The Lion and the Jewel by Wole Soyinka (Themes / Thematic Preoccupation)

 

THEMES / THEMATIC PREOCCUPATION

 Tradition versus Modernity

 

The play explores the theme of tradition and modernity in the wake of early

colonialism which is the primary conflict in the play. The tradition in question is the 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 who represents the modern Nigerian man, wears Western clothing, speaks and behaves like an English man, and has been educated in a presumably British school.  His supreme desire is to turn llunjunle into a modern paradise like the city of Lagos.  He actively despises the traditional customs of his village and the people who pledge support to them.  This is best exemplified when Lakunle refuses to pay Sidi’s bride price.

  He goes further to call the tradition that demands the payment of bride price “an ignoble customs, infamous, ignominy / sharing our heritage before the world”  (7) and “to pay the price would be / to buy a heifer off the market stall / you’d be my chattel, my mere property”  (8).  This means that Lakunle attributes such act to a mere process of buying and selling of goods and commodities which is contrary to his western idea about marriage. Lakunle’s refusal means that it is much more important to convert Sidi to his way of thinking, views, and ideas into a “modern wife”, than it is to marry her.  “In a year or two / You will have machines which will do / without it getting in your eyes” (10) Lakunle intends to transform and change the tradition and roles ascribed to African women which are contrary to his western beliefs and that is why he says, “Sidi, I do not seek a wife / To fetch and carry / To cook and scrub / To bring forth children by the gross;;; I seek a life-companion” (8).

             However, Baroka on the other hand is an ant-modernist and his extreme desire is to preserve the village’s traditional way of life.  Lakunle who finds Baroka’s lifestyle and views archaic, also describes how Baroka paid off a surveyor not to construct train tracks through the outskirts of llunjunle, thereby preventing the village from experiencing the modern world.  Also, Baroka clearly demonstrates that he does not hate modernity or progress, and he does not want it imposed on him or bend the village’s way of life all in the name of civilization and modernity.  Baroka wishes to add Sidi to his many wives which are fully accepted by the custom of the land, while Lakunle dreams of one wife according to the dictate of western culture. According to the tradition, 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 llunjunle.  As soon as she realizes that the idea of modern marriage may make her less powerful with the fewer rights she opts for traditional marriage.  In the end, Baroka triumphs in the fight for Sidi’s hand in marriage.  This shows African ways of life are still a lot more supreme than the western culture that appears more complex, complicated, and incomprehensible.

 

Culture Conflict (clash of Cultures)

 

             The play examines the clash of two distinct cultures that is the conflict between African and European customs or ways of life.  Baroka who is the proponent of traditional culture tries hard to prevent the advent of western civilization and foreign values into llunjunle as the selfish Baroka bribes the surveyor to divert the railway track away from llunjunle, thereby foiling the intending progress in the village.  This clash is also seen when the stranger from Lagos,  (Photo Journalist),  the seat of western civilization, makes the indigenous culture less attractive as he causes a stir during his visit to llunjunle.  The people describe his camera as a “one-eyed box” and his motor car as “the devil’s own horse”.  The photographs on the cover page and inside of Lagos Man’s Magazine boosts Sidi's ego and this almost makes her overlook her union with Baroka, for she begins to attract more importance to her growing fame.

             Also, the main conflict in the play shifts away from tradition versus modernity to individuality to personal worldview.  For instance, Baroka’s proposed non-functioning stamp-making machine”, a strange machine is a symbol of modernity which he brainwashes Sidi with initially to final seduction scene in order to woo her.  He also assures Sidi that the stamp will soon start producing Sidi’s image “for I dreamt it / And here it stand / child of my thoughts (50).  Baroka sincerely hopes to also transform and improve the image of llunjunle and save it from the mockery of town-dwellers when he says, “I do not have progress, only its nature/which make all roofs and faces look the same” (52).  In the end, African value is enthroned especially when Baroka employs his trick to woo and marry Sidi, the jewel of llunjunle.

