Summary and Analysis of Soyinka’s The Lion and the Jewel
The Lion and the Jewel is one of Soyinka’s plays that tell a funny story involving four main characters. Lakunle a school teacher of the village who is a young man of twenty three years who is bent on bestowing western culture on to the people of Ilunjinle. Sidi is the Jewel, the village belle whose beauty has been captured by a photographer and published in a magazine. Baroka her is the Lion of Ilunjinle, who is a chief and has several wives. Both Lakunle and Baroka love Sidi. The final major character is Sadiku the Lion’s head wife.
It is on this point the author presents Lakunle who stands for change facing a challenge with Baroka who stands for tradition. Soyinka argues that the conflicts in Nigeria and Africa as a whole are of different sides, it may be as a result of generation gab, education or beliefs. His argument has been strengthened by this play as it depicts the Nigerian society betrayed by its own people. Baroka, Lakunle and Sidi exhibit internal and external conflict with tradition and modern culture.
Summary and Analysis of Soyinka’s The Lion and the Jewel
Throughout the entire play, the author exposed the battle between Baroka and Lakunle for Sidi’s hand in marriage. Sidi sees value in both of them and it is hard for her to choose one of them over the other as Lakunle stands to represent progress and cultured romance who was captivated by Sidi’s own Charm. Unfortunately, he failed at the crucial hours to obtain him and Baroka succeeded in having Sidi’s hand in marriage. Soyinka therefore shows the influence of modern world on African minds. Lakunle an elementary school teacher failed as a result of refusing to apprehend the sense of culture and advancement.
Baroka who is cunning manage to lure Sidi into coming to his palace. He tells Sadiku about his apparent impotence, Sadiku tells Sidi about it, Sidi on hearing this takes that opportunity to go to Baroka’s palace and tease him. She taunts Baroka saying that he failed to produce any children for the last two years. Baroka tricked Sidi and have sex with her by telling her about her beauty he also shows her the new magazine and an addressed envelope. He shows her a stamp featuring her likeness and tells her that her picture will adorn the official stamp of the village if she marries him. Sidi joyfully marries Baroka at the end of the play. The Lion and Jewel therefore, reflects the world that the dominated culture is the traditional one besides reflecting the view of the world beliefs and condition of cultures. Soyinka uses humour, irony, wit, malicious laughter to correct the society.
The Lion and the Jewel is a cleverly woven piece of work which portrays Western civilization, marriage without bride price. Lakunle as a modern and educated man does not want to pay the bride price because according to him, to do so would be equivalent to buying a heifer off the market stall and reducing her to mere property. But the nonpayment of the price would suggest to the society that Sidi was no virgin as seen in Sidi’s statement: That I was no virgin, that I was forced to sell my shame and marry you without a price, and Sidi will not make herself a cheap bowl for the village spit (7).
Lakunle shuns all customary practices and call them as “barbaric, out-dated, rejected, and denounced”. He crowns it all by telling Sadiku: We must be modern with the rest or live forgotten by the world, we must reject the palm wine habit and take tea… with milk and sugar (37).
At the end, Lakunle realizes his true position in the society and is sadly aware of the fact that in spite of the many Western ideas that he has accumulated, tradition still triumphs. He is confused, walks up and down and curses himself: And now I know I am the biggest fool that ever walked this earth. There are women to be found in every town, village in these parts and everyone a virgin. But I obey my books (6).
In this play, Soyinka manages to expose societal mistakes focusing on youths and the problems of self-definition. When Sidi heard that her photograph cover three pages and Baroka’s photograph seems to be in the corner of a page she said: “if that is true, then I am more esteemed than the Bale Baroko, the Lion of Ilunjinle. This means I am greater than the Fox of the under …growth” (11). This shows that Sidi is far important than Baroka. In addition she has confusion in her decision to choose between Baroka the chief who represent the old value and Lakunle the school teacher who represents the new allurements of Western culture.
Summary and Analysis of Soyinka’s The Lion and the Jewel
Soyinka portrays the custom and tradition in his Yoruba society. The Polygamous society gives importance to Bale to marry as many girls as he wants. He just uses them for pleasure and after the arrival of the new favorite; he sends the last favourite to an outhouse. In our society, due respect are not given to women as Lakunle says “they are used to pound the yam or bends all the day to plant the millet to fetch and Scrub, to bring forth children by the groos” (78).
