The Lion and the Jewel overview

The Lion and the Jewel – comedy

The Lion and the Jewel is a play by Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka that was first performed in 1959. It chronicles how Baroka, the lion, fights the modern Lakunle over the right to marry Sidi, the titular Jewel. Lakunle is portrayed as the civilized antithesis of Baroka and unilaterally attempts to modernize his community and change its social conventions for no reason other than the fact that he can. The transcript of the play was first published 1962 by Oxford University Press. Soyinka emphasizes the theme of the corrupted African culture throughout the play, as well as how the youth should embrace original African culture.

Characters

Main characters

·         Baroka- The Balè or viceroyal chieftain of Ilunjinle , a Yoruba village in the realm of Ibadan clan’s kingdom. A crafty individual, he is the Lion referred to in the title. At 62 years of age, he has already sired 63 children.

·         Lakunle- The progressive and absurdly arrogant Westernised teacher. He is in his twenties.

·         Sidi- A beautiful, yet somewhat egotistical village girl who is wooed by both Baroka and Lakunle. She is the jewel in the title.

·         Sadiku- The chief’s sly great wife, chieftess of his harem.

·         Ailatu- Baroka’s favourite, who loses her place in his affections due to her jealousy.

Supporting characters

Village girls, a wrestler, a surveyor, school boys, his assorted consorts and various musicians, dancers, mummers, prisoners, traders and so on.

Plot-structure

The play takes place over the span of a day (Sunday). It is divided into three parts: morning, noon, and night.

Morning

A schoolteacher is teaching a class the times table when Sidi walks past carrying a pail of water on her head. The teacher peers out of the window and disappears. Two 11- year-old school boys start ogling her, so he hits them on the head and leaves to confront her. At this point, we find out that the school teacher is Lakunle. He is described as wearing a threadbare and rumpled clean English suit that is a little too small for him. He wears a tie that disappears beneath his waistcoat. His trousers are ridiculously oversized, and his shoes are blanco-white. He comes out insists on taking the pail from Sidi. She refuses, saying that she would look silly.  Lakunle retorts, saying that he told her not to carry loads on her loads on her head or her neck may be shortened. He also tells her not to expose so not to expose so much of her cleavage with the cloth she wears around her breasts. Sidi says that it is too inconvenient for her to do so. She scolds him, saying the village thinks he’s stupid, but Lakunle says that he’s not so easily cowed by taunts. Lakunle also insults her, saying that her brain is smaller than his. He claims that his book says so. Sidi is angry.

When they are done arguing, Sidi wants to leave, but Lakunle tells her of his love for her. Sidi says that she doesn’t care for his love. Eventually, we find out that Sidi does not want to marry him because Lakunle refuses to pay her bride-price as he thinks its uncivilized, outrageous custom. Sidi tells him if she did so, people will jeer at her, saying she’s not a virgin. Lakunle further professes how he wants to marry her and treat her “just like the Lagos couples I have seen”. Sidi does not care. She also says she finds the Western custom of kissing repulsive. She tells him that not paying her bride-price is mean and miserly.

Enter the village girls. They decide to play “the dance of the Lost Traveller” featuring the sudden arrival of a photographer in their midst some time ago. They tease the traveller in the play, calling the motorbike “the devil’s own horse” and the camera that he used to take pictures “the one-eyed box”.  Four girls dance the “devil-horse”, a youth is selected to play snake and Lakunle becomes the Traveller.  He seeks to be excused to teach a Primary Four Geography but Sidi informs him that the village is on holiday due to the arrival of the photographer/traveller.

We also find out that the photographer made a picture book about the village based on the photos he took. There is a picture of Sidi on the front page, and a two page spread of her somewhere inside. Baroka is featured too, but he “is in a little corner somewhere in the book, and even that corner he shares with one of the villager’s latrines”. They banter about for a while, Lakunle gave in and participated because he couldn’t tolerate being taunted by them.

The Dance of the Lost Traveller

The four girls crouch on the ground, forming the wheels of the car. Lakunle adjusts their position and sits in air in the middle. He pretends to drive the “car”. The four wheels rotate their upper halves of their bodies parallel to the ground in tune with the beat of the drum. The drum beat speeds up to a final crash. The girls dance the stall. They shudder, and drop their faces onto their laps.  He pretends to try to restart the “car”. He gets out and checks the “wheels” and also pinches them. He tries to start the “car”, fails and takes his things for a trek.

He hears the girls singing, but attributes it to sunstroke, so he throws the bottle that he was drinking from in that general direction. He hears a scream and a torrent of abuse. He takes a closer look and sees a girl (played by Sidi). He tries to take photos, but falls down into a stream.

