Theory question 101
Set Text: The Lion and the JewelLiterature 2, Section A: African Drama. Wole Soyinka: The Lion and the Jewel
Discusss the theme of tradition and change in the play.
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The conflict between tradition and modernity is the centre of the play.
Baroka, the Bale of Ilujinle, stands for tradition: polygamy, wrestling, bride price, authority; he bribed the surveyor to keep the railway away.
Lakunle, the schoolteacher, stands for (half-understood) Western change: he wants Sidi to marry without bride price, eat with knives and forks, live like a 'modern' couple.
Sidi is torn between the two; the photographs in the stranger's magazine make her proud and vain.
The mime of the Lost Traveller and the railway show the coming of the modern world to the village.
Baroka shows that tradition can absorb change (his stamp machine) on its own terms.
Ending: Sidi marries Baroka; tradition wins, and Lakunle's shallow modernity is mocked.
Soyinka suggests that change should not mean rejecting one's culture.
Show both sides with examples and say which wins.