The study of the characters and their activities highlight the unexpected ending of the play delineating tradition’s triumph over modernity. In the case of Lakunle’s character, who believes in the Western value to leap at the chance to bypass the bride…price because Sidi is no longer a virgin. As for Sidi, she is the needle of the pendulum, she weaver from end to end, confused before finally setting on the traditional side. Baroka has many wives though he want Sidi to be his wife, on seeing her in a magazine seated alone, he laments “yes yes… it is five full month since last I took a wife … five full months” (18). Lakunle beg Sidi not to agree to marry Baroka but she has to assert herself to put an end to his clowning. “My name is Sidi. And now let me be. My name is Sidi and I am beautiful (20). Sidi sees Lakunle as a nuisance, she sees Baroka as a challenge.
When Sadiku, Baroka’s head wife reveals that Sidi’s refusal of Baroka’s marriage proposal has broken him down; Sidi decides to taunt Baroka and reveal his defeat, with her knowledge. In fact, she returns from her venture defeated because the Lion had beaten the Jewel. Lakunle offers to marry Sidi despite her lack of virginity, but Sidi refuses and joyfully goes on to marry Baroka, the Lion. Thus, the victory is for tradition represented by Baroka.
The Lion and the Jewel the title of the novel depicts the relationship between two leading characters of the play: The chieftain of the village ilunjinle, is named Boraka and is known as the “Lion” He is sixty …two years old and able to deceive the village belle, Sidi as the title indicate, Sidi is the “Jewel” of the village who gets tricked by Baroka and ends up sleeping with him.
Sango is a Yoruba Orisha, a ruler and wielder of justice. He is evoked several times in the text. First, Sadiku uses him to threaten obnoxious Lakunle. Second, she evokes him again when she is exulting over Bale’s importance “oh Sango my Lord, who of us possessed your lightening and ran like fire through that lions trade” (33). Third Baroka mentions him when he tells Sidi his views on progress “Among the bridges and the murderous roads, below humming birds which smoke the face of Sango, dispenser of the snake tongue lightening” (52). Every time he is mentioned, the character mentioning him is talking about justice, retribution and revenge.
Summary and Analysis of Soyinka’s The Lion and the Jewel
Soyinka makes use of dance and mime as a means of entertainment and communication for the board village youths. The most prominent dance in the text is the dance of the lost travelers (14-16). Soyinka does not use the culture of his ancestors as a gimmick to sell his abilities or even as an export commodity, but as inborn material for expansion. His skillful use of idioms with the lively and musical Nigerian flavour in no way detracts from the command of the English Language which he possesses.
Themes in Soyinka’s Lion And The Jewel
Conflict between Traditional and Western Culture in Soyinka’s Lion And The Jewel
The Lion and the Jewel was written and first performed the year before Nigeria was granted its independence from Great Britain, and the script was published two years after independence. As such, one of the primary conflicts of the play pits traditional Yoruba customs against a western conception of progress and modernity, as represented by the conflict between Baroka and Lakunle for Sidi’s hand in marriage.
Lakunle represents the modern Nigerian man. He wears western clothing, has been educated in a presumably British school, and wants to turn his village into a modern paradise like the city of Lagos. Lakunle doesn’t just admire and idolize western society; he actively and loudly despises the traditional customs of his village and the people who support them. This is best illustrated by Lakunle’s refusal to pay Sidi’s bride price. Sidi indicates that she’d marry Lakunle any time if he’d only pay the price and observe local custom. Lakunle’s refusal shows that it’s more important to him to convert Sidi to his way of thinking and turn her into a “modern wife” than it is for him to marry her in the first place.
For much of the play, other characters describe Baroka as being directly opposed to modernity and extremely concerned with preserving his village’s traditional way of life. Lakunle, in particular, finds Baroka’s lifestyle abhorrent. He describes how Baroka paid off a surveyor to not route train tracks through the outskirts of Ilujinle, thereby robbing the village of a link to the modern world that would modernize the village. However, when Baroka himself speaks, it becomes apparent that he doesn’t actually hate modernity or progress. While he obviously delights in the joys and customs of village life, when it comes to modernity he simply hates having it forced upon him. He sees more value in bringing modern customs to the village on his own terms. For example, he argues that creating a postal system for the village will begin to bring it into the modern world without entirely upending the village’s way of life. Further, when he does talk about modern ideas that were forced upon him, such as his servants forming a union and taking Sundays off, his tone is resigned rather than angry—he sees it as inevitable and annoying, but not bad.