The cast assembles behind him, pretending to be villagers in an ugly mood hauling him to the odan tree in the town centre. Then Baroka appears and the play stops. He talks to Lakunle for a while, saying that he knew how the play went and was waiting for the right time to step in. he drops subtle hints of an existing feud between him and Lakunle, then makes the play continue. The villagers once again start thirsting for his blood. He is hauled of before Baroka, thrown on his face. He tries to explain his plight. Baroka seems to understand and orders a feast in Lakunle’s honour. Lakunle takes the opportunity to take more photos of Sidi. He is also pressed to drink lots of alcohol and at the end of the play, he is close to vomiting.

The play ends. Sidi praises him for his performance. Lakunle runs away, followed by a flock of women. Baroka and the wrestler sits alone. Baroka takes out his book, and muses that it has been a five full months since he last took a wife.

Noon

Sidi is at a road near the marketplace. Lakunle follows her, carrying firewood that Sidi asks him to help her get. She admires the pictures of her in the magazine. Then Sadiku appears, wearing a shawl over her head. She informs her that the Lion (Baroka) wishes to take her as a wife. Lakunle is outraged, but Sidi stops him. Lakunle changes tactics, telling her as his lover to ignore the message. Sadiku took that as a yes, but Sidi dashed her hopes, saying that since her fame had spread to Lagos and the rest of the world, she deserves more than that. Sadiku presses on, dissembling that Baroka has sworn not to take anymore wives after her and that she would be the favourite and would get many privileges, including being able to sleep in the palace rather than one of the outhouses. As Baroka’s last wife, she would also become the first, and thus head wife, of his successor, in the same way that Sadiku was Baroka’s head wife. However, Sidi sees through her lies, and tells her that she knew that he just wanted fame “as the one man who has possessed “the jewel of Illujinle”. Sadiku is flabbergasted and wants to kill Lakunle for what he has done for her.

Sidi shows the magazine. She says that in the picture, she looks absolutely beautiful while he simply looks like a ragged, blackened piece of saddle leather: she is youthful but he is spent. Sadiku changes techniques, saying that if Sidi does not want to be his wife, will she be kind enough to attend a small feast in her honour at his house that night. Sidi refuses, saying that she knows that every woman who has eaten supper with him eventually becomes his wife. Lakunle interjects, informing them that Baroka was known for his willingness; particularly when he managed to foil the Public Works attempt to build a railroad through Illujinle. Baroka bribed the surveyor for the route to move the railroad much farther way as “the earth was most unsuitable, could not possibly support the weight of a railway engine”. Lakunle is distraught, as he thinks just how close Illujinle was to civilization at that time.

The scene cuts to Baroka’s bedroom. Ailatu is plucking his armpit hairs. There is a strange machine with a long lever at the side. It is covered with animal skins and rugs. Baroka mentions that she is too soft with her pulls. Then he tells her that he plans to take a new wife, but that he would let her be the “sole out-puller of my sweat-bathed hairs”. She is angry, and deliberately plucks out the next few hairs a lot harder. Sadiku enters. He shoos Ailatu away, lamenting about his bleeding armpit.

Sadiku informs him that she failed to woo Sidi. She told him that Sidi flatly refused her order, claiming that he was far too old. Baroka pretends to doubt his manliness and asks Sadiku to massage the soles of his feet. Sadiku complies.  He lies to her that his manhood ended a week ago, specifically warning her not to tell anyone. He comments that he is only 62. Compared to him, his grandfather had fathered two sons late on 65 and Okiki, his father, produced a pair of female twins at 67. Finally Baroka falls asleep.

Night

Sidi is at the village center, by the schoolroom window. Enter Sadiku, who is carrying a bundle. She sets down a figure by the tree. She gloats, saying that she has managed to be the undoing (making him impotent) of Baroka, and his father Okiki, before that. Sidi is amazed at what initially perceives to be Sadiku going mad. She shuts the window and exits, shocking Sadiku. After a pause, Sadiku resumes her victory dance and even asks Sidi to join in. Then Lakunle enters. He scorns them, saying: “The full moon is not yet, but the women cannot wait. They must go mad without it.” Sidi and Sadiku stop dancing. They talk for a while. As they are about to resume dancing, Sidi states that her plans to visit Baroka to toy with him. Lakunle tries in vain to stop her, telling her that if her deception were to be discovered she would be beaten up. Sidi leaves. Lakunle and Sadiku converse. Lakunle states his grand plans to modernize the area by abolishing the bride-price, building a motor-road through the town and bring city ways to isolated Illujinle. He goes on to spurn her, calling her the bride collector for Baroka.

