The play begins as Sidi, the village belle of Ilujinle, enters the square with a pail of water balanced on her head. Lakunle, the western-educated schoolteacher, sees her, runs from his classroom, and takes Sidi’s pail. He berates her for carrying loads on her head and not dressing modestly, and she retaliates by reminding Lakunle that the village calls him a madman. Sidi grows angry as Lakunle tells her that women are less intelligent than men because of their small brains. He says that soon the village will have machines to do all the hard work and he describes the beauty of Lagos, which is an entirely modern city.
Lakunle refuses to give Sidi her pail of water back until she agrees to marry him and he offers a number of flowery lines that describe his intense love for her. Sidi reminds him that she would marry him any day if he would agree to pay the bride price. Lakunle sees this as barbaric and refuses. He grabs Sidi and tells her how wonderful their modern marriage will be. When he kisses her, Sidi is disgusted. Though Lakunle insists that he loves Sidi and that kissing is something normal for modern couples, Sidi replies that kissing is only a way to avoid paying the bride price. She calls Lakunle a mad man.
A group of young villagers enter the square and tell Sidi that the stranger returned to the village with a magazine of images. Sidi excitedly asks if the stranger made Sidi as beautiful as he said he would, and the girls tell her he did. They say that Baroka, the village Bale, is still looking at the images and is jealous of Sidi, though he pretends to be proud of her. Another girl says that Baroka appears in the magazine as well, but his image is very small and shows him next to the latrines. Upon hearing this, Sidi declares that she is more powerful than Baroka and has no reason to marry Lakunle.
Sidi suggests that they dance the dance of the “lost traveler.” She assigns parts to the villagers and forces Lakunle to play the part of the stranger. Despite his initial unwillingness to participate, Lakunle throws himself fully into the dance. The rest of the villagers dance while Lakunle performs realistic miming of driving a car, drunkenly wandering through the jungle, and discovering Sidi in the river. Suddenly, Baroka joins the dance and the action stops as the villagers kneel and bow to him. Lakunle tries to leave, but Baroka insists he stays and they continue the dance. Baroka instructs his attendants to seize Lakunle/the stranger. The stranger takes photographs of the village and is especially entranced by Sidi and her dancing. Sidi and the villagers chase Lakunle towards the actual stranger so he can translate for them, and Baroka muses that he hasn’t taken a new wife in five months.
Later that day, Sidi and Lakunle walk down the road. Lakunle carries a bundle of firewood, while Sidi is engrossed in the photographs of herself in the magazine. Baroka’s first wife, Sadiku, startles Sidi. Sadiku tells Sidi that Baroka wants to marry her, which makes Lakunle angry. He tells Sidi not to listen, but Sidi insists that she’s very powerful now that the stranger has brought her images to the village. Sadiku insists that if Sidi marries Baroka, she will be very powerful—when Baroka dies, she will be the new head wife. Sidi refuses and says that Baroka only wants to possess her beauty and keep it for himself. Sidi opens the magazine, shows the photographs to Sadiku, and laments that nobody ever complimented Sidi on her breasts. She calls Baroka old and leathery. Sadiku is shocked, but she invites Sidi to come to Baroka’s house for a feast anyway. Sidi laughs and says that the women who attend the suppers become wives or concubines the next day. Lakunle inserts himself into the conversation and says that Baroka is called “the fox” for a reason. He describes how Baroka paid off a foreman to reroute a railway away from Ilujinle, thereby robbing Ilujinle of the ability to modernize. He loses himself in thought and muses about how wonderful Baroka’s life of luxury with so many wives must be. Sidi and Sadiku slip away.
In Baroka’s bedroom, his favorite wife plucks the hairs from his armpit. He tells her that he is going to take a new wife soon and she plucks the hairs harshly. Sadiku enters the bedroom and Baroka sends his favorite away. Sadiku tells her husband that Sidi refused his offer of marriage because of his age. Angry, Baroka lists his achievements of the past week. He lies down, asks Sadiku to rub his feet, and picks up a copy of the magazine. He suggests that it might be for the best, as his manhood ended the week before. Sadikucries, and Baroka tells her that she should not tell anyone of this secret.