Summary and Analysis of Soyinka’s The Lion and the Jewel
The competition between Baroka and Lakunle for Sidi’s hand in marriage brings the conflict between tradition and modernity to life. Baroka wishes to add Sidi to his harem of wives, while Lakunle dreams of having one wife who, in theory at least, is his equal. Both men promise Sidi a different version of power and fulfillment. When Baroka dies, Sidi will become the head wife of the new Bale, a position that would make her one of the most powerful women in the village. Lakunle, on the other hand, offers Sidi the possibility of an equal partnership in which she’s not required to serve her husband as is traditional. However, the way Lakunle talks to and about Sidi indicates that agreeing to marry Lakunle and embracing modernity won’t necessarily be better for her, as modern science provides Lakunle specious evidence that women are weaker and less intelligent than men. Sidi recognizes that Lakunle’s idea of modernity might not improve her life; in fact, it might mean that she would have less power and fewer rights than she would have in a traditional marriage.
Baroka’s actions (and the fact that he triumphs in the fight for Sidi’s hand) suggest that while Lakunle may be right that Ilujinle will indeed need to join the modern world, modernization and the outright rejection of local custom simply for the sake of doing so are foolish goals that benefit nobody. Instead, Baroka’s triumph suggests that progress must be made when and where it truly benefits the village and its inhabitants.
Summary and Analysis of Soyinka’s The Lion and the Jewel
In fact, the play explores the value of traditional Yoruba ways against the European innovations. The first character is Lukunle, an eager but naive schoolteacher who believes in modernity and Western ideas and accepts them without understanding. Baroka, the village leader, accepts traditions and sees modern ideas as a threat to his authority. In this regard, the two characters represent the two sides of the major social and political issue in Africa. The researcher highlights that the play has its setting in the village of Ilunjiunle in Yoruba West Africa. The play is characterized by culture conflict. Thus, the lion is Baroka and the jewel is Sidi. She is the village belle. The lion seeks to have the jewel. More centrally, The Lion and the Jewel is about a beautiful young girl named Sidi who should choose either the young schoolmaster or the old village chief as her husband. At first, she makes fun of the chief for his impotency, but after some events, she marries him. Actually, the play is a comedy with a message, which puts the Westernized schoolmaster Lakunle against the leader Baroka, illustrating the division between the modern and the traditional.
Thus, Wole Soyinka writes about Yoruba rituals and beliefs to reveal his roots. 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. However, to Lakunle, that is being barbaric, outdated and ignorant. Lakunle is dressed in an old style English suit, threadbare but not ragged, clean but not ironed, obviously a size or two too small. His tie is done in a very small knot, disappearing beneath a shiny black waistcoat. He wears twenty-three-inch-bottom trousers and blanco-white tennis shoe” (Collected Plays 2, The Lion and the Jewel, 1). Erapu (1975) illustrates that:
The school teacher turns out to be a man with a missionary zeal to transform the village from „primitivity‟ to „modernity‟. Lakunle is a romantic and a dreamer on the one hand and a jester with an imperfectly hidden zest for life on the other hand (3-4). He proves to Sidi that he is a man of words not action. She says “These thoughts of future wonders- do you buy them or merely go mad and dream them?” (5). Therefore, she calls his speech nonsense. Moreover, he says Nonsense? Nonsense? Do you hear? Does anybody listen? Can the stones Bear to listen to this? Do you call it Nonsense that I poured the waters of my soul To wash your feet? (6).
Baroka is the leader of the village and sticks to his traditional beliefs. We learn that he is distributed by issues from the beginning of the play that represented in his secret to his wife and his apparent impotence. In addition, he manages to lure Sidi into coming to his palace. Baroka is cunning and has power than Lakunle who fails to persuade Sidi to marry him. Finally, Sidi is responsible for her decision. If she chooses Baroka as a husband, she will reflect the playwright’s opinion that old tradition are better than the new and western one.
Summary and Analysis of Soyinka’s The Lion and the Jewel
It is clear that, the price of the bride is money or property given by the bridegroom to the family of the bride. In the primitive African societies, they follow the footsteps of tradition and culture. Thus, the good price is an honour to the bride. If a girl marries without the price, it is assumed that she is not a virgin. In Sidi’s case, she insists on dowries, because she is untouched by the foreign ideas and culture. She tells Lakunle,
I have told you, and I say it again
I shall marry you today, next week or any day you name.
