Topic: What is the meaning of 'Swamp'? How Wole Soyinka has used it symbolically in The Swamp Dwellers?

About The Author:

Wole Soyinka, in full Akinwande  Oluwole Soyinka bornJuly 13, 1934, Abeokuta, Nigeria), Nigerian playwright  and political activist who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986. He sometimes wrote of modern West Africa in a satirical style, but his serious intent and his belief in the evils inherent in the exercise of power usually was evident in his work as well.

A member of the Yoruba people, Soyinka attended Government College and University College in Ibadan before graduating in 1958 with a degree in English from the University of Leeds in England. Upon his return to Nigeria, he founded an acting company and wrote his first important play, A Dance of the Forests (produced 1960; published 1963), for the Nigerian independence celebrations. The play satirizes the fledgling nation by stripping it of romantic legend and by showing that the present is no more a golden age than was the past.

He wrote several plays in a lighter vein, making fun of pompous, Westernized schoolteachers in The Lion and the Jewel (first performed in Ibadan, 1959; published 1963) and mocking the clever preachers of upstart prayer-churches who grow fat on the credulity of their parishioners in The Trials of Brother Jero (performed 1960; published 1963) and Jero’s Metamorphosis (1973). But his more serious plays, such as The Strong Breed (1963), Kongi’s Harvest(opened the first Festival of Negro Arts in Dakar, 1966; published 1967), The Road (1965), From Zia, with Love(1992), and even the parody King Baabu (performed 2001; published 2002), reveal his disregard for African authoritarian leadership and his disillusionment with Nigerian society as a whole.

From 1960 to 1964 Soyinka was coeditor of Black Orpheus, an important literary journal. From 1960 onward he taught literature and drama and headed theatre groups at various Nigerian universities, including those of Ibadan, Ife, and Lagos. After winning the Nobel Prize, he also was sought after as a lecturer, and many of his lectures were published—notably the Reith Lectures of 2004, as Climate of Fear (2004).

Though he considered himself primarily a playwright, Soyinka also wrote novels which are very popular one. They are as given below

v  The Interpreters (1965)

v  Season of Anomy (1973)

v  And some of his poetics works are considered as famous one.

v  Poems from Prison (1969; republished as A Shuttle in the Crypt, 1972),

v  Mandela’s Earth and Other Poems (1988);

v  Samarkand and Other Markets I Have Known (2002).

He wrote a good deal of Poems from Prison while he was jailed in 1967–69 for speaking out against the war brought on by the attempted secession of Biafrafrom Nigeria. The Man Died (1972) is his prose account of his arrest and 22-month imprisonment. Soyinka’s principal critical work is Myth, Literature, and the African World(1976), a collection of essays in which he examines the role of the artist in the light of Yoruba mythology and symbolism. Art, Dialogue, and Outrage (1988) is a work on similar themes of art, culture, and society. He continued to address Africa’s ills and Western responsibility in The Open Sore of a Continent (1996) and The Burden of Memory, the Muse of Forgiveness (1999).

Soyinka was the first black African to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. An autobiography, Aké: The Years of Childhood, was published in 1981 and followed by the companion pieces Ìsarà: A Voyage Around Essay (1989) and Ibadan: The Penkelemes Years: A Memoir, 1946–1965 (1994). In 2006 he published another memoir, You Must Set Forth at Dawn. In 2005–06 Soyinka served on the Encyclopedia Britannica Editorial Board of Advisors.

Soyinka has long been a proponent of Nigerian democracy. His decades of political activism included periods of imprisonment and exile, and he has founded, headed, or participated in several political groups, including the National Democratic Organization, the National Liberation Council of Nigeria, and Pro-National Conference Organizations (PRONACO). In 2010 Soyinka founded the Democratic Front for a People’s Federation and served as chairman of the party.

What is the meaning of the ‘Swap’?

Dictonary meaning of ‘Swamp’.

a. An area of low-lying land that is frequently flooded, especially one dominated bywoody plants.

b. A lowland region saturated with water.

2. A situation or place fraught with difficulties and imponderables:

About The Novel:

The Swamp Dwellers is a novel written by Soyinka in which he has depicted the real picture of two sides of Modernity vs. tradition. The play is about Yoruba culture in which Makuri and Alu they are living and waiting for their son whose name is Awuchike. Soyinka has presented Yoruba culture which is full of swamp because of food in the village. And they are suffering because of plenty of water and Beggar who comes from Bhukanji and over there they were suffering because of scarcity of water.

Play starts with the description of village which shows traditional side of the play.

“A village in the swamps. Frogs rain and other noises. The scan is a hut on stilts,

built on one of the scattered semifirm island in the swamp. The walls are marsh stakes plaited with hump ropes. Near the left down stage are the baskets he makes from the rushes which are strewn in front of him.”(1 pg of TSD)

These all lines show that they are traditional people doing work but which can’t give them food. At some extent tradition is good because you have your own belief and way of looking towards life but not accepting change in life is bad. Too much exaggeration is bad for your life which is shown through the play. Igwezu went into city to earn more in life but he can’t accept the reality of life which is in city. There is starvation for shelter in city, so cold sophisticated life than village so we can say that Igwezu and Awuchike both are suffering because of their acceptance or to much exaggeration of their life. There is Constance struggle or conflict between the old and new ways of life in Africa. There is the dialogue that old and children are living in village. It means that yougs are living in city.

