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Title: The Lion and The Jewel
Author: Wole Soyinka
Publishing House: College Press
ISBN: 177900 0057
Pages: 70
MUCH ado about nothing, is a title that best describes this play by Wole Soyinka.
The play centres around the protagonist young schoolteacher Lankunle and his foils Baroku (chief) and their jostle for the village belle — Sidi’s hand in marriage.
Ultimately the one who stands for tradition Baroka defeats Lakunle — the progressive new generation and that is arguably all the comedy has to show in terms of depth.
I am informed that at one point the book was an O-Level setbook and I agree that it is best suited for the young readers as far as content is concerned.
However, what the play lacks in depth it makes up for in comic relief.
The scene is set in Ilujinle, a rural village in Nigeria in the days when civilisation was making headway into rural Africa.
This closed rural setting of the play protects it from the harsh realities that affect our world and its characters operate in blissful ignorance of this.
Act 1 begins with a chance encounter between Lankule and Sidi — the village beauty, as Sidi is carrying a pale of water past Lankunle’s  school.
Immediately we are introduced to the character that is Lankunle, whose Western education has disillusioned him and detached him from his traditional values.
This is evidenced in Sidi’s conversation with him on P 3 “ . . .  the whole world knows of the madman of Lunjile who calls himself a teacher.”
Too absorbed by his own egos Lakunle replies: “ . . . what is a jewel to pigs . . . I rise above your taunts.”
Lakunle’s arrogance and stubbornness underpins his character and proves to be his ruin as initially he had all but won the battle for Sidi — save for his refusal to pay her bride price.
Although he does so for his own selfish reasons, Lakunle raises the issue of bride price, its use as a tad in the oppression of women and its confirmed relevance in a modern society.
The issue of bride price is a contentious topic in most socities today with the learned woman feeling emancipated and at times with dire consequences doing away with it.
Sidi’s character on the other hand is one dimensional and very much the service of the play.
She seems to think that the world revolves around her and takes pleasure in being the village beauty and enjoys teasing the men chasing after her.
In the end, she is tricked by Baroka into a sexual encounter intending to humiliate him — having been misled by Sadiku, his senior wife into believing that he is now impotent.
Looking at it differently, Sidi does not have much of an option.
She is faced with two men who wish to make use of her, Baroka for sex and Lakunle as a trophy wife to parade for all to see.
Sidi being the beauty with not much brains cannot discern this tricky situation.
Baroka unlike the rest of the characters in the play is the only one with real depth.
His character is indeed charming and is rightfully referred to as the “fax”.
He plays jack of all trades and puppet master in the play and it is only right that he comes out the victor.
As far as scenery goes, Woyinka is at pains to give a vivid description and imagery in the play and at times his stage directions take up considerable pages in each scene which should not be so.
One is probably left wondering whether this is a play best suited for the stage to see rather than read.
Other than the above mentioned three characters the rest of the characters are rather flat.
Soyinka drives home the importance of ritual, song and dance in African literature.
He constantly refers to pagan gods like Ogan god of war and metal and Shango showing his deep rooted understanding of such culture.
As far as themes go, the play is rather thin although at times the characters show intelligence that belies their feeble minds.
Lankunle P4 raises the once held stereotypes of women having smaller brains than men justifying it by saying that is “why they are referred to as the weaker sex.”
Other issues the author tackles are polygamy and how manhood was hinged on one’s ability to sire children.
Given the constant outages of energy we are experiencing, an afternoon spent reading this play would not be considered a total waste though.
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