But my bride-price must first be paid,
But I tell you, Lakunle, I must have
The full bride- price. Will you make me
A laughing-stock? Well, do as you please.
But Sidi will not make, herself
A cheap bowl for the village spit…
They will say I was no virgin
That I was forced to sell my shame.
And marry you without a price. (8).
The brideprice is a traditional African custom of marriage. As for Lakunle, he calls the system of brideprice as “a savage custom, barbaric, out-dated…upalatable (8). Lakunle opposes this custom because of his influence on the Western concept of gender equality or his empty pocket. In his concept, this custom is a disgrace and humiliation to women, he says, “To pay the price would be to buy a heifer off the market stall” (9). Also, he completes:
“To pay price would be to buy a heifer off the market stall. You would be my chattel, my mere property” (22).
In this regard, Sidi does not pay attention because he believes in modern marriage. To her, a girl for whom dowry is not paid will be hiding her shame for she will not be known as a virgin. Her beauty has captured many souls besides Lakunle. The researcher would fully argue that Sidi‟s traditional viewpoints have been shown in her rejection of Lakunle’s many modern advances towards her. In the first scene, she denies Lakunle’s request to carry the pail for her because she is aware of his motives for doing it. Thus, she will not allow him to put aside her values, she makes it clear to Lakunle that her declination of his marriage proposal is based on his refusal to pay the price, because she would not be a “cheap bowl for the village to spit” (8). He thinks that bride price is uncivilized and outrageous custom:
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. (8)
Finally, Sidi is uncomfortable by Lakunle‟s ideas and beliefs especially, his ideas about the role of women and the duty of wife. She hates his miserliness that she considers “a cheating way, mean and miserly” (10).
Summary and Analysis of Soyinka’s The Lion and the Jewel
Tradition versus modernity in Soyinka’s Lion And The Jewel
More centrally, in this play, Soyinka manages to describe the existing environment that has been enriched with variegated realistic scenes. He depicts the life of Africans, for example, he shows the characters holding a mirror up to nature and presents life as it is. The main theme of the play is tradition versus modernity. He offers some of the customs of Yoruba such as brideprice, polygamy, and wife wooing girls for her husband. No doubt, the modern customs challenge the outdated customs and traditions. Soyinka has made use of elements such as songs, dance, and mimes to forward the action of the play.
It is clear that he offers the native tradition, and confirmed the people’s livelihood policy and role of women. As the main theme in the play is the conflict between tradition and modernity, the play shows the intimacy of Soyinka with the various aspects of African traditions. On the one hand, the play also shows the influence of the modern world on the African mind. On the other hand, The Lion and the Jewel, focuses on the failure of an elementary school teacher to apprehend the sense of culture and advancement.
Summary and Analysis of Soyinka’s The Lion and the Jewel
Actually, the main characters of the play exhibit external and internal conflicts with modernity and tradition. There is a battle between Lakunle and Baroka for Sidi’s hand in marriage and this is the main plot of the play. The conflict reveals a confrontation between their two different ways of life. Hence, Lakunle stands to represent “progress” and cultured romance who was captivated by Sidi‟s own charm. Unfortunately, he failed at the crucial hours to obtain her while encountering the old lion. In this regard, “Sidi presents a full spectrum of the panorama of the heart of an African village as against lagos, which stands for advancement in accordance with definition of Lakunle” (3). Therefore the major theme of the play is the “choice between the rival worlds of tradition and modernism” (32).
The researcher would fully agree that Baroka is a strictly traditional and keeps his village the same way, but he later reveals his transition into modernity. In his first appearance in the play, he shows his displeasure with modern ways of life. His movements and actions when he enters the scene are without words and all in attendance, except Lakunle, give a traditional kneel and greeting of “Kabiyesi, Baba”. This is a Yoruban greeting used to address a ruler. Thus, Baroka is upset when he gets a simple “good morning” from Lakunle. In his anger, Baroka asks why he is not getting the respect that he deserves.
