Discuss Tradition and Modernity “ A Study of
Social change in Swamp Dwellers”
v
About the author and his style
Wole Soyinka’s play The Swamp Dweller
was written in 1957. The Nigerian playwright WoleSyoinka was born in
1934. Soyinka was one of the few African
writers to denounce the slogan of Negritude as a tool of autocracy . Soyinka
also enjoys the rank as the first black African to be awarded the Nobel prize
in literature. He wrote the lays like
1.
The Invention
2. The Lion and the Jewel
3. A Dance in the Forest
He
also wrote the famous poems like
The Immigrant
My
Next Door Neighbour
In his plays , he
showed his ability to project traditional Nigerian themes and stories through
English rather than Yoruba. He is famous as a dramatic poet and skilled
dramatic craftsman. He was concerned with the universal problems. His plays are
concerned with town life, a retrograde countryside and the ambitions of the new
“Nigerians”
Soyinka presented Nigeria as a country in
tradition, attempting to mold itself out of a variety of tribal cultures and a
turbulent Europe colonization. He was willing to charge Nigerian politicians
and bureaucrats with barbarity and corruption as he was to condemn the greed an
materialism of the Europeans. Some of hi works took on a darker and angrier
tone.
v
About the Play
Soyinka’s drama presents the post- colonial Nigerian. In the
drama he contrasts rural and Urban areas, he contrasts tradition and Modernity.
The playwright discuss the Urban area through implications. The story’s setting
is in the Swamp community on which outside world has many effects. Wole Soyinka’s peculiarity is that he hardly presents the
countryside as a stable and innocent world. He very carefully designs the
generation gap and differentiates the traditional from modern as –
Makuri: “ Ah....well ... Those were the days .... Those days
were really good. Even when times were harsh and Swamp overran the land we were
able to laugh with the serpent.... but these young people...... They are no
sooner born than they want to get out of the villages as if it carried a
plague......”
This play
brings light to the corruption and contradiction found throughout Nigerian
society including both traditional and modern views.
“The play
examines the suffering and hardships of the people living in Nigeria – Delta.
The Suffering of Nigerian people has been guided by the federal thoughtlessness
and domination. The purpose of writing the play is to keep the focus on the
society operating through modification between the city and the country of
course there are some characters in the story but the main theme revolves around
the story of a woman named Alu. Through the character of Alu the playwright
gives the concept of aspiration and determination, especially focusing on
women. The story contrasts the differences between the tradition and modernity
of south Nigerian people Alu is represented as a traditional woman while Desala
represents modernity.”
The play
has a setting in marshy swamp with one hut built on stilts. It features five
visible characters the aged Makuri and his wife Alu, their son Igwezu the blind
Beggar from the North and the Village priest, called the Kadiye. Also, there
are two important characters who are never featured physically but they influence
the story. The story gets over within one day. The play opens with old
quarrelsome couple. The couple worried about their son Igwezu who went to the
city where his twin, Awuchike disappeared before many years. The father Makuri
is worried about the rain, where as the mother; Alu is tense about the return
of Igwezu who has been out the whole day. Alu is also worried for her son
Awauchike she thought him dead in the city but it wasn’t so.
He was lost in the glamour and corrupt world of the city.
The play deals with social, economical, traditional, modern, superstitious, issues,
of the village. Also, the young and old presented in the drama are issues to be
discussed as the youngsters have great attraction towards the city. Youth
wanted to live the life of luxury. They had no moral, after living the village
they forget their village their parents and relatives. They forget their ethics
and morality. For example, some youngster never looks back at their parents,
never sent money for their old parents. They just ran behind money. If we talk
about the twin brothers, Igwezu lost her wife to his brother. Desala left
Igwezu because he had no money. She went to live with Awuchike who had lots of
money. Igwezu was robbed of his wife and
money. Igwezu was traditional. He sent the item he promised to his parents as
soon as he reached the city,. The village had no jobs; the crops were ruined by
the rain. The youngsters were captivated by the dazzle of the city. Awauchike
on the other side was unlike Igwezu . Awuchike never looked back. In fact his
mother Alu thought him dead because he never returned or sent message.
