INTRODUCTION
This unit introduces you to another comedy. The play is written by a Nigerian and it has a Nigerian background.
3.1 Plot
The play has a chronological causal plot. The action starts in the morning and ends at night. In the play, the playwright draws a parallel between the modern ways of life and traditional values andinstitutions as well as depict the impact and ineffectual assault of modern values on traditional values.
The play shows how the village teacher, Lakunle who represents the modern era, loses out against Baroka, the Bale of Ilujinle, in their separate bid to win the love of Sidi, the village belle.
The morning scene takes place at the outskirts of the market square, outside the school building. Sidi, dressed in her traditional apparel, exposing her shoulder and carrying a pail of water on her head, appears first. Lakunle dressed in an old English suit and white tennis shoes comes along and ridicules Sidi by saying that only spiders carry loads the way she does. He rebukes Sidi for exposing her body for people.
According to Lakunle, the custom will be replaced by modern machines to take over most of the work women do. Sidi sees his views on their tradition and custom as madness. Lakunle proposes to marry Sidi but insists that the customary bride price will not be paid. On the contrary, Sidi insists that she will only marry him if he is ready to settle the full bride price so that she will not make herself “A cheap bowl for the village spit”(7). Lakunle considers this custom as being not only “barbaric” and “out-dated” but “savage” and “ignoble’ . Sidi sees Lakunle’s modern project as a dream.
The scene in which a photographer (the man from the outside world) visited Ilujinle in the past to snap photographs of Sidi is recreated here. The pictures snapped feature extensively in a magazine which is a sort of toast to the whole world. Baroka also features in the magazine but little attention is given to him as he is seen therein near the village latrine. Bale does not like the unimportant attention given to him. Sidi is full of herself because of her prominent appearance in the magazine. She becomes the talk of the town and the village beauty who has brought fame to the village.
Sidi is seen engrossed in the admiration of her pictures in the magazine. Sadiku, the old woman, sends effusive greetings to Sidi and intimates her of the Bale’s intention to marry her. Sidi discountenances an offer of marriage to a man as old as Baroka whose main intention is to subdue her and stall her rise to stardom. Lakunle dissuades Sidi from accepting such an offer.
But Sadiku convinces Sidi to marry Baroka just as Sidi continues to praise herself even as her ’fame has spread to Lagos/And beyond the seas. ’ Sadiku tells her that being the Bale’s last wife is an honour because when the present Bale dies, she would be married to the new Bale with the privilege of ‘living in the outhouse’ . Conversely, Sidi argues further that every woman who has supped with Baroka one night ‘becomes his wife or concubine the next’. And to strengthen Sidi’s position, Lakunke adds that Baorkais ‘a diehard rogue’ who ‘Foiled the public works attempt/To build the railway through Ilujinle’(24).
Sadiku unveils Baroka’s carved figure as Sidi stands by the school room window admiring her own pictures. Sadiku praises herself on her past exploits and what women can do to their men. Sidi is carried away by the melodious music and as she dances to it with Sadiku, they do not notice Lakunle who appears on the scene. Sidi volunteers to visit Baroka at his palace for the supper he promised her, to ensure that the devil is mocked and to seek forgivness on her part for refusing Baroka in the first place. Sadiku welcomes the idea while Lakunle tells Sidi not to go. Sidi visits Baroka in his bedroom to mock him on his impotence. Unfortunately she discovers that it was a trick. She has no option than to marry Baroka, since she is no longer a virgin.
3.2 Themes
a) The Triumph of African Tradition Over Western Culture
Lakunle represents modernity in the play. He has acquired a bit of western education and wants to impose their culture on his people. Naturally the old ways of doing things cannot change so easily. The custodians of the custom will always find a way of thwarting the modern trend no matter how logical, beautiful and trendy it may be. Lakunle thinks that he could change the cultural values of a traditional Yoruba society. Is it possible for one to stop the people from getting involved in traditional marriage ceremonies, wrestling, invocation of ancestral spirits, elders or parental blessings of marriage, intermediaries in marriage, festivals, traditional dancing and merry-making that are part of traditional marriage ceremonies.
Baroka thwarts the efforts of the colonialists to build a road in Ilujinle. The implication is that he prevented the spread of western civilization in the stopped the town. He also destroys Sidi’s opportunity to an exposure to modern ways of life and fame by subduing her through his marriage to her.
b) The Negative Influence of Traditional Practices on the Female Folk
The playwright implicitly suggests that women are over laboured in the society: they carry loads and do all sorts of manual jobs. It is not also proper that an old man should trick a teenager into marriage just to boost his ego.
3.3 Language
This is a witty, light – hearted and humorous play which explores the conflicts between two cultures, the traditional African culture and the Western culture, and between the modern and the traditional ways of life. It presents the life of Sidi, a simple, innocent and naive village girl who helps to uphold the traditional value system of her community. She therefore speaks simple English that in some cases are transliterations of the Yoruba language. Other characters in the play speak in the same manner and in some cases certain words are presented in the local dialect. Some of the songs are presented in Yoruba language. In accordance with the comic mode of the play, the language is designed to ridicule some of the characters and to evoke laughter in the audience. For instance, Baroka mimics Lakunle thus:
‘Guru morin guru morin ngh – hn! That is all we get from “alakowe” You call at his house hoping he sends for beer, but all you get is Guru morin. Will guru morin wet my throat? (16)
The play is a one-act play that is divided into morning, afternoon. and night. The language is replete with proverbs, witticism, and traditional Yoruba greetings (like Baba Kabayesi). Music, songs and dances are used extensively in the play and they are integrated to advance the theme and propel the plot.
Mo te’ ni. Mo te’ ni.