Baroka’s concept is to keep tradition in his village. He also stops Western Civilization from spreading to his village. The Public Works attempt to build a railway in Ilujinle, but Baroka is against progress. The Public Works send in workers and surveyors to tear down jungles in order to run a railway through the village. When Baroka learns of this, he pays off the surveyor with money, a coop of hens, and a goat. Pleased, the surveyor and workers pack up their things and leave “convinced” that the tracks were intended to be laid further away. Baroka‟s aim is to keep his village in its traditional form with no progress at all. He prevented Ilujinle from attaining railway: “……..Trade Progress, adventure, success, civilization, Fame, international conspicuousity…’ (24)
The theme of Clash of culture
The play presents a clash between an octogenarian chief of the village and a young teacher. It is an amusing play where Soyinka has presented young men who adhere to all the vulgarity and superficiality of the Western world and thus he appears as a caricature of modern human beings. Baroka loves the traditional culture of his country and sees modern ideas as a threat to his authority. In this regard, the two characters represent the Sides of the major social and political problems in Nigeria. The disagreement is between Baroka, the traditionalist who seeks to nullify the changes done in the name of progress due to vested interest and Lakunle, the modernist who wants to see the last of outdated traditional beliefs at all cost.
The theme of Bride Price
Bride price is another major theme as portrayed in this play. In the primitive African Societies, they follow the footsteps of tradition and culture. Thus, the good price is an honour to the bride. If a girl marries without the price, it is assumed that she is not a virgin. In Sidi’s case, she insists on dowries, because she is untouched by the foreign ideas and culture. She tells Lakunle:I have told you, I say it again I shall marry you today, next week or any day you name. But I tell you, Lakunle, I must have the full bride-price. Will you make me a laughing —stock? Well do as you please but Sidi will not make herself a cheap bowl for the village spit (7).
Summary and Analysis of Soyinka’s The Lion and the Jewel
As for Lakunle, he calls the system of bride price as a savage custom, barbaric, outdate unpalatable (7). Lakunle opposes the custom because of his influence on western concept of gender equality or his empty pocket. In his concept, this custom is a disgrace and humiliation to women, he says, “to pay the price would be to buy a heifer off the market stall” (8). Also the complete “you would be a Chattel, my mere property” (8).
Finally Sidi is uncomfortable by Lakunle’s ideas and beliefs especially, his ideas about the role of women and the duty of wife. She hates his miserliness that she considers it as a cheating way, mean and miserly” (9).
Summary and Analysis of Soyinka’s The Lion and the Jewel
The Theme of Moral war
More importantly, Lakunle treats himself to be the representative of the modern revolution against men like Bale, and confirms what he sees as a moral war. Thus, Lakunle develops an association with Sidi, the village beauty. He aims at civilizing the bush girl. Lakunle represents a semi-European and wants to make revolutionary changes in the village. He appareled in the English suit of the ancient kind.
At first, he imposes his ideas on his love for Sidi. To her, he represents a reformer and all his ideas are new. When he proposes his love and talks to marry her, she demands the bride price to marry him. In fact, one of his modern ways of life is that when he goes to request Sidi’s hand in marriage as a westerner, will not pay the bride price. “Lakunle is madly in love with Sidi and “offers her a „Western‟ monogamous marriage” (307). Thus, with Western civilization‟s influence, the school teacher of the village, Lakunle, has become fonder of the modern ways of life. He wants the village of Ilujinle to back away from tradition as well. This task is difficult because villagers refuse to set aside their Yoruba roots and traditions. On the other hand, the village belle, Sidi, and the village Bale, Baroka, stand for tradition. Nevertheless, they do not hesitate to use each to their own advantage.
Women’s Role in the Society: Polygamy and Wife Wooing Girls to the Husband
Hence, Soyinka portrays the customs and traditions in his Yoruba country. It is new to the reader. The Polygamous society gives importance to the Bale, for example: It allows him to marry as many girls as he wants. He just uses them for his pleasure and after the arrival of the new favourite, he sends the last favourite to an outhouse. In our society, we represent this as the society that never gives respect to woman as Lakunle says “they are used to pounds the yam or bends all the day to plant the millet …to fetch and carry, to cook and scrub, to bring forth children by the gross” (7,9). The researcher would fully stress that the characters can be classified in two groups: Baroka, Sadiku, and Sidi represent the traditional African values, whereas Lakunle stands for modern European especially British-values of life. So, Lakunle is infatuated with Sidi. When Sidi is passing through the corridor near the school, Lakunle has the opportunity to see her and begins to express his appreciation of her beauty. As he sees her carrying a pot of water on her head, he feels anxious for her and advises her:
I have told you not to carry loads- on your head. But you are as stubborn as an illiterate goat. It is bad for your spine. And it shortens your neck, so that very soon you will have no neck at all. Do you wish to look squashed like my pupil’s drawings? (4)
He taunts her by saying that “only spiders/ carry loads the way you do” (4). He advises her to cover up her chest and thus discourage the unemployed of the village. Thus, Lakunle offers his desire to marry Sidi by his initial infatuation. That is the reason why when she asks for her pail that he has snatched from her, he puts the condition: “not till you swear to marry me” (7).
