill admitIt solves the problem of her bride-price too. (The Lion and the Jewel, 61)

Opposing Religious Values – Convenience Plays a Better Part

In the same speech he forgets in his agitation that he is a Christian opposed to the village

religion and appeals to the God of thunder and lightning. He declares that „My love is

selfless- the love of spirit. Not of flesh‟ but if it is so, then how can he be so concerned of

„bride price‟ even when he is about to lose the beloved? Lakunle himself is deliberately

insincere and that it would be perfect to say that he is too weak to recognize his own

inconsistencies. We may assume that Sidi refuses him being motivated by more to her

personal opinions and disliking to this callous man rather than considering him a

representative of western norms and values. But at the end she realizes that Baroka

possesses what Lakunle lacks; the climax is, youth is eclipsed by the old.

Seduction of Modern Channels

It is not true that Sidi refuses Lakunle as if she was in love with Baroka from the very

beginning. Sidi initially refuses Baroka‟s offer to marry him and this offer arrives when

she is under the influence of the magazine brought to the village by the white

photographer. We notice Sidi‟s excitement demonstrated by her reactions to this

magazine and the photographs in it:

Have you seen these?Have you seen these images of meWrought by the man from the capital cityHave you felt the gloss?Smoother by far than the parrot‟s breast. (The Lion and the Jewel, 19)The fact that her photograph covers three pages and the Bale‟s only the corner of a page

seems to her to prove that she is far more important than he is. Her confusion in choosing

between Baroka and Lakunle as her husband indicates the young generation‟s wavering

to choose between the old values and the new allurements of Western culture:

In Wole Soyinka‟s The Lion and the Jewel, there is a constant confrontation

between tradition and modernity. Soyinka published the play in 1959, when

Nigeria was struggling for independence under British control. Nigeria had been

united as the “Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria” since 1914 and by the late

1950s was facing the challenge of whether or not it was ready for independence

and capable of handling modern Western civilization. Some Nigerians felt that it

was time for change while others wondered if they should move from their

present culture. (Watts 1)

RomanceIn the play, both men, Lakunle and Baroka play the role of romantic lovers in a differentway. Lakunle plays this role for much of the play; he praises Sidi‟s beauty, kneels to herand performs services for her. Baroka, who seems anti-romantic to many of us, turns in abrief performance as a romantic lover. Having appealed to Sidi‟s vanity through thestamp-printing machine he weaves a spell of words around her:In Baroka‟s part, we see that certain qualities of slyness in him make him win Sidi whichare not manifested in Lakunle. From the very beginning she cannot tolerate Lakunle and

till the end she is consistent in expressing her hatred to this callous chap. On the otherhand, when she is seduced by Baroka, she decides to choose one single man whom shewould let herself touch in future and that single man should be Baroka who has alreadytouched her enough. The Bale impresses her with his skill at wrestling; he pretends not toknow about the offer of marriage and implies that Sadiku is always trying to makematches for him. Moreover, he cunningly appeals to her loyalty to the old village waysand he praises her depth and wisdom, too. He flatters her with his talk of having herportrait on the stamps and all the time he talks to Sidi in a soothing tone with the mostflattering seriousness as well as stressing the responsibilities of the village head. Lakunleobviously lacks this foresightedness and therefore Sidi cannot get reliability as well aspracticality in him.

Victory of Old Africa?The Lion and the Jewel shows the triumph Baroka over Lakunle and many readers andcritics regard this as a victory of old Africa over foreign-educated parvenu or upstarts. Itis true that the vitality of Africa has been demonstrated and the established rulers havebeen shown as dignified, arrogant and powerful. But the way Soyinka presents Baroka isnot acceptable to those who want to romanticize traditional African leaders. Baroka is nota straightforward conservative; he has made many a significant innovations and hislanguage shows his familiarity with alien idioms and ideas. Several small African nationsmake a large part of their national income by selling beautiful stamps to collectorsabroad. It is not then too surprising that the Bale should view stamp sales as a majorsource of revenue.

The Old and the New – Complementing Each OtherSoyinka has portrayed Baroka and Lakunle- these two men to complement one-another,and his argument in the play is worked out through the juxtaposition of them. Baroka ispresented in a much more favourable light than Lakunle, but Soyinka is dealing inrelative rather than in absolute terms. He has taken us into a grey area and he forces us tolook closely and distinguish different shades of grey. He does not allow us to „sit backand separate the black from the white at a quick glance‟. (Gibbes, 54) We may,therefore, say that this play is not in favour of reckless progress and false imitation of socalledwestern practices; simultaneously it is not in favour of simply standing still. Likeall good fictions, it gives us something to think and argue about.

