This is a really fun play! I first read it for kicks in a friend's college anthology and then later when I was teaching an African Lit unit I knew I had to teach it too.

It is a very playful drama set in Nigeria probably in the early 1950's or so. The main conflict is between the "Jewel" Sidi, a young beautiful girl, and Lakule, a westernized boy who wants to marry her and have a western style marriage. At the same time, she has become a love interest of the chief of the tribe, Baroka "The Lion". He is no match for Sidi or Lakunle, because of his cunning, wisdom, and experience, but Sidi and Lakunle do give it a good try.

Classic conflicts include Western society versus traditional society and older generation versus younger generation.

I have not seen it performed but I would very much like to. Soyinka, winner of the Nobel Prize, describes the use of music and dance to pantomime parts of the story. His writing is smart, witty, and funny.

When I have taught it, my students have enjoyed it. We usually read it out loud in class for fun.

I learned about this author through The Empire Writes Back: Theory and Practice in Post-Colonial Literatures which I am reading right now!

I haven't read much by African authors but it is the path I have started going down and this was a really wonderful reading. Although I must admit it is really what must be watched rather than read because it is very visual and the stage descriptions play a fundamental role in figuring out what is going on.

There are four major characters in the play: an educator who wants the village to progress, Christianize, drop its superstition and modernize. His vision antagonizes the Bale whose lust and power are moving the village and determining the path it will take; the girl they both love and the Bale's senior wife who is entrenched into the Bale's power. The play unfolds in a day, morning, noon and night. The structure is pretty unique with wonderful flashbacks that are just wonderful to imagine. This play makes me want to read more by Soyinka. Much suggested!

i wouldn't say it's my best but it was nice i liked it

I would love to teach this play someday, though I think many US undergrads will struggle to see this as a comedy. I like this play because it combines comic trends with postcolonial concerns about modernization in conflict with tradition. One of the things that probably makes this play more accessible to undergrads is that it is structured around diametrically opposed positions--modernity vs. tradition, youth vs. age, men vs. women, cunning vs. book knowledge.

In my opinion, the gods are to blame. A man can not change his fate.

A Play by an African Nobel Laureate. It explores the rapid modernization of Africa in the 60s.

Pls I downloaded this app but I couldn't read any book why

But the skin of progress
Masks, unknown, the spotted wolf of sameness . . .
Does sameness not revolt your being?

read me...

Wole Soyinka's story in the Lion and the Jewel reminds me of a strong African culture where most men like to feel like lion in the family to show superiority among peers especially in the dominance and control of women. The book has scintillating collections of proverbs and poetry.

Another piece that illustriates -in a comical and ridicule manner- the quest of the British Colonialism towards turning a whole nation upside down. This play however focuses more on dipicting the thoughts and beliefs of the two opposite sides; on the one hand we have Lakunle who represents the contaminated flock (and I intentionally use the word flock) and on the other hand, we have Baroka: the clan's Bale (the Lion) who represents loyal folks, those sticking to their traditions and practices, those who are resisting the white man's invasion. Another conflict that took place throughout the play is between Sidi (the Jewel); the clan's Beauty and Lakunle; the westernized man. tbut still the main conflict is between the Lion and the Jewel. A good read it was...

Why Sidi ? I didn't expect her final choice i was kind of rooting for the the other option. I really want to see a performance of this play, all the singing and the dancing got to be just spectacular. A must read for play lovers.