Summary and Analysis of Soyinka’s The Lion and the Jewel
He explains to Sidi why he wants to marry her. In his own view, he thinks her to be a smart girl who can understand and support him in his struggle for life: [takes her hand, instantly soulful] “Sidi, a man must prepare to fight alone. But it helps if he has a woman. To stand by him a woman who can understand…like you” (7). Lakunle believes in the modern concept of love, so he tries to court the village belle. Finally, result will be in marriage. Unfortunately, the crux of the problem still exists. Although Lakunle is an African by birth, he has Europeanised himself by his modern education and contact with the alien culture. In his new concept, there is no polygamy and monogamy is a modern phenomenon. Hence, Sidi believes in the traditional African values of life including the conventions of marriage. She also does not believe in the European concept of “love marriage”. She expects him to buy her by giving her bride price:
I have told you, and I say it again
I shall marry you today, next week
Or any day you name
But my bride-price will you must first be paid
Aha, now you turn away.
But I tell you Lakunle, I must have
The full bridge-price will you make me
A laughing stock? Well, do as you please
But Sidi will not make herself
A cheap bowel for the village spit. (8)
Lakunle does not subscribe to the traditional African customs of marriage. Therefore, he does not want to pay the bride price that resembles buying a piece of property.
Ignorant girl, can you not understand?
To pay the price would be
to buy a heifer off the market stall.
You„d my chattel, me
My property
No, Sidi! (Very tenderly). (9)
Again, for Sidi, she sticks to the tradition in marriage. The traditional society will cast aspersion on her sexual purity they will say I was no virgin. Hence, Lakunle and Sidi are different in the purpose of marriage and lifestyle. He wishes to marry her for moral companionship than for the traditional purpose of procreation. He looks down upon the African customs
An ignoble custom, infamous, ignominious.
Shaming our heritage before the world
Sidi, I do not seek a wife.
To fetch and carry
To cook and scrub
To bring forth children by the gross… (8-9)
On the contrary, he wants to marry her to be “a life companion”, “a friend in need, and an equal partner in my race of life”. But Sidi doesn’t agree with him. She believes in the traditional values of life. She considers childbearing as a second part of matrimony. She therefore asks him
Heaven forgive you;
Do you now scorn
Child-bearing in a wife? (9)
Even in kissing, they differ in their views of kissing.
Lakunle considers kissing “as a way of civilized romance
and requests her to give him a kiss” (10). He tells her:
be a modern wife, look me in the eye and give me a little
kiss like this (kisses her) (10).
Nevertheless, Sidi considers it as abnormal performance.
She looks at it from the African points of view “No, don‟t I.
I tell you I dislike.
This strange unhealthy mouthing you perform” (10).
Sidi, thus, does not explore any appreciation for Lakunle’s modern European ways of love or marriage. For Soyinka, Yoruba is a perfect way for him because it reconnects him with his native culture and at the same time provides an alternative construct to the Western concept of tragedy. Soyinka’s goal is to bring the tragic hero to a high level of self-awareness. Actually, his culture gives him a great source of inspiration. He expresses his belief in a moral order of the Yoruba. These elements are derived from the Yoruba cosmology. The Yoruba cosmology is the structure of the world that comprises from three worlds of the unborn, of the living, and of the ancestors that can co-exist and communicate through a principle of transformation.
Summary and Analysis of Soyinka’s The Lion and the Jewel
The Yoruba worldview considers that good and evil coexist naturally in a dual unity that makes the balance and harmony possible. The play deals with the theme of love from the conflicting perspectives of “tradition and progress”. In this regard, this paper looks at the idea of conflict between cultures through highlighting the idea of homelessness in the eyes of Nigerian playwright. It is a theatrical inquiry into what it means to the nation and to a local place. This part shows, what is a human, what does it mean to be a person, or a citizen? The answer will be clear if the social justice and ethics are the core elements of any study of conflict between cultures. Thus, this study requests and responds to the urgent question how can one ethically resolve the conflict between the different cultures?