 

The theme of Love and Marriage

 

             The play examines the idea of love and marriage from two perspectives. African tradition and European ideas of marriage.  The former is basically practical which involves the payment of bride price.  Sidi at first confesses to Lakunle that she is willing to marry him any day, any time, but the full bride price must be paid in full because there is a thin line between bride price and virginity.  Sidi further reveals. “They will say I was no virgin / that I was forced to sell my shame / and marry you without a price” (7) Lakunle who does not welcome the idea of payment of bride price describes such custom as outdated, savage, and barbaric.

 Sidi’s two eligible suitors (Lakunle and Baroka) are driven by different ideas.  Lakunle wants to woo Sidi with empty, unrealistic, imaginary, and vague western ideas; for he promises her sophisticated life of western cultures which involves eating with cutleries (knives and forks), walking side by side in the street, kiss her as all educated men do but Sidi dislikes such practices.

Baroka on his part is devising a special plan to woo and win her.  Firstly, he sends Sadiku to woo her on his behalf but Sidi turns down the offer of marriage.  Baroka then deceives Sadiku that he is impotent in order to lure Sidi into his shady plan.  Sid visits Baroka to mock him for his impotence but ends up in his seduction trap.  In the end, Sidi rejects Lakunle’s western ideas and chooses the traditional lifestyle championed by Baroka. 

 

African Tradition and Change

 

             In the play, the theme of tradition and change pervades the play as seen in the conflict between Lakunle and Baroka who stand for modernity and traditionalism respectively.  Lakunle who is in the camp of change to modernity, (European lifestyle) wants to imbibe or subscribe to the culture of one man one wife (monogamy) and change the position and thoughts about women in African society.  “Sidi, I do not seek a wife / to fetch and carry / to cook and scrab to bring forth children by the gross… I seek a life companion. I seek a friend in need / an equal partner in my race of life”  (5) Lakunle seeks a change in women’s status

             Baroka, the Bale of llunjunle village is the custodian of the traditional values and customs of his people.  His actions and authority are unquestionable.  He practices polygamy, drinks palm wine, and engages in wrestling contests and he also inherits Sadiku from his late father, Okiki.  He is an adherent of traditionalism as he foils the construction of the railway by bribing the surveyor to abandon the project.  The traditional setup is strongly opposed to change. 

This is why Sidi refuses Lakunle’s offer of marriage without the payment of the bride price. Lakunle continues to hammer home his point.  He intends to change the world “within a year or two, I swear / This town shall see a transformation / Bride-price will be a thing forgotten/and wives shall take their place by men.  No man shall take more wives than one / that’s why they’re impotent too soon/the ruler shall ride cars, not horses” (37) Sadiku also plays the customary role of go-between in wooing Sidi for Baroka is opposed to change.

              Also, in spite of the dominance of traditional values in society, there are still instances of change which include the influence of the photographer on Sidi, Sadiku’s hope of a society where women will triumph over their male counterparts and bring to an end male chauvinism.  Though Lakunle is portrayed as a mock-satirical character, he represents an instrument of change.  He opposes Baroka’s prevention of the railway being built through the village and Baroka’s chance to marry Sidi but traditionalism triumphs in the end.

 

Significance of Bride Price in the Play

 

              In African society, bride price is considered to be the most important part of a marriage rite such that any married woman without it is branded as illegal and unrecognized.  In some African communities, children raised or given birth to in such marriage are taken away from their father.

             In the play, Bride price is an integral aspect of African culture and tradition because Sidi could have married Lakunle before she is seduced by Baroka whom she believes is ready to pay her bride price unlike Lakunle who describes such traditional rite as “savage custom, barbaric, outdated, retrogressive and unpalatable… to pay the bride price would be / to buy a heifer off the market stall / You’d be my chattel, my main property” (8) To further demonstrate the importance of bride price in the play, Sidi promises to marry Lakunle only if he agrees to settle her bride price

“I shall marry you today, next week or any day you name / But my bride price must first be paid… will you make me / A laughing stock? 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) Sidi bellows. Ideally, bride price is a sign of respect and regard for the bride and her family who otherwise would become “a cheap bowl for the village spit” (object of scorn and shame).  It also portrays bride’s purity (virginity) and undefiled status.  Lakunle sees it as “buying a heifer of the stall, while Sidi sees it as a mark of honor and respect identity and dignity to womanhood in Africa.

