The Lion and the Jewel focuses on the competition to win Sidi 's hand in marriage, which makes the play, in a sense, a battle of the sexes. As such, the play asks a number of questions about the nature of each sex's power: why men or women are powerful; how they became powerful in the first place; and how they either maintain or lose that power.
The Lion and the Jewel was written and first performed the year before Nigeria was granted its independence from Great Britain, and the script was published two years after independence. As such, one of the primary conflicts of the play pits traditional Yoruba customs against a western conception of progress and modernity, as represented by the conflict between Baroka and Lakunle for Sidi 's.
The play begins as Sidi, the village belle of Ilujinle, enters the square with a pail of water balanced on her head. Lakunle, the western-educated schoolteacher, sees her, runs from his classroom, and takes Sidi's pail.He berates her for carrying loads on her head and not dressing modestly, and she retaliates by reminding Lakunle that the village calls him a madman.
Background. 1959 play by Nigerian playwright Wole Soyinka.Set in the Nigerian village of Ilujinle, it takes place over the course of a day and is divided in Morning, Noon, and Night.Its main theme is the conflict between traditional Nigerian Yoruba values and the Western influence of Nigeria's colonizers. Main Characters Lakunle.
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