In the Lion and the Jewel, there is a challenge from Lakunle for rapid change and ambition but the other one Baroka with his danger manage to dominate. Lakunle suffers from the traditional society and at the same time has inner conflict because at the end of the play, he embraces the thought that since Sidi is not a virgin, therefore, he cannot be asked to pay bride price for her. Therefore, he revolves around a vicious circle.
But I obey my books
“man takes the fallen woman by hand”
And ever after they live happily.
Moreover, I will admit
It solves the problem of her brideprice too. (61).
One main issue that can be shown in the play “The Lion and the Jewel is that this society is a polygamous one. In Nigeria, marrying multiple wives is legal and it is a prominent feature of traditional life. Soyinka, in his play, portrays the African Polygamous society. The successor of dead Bale or chief of the area, sometimes; marries the last and favourite wife of the dead Bale, as his first wife. According to the custom, the first wife of the Bale becomes the senior and receives all honours in the family. Also, according to tradition, a Bale can have as much as wives he can, but he has to follow some conditions like, treating all equally, distributing resources equally to all wives and children, avoid discrimination among wives and children (59). Thus, in the case of Baroka, he is the Bale of the village and has many wives. His Harem is full with his number of wives from Sadiku to his favourite wife Ailatu. At the age of sixty-two, his desire for more girls has not left him.
Summary and Analysis of Soyinka’s The Lion and the Jewel
Soyinka’s Styles of Writing The Lion and the Jewel
Soyinka as a writer uses figures of speech in the play under investigation such as; simile, personification, metaphor, first person point of view.
Simile:This is a comparison of essentially different objects, things, or group of things which are similar in meaning with the use of “as’’ and “like”.
Examples
To Lakunle, the system of bride price ‘as‘ a Savage custom, barbaric and outdate unpalatable (7).
Metaphor:As a figure of speech, implied a comparison between one kinds of thing of quality, or action to another without stating the exact relation between them. ‘Like’ and’ as’ are not used in metaphors. In other words, it is a direct comparison.
Example: “Baroka the Bale of Ilunjinle ,the “Lion in the title of the play” (17).
Baroka here is compared to a Lion in the play because of his attitude.
First person point of view:This point of view narrates a story of an event using a first person point of view such as “I” and “we”.
Examples:
Sidi tells Lakunle thus:
“I have told you, I say it again… I shall marry you today, next week or any day you name. But I tell you, I Lankunle, I must have done as you please but Sidi will not make herself a cheap bowl for the village spit” (7).
During a conversation between Lankunle and Sadiku…she says:
“We must be modern with the rest or live forgotten by the world; we must reject the palm wine habit and tea…with milk and sugar” (37).
Characterization in The Lion and The Jewel
Baroka
Baroka the “Bale” of Ilunjinle.he is the “Lion” in the title of the play and the protagonist of the play. He is also the village chief who is sixty-two years old, very proud, deceptive and cunning. His attempt to win the village belle, Sidi who is one of the major characters in this play. The Bale manipulates the other characters by feigning sexual importance. At 62 years of age, he has already sired 63 children.
Summary and Analysis of Soyinka’s The Lion and the Jewel
Sidi
Sidi, the village belle, about eighteen years old, very pretty and coquettish, distracts the young school teacher, Lakunle, attracts a travelling photographer who wants her picture to be in a magazine and passively flirts with the Bale, unaware of the Bale’s vast experience in romance. Sidi is tricked by the Bale into making love with him at the end of the play.
Lakunle
Lakunle a young “modern” stylishly dressed liberal school teacher. He is infact a conservative who pretends to be interested in Sidi or any available young woman in the village. Lakunle suppose platonic love for Sidi is no match for Bale’s cunning and experience, making Lakunle to be a poor adversary.
Sadiku
Sadiku is the wife of the Bale. She convinces Sidi that the young woman should marry the Bale by telling her that the Bale is old and that Sidi will have the honour of being the senior wife of a new Bale.
The Favorite
The favorite, is Bale’s present young woman. She tries to please him, but she is informed by the Bale that she has no time to improve her affection because he is taking a new wife. She represents another conquest by the Bale.
The Surveyor
The surveyor, an outsider who is planning to build a road through the village. He is easily bought off by the Bale, who offers gift if he will build the road in another place, thus preserving the land and the tradition of his people.