Reactionary Answer?Some critics accused Wole Soyinka of giving in The Lion and the Jewel, a reactionary(that is, a backward looking) answer to these problems. Soyinka is not a writer whobelieves that „progress‟ is always a good thing. As a small example, he shares Baroka‟sview that modern roads are „murderous‟. On the other hand, like Baroka he has stated hisbelief that „the old must flow into the new‟. One critic replied to the charge that The Lionand the Jewel is a reactionary play by arguing that „one of the first duties of the comedianis the exploding of cliché‟. In other words, it had become a mechanical thing – a cliche -to say that the new must be preferable to the old. In The Lion and the Jewel, WoleSoyinka had simply refused to reproduce that cliché. (Blishen 1975)

ConclusionIt is clear that The Lion and the Jewel is tilted in favour of the mature and discriminatingBaroka and against the shallow and boyish Lakunle. But this does not imply that Soyinkais likely to support old men and dislike youths. He made his intentions as a playwrightclear when he said: “I‟ll admit, if as a dramatist I set a riddle which gives my audience aheadache, not only in the theatre, but afterwards... the purpose of the theatre is to impartexperience... Often this is indefinable. (Gibbes, 54). We can then believe that through theplot of The Lion and the Jewel, Soyinka deliberately has put a riddle which gives us aheadache on analysing the victory of Baroka over Lakunle in which many of us wouldlike to apply ethnic issue as a soothing balm. Sidi is then quite right to uphold her own.

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The Lion and the Jewel (1963)

This play is one of Soyinka's most popular. Despite occasional uses of unconventional devices, it is readily accessible and highly entertaining. Like Death and the King's Horseman, a much more serious work, it explores the value of traditional Yoruba ways vs. European innovations. Some modern readers object to its treatment of women and find the humor spoiled by the sexism. What is your reaction?

Morning

The play is set in the village of Ilujinle. Note Lakunle's age. Despite his behavior on occasion, he is essentially a lively young man. He tries to emulate European notions of courtesy by relieving Sidi of her burden, though carrying water is traditionally a women's task. His flirtatious opening speech may seem rather crude, but is typical of the kind of jesting that goes on in courtship. Sidi is not so much shocked as bored by Lakunle.

Sidi cleverly answers his insistence that she should abandon the traditional way of carrying loads on her head. Note the contrast between the ideas that Lakunle has derived from books about women's weakness and Sidi's answers based on experience. Baroka, the Bale (chief) of the village is a major character later in the play, here introduced as standing for tradition.

When Lakunle proposes to Sidi he is quoting words he has read in popular English books about marriage. Note that his pretentious metaphors are answered by her pithy proverb. "Bush" means "uncivilized," typical of people who live in the bush.

Their relationship is clarified when Sidi says she wants a bride-price. It is not that she lacks affection for Lakunle--what has passed before has been essentially good-natured sparring on her part. But she insists on the tradition which will prove her value in the eyes of the village. Lakunle, in his "Pulpit-declamatory" style, quotes to her lines from the wedding service which are in turn quoted from Genesis 2:24.

Sidi is eager to see the stranger's book. Notice how the conflict in the play which has been between Lakunle and Sidi is now complicated by the tension between Sidi and Baroka. How do you react to Sidi's celebration of her own beauty?

The dance of the lost Traveler draws on Yoruba tradition and that of many other African peoples. Current events are often depicted and commented upon in dances involving costumes and pantomime. It is this sort of "street theater" which Soyinka sees as providing fertile ground for the development of drama in Africa. One of the problems with reading a play rather than seeing it performed, is that one skims quickly over what would be a very impressive high point in the production, with dancing and drumming building to a climax. Imagine this "dance" taking quite a long time and having much more dramatic impact than anything that has gone before. Note that Lakunle finally enters into the dance with enthusiasm. Despite his modern pretensions, he is underneath not so alien to Sidi and her comrades as one might at first suppose. The stranger had been photographing Sidi while she was bathing, and she quickly grabbed up her clothes to cover herself when she saw him.

Baroka gives Lakunle the traditional greeting and is displeased to get a European one in return. Far from being displeased by the dance, he insists on it being continued, playing the role he played in the original incident. When he tells Lakunle "You tried to steal our village maidenhead" he is speaking to the character Lakunle is playing, not the villager himself. He is telling him to go on acting. It is significant that Lakunle has been given the part of the stranger.

Noon

"The Lion" is Baroka's nickname. It is common in many cultures for men to use elderly women as go-betweens to solicit a new bride. What do you think of the fact that Sidi seems to have learned that she is beautiful through the magazine photographs? How do the magazine photographs affect Sidi's perception of Baroka? The storm god Sango (often spelled "Shango" or "Xango") is a West African deity, the most famous of those to have survived the slave trade to the western hemisphere, where his name is invoked in such places as Bahia and Haiti, where African traditions linger on among the black inhabitants. Of what quality does Lakunle accuse Baroka?

Laukunle's story is told through pantomime, in the form of another dance. Again it is important not to skip quickly over this passage, but to attempt to imagine it vividly enacted on stage. A matchet is a large knife used for clearing brush, machete in Spanish. Note how the Bale is worked into this "flashback." A bull-roarer is a carved piece of wood or stone which is whiled at the end of a long cord to produce a mysterious roaring sound, part of the religious traditions of many cultures. What do you think Lakunle's attitude is toward Baroka's success in diverting the railroad?

The removal of body hair is a feature of many cultures, not--as is often supposed--of western ones alone.

