THE LION AND THE JEWEL



                                                       CHARACTERS:
Main characters

• Baroka – The Balè or viceroyal chieftain of Ilujinle, a Yoruba village in the realm of the 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.

FULL CHARACTER ANALYSIS
Sidi

• She is the belle of Ilujinle.
• This is confirmed by her pictures that were placed in a magazine.
• She is being courted by both Lakunle and Baroka.
• She is very confident about her looks.
• She knows her value, and appreciates her cultural practices, as seen in her refusal to marry Lakunle without the bride price.
• She is a supremely confident young woman who believes that she can taunt the lion without repercussions.
• She is also resilient because she accepts her loss, when her taunting of the lion fails, and joyfully starts the wedding process.

Baroka

• He is the king of Ilujinle.
• He is 62 years old, but still very vibrant.
• He is called the lion, due to his strength and vitality, as well as the fox, due to his cleverness.
• He is a very clever man who is able to get what he wants, as seen in the railway incident.
• He is very articulate and creative, as seen in his verbal parlay with Sidi.
• He believes that progress equates to sameness, but he tolerates it due to it's inevitability. 

Lakunle

• He is the local school teacher.
• He courted Sidi, but refused to pay her bride price on the grounds that it was a barbaric practice.
• He viewed his African heritage, in general, as lowly and barbaric.
• He dreams of a time when his village will be completely modernized.
• He is infatuated with Sidi.

Sadiku

• Baroka's head wife.
• She delivered Baroka's proposal to Sidi, and rejoiced in his defeat.
• She plotted, with Sidi, to taunt Baroka in his moment of defeat.

Supporting characters
Village girls, a wrestler, a surveyor, schoolboys, his assorted consorts and various musicians, dancers, mummers, prisoners, traders and so on.




                                         PLOT

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 schoolboys start ogling her, so he hits them on the head and leaves to confront her. At this point, we find out that the schoolteacher 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 and 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 head or her neck may be shortened. He also tells her 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 that the village thinks he's stupid, but Lakunle says that he is not so easily cowed by taunts. Lakunle also insults her, saying that her brain is smaller than his. He claims that his books say 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 does not 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 it an uncivilised, outrageous custom. Sidi tells him that if she did so, people will jeer at her, saying that she is 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 that 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 his 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 the snake and Lakunle becomes the Traveller. He seeks to be excused to teach Primary Four Geography but Sidi informs him that the village is on holiday due to the arrival of the photographer/traveler.
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 village 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 a girl 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 the 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 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 sit alone. Baroka takes out his book, and muses that it has been five full months since he last took a wife.

Noon

Sidi is at a road near the marketplace. Lakunle follows her, carrying the 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 any more wives after her and that she would be his 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 be able to 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 Ilujinle'". 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 wiliness, particularly when he managed to foil the Public Works attempt to build a railroad through Ilujinle. Baroka bribed the surveyor for the route to move the railroad much farther away as "the earth is most unsuitable, could not possibly support the weight of a railway engine". Lakunle is distraught, as he thinks just how close Ilujinle was to civilisation 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 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 her 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 of his father, Okiki, before that. Sidi is amazed at what she 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 her plans to visit Baroka for his feast and 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 Ilujinle. He goes on to spurn her, calling her a 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 Workers' 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 that she was here for the 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 that he has failed to produce any children for the last 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 his 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 to produce 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 was the real benefactor. Then they dance the Baroka story, showing him at his prime and his eventual downfall. Lakunle is pleased by 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 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 that it was a trap. Baroka said that he knew that 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 not a 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 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 that the wedding will be between Sidi and himself and her, but she informs her 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 young girl taunts Lakunle, and he gives chase. Sadiku gets in his way. He frees himself and clears a space in the crowd for them both to dance.
The drama ends.