            Lakunle opposes this idea because of his influence on the western concept of gender equality.  He thinks that bride price is uncivilized and outrageous custom.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

 

Role of Women in Society: Polygamy and Wife Wooing girls to the husband

 

             The playwright portrays the customs and traditions in his Yoruba community which is quite polygamous and it allows a man (Bale) to marry as many girls as possible.  He uses them for his pleasure and after the arrival of the new favorite, he sends the last favorite to an outhouse. llunjunle or entire African society does not accord respect to women as Lakunle says “They are used to pound 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)

             The characters are divided into two groups Baroka, Sadiku, and Sidi representing the traditional African values, whereas Lakunle stands for modern European especially British values of life.  Lakunle who is infatuated with Sidi wishes to change the position or status of women especially Sidi when he sees her carrying a pot of water on her head “It shortens your neck so that very soon you will have no neck at all” (4)

             Lakunle envisages a society that will respect and not see women as a beast of burden or use and dumped commodity, but one which will see women as companions and their rights are equally protected by men, unlike Baroka who feels that women have no say in the affair of marriage and the home front.

 

Moral Wars: Trick and Manipulation

 

            The moral class dominates this play.  Lakunle sees himself as a representative of the modern revolution against men like Bale.  He aims at civilizing Sidi as he wants to make revolutionary changes in the villages. He appears in suits and imposes his ideas on Sidi and orders to marry her, as she demands the bride price to marry him.  Lakunle wants to marry Sidi as a westerner and he will not pay the bride price.  He also offers her a western monogamous marriage. The main conflict around her is Lakunle’s refusal to pay Sidi’s bride price and Baroka’s desperation to woo Sidi by resorting to pretense.

             In the same vein, some characters in the play decide to trick and manipulate others in order to achieve their selfish end.  Sidi and Sadiku for instance, try to fool the Bale by proclaiming supposed impotence to the entire village and also mock at him in order to have a sense of triumph, while Baroka also fools Sadiku and Sidi, so he can subdue or woo Sidi and marry her as one of his numerous wives.  Trick and manipulation are also seen when Baroka bribes the surveyor to put an end to railway track construction. However, trick and manipulation are seen as a dramatic device employed by the playwright to develop the central conflict in the text.                                                                                                                           

 

 

CHARACTERIZATION

 

Sidi: Role and Character

                                                                           

             Sidi is the major character in the play as the major conflict centers around her.  She is the belle or jewel of the title, while Baroka in the Bale and the “lion”.  She is simple and strengthened in her decision-making to some extent, but she is somewhat unstable in character: for she initially tells Lakunle she will marry him willingly as long as he is prepared to fulfill the demands of custom between them and she maintains her stand throughout the play.

            Sidi is easily moved and influenced by things around her.  One can conclude that she is excessively gullible.  For instance, the return of the Lago visitor with some copies of the magazine which contains her photograph fuels her pride and arrogance beyond measure and she begins to feel that she is far too good for either Lakunle and Baroka or for anybody else in the llunjunle because of her love for the new fame.  She organizes the dance of the lost traveler which serves as a mime to describe the stranger’s experience during his first visit and returns the magazine bearing her alluring pictures which swell her pride.

             And the art of gullibility is also exhibited in Sidi when Sadiku comes around to woo her on behalf of Baroka, she rejects such offer of marriage because she feels that Baroka is too old for her, and she also turns down the invitation to a feast in her honor in the palace and she is not aware that it is a mere trick to lure her into Baroka’s set trap.

              She is somewhat a pessimist because when she finds Sadiku rejoicing over Baroka’s claimed impotence she becomes very excited and inquisitive.

To further mock his impotence, Sidi changes her mind and decides to pay Baroka a visit.  She consequently walks into his trick, thereby losing her maidenhood in the process.  Her experience in the Bale’s palace is not in any way palatable, especially now that she is no more a maid.  She ends up marrying Baroka and Lakunle’s dreams of transformation are still in pipeline or unrealizable.