That evening, Sidi continues to admire the photographs in the village square. Sadiku enters the square, pulls out a carved figure of Baroka, and laughs. She begins a chant of “take warning my masters/we’ll scotch you in the end” and dances around the figure. Sidi, shocked, approaches Sadiku and demands to know what’s going on. Sadiku swears Sidi to secrecy and whispers in her ear. Sidi is overjoyed and joins in the dance. Lakunle enters the square and watches the women for a moment before deeming them crazy. Sidi suddenly stops and says she wants to taunt Baroka. She decides to go to him, ask for forgiveness, and torment him. Sadiku gives her blessing and Sidi runs off.
Lakunle calls the women foolish. Sadiku tells Lakunle he is unattractive and reminds him that he could marry Sidi soon if he pays the bride price. When Sadiku laughs about Lakunle’s wish to modernize the village, he insists that she come to school with the children so she can learn to do something besides collect brides for Baroka.
When Sidi enters Baroka’s house, he is engaged in a wrestling match with his wrestler. Baroka is annoyed that nobody was there to greet Sidi and keep her out of his bedroom, and he explains that his servants take Sundays off now that they have formed a union. Sidi asks Baroka for forgiveness for her hasty reply. He pretends to not know what she is talking about, throwing Sidi off guard. Sidi asks after Baroka’s favorite wife and asks if she was somehow dissatisfied with her husband. Baroka insists he has no time to consider his wives’ reasons for being unhappy, which scares Sidi. Baroka asks her to sit down and not make him feel old.
Sidi says that the wrestler will win. Baroka explains that the wrestler must win, as Baroka only fights men who challenge him and he changes wrestlers when he learns how to beat them. Similarly, he takes new wives when he learns how to tire the old ones. Sidi tells Baroka that someone brought her an offer of marriage earlier that day and asks Baroka if he would consent to allow her to marry this man if he were her father. She describes Baroka and answers his questions about her suitor in such a way as to offend Baroka. Baroka throws his wrestler and Sidi celebrates Baroka’s victory. The men begin to arm wrestle and Baroka resumes his line of questioning about Sidi’s suitor. Sidi insults Baroka’s virility. Baroka wins the match again and sends his wrestler away. He sits down next to Sidi and laments how old he is becoming. He asks if Sadiku invented a story for Sidi, saying that Sadiku is constantly finding new women for him to marry.
Baroka pulls out the magazine and an addressed envelope. He asks Sidi if she knows what it is. Sidi does; she says it’s a tax on “talking with paper.” Baroka motions to a machine in his bedroom and says he wants to use it to print stamps for Ilujinle with Sidi’s face on them. Sidi loses herself in this dream, and Baroka explains that he doesn’t hate progress, he hates the sameness that progress brings. He tells Sidi that the two of them are very alike and they fit together perfectly. Sidi wonders if she is dumb like Lakunle says she is, but Baroka says she is simply truthful. He insists that the old and the new must embrace each other as Sidi’s head falls onto his shoulder.
In the market that night, Lakunle and Sadiku wait for Sidi to return. A group of mummers passes them and Sadiku suggests they have heard about Baroka. She steals money from Lakunle’s pockets and pays the mummers. They dance the story of Baroka’s downfall, and Baroka is portrayed as a comical character. Sadiku herself gets to dance the final “scotching” of Baroka.
Sidi runs into the market crying. Both Sadiku and Lakunle try to comfort her, but she does not let them. She says that Baroka tricked them and she is no longer a virgin. Lakunle is angry for a moment, but then says he still wants to marry Sidi and no longer has to pay the bride price. Sidi runs away. Lakunle sends Sadiku after her to find out what she is going to do. Sadiku returns and says that Sidi is dressing herself like a bride, and Lakunle insists that he cannot get married immediately.
The dancers and Sidi re-enter the square. Sidi is beautiful. She offers Lakunle the magazine and invites him to the wedding. He insists that he must be invited, since he is the groom. Sidi laughs and says she would never be able to marry him after experiencing Baroka. She asks the musicians to play music while she walks to Baroka’s house and the dance begins. A young girl dances suggestively at Lakunle, and he chases after her.
CHARACTERS AND CHARACTERISATION
Sidi (The Jewel)A superficial but beautiful young woman in the village of Ilujinle, she is coveted by both Lakunle and Baroka. She initially agrees to wed Lakunle even though she does not care for him, but she is frustrated that he will not pay her bride-price and that he has so many modern ideas. She is extremely proud of her photos in a magazine and becomes increasingly absorbed in them. Along with Sadiku she hopes to trick Baroka, whom she also dislikes and does not want to marry, but he triumphs in the end by raping her, taking her virginity, and having her agree to marry him.