Awuchike
represent modernity, but his brother can be called traditional. Both were twin,
yet there was a large difference between the.
Igwezu comes
back from the city. “ Igwezu’s flight need
not be taken as a confirmation of the elders fears that the young people
have abandoned tradition in favour of the city. In ‘ The Swamp dwellers the thematic
statement is complex. The city and the trusted traditional home seem to
conspire against the individual and destroy him in different ways. It seems
Soyinka is raising the issues of human disillusionment with the pillars of
society that people have been conditioned to trust, like one’s siblings, the
religious head, and the soil that yields the Dwellers crops.
The
playwright enlightens us on the theme of Tradition V/S Modernity while
discussing the city and the country. A person who goes to the city dies
spirituality . The death of Awauchike is metaphorical and not real. Makuri
discussed the city –
“
It ruins them the city ruins them. What do they seek there excepect money? There was Gonushi’s son for one..... Left his
wife and children ... not a word to anyone.”
Even outside the Yoruba belief the city is a Swamp, a place of moral
degradation. Alu compares the city with Swamp , Alu’s village started receiving
the result of industrialization. Modernity started questioning traditionality
Kadiye’s fear. Here traditional aspects are heavier to modernity. Tradition
throws Igwezu to the city to face the modernity. The beggar who is blind could
see the reality; he could guess and understand the reality of life. Igwezu twin
did not support him but the beggar who is blind took his fields and parents
responsibility on him.
Modernity invades the tradition of the village. Forty years later after
the cruel alliance of shell Oil and the Nigerian military in repressing
Nigerian democracy. The capitalism industrialization, the city has already
invaded the countryside here, in the form of spillage from the drilling of oil,
drilling that eventually grow to enormous ecological and human waste.
The opening scene also suggests
that modernity entered the village. Icon of modernity was gift to Makuri from
Igwezu, when Igwezu was in the city. This gift has great importance in the next
_
“When they were bringing it over the water, it knocked a hole in the
bottom of the canoe and nearly sank it”
If we
see the literal meaning of the above statement we see it as a virtual
liberalization of the idea that traditional practise cannot bear the weight of
modernity but sink under the load. Further in the drama _
“The carrier got stuck in the Swamps and they had to dig him
out”
We can conclude through the statement
that modernity, commodities things acquired for money in the city, are
precisely the things that increase pride, envy and greed and thus invite
destructive chaos.
The other
example of tradition and modernity is represented by Alu, the mother - in – law whom we here mention and is not
physically present. Soyinka has depicted it through artistic conversation as
Alu and Makuri converse. Alu is a traditional woman whose husband praised
her _
Makuri: “There wasn’t a woman anywhere more faithful than you, Alu, I
never had a moment of worry in the whole of my life...And the chance you could
have taken. Those traders - every one of
them wanted you to go back with him; promised he’d make you live like a lady,
clothe you in silks and have servants to wait on your smallest wants.......’
On one side there is
a faithful wife Alu living miserable life in poverty with her husband but her
daughter – in – law leaves her traditional husband who was poor and went to
leave with his twin brother so that she can enjoy the life of luxury. Desala married
to Igwezu with a condition that both of them would leave the village and settle
in the city Swallows the newcomer to the city.
Makuri :
What did he do son? What happened in the city?
Igwezu :
Nothing but what happens to a newcomer
to the race.
The city
reared itself in the air, and with the strength of its legs
Of brass kicked the adventure in the small of his back.
v
Conclusion
There was a complete change in
the people of village once they reach the city. Also, the villages started
changing , young people don’t allow anyone or anything blindly as Makuri did
because they raise questions as Igwezu did.
The Swamp dwellers believe in the
infallibility of Kadiye, priest of the serpent. Igwezu questions Kadiye, and
his ways. It tells us of the clash between tradition and modernity in Southern
Nigeria. The play shows contrast, parallelism humour, and irony in a suitable
manner, Soyinka focuses the plight of the Swamp dwellers are at the mercy of
furious nature until they compromise tradition with modernity, embrace modern
technology.
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