 

Baroka: Role and Character

 

             Baroka is the protagonist of the play and the Lion of the title who finally wins Sidi’s (The jewel) heart through trick, cunning, and manipulation.  He represents the conservative traditional values and customs as he believes and upholds the preservation of the ageless traditional culture.  Baroka is the Bale / traditional head) of the village of llunjunle, that is the main setting of the play.  He is sixty-two years and tough-looking.  He is Sadiku’s husband and he later marries Sidi who also becomes his favorite.  Baroka becomes attracted to Sidi as soon as the stranger visits the village with her alluring pictures.

             Baroka is also a pessimist, doom-monger and doomster.  This is seen when Lakunle gives an account of how he (Baroka) bribes the surveyor to foil (stop) the attempt to build the railway through the village of llunjunle. Baroka is also a trickster and a fox, because when Sadiku reports that Sidi has rejected his offer of marriage, on account of his old age and also turns down his invitation to a feast, Baroka who is sly and cunny cleverly maps out a plan to lure her into his trap and marry her.  To achieve this, Baroka pretends to be impotent, Sidi then visits him of her volition to mock at his impotence and she thus falls into the plan.

             Baroka also has a split personality.  At a point, Baroka begins to hatch out a plan to modernize llunjunle.  This means that he is not opposed to progress in totality.  This may make one doubt whether he is actually dogmatic, conservative, or a pragmatic leader as described by Lakunle.

 

Lakunle: Role and Character

 

             Lakunle is a twenty-three years old young village school teacher.  His contact with western civilization fuels his determination to impose it on his community. People in the community find his rash idea about western civilization quite repulsive and complicated especially Sidi, who calls him a mad man.

              He is timorous and timid for he is forced by Sidi and the village girls to play the role of the Lagos visitor in the “Dance of the Lost Traveler” because his strange appearance is quite similar to that of the stranger.

Lakunle is quite desperate to marry Sidi, but he does not want to pay her bride price because it is against his western values.  According to him, such custom is barbaric, strange, and unprogressive.  Lakunle tries hard as he even recounts a story on how Baroka foils the development that is about to take effect in llunjunle to implicate his rival Baroka so that Sidi would not consider his proposal or offer of marriage, all to no avail.

            Lakunle believes in the liberation and revolutionary idea to change the status of women are liberation and revolutionary idea to change the status of women who are outrightly dominated by menfolk, He strongly condemns Sadiku for rejoicing and excited over Baroka’s supposed impotence and also warns Sidi not to visit the Bale in his palace to mock him. He shows genuine concern towards Sidi when she could not return from the palace as planned.  Even when Lakunle learns that Sidi is no maiden anymore, he tries to still marry her, even when the controversial issue is laid to rest.  Thus, he loses out to Baroka.  In a way, Lakunle still brings progressive ideas to llunjunle as he also serves as a source of inspiration to Baroka.

 

Sadiku: Role and Character

 

             Sadiku is Baroka’s head wife and the latest bride to Okiki, that is, the last Bale’s wife (Baroka's father’s last wife).  She is sent by Baroka to woo Sidi on his behalf, she entices Sidi with soothing words thereby highlighting the benefit accruing to being the Bale’s wife.  As Bale’s last wife, she is in a privileged position to be the next Bale’s head wife.

             She lacks the ability to keep secrets.  When Sadiku returns with the news of Sidi's rejection of Baroka’s offer of marriage, Baroka feels disappointed and shocked.  Baroka declaring that his manhood ended near a week ago knowing fully well that Sadiku will not keep it a secret and she lives up to the expected consequence.  She blubs and Sidi is lured into Baroka’s plot. Sadiku represents the typical village gossip and talebearer and a victim of Baroka’s trick and manipulation.

             She has a sugar-coated tongue capable of wooing any woman for her Bale and that is what she used to tame Sidi, ‘Baroka swears to take no other wife after you (20). She also defends Baroka before Sidi when Lakunle raises the case concerning how the Bale foiled the public works attempt, “Nobody knows the truth of that.  It is all hearsay” (26)

 

Village Girls

 

             The village girls comprise the village youths to which both Sidi and Lakunle belong.  The village girls also perform the role of the chorus, thereby commenting on the action and constituting the crowd in scenes where such is required.  They also provide a social background to the dramatic action. They join in the dramatic action by playing minor roles especially as mummers (mine performers).  They also form a part of the cast for the flashback scene in which Baroka failed to ruin the attempt to build a railway track through llunjunle village.