LakunlA smart but arrogant twenty-three-year-old school teacher, who lambasts Ilujinle for its backwards views. He wants the village to be modern, and he wants to wed Sidi and make her a modern wife (though he believes women are naturally inferior to men). He is reluctant to participate in the ways of the village but is usually drawn into them regardless. He despises Baroka and is jealous of him.
Baroka: (The Lion)The wily and powerful Bale (he is the leader) of the village, Baroka is always on the quest for more wives. He laments getting older and covets the young Sidi. He tricks Sidi and Sadiku, though, and ends up winning Sidi and avenging his shame after she initially refused to marry him.
Sadiku:The chief wife of the Bale, Sadiku is elderly but a great source of comfort to Baroka. She eventually decides to plot against him, though, and tries to get Sidi to destroy him. Her plan is found out, however, and she is shamed.
The Stranger: A photographer who came to Ilunjinle and took many photos of the village and its inhabitants. He was captivated by Sidi and published images of her that are stunningly beautiful.
The Wrestler: Baroka’s wrestling companion who wrestles with him to make him stronger; once Baroka can best him, he will be replaced by another fighter.
The Favorite: The Bale’s current favorite wife, who is tasked with plucking out his armpit hairs.
The Surveyor: A white man who is heading the building of a railway through the village; Baroka bribes him to abandon the project.
THEMES, LANGUAGE AND STYLE IN THE PLAY
TRADITION VS MODERNITY
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 does not 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 would marryLakunle any time if he could only pay the bride price and observe local custom. Lakunle’s refusal shows that it is 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 in order not to 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.
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 isnot 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 will not 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.
MEN VS WOMEN
The Lion and the Jewel focuses on the competition to win Sidi’s hand in marriage, which makes the play, in a sense, a battle of the sexes. As such, the play asks a number of questions about the nature of each sex’s power: why men or women are powerful; how they became powerful in the first place; and how they either maintain or lose that power.
The men who fight for Sidi see her only as a beautiful prize to be won; Baroka and Lakunle value Sidi for no more than her beauty and her virginity. Meanwhile, the men in The Lion and the Jewel are valued by others (and value themselves) based on what they can do or have already done. Lakunle, for example, values himself because he is educated and he seeks to bring education, modernity, and Christianity to Ilujinle, and Baroka’s value derives from his role as the Bale of Ilujinle and his responsibilities to keep his people safe and build his image by taking many wives and fathering children.
To both Baroka and Lakunle, Sidi is a jewel—a valuable object capable of teasing and annoying the men, but an object nonetheless. Lakunle wants Sidi to marry him so he can better perform modernity by taking a modern wife, one who wears high heels and lipstick. Similarly, Baroka wants Sidi to be his wife and complete his harem. While it is unclear whether or not Baroka will keep his promise that Sidi will be his final wife, she too will be the jewel of his wives. To both men, then, marriage to Sidi is a status symbol and an indicator of their power, virility, and the superiority of their respective ways of life (modern versus traditional). Further, the end of the play suggests that what Lakunle wants from Sidi (a modern wife to make him seem more modern) does not even require Sidi specifically; by immediately turning his attention to the next woman who dances at him, Lakunle indicates that while Sidi may have been an appealing prize, he can accomplish his goal of having a modern wife by marrying any woman up to the task. This reduces women in general to objects who must simply play a part in the lives of their husbands.
The idea of reducing people with little power to objects, however, works in reverse as well. When Sadiku believes Baroka’s tale that his manhood (virility) is gone, she dances gleefully around a statue of Baroka and chants that women have won the war against men. She knows that Baroka’s position of power in the village is tied to his ability to perform sexually and produce children, and she believes that when this specific power is gone, the rest of his power will also disappear, leaving his wives (who are still capable of performing sexually and bearing children) victorious. In this case, when Baroka appears to have lost what gives him power, he is reduced to being represented by an actual object (the statue). However, the play suggests that there is a great deal of difference between Baroka’s weakness being represented by an object and the fact that women are literally treated as objects. When Sadiku dances around the statue of Baroka, it is important to note that she cannot celebrate her victory publically. She can celebrate in private and taunt a representation of Baroka, but she cannot taunt Baroka himself. In contrast, Sidi, Sadiku, and other female villagers are teased, taunted, and demeaned to their faces throughout the play. They are grabbed, fondled, raped, and told that they are simple and backwards because they are women. The male characters do not have to privately taunt inanimate objects; their culture, regardless of how they engage with modernity or tradition, allows them to reduce women to objects and treat them as such.