Mo te’ ni. Mo te’ ni.
Sun mo mi, we mo mi
Sun mo mi, fa mo mi
Yarabilo m’eyi t’ led’ omo (64)
This is a song sang by Sidi at the end of the play. The song is an invitation for a closer relationship and an embrace. It states that it is only God that can determine the mating that will result in pregnancy Although she was not prepared for a marriage to Baorka, she accepts her fate and decides to make the best out of it.
3.4. Setting
The play The Lion and The Jewel has a rural setting. This explains the use of some Yoruba rituals and local songs, customs and traditions in the play. The physical setting is in the village of Ilujinle. The play compares the old and the new cultural imperatives. It, accordingly, makes use of some modem phenomena like magazine, school, photographer, pictures, English suit, etc. The historical setting is therefore the post-independence period in Nigeria, between 1960 and 1963.
3.5 Characterization
Sidi
Sidi is the heroine of the play. She is looked upon as a source of inspiration and one capable of launching the village into limelight. Her picture in the international magazine is a source of wonder and reference even to the Bale. The teacher, Lakunle, himself is amazed at the sensation that these pictures create in the village. She occupies such a prominent position in the village that even the Bale promises to insert her image in the postal stamps.
She is conservative and detests Lakunle’s new romantic ideals and kisses. Lakunle’s radical trend and insistence to avoid payment of bride-price is unacceptable to her. She cannot demean her personality just for the sake of marriage. Sidi does not appreciate western education but prefers traditional education. Sidi is a flirt. She flirts with the photographer and Lakunle before the play began and Baroka towards the end of the play. She pays for it as Baroka seduces her.
She is beautiful but is a braggart and very pompous. Hear her: “my name is Sidi, and I am beautiful. The stranger took my beauty. And placed it in my hands”(20).
She is, nonetheless, a custodian of custom, for she believes that it is only what the custom says that will apply in her marriage. And that is that payment of the bride price is a pre-condition for any validly concluded marriage.
Baroka
Barokais the Bale, the village head of Ilujinle. He is a polygamist and at sixty-two is still not only very active sexually but trickish. He is described as a ‘wiry, goated, tougher than his sixty two years’ . He has to have sex with Sidi by trickery and through same means, he marries her eventually. He prevents the whiteman from building a road in the town. He is not a progressive king. He is very selfish and wants to own every good thing. He does not want any other person to be famous. This explains why he married Sidi at all costs to subdue her. Baroka is described as a crafty rouge and a fox. As if to nail him finally, Lakunle concludes: “Baroka is a creature of the wilds, untutored, mannerless, devoid of grace”(58).
Lakunle
Lakunle is a semi-literate reformist and a teacher of Geography who would like to introduce some radical and revolutionary reforms into the political and social lives of Ilujinle. He loves Sidi and would compromise a lot to marry her. For instance, he promises Sidi that regardless of Baroka’s tricky and subsequent carnal knowledge of her, he could still go on to marry her. Notwithstanding his level of education, Sidi acknowledges that she learnt a lot of things from him.
Sidi never gives him opportunity to demonstrate his love for her. She agrees to return his love but only as a wife whose bride price has been paid. Lakunle hates Baroka’s way of life and siezes every opportunity to criticize him. He hates him also because Baroka is equally interested in marrying Sidi.
Despite his reformist tendencies, Lakunle still enjoys some traditional dance of the village, as exemplified in his dance of the lost traveler. At the end of the play, Lakunle is not left forlorn as he is consoled by another young lady. He does not succeed in his reforms because he appears not to be reasonable.
Sadiku
She is the eldest wife and favourite wife of Baroka. She is the last wife of the last Bale and was inherited, as a matter of custom by Baroka. She has been in this position for forty-one years, no wonder Lakunle refers to her as a ‘withered face’ . She is a good dancer; “Sadiku of the duiker’s feet….. That’s what the men used to call me. I could twist and untwist my waist with the smoothness of a water snake … .”
Sadiku is wily and does not keep secrets. This is why Baroka, her husband, capitalizes on this weak point to clip Sidi’s wings. She is described by Lakunle as’ The goddess of malicious gossip. She believes and earnestly undertakes the duty her husband assigns to her diligently.
At the end of the play, when Sidi has settled with Baroka, he blesses her. Sadikuis a good planner and a strategist. She never permits Lakunle to convince Sidi but rather puts up a convincing argument on behalf of Baroka to Sidi. And at the end, her machination plays out. Lakunle is not a match for her; he accepts defeat but threatens to take her to school. Sadikuis tricky too. She, for instance, dips hands in Lakunle’s pocket, brings out a piece of coin and presses it on the foreheads of drummers.
3.6 Flashback/Play-within-the-play
In the play this technique is used to recreate the scene where Baroka prevented the construction of a rail line across the village. Mime as a veritable literary technique, is also used considerably in the play.
SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
Sidi and Baroka, who is superior?
4.0 CONCLUSION
In this play, Soyinka ridicules the educated Africans who look down on their culture. Baroka uses his traditional wisdom to get everything he wants. Lakunle who apes the whites is neither here nor there. He is a man torn between two worlds. The play does not condemn Western education but insists that the good traditional values of the Africans should be encouraged.
5.0 SUMMARY
In this unit, you have seen that comedy teaches through entertainment and laughter. The playwright satirizes the foolish educated Africans through Lakunle’s antics. The play observes the classical “principle of unity”. The action of the play starts and ends in one day.
6.0 TUTOR-MARKED ASSIGNMENT
Discuss the main theme of the play.
7.0 REFERENCES/FURTHER READINGS
Soyinka, Wole (1963). The Lion and the Jewel. London: Oxford
University Press.
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