Themes

The most prominent theme of this story is the rapid modernisation of Africa, coupled with the rapid evangelisation 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.
Another core theme is the marginalisation of women as property. Traditionally, they were seen as properties that could be bought, sold or accumulated. Even the modern Lakunle falls victim to this, by looking down on Sidi for having a smaller brain, and later by thinking it will be easier to marry her once she's lost her virginity, since no dowry was required in such a situation.
There is also the conflict between education and traditional beliefs. The educated people seek to spread their knowledge to the tribal people in an attempt to make them more modern. This in turn is resisted by the tribal people who see no point in obtaining an education as it served them no use in their daily lives.
Finally, there is the importance of song and dance as a 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 youths.

Power and authority
Women in society
Masculinity
Colonialism
Culture vs. progress
Change
Old versus young 

Performance

Omonor Imobhio is ideally cast as the beautiful young Sidi, the "Jewel" of the title. She captures perfectly the essence of the uncultured "bush woman" who allows the power of her beauty to go to her head turning her world upside down. But Anthony Ofoegbu is the undoubted star of the show, garnering most of the laughs as the lovestruck modernising schoolteacher. Toyin Oshinaike was impressive as the "Lion" of the title, Baroka, despite struggling with his lines on a couple of occasions and Shola Benjamin was wonderfully comic as the mocking head wife Sadiku. The remainder of the fifteen strong cast, including musicians, all performed admirably.
In general, it was a colourful production with many genuinely funny moments. Despite the generally strong performances however, it has to be said that the direction went somewhat astray with the result that this production fails to capture the acerbic edge of the original play.



IN DEPTH ANALYSIS
The Lion And The Jewel, one of Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka’s best-known plays, was first performed in 1963. It is very much a work of its time: like compatriot Chinua Achebe’s novels of the 1960s, or poems such as Song of Lawino (by Ugandan Okot p’Bitek), which appeared in 1966, it expresses the tensions felt in many newly-independent African countries between traditional beliefs or customs and the forms of modernity typically associated with the West.

Soyinka has been criticised for a writing style that betrays a Eurocentric bias, but this play is ultimately an affirmation of “the old” rather than “the new”. Whereas Achebe’s fiction tends towards the tragic and the tone of Okot’s poetry became darker and angrier in later years, The Lion And The Jewel offers a comic – and, it could be argued, problematic – resolution.

The tradition-vs-modernity debate may be a well-rehearsed one, but it shows no signs of going away. Certainly, James Ngcobo, director of the production currently running at the State Theatre in Pretoria, considers the material relevant. Soyinka’s play is strangely apposite in twenty-first century South Africa, but perhaps not in the ways that Ngcobo and his cast have in mind.

The narrative hinges on an unusual love-triangle. Lakunle (Fezile Mpela) is a schoolteacher who wants to marry Sidi (Nthati Moshesh) but refuses to pay a bride-price for her, ostensibly because it is one of many outdated practices of the Yoruba people that do not match his civilised opinions. Sidi, the “jewel” of the title, seems to return Lakunle’s affection but is constantly angered by his condescension towards her as an “uneducated bush girl” and by his highfalutin phrasemaking. Moreover, her sense of self-worth according to “traditional” criteria for desirability as a bride-to-be is (ironically) increased by her prominence in a recently-published book of photographs taken by a visitor to the village.

When the bale or autocratic head of the village, Baroka (Sello Maake kaNcube), seeks a new bride to add to his harem, Sidi’s growing reputation makes her the most eminent candidate. Sidi rejects his proposal – more out of egotism than fidelity to Lakunle or opposition to a polygamous system – but when she hears that Baroka is impotent, she decides to pretend that she will accept him, in order to taunt him when he is unable to perform in bed.

Not for nothing is “the lion”, Baroka, also known as “the fox”, for he has cunningly circulated a false rumour about “the end of his manhood” in order to lure Sidi to his bedroom, where he seduces her (or is it rape?). When Lakunle hears of this, he despairs – until her realises that Sidi, who is no longer a maiden, does not merit a bride-price. Thus, he thinks, the barrier to their marriage has been removed; and he asks her again to marry him. But Sidi, impressed by (or scared of) Baroka’s physical prowess, chooses instead to marry the chief.