LANGUAGE AND STYLE IN THE PLAY
Allegory: Nigeria
The play is often viewed as an allegory in that Sidi is Nigeria, caught between the modern (Lakunle) and the traditional (Baroka). She is interested in the modern because it feeds her ego and seems to offer youth and excitement, but she is also derisive of its falseness. The traditional does not interest her at first because she thinks she is better than it is, but she comes to recognize the safety, security, and value in it.
Symbol: The Camera
The stranger’s camera symbolizes modernity. It is a newfangled object to the extent that one of the village girls calls it a “one-eyed box” (10). It is able to capture Sidi’s young, beautiful image and reproduce it for everyone to see and gaze on in perpetuity.
Symbol: The Railway
The railway is another symbol of Western modernity. Railways, commonly implemented by European colonial governments, is a system of transportation, something that brings people in and takes people out. It irrevocably opens a place up to the rest of the world, and this is why Baroka is so opposed to it. The physical breaking of the ground represents to him a smashing of tradition and autonomy.
Motif: Sango and his lightning
Sango is the Yoruba orisha, a ruler, and a wielder of justice. He also uses thunder and lightning to enforce justice. He is evoked several times in the text. First, Sadiku uses him to threaten the obnoxious Lakunle. Second, she evokes him again when she is exulting over the Bale’s impotence (“Oh Sango my lord, who of us possessed your lightning / and ran like fire through that’s lion’s tail…” [33]). Third, Baroke mentions him when he tells Sidi his views on progress (“Among the bridges and the murderous roads, / Below the humming birds which / Smoke the face of Sango, dispenser of / The snake-tongue lightning” [52]). Fourth, Lakunle angrily evokes Sango when he hears what has happened to Sidi (“Let Sango and his lightning keep out of this” [60]). Every time he is mentioned, the character mentioning him is talking about justice, retribution, and revenge.
Symbol: The statue of the Bale
Sadiku carries with her a little statue of the Bale and uses it in her merry dance after she hears he is impotent. The statue, which is naked and well endowed, ordinarily represents the Bale in his power. However, now that Sadiku knows the truth about the Bale’s power and strength, it now seems like an impotent, inert object and nothing else. It is a reminder of what he once was and what he now is—a figurehead.
Dramatic Iron: Lakunle’s posturing
Much of what Lakunle says and does is ironic. He utters things without knowing how ridiculous he sounds or how false his claims are. He pretends to adhere to certain principles, but undercuts them without even realizing it. In the very last scene he chases after a young girl just moments after pledging to marry his true love Sidi.
Dramatic Irony: Baroka’s trick
There is dramatic irony that even the audience does not become aware of until later: Baroka knows exactly what Sadiku and Sidi have planned, and thus everything he says to Sidi drips with irony since he is actually the one in control.
Dramatic Irony: Sadiku’s superiority
Sadiku’s actions, such as laughing at the Bale’s statue and how women have bested him and acting in the performance where he is killed, prove to be ironic due to the Bale’s clever trick (see previous Irony entry).
Situational Irony: Baroka’s acceptance of modernity
It is ironic that the old Baroka, a man who did not want the railway to come through Ilujinle, decides that he must embrace modernity by having a stamp machine. This is also ironic given the fact that he was treated poorly by images (his photo was next to the latrines in the magazine).
Simile: Lakunle’s love
Lakunle says to Sidi, “my love will open your mind / Like the chaste lead in the morning, when / The sun first touches it” (6). This is an example of Lakunle’s verbose, faux-poetic type of rhetoric. He thinks flowery words will impress Sidi, but she is merely annoyed and tells him that he tires her. In his comparison of love to a “chaste” flower, Lakunle is also indicating how he sees Sidi.
Metaphor: Lakunle’s heart
Lakunle whines to Sidi, “my heart / Bursts into flowers with my love. / But you, you and the dead of this village / Trample it with the feet of ignorance” (6). He uses the metaphor of a flower blooming due to the power of his love, but then depicts that flower being trampled into oblivion by the callous village. It is an extreme metaphor and one that bespeaks Lakunle’s hyperbolic tendencies. He depicts his heart as being delicate and fragile, which ironically is proven not to be the case: when he thinks he is to marry Sidi, the putative love of his life, he thinks it is too scary and too soon; then, he forgets her almost immediately by chasing after another village girl.
