The Lion and the Jewel A Critical Study

Some of the themes in Wole Soyinka’s The Lion and the Jewel include male chauvinism, marriage and love, deceit, modernity versus tradition, and, virility and cowardice.

Theme of Male Chauvinism
This is a belief in the innate superiority of men over women. The theme of male chauvinism is clearly portrayed in Soyinka’s The Lion and the Jewel. We first catch a glimpse of this in the dialogue between Lakunle and Sidi in which the former attributes the latter’s inability to comprehend what he is saying to the generic inferiority of women.

He claims that Sidi, as a woman, has a smaller brain than his. He backs his claim with the fact that it has been scientifically proven that “women have a smaller brain than men”; hence, “they are called the weaker sex”. But Sidi questions this claim:

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“THE WEAKER SEX, IS IT?
IS IT A WEAKER BREED WHO POUNDS YAM
OR BENDS ALL DAY TO PLANT THE MILLET
WITH A CHILD STRAPPED TO HER BACK?”

The Lion and the Jewel
This dialogue is a reference to the male dominant African society and the role of second fiddle women play in the traditional African society.

Another pointer to the theme of male chauvinism is rooted in how the women are manipulated by the men in the text. Sidi for one is influenced by Lakunle’s worldview and later manipulated by the wily village head, Baroka. The Lion and the Jewel portrays the women world as one that can be easily manipulated by the male folks.

Theme of Marriage and Love
Sidi is the centre of attraction in the play. Her beauty endears her to the village men and of course, the visiting stranger. Baroka and Lakunle show their love for Sidi in their own individual ways.

The marriage institution is also well foregrounded in The Lion and the Jewel. While Lakunle hopes to seek Sidi’s attention through flowery language and his promise of an equal union, Baroka takes a more practical approach in inducting Sidi into his harem of wives. In the end, Sidi marries Baroka.

Deceit
The theme of deceit manifests through Baroka. He lies to Sadiku, a loose tongue, about his being impotent. Sadiku in turn spreads the news about Baroka’s humiliation. It is on the premise of this lie that Sidi decides to honour Baroka’s invitation to sup with him.

Sidi would not have honoured Baroka’s invitation had she known she was being deceived. And if she hadn’t, she would not have felt Baroka’s sexual prowess and consequently, might not have married him.

Let’s put the probabilities aside. Baroka wins Sidi’s heart through deceit.

Modernity versus Tradition
Wole Soyinka’s The Lion and the Jewel shows the growing discrepancy between European values and African traditional values. The play reflects the post-colonial realities of the African continent.

Western education produced a new category of Africans who embraced European values totally but saw everything African as backward, barbaric, archaic and retrogressive. In The Lion and the Jewel, Lakunle is an archetype of such Africans. He rejects the long-standing practice of bride price. He condemns every African tradition that seems to stand parallel to the European values he espouses.

Baroka, by virtue of his position as the Village Head, is on the other side of the fringe. He is the custodian of African customs, culture and tradition. While he acknowledges the importance and the indispensability of Western education in his village, he abhors any Western value or the intrusion of civilization that would undermine his power or render useless his relevance and efficacy. To this effect, he influences the diversion of railtrack from Ilujinle and also frowns at some of the views Misita Lakunle (as he calls him) holds. Take for example, the one-day off (holiday) Lakunle enforces on the palace workers in line with the working conditions found in the civil service or similar enterprise established by the European colonialists.

In between these two characters stands Sidi who is affected by the views held by the duo.

While Lakunle is bent on bringing civilization to Ilujinle, Baroka is interested in maintaining the status quo as it is. The Lion and the Jewel is thus a play that addresses the conflict between tradition and modernity.

Virility and Cowardice
This again is manifested in the comparison of the two main male characters, Lakunle and Baroka — this time not of their ideas but of their approaches to Sidi. They both employ different approaches in winning Sidi’s heart. Lakunle makes passes at Sidi and claims to love her. He however is not ready to pay her bride price despite wanting to marry her. Sidi who is very conscious of her feminine pride and dignity will not marry Lakunle because of his refusal to pay her bride price.

Baroka on the other hand is ready to go any length to make Sidi his even if he has to be deceitful in the process. He withholds nothing to achieve this. At an advanced age of sixty-two, he exhibits virility and energy which Lakunle, still in his twenties, cannot boast of.

Sidi credits Baroka for living up to his title, “the Lion”, and for being a real man while she describes Lakunle as a “beardless version of unripened man”.

Chapters

General Introduction

Life and Career of Wole Soyinka
Wole Soyinka’s Political Involvement and
Literary Endeavours

Major Plays of Wole Soyinka
Summary of The Lion And The Jewel

Complete Paraphrase

Morning

Noon

Night

Character-Sketches

Questions and Answers

Bibliography

William Patrick Resende Moreno

‘The Lion and the Jewel’ is a play that moves from act 1 (Morning) to the last act (Night). Act 1 starts by introducing us to Sidi and Lakunle. Sidi and Lakunle have an argument because the latter tells the former to change the way she dresses and to stop carrying heavy loads on her neck. The argument engrosses as Lakunle tells Sidi that she has smaller brain than him and that shortly all women will be replaced by machines. Shortly after, Lakunle asks Sidi to marry him and tells her that it is helpful if a man has a woman to stand by him. Sidi responds to him by saying that she will marry him whenever he wants but he has to pay a full pride-price. Lakunle refuses adding that he does not want her to be a property to him. Because Lakunle stupidly steals her a kiss, she complains about his strange way of kissing, so Lakunle calls her uncivilized and primitive. Later on, Lakunle encounters again with Sidi who is accompanied by some other girls. These girls start to mock Lakunle and calling him names. While drinking and dancing, Lakunle accidently hits a girl with a bottle and gets punished by Baroka (the lion) who suddenly changes his mind to honor the stranger (Lakunle). The story flows from Act 1 to Act 2 (Noon).

While in the first act Lakunle is the only man who is interested in Sidi, Act 2 brings about a new interested man, Baroka, who entrusts his most senior wife to persuade Sidi to marry him. In this act, there is a conflict between Lakunle and Sadiku (Baroka’s wife) since both try to persuade Sidi to be part of their family. Whenever one ceases to persuade Sidi, the other gets hopeful. Lakunle tries to show Sidi the drawbacks of being simply another wife, whereas Sadiku keeps telling Sidi the advantages of being Baroka’s last wife. Act 2 ends with Sadiku telling Baroka that she has failed her mission and adds that Sidi believes that Baroka only wants her because he is jealous of her. Act 3(Night) begins with Sadiku’s last mission to get Sidi to pay a visit to Baroka. Baroka tells Sadiku that he has lost his manhood but asks Sadiku for secrecy even though he is positive that she will not keep the secret. Baroka has done that on purpose but Sadiku does not realize it and runs straight to Sidi to tell her. Because Sidi gets happy with the news about Baroka, she pays him a visit, but she encounters a nasty surprise. When she reaches Baroka’s compound, she realizes that Baroka has successfully lured her to take away her womanly innocence. She cries in despair but later gets happy with the thought of marrying the lion who has given her strength. Lakunle, on the other hand, loses his one love he has dedicated so hard to make his wife.

Social/Historical context

This book was written during the era of colonization. The review on this book will offer further information needed.

Writing Style

Simple and persuasive

My Thoughts

This book expresses all the conceptions or misconceptions of the African and European ways.

Englsih