Soyinka’s language is rich and unabashedly lyrical. It abounds in imagery, digressive soliloquising and verbal flourishes, marking his style off from the terse “realist” dialogue often associated with theatre since World War Two. The cast does justice to this aspect of the script, clearly enjoying bringing the dense text to life.

The staging is dynamic, with a multi-level set dominated in the centre by a wire baobab tree rising suggestively above and behind Baroka’s bed. The cast make full use of this space as actors and dancers move across the stage in sharp, coordinated movements; indeed, energetic dancing and drumming feature prominently, particularly in those scenes where Soyinka has constructed masques, charades or plays-within-the-play to echo Yoruba pageantry and oral literary techniques.

This insistence on meta-narrative – foregrounding the story-telling process at the very moment of telling a story – is present from the start of the play. Two schoolgirls (Gontse Ntshegang and  Lesedi Job), Lakunle’s pupils, argue over how best to present the tale, as the audience is ushered from the written word into a performed world in which the girls function simultaneously as narrators, as protagonists and as a kind of chorus.

These schoolgirls are not innocents, however; they taunt Lakunle, and they take a cruel pleasure in narrating his downfall. In fact, the story they tell should not really be rendered comically and, despite the strengths of this particular production, towards the end of the play I found myself disappointed with Soyinka’s views about gender as implemented onstage.

Ultimately, irrespective of whether the “traditional” or the “modern” prevails, the play appears to take patriarchy for granted. At first, when Lakunle uses his “book learning” to defend chauvinist principles, his arrogance is undercut by his bumbling speeches. The “ignorant” Sidi matches him argument for argument, and it seems that traditional ways are vindicated: perhaps it is a good thing that neither roads nor railways reach the little village of Ilunjile, bringing with them the false enlightenment of the city (Lagos or London).

Likewise, it seems that the urban corrupts the rural. Sidi becomes proud and disdainful when she sees her image printed in a book. The Christian Bible provides no better moral compass than “pagan” West African gods such as Sango.

But here the justification of the “old ways” breaks down. Baroka is comical in his obsession with still being able to father children at a ripe old age. We hardly feel sorry that this once-great “big man of Africa” has lost his manhood. This hints at a possible critique of phallocentrism – why should the procreating penis, sower of seed, be the basic premise on which a claim to power is built?

Unfortunately, however, the play does not explore this possibility; virility remains an unquestioned sine qua non of the right to rule. Sadiku (Warona Seane) is Baroka’s first wife, and has been responsible for procuring his other wives. When Baroka tells her that he is impotent, she is sent into a frenzied soliloquy in which she celebrates having “dried him up”, and bitterly affirms that it is in fact women who control men because they eventually exhaust men sexually: “Take warning, my masters – we’ll scorch you in the end!”

Now, this is patent hogwash. To suggest that women are actually in charge of patriarchal societies in Africa because, sooner or later, every man loses his sexual potency, is to accept that the phallus should be at the centre and to ignore that women across Africa are oppressed, raped and abused by men who operate on this basis.

That Baroka is finally able to “wow” Sidi with his virility and potency, to obtain her as a wife by a show of force (foreshadowed by his wrestling match with a servant), does little but perpetuate male-female relations that are built on deceit and sexual realpolitik. It really isn’t funny. 

SUMMARYThe play is about contrasts; old versus young and culture versus change. It is the story of Sidi, the village belle, and her dramatic 'relationship' with Lakunle, the school teacher. Lakunle is courting Sidi, but refuses to pay the bride price because he views this cultural norm, as well as many other traditional practices of the village, as barbaric. This young suitor is contrasted with Baroka, the Lion. He too courts Sidi, but he maintains the traditions of the village and views progress as something that promotes sameness, or a lack of difference. While Sidi views Lakunle as a bit of 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, Sidi decides to taunt Baroka, and revel in his defeat, with her knowledge. She returns from this venture defeated, however. The lion had beaten the jewel. Lakunle offers to marry Sidi, despite her lack of virginity, but Sidi refuses and joyfully goes off to marry Baroka, the lion