Simile: Baroka’s face
Sidi scoffs about Baroka, “But he—his face is like a leather piece / Torn rudely from the saddle of his horse” (22). She contrasts him with herself—a light, lovely, sparkling creature, whose fame is beginning to rise. These words about Baroka prove to be ironic since he ends up winning her.
Metaphor: Knowledge
Baroka tells Sidi, “I see you dip your hand / Into the pockets of the school teacher / And retrieve it bulging with knowledge” (50). This metaphor depicts Sidi as a child reaching into an older person’s pocket in hopes of finding knowledge, which effectively diminishes her stature. It also depicts the school teacher as rather haphazard and informal in his possession of knowledge: why is this knowledge just stuffed willy-nilly into his pocket? In this metaphor Baroka subtly and slyly undermines both Sidi and Lakunle.
Metaphor: Wine
Baroka tells Sidi, “old wine thrives best / Within a new bottle” (54). This metaphor works on two levels. The first is the surface-level metaphor that Sidi is supposed to pick up: traditions and old ways of doing things will seem fuller and sweeter if they are housed and filtered within modernity and progress. However, the more debauched meaning that Baroka amuses himself with is that he will pour his old wine—his semen—into her new body, and thus create a child. Old men do well with young women, he thinks.
GENERAL EVALUATION/ REVISION QUESTIONS
1 Discuss the theme of tradition vs modernity in the play.
2 How does the writer explore irony in the play?
WEEKEND ASSIGNMENT
SECTION A
INSTRUCTION: Answer all questions.
1. Sound in poetry is often exploited through the following except __________
A. alliteration B.assonance C. consonance D. oxymoron (e) onomatopoeia
2. The literary device used in evoking the mental picture of an idea is called _____
A. allusion B. apostrophe C. flash back D. imagery (e) symbolism
3. The use of professional fools (clowns) in drama is primarily to ________
A. cause commotion B. create comic relief C. develop the plot
D. heighten emotion (e) heighten the language
4. The following are features of poetry except__________
A. chapter B. inversion C. repetition D. rhyme (e) sound effect
5. A poem that extols the qualities of a hero is called a/an ________
A. epic B. lyric C. parody D. pun (e) sonnet
SECTION B
Write a short biography on Maya Angelou.
READING ASSIGNMENT
Read up The Caged Bird in Exam Focus and explain the content.
EVALUATION QUESTIONS
1 List the characters in the work.
2 Describe Baroka in the Play.
WEEKEND ASSIGNMENT
SECTION A
INSTRUCTION: Answer all questions.
- A character that develops in the course of a novel or play is described as A. flat. B. antagonist. C. round. D. protagonist.
- A dirge is poem sung A. to send a child to sleep. B. to make workers happy. C. at a birthday party. D. at a funeral.
- In drama, the ____________ creates humour. A. hero B. clown C. villain D. chorus
- ‘Let me not love thee if I love thee not’ illustrates A. metaphor. B. proverb. C. paradox. D. meiosis.
- _________ is a literary device used to express something unpleasant in a more acceptable way. A. Epilogue B. Epigram C. Euphemism D. Eulogy
SECTION B
Describe the background of the main character in the work.
READING ASSIGNMENT
Read up the themes in play in Exam Focus.
EVALUATION QUESTION
- Give a detailed plot of the drama.
- What is the climax of the plot?
WEEKEND ASSIGNMENT
SECTION A
INSTRUCTION: Answer all questions.
1. …………… determines the atmosphere of a poem A. tone B. theme C. synopsis
D. structure
2. When a word is used in superficial manner, it is said to have been used in its ……….
A. figurative sense B. connotative sense literal sense C. literary sense
3. A term used in describing an effective choice of word in a literary work is ………… A. diction B. diphthongs C. denotation D. dialogue
4. To drag your father from his farm is as different as dragging a child away from his
mother’s breast is a ……………. A. simile B. amplification C.personification
D. metaphor
5. A poem without a regular beat and rhyme scheme is referred to as …………..
A. a solomonic verse B. a blank verse C. a free verse D. traditional verse
SECTION B
Describe the main character of the work.
READING ASSIGNMENT Read the characters in Exam Focus.
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