Night

Sadiku's glee at Baroka's impotence may be partly based on resentment at having been long abandoned by him as a lover; but there seems generally to be a tension between the Bale and his wives which roots his dominance over them in his sexual potency. Her story of the rusted key which could not open her treasure house is an obvious sexual metaphor. However, based on what we have just seen, she knows of his impotence only through what he has told her, not by first-hand experience as she claimed. Note the insistence on the power of women's rituals, from which men are banned. Note Sidi's glee in desiring to torment Baroka.

The wrestling match in Baroka's bedroom is of course a metaphor for the power struggle about to take place between himself and Sidi. Throughout this scene the Bale tries to throw Sidi off her balance by pretending not to know why she has come.

To "pull asses' ears" is to mockingly put one's fingers behind one's head to imitate a donkey's ears. Sidi mocks Baroka in her conversation with him. She uses metaphors to satirize his pursuit of young women. The "tappers" are palm-wine tappers. Baroka manages to keep throwing Sidi off balance in their conversation. In his description of Sadiku's activities as match-maker he quotes her typical line of chat. Sidi's respectful words in boasting of her traditional garment cause Baroka to call her "wise."

Several small African nations make a large part of their national income by selling beautiful stamps to collectors abroad. It is not then too surprising that the Bale should view stamp sales as a major source of revenue. What is it the Bale says he dislikes about progress? How can you tell that Sidi is being bewildered by Baroka? Sidi is "overcome" by Baroka's words.

The third pantomime ironically depicts the triumph of women over a man just as the Bale is triumphing over a woman. Lakunle's description of the Bale's dungeons is probably a paranoid fantasy. "Mummers" are dancers who pantomime stories. Lakunle is expected to tip the mummers, like other people; but in this he adheres to the pattern established by his refusal to pay a bride price. He clings to modernism as an excuse for saving money, though the following description makes clear that he actually enjoys the performance.

Sidi is angry with Baroka, either because she has been seduced or because she has been deceived. Lankunle reacts with stereotypically heroic words of despair, but when he hears himself utter them, he recoils and changes metaphors. He reacts strongly to Sidi's loss of virginity. What are his motives? A "praise-singer" is a traditional poet-bard, often known as a griot , who sings the praises of whoever hires him. What is Lakunle's reaction to Sidi's seeming acceptance of his proposal?

(2) From http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/stage2/reviews/th-mod017.html

Synopsis

The action takes place in the remote Nigerian village of Ilujinle, in the territory of the Yoruba people. Sidi is the local beauty, much admired by the village school teacher Lakunle (la-kun-li), who wants to make her his bride. She is not averse to his intentions, but insists he must pay her 'bride price' to maintain her reputation. Lakunle however, is a

modernist, he has been to Lagos and is filled with modern ideas, consequently he is reluctant to fall in line with what he sees as an archaic tradition (at least that is his excuse, we surmise its more a case of penny-pinching). A photographer who had visited the village sometime earlier and taken photographs of the people returns to deliver a copy of the magazine in which the photographs appear. Photographs of Sidi have pride of place, on the cover and centrespread, whilst the village bale ('ba-lay' = chieftain) Baroka has only a small corner inside. Sidi realises the power of her beauty, placing her above even the leader of her people.

Baroka was once a powerful warrior known as 'the Lion'. He has lived a long life and collected many concubines. Now he wants to add Sidi to his harem and sends his head wife, Sadiku, to proposition her. Sidi is not interested since he is an old man, and with the arrogance of youth rudely rebukes his advances. But Baroka is a wily old fox, not so easily brushed aside. He has determined to have Sidi, and hatches a plan to seduce her. Who will win the battle of wills, the naive but headstrong young girl, or the wily experienced old statesman?

Impressions

Wole Soyinka's play is a spirited and ribald account of African village life that explores the conflicts between traditional and modern values, third World reality against first world ideals, and the power of men against the influence of women. The action is interspersed with raucous African song and dance. The visit of the photographer is told as a play within a play, a musical re-enactment with the villagers acting out the events of that day. The set is a simple circular affair but imaginative use of props serves to transform it from the schoolhouse to the village square and Boroka's bedroom. Colourful costumes round off the effect.

The strong accents of the characters make the dialogue a little difficult to follow at times for unaccustomed ears but adds to the realism of the piece. Unfortunately, the play loses it's way a little in the second act, accenting the humour but in so doing straying away from the darker side of the original story.

Performances

Omonor Imobhio is ideally cast as the beautiful young Sidi, the 'Jewel' of the title. She captures perfectly the essence of the uncultured 'bush woman' who allows the power of her beauty to go to her head turning her world upside down. But Anthony Ofoegbu is the undoubted star of the show, garnering most of the laughs as the lovestruck modernising schoolteacher. Toyin Oshinaike was impressive as the 'Lion' of the title, Baroka, despite struggling with his lines on a couple of occasions and Shola Benjamin was wonderfully comic as the mocking head wife Sadiku. The remainder of the fifteen strong cast, including musicians, all performed admirably.

Verdict

A colourful production with many genuinely funny moments. Despite the generally strong perfomances however, it has to be said that the direction went somewhat astray with the result that this production fails to capture the acerbic edge of the original play.