The scene is now Baroka’s bedroom. Baroka is arm-wrestling the wrestler seen earlier. He is surprise that she managed to enter unchallenged. Then he suddenly remembers that that day was the designated day off for the servants. He laments that Lakunle had made his servants form an entity called the Palace Worker’s Union. He asks if Ailatu was at her usual place, and was disappointed to find out that she had not left him yet despite scolding her severely.  Then Sidi mentions she was there for supper. Sidi starts playing around with Baroka. She asks him what was up between him and Ailatu. He is annoyed. Changing the subject, Sidi says that she thinks Baroka will win the ongoing arm-wrestling match. Baroka responds humbly, complimenting the strength and ability of the wrestler. She slowly teases Baroka, asking if he was planning to take a wife. She draws an example, asking if he was her father, would he let her marry a person like him?

Sidi takes this opportunity to slightly tease him, and is rewarded by his violent reaction by taking the wrestler and slinging him over his shoulder. The wrestler quickly recovers and a new match begins again. The discussion continues. Baroka is hurt by the parallels and subtle hints about his nature dropped by Sidi. Sidi even taunts him, saying he has failed to produce any children in two years. Eventually he is so angered that he slams the wrestler’s arm down on the table, winning the match. He tells the defeated wrestler to get the fresh gourd by the door. In the meantime, Baroka tries to paint himself as a grumpy old man with few chances to show his kindliness. The wrestler returns. Baroka continues with the self-glorification. Then he shows her the now-familiar magazine and an addressed envelope. He shows her a stamp, featuring her likeness, and tells her that her picture would adorn the official stamp of the village. The machine at the side of his room is also revealed to be a machine that produces stamps. As she admires the pictures of her in the magazine, Baroka happens to mention that he does not hate progress, only its nature which made “all roofs and faces look the same”. He continues praising Sidi’s looks, appealing to her.

The scene cuts back to the village centre, where Lakunle is pacing in frustration. He is mad at Sadiku for tricking her to go see Baroka, and at the same time concerned that Baroka will harm or imprison her. Some mummers arrive. Sadiku remains calm, despite Lakunle’s growing stress. Sadiku steals a coin from Lakunle to pay the mummers. In return, the mummers drum her praises, but Sadiku claims that Lakunle is the real benefactor. Then they dance the Baroka story, showing him at his prime and eventually his downfall. Lakunle is pleased the parts where they mock Baroka. Sadiku mentions that she used to be known as Sadiku of the duiker’s feet because she could twist her waist and untwist her waist with the smoothness of a water snake.

Sidi appears. She is distraught. Lakunle is outraged and plans to bring the case to court. Sidi reveals that Baroka only told her at the end it was a trap. Baroka said he knew Sadiku would not keep it to herself, and go out and mock his pride. Lakunle is overcome with emotion, and after at first expressing deep despair, he offers to marry her instead, with no bride-price since she is no virgin after all. Lakunle is pleased that things have gone as he hoped. Sadiku tells him that Sidi is preparing for a wedding. Lakunle is very happy, saying he will needs a day or two to get things ready for a proper Christian wedding. Then musicians appear. Sidi appears, bearing a gift. She tells Lakunle that he is invited to her wedding. Lakunle hopes the wedding will be between Sidi and himself, but she informs him that she has no intention of marrying him, but rather will marry Baroka. Lakunle is stunned. Sidi says that between Baroka and him, at sixty, Baroka is still full of life but Lakunle would be probably “ten years dead”. Sadiku then gives Sidi her blessing. The marriage ceremony continues. A girl taunts Lakunle, and he gives chase. Sadiku gets in his way. He frees himself and clears a space in the crowd fat them both to dance.

The drama ends.

Themes

Progress

The most prominent theme of this story is the rapid modernization of Africa, coupled with the rapid evangelization of the population. This has driven a wedge between the traditionalists, who seek to nullify the changes done in the name of progress due to vested interests or simply not liking the result of progress, and the modernists, who want to see the last of outdated traditional beliefs at all cost.

Women is society

Another core theme is the marginalization of women as property. Traditionally, they were seen as properties that could be bought, sold or accumulated. Even modern Lakunle falls victim to this, by looking down on Sidi for having a smaller brain, and later thinking it will be easier to marry her once she’s lost her virginity, since no dowry was required in such a situation.

Culture clash (Western vs. African)

There is also the conflict between education and traditional beliefs (social and religious). The educated people seek to spread their knowledge to the tribal people in attempt to make them more modern. This in turn is resisted by the tribal people who seen no point in obtaining an education as it served them no use in their daily lives.

Oral Tradition

Finally, there is the importance of song and dance as form of spreading information, in a world where the fastest route of communication is by foot. It is also an important source of entertainment for the otherwise bored village youth.