 

A Wrestler

 

     He is Baroka’s opponent in the wrestling contest.  Baroka uses the wrestling contests as a diversion to pull his thoughts together. The wrestling match is symbolic of a physical or visual representation of the disagreement between Sidi and Baroka.

 

DRAMATIC TECHNIQUES

 

Use of Symbolism

 

             The very title of the play is symbolic.  “The Lion” (Baroka) symbolism strength, agility, cunningness, and craftiness, while “The jewel” (Sidi) is a symbol of beauty and admiration.  Lakunle as a character also symbolizes the semi-illiterate African who sees education and ideas as the only solution to the African predicament.  He daydreams and makes unrealistic promises.  He, therefore, condemns his African identity and denounces the custom of his people.  His refusal to pay the bride price, his dressing and speech suggest his mentality toward western culture.  He talks tough about his desire to transform and change his community.  “In a year or two/you will have machines which will do / your pounding which will grind your pepper” (5)

              In addition, Baroka and Sadiku represent traditionalism and African values.  They also serve as the custodian of African customs and traditions.

            The stranger’s camera symbolizes modernity.  It is a new object which one of the village girls calls a “one-eyed box”

             “The railway track” project which Baroka foiled is also symbolic of modernity, it links a community to the rest of the world, and that is why Baroka is opposed to it.  The physical breaking of the ground represents to him the smashing and eroding of traditional values at llunjunle.

              The magazine that features pictures of Sidi is a symbol of the western world, and it represents vanity that can ultimately harm those who are consumed by it.  The magazine stirs the flames of lust in Baroka which makes him want to have her by all means.

 

Use of Chorus, Song, and Dance in the play

 

              Song, dance, and mimes are the major components in the play.  Soyinka has made use of these elements to forward the action of the play.  In the first part of the play, “morning”, “Sidi” and her village girls and Lakunle perform a dance and mime of “The Dance of the Lost Traveler”, which highlights the theme and conflict between traditionalism and modernism in the play.  Through the use of miming device, Soyinka tries to merge modernism and traditionalism-two opposing forces represented by Baroka and Lakunle.

            In the dance, the villagers enact the experiences of the western photographer on his first visit to llunjunle.  The second mime is performed by Lakunle to Sidi and Sadiku about the coming of the railway before the Bale bribes the surveyor to end the project.  In this episode, Lakunle seeks to expose the willingness of self-indulgent Baroka by telling him how the Bale has sabotaged all schemes of connecting the village to modern civilization. The next dance is performed by Sadiku after Baroka has confided in her the loss of his manhood Sadiku gloats over it and places a carved figure of Baroka in the village center and she performs “Victory dance”.  The fourth mime is the wrestling match between Baroka and a wrestler.  The wrestling motions are mimed in order to impress Sidi with his prowess and virility.

The final dance, song, and mime electrify the atmosphere and expose the tense relationship between the two opposing forces-modernization and traditionalism.  Lakunle’s inability to start the car indicates his failure to replace the traditional values with modern values in society.  The songs are also used to complement the themes thereby lighting atmosphere and mood.  For instance, Sadiku’s song in celebration of the supposed victory of womanhood brings out the conflict between the sexes throws light on her cunning nature and role as a feminist.

 

Use of Irony in the Play

 

            The playwright makes use of some dramatic irony.  Dramatic irony refers to the audience’s knowledge of something that the character who is speaking does not know.  When the character makes an innocent remark action that refers to the “inside knowledge” that the audience has the character does not have, contains dramatic irony.  For example, dramatic irony is seen when Sidi goes to the Bale’s palace to mock and taunt his impotence.

  The audience is very much aware that Baroka’s much-publicized impotence is just a ploy to have Sidi to himself and woo her for marriage.  It is also ironic that Sadiku, the head wife has also dragged into the trick and manipulation also.  When Sidi makes up her mind to honor Baroka’s visit which she earlier turns down, the audience and the Bale himself are pretty aware that she will become the object of Baroka’s expensive joke when he eventually wins.

            Another instance of dramatic irony is evident in the scene when Lakunle expects Sidi to be back from Bale’s palace.  He is very much tensed and anxious to have her back.  The audience is aware that Sidi has fallen victim to Baroka’s fake impotence.  Also, the women are busy making sarcastic and sneering comments about the Bale’s supposed impotence while Baroka is busy exercising his manliness on Sidi in the palace.

            There is also an instance of situational irony in the play.  Situation irony is a situation in which actions that are opposite occurring that are not intended and the outcome is contrary to what is expected.  For instance, it is ironic that the old Baroka, a man who does not want the railway to be built through llunjunle and consequently bribes the surveyor to stop the project, decides he must embrace modernity by having a stamp machine that would print Sidi’s images, given that his images are poorly treated as they are placed next to the latrine in the magazines.

 

The Lion and the Jewel as a Satire

 

              A Satire is a literary device used to mock a given situation or society with a view to correcting it.  Wole Soyinka intends to compare the old and new orders in Nigerian society.  He presents vividly the conflict of the new order with the old over social customs such as marriage, and the struggle between progress and tradition. 

The new order in society is represented by the village teacher, Lakunle who opposes vehemently the practices of the old order as represented by Baroka, Bale of llunjunle.  He does not want to allow a rail track to pass through or near llunjunle in case his society might be influenced by modern inventions and civilization; he is sworn against progress.  Soyinka presents these two orders in dreadful conflict.

              Satire in the play attempts to attack and mock those half-baked and half-educated Africans who have little awareness of their own community and only have a very superficial knowledge of Europe.  The play is not between protagonists, but between progress and tradition, differing views on the role of women, the sexes, and intellectual versus cunning.  It also attacks our African chiefs or village heads in our various communities who out of sheer ignorance and greed reject progress in their various community and some other educated Africans who feel that western education does not recognize traditional values.

 

The Play-Within-a-play Technique

 

             It is a device commonly employed by playwrights in which the characters of a play perform brief dramatic sketches in the course of the play.  In this play, it is used as a form of flashback in “The dance of the lost traveler” to enact the experience of the Lagos visitor.  Through the play, the audience gains an insight into the ordeal of the Lagos visitor during his first visit who has problems with his car and has to abandon it to continue his exploration on foot.

            The second play is dramatized to illustrate how Baroka bribes the surveyor to divert the railway track from llunjunle.  The third play is called “The dance of virility employed to mock Baroka which involves a combination of music, mime, and movement meant to entertain the characters themselves.

 

Likely WAEC and NECO 2021-2025 EXAMINATION QUESTIONS

 

1.     With adequate illustrations examine the setting of the play.

2.     Compare and contrast the characters and roles of Sidi and Sadiku in the play

 

3.     Give a detailed account of the drama text.

4.     Examine the meaning and significance of the title of the play.

5.     Discuss copiously any three dramatic devices or techniques employed by

the playwright.

6.     Assess Lakunle as a comic character in the play.

7.     Discuss the theme of the clash of cultures in the play.

8.     How do songs, dance, and mummers contribute to the success of the play?

9.     Examine the play as a satire.

10.                        Sidi is the victim of his own pride and earthly vanity Discuss.

11.                        With reference to the incidence in the play, discuss.  The Lion and the Jewel as a ribald comedy.

12.                        Consider the dramatic significance of the first meeting between Lakunle and Baroka.

13.                        Discuss the theme of tradition and change in the play.

14.                        Examine the use of symbolism in the play.

15.                        Assess the role of women and the concept of feminism in the play.

16.                        With adequate examples, discuss any three instances of irony in the play.

17.                         “Baroka is a fox and a trickster” Discuss.

18.                        Copiously compare and contrast Lakunle’s use of language with Baroka’s

19.                        Give a vivid account of Sadiku’s attempt to woo Sidi on behalf of Baroka and Sidi’s reunion.

20.                        Examine the role and character of  Sidi.