 

Focuses on the struggles between the old and the new ways of life in Africa:

The play is about struggle between human being and the unfavorable force of the Nature. Use of River, Serpent, Swamp and use of city life these are polar oppositions in the play. From the beginning of the play they are talking about death of his son but clearly mention that really he is dead or not. Swamp is chaotic and they are living in the chaos.

The Swamp Dwellers focuses on the struggle between the old and the new ways of life in Africa. It also gives us a picture of the cohesion that existed between the individual and southern Nigerian society. The conflict between tradition and modernity is also reflected in the play. The play mirrors the socio-cultural pattern, the pang and the sufferings of the swamp dwellers and underlines the need for absorbing new ideas. The struggle between human beings and unfavourable forces of nature is also captured in the play. Soyinka presents us the picture of modern Africa where the wind of change started blowing.

     The Swamp Dwellers is a close study of the pattern of life in the isolated hamlets of the African countryside as well as an existential study of the simple folk who face rigours of life without any hope or succour. Soyinka tears apart social injustice, hypocrisy and tyranny. The Swamp Dwellers expresses the necessity for a balance between the old and the new. Soyinka is not for excessive glorification of the past. In the play we see Soyinka’s crusade against authoritarianism, complacency and self delusion. Besides, in The Swamp Dwellers Soyinka satirises the betrayal of vocation for the attraction and power in one form or another.

 Tradition:

Tradition is a belief or behavior passed down within group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. Makuri, Alu and Igwezu are representation of tradition.

Modernity:

Modernity typically refers to a past traditional post medieval, historical period one marked by the money from feudalism toward capitalism, industrialism. Secularization, rationalization, the nation state and its constituent institutions and forms of surveillance. Awuchike and Desala are representation of modernity.

 The Swamp Dwellers reflects the life of the people of southern Nigeria. Their vocation mainly is agro based. They weave baskets, till and cultivate land. They believe in serpent cult. They perform death rites. They offer grain, bull, goat to appease the serpent of the swamp. Traders from city come there for crocodile skins. They lure young women with money. Alu withstands their temptation. Young men go to the cities to make money, to drink bottled beer. In fact the city ruins them. The Swamp Dwellers consummate their wedding at the bed where the rivers meet. They consider the river bed itself as the perfect bridal bed. Sudden flood ruin the crops throwing life out of gear.

     The swamp dwellers are hospitable. They give cane brew in calabash cups. Fly sickness blinds them. Merry making and drumming both go together in their lives. Sheep and goats are fed on cassava. They believe in salutations through drumming. They believe in sooth saying. Any attempt to reclaim the land from the swamp is considered an irreligious act. Friends who meet after a whole season indulge in drinking bouts. When the stream is swollen people are ferried across by folk like Wazuri. The swamp dwellers believe in the infallibility of Kadiye, priest of the serpent of the swamp. Their belief is exploited by Kadiye to the hilt. Igwezu questions Kadiye and his ways. It tells us of the clash between tradition and modernity in southern Nigeria. Rain brings them hope. It brings the marvel of new birth to the land. Water plays the role of both the creator and destroyer in the life of the swamp dwellers. Crops are suddenly destroyed by the swarming locusts.

     The Swamp Dwellers makes use of contrast, parallelism, humour and irony in a suitable manner. Soyinka focuses the plight of the swamp dwellers in the play realistically. The swamp dwellers are at the mercy of furious nature unless they compromise tradition with modernity, embrace modern technology they wouldn’t have a bright future.

In ‘The Swamp Dwellers’ the Tragedy is attributable to Fate, the gods, oil exploration and filial rivalry and subordination. Fate takes the form of flood, which destroys the crops and ensures famine and poverty. The Swamp Dwellers takes a look at the Nigerian society, progressively moving towards the path of retrogression, degeneration, corruption and moral decadence. This is a clear manifestation of the Nigerian society as a class society with all contradictions and problems inherent in such society.

A society based on violence, injustice, brutality, immorality and a society where greed and corruption of the privileged and the ruling class has created a big gulf between the few wealthy and the majority of the poor masses who dwells by the swamp thus creating a society woefully lacking in proper human relationship and brutal economic relations.

What is the significant in the meaning of swamp In swamp Dwellers ?

Symbols, for Soyinka therefore, have to operate in a very dynamic sense. In his perspective, symbol should not just add color to a work of art but should also play an active role in conscientising a people in the general process of reforming the society. Symbolism in the Swamp Dwellers operates at various levels. One of these levels is the group of symbols that are drawn from nature. Soyinka places emphasis on the symbolism in nature right from the beginning of the play. And the characters talk about how the rains have washed away their farms crops and the blind stranger talks about the severe drought in the north. Symbols, for Soyinka therefore, have to operate in a very dynamic sense. In his perspective, symbol should not just add color to a work of art but should also play   active role in conscientising a people in the general process of reforming the society.

 Symbolism in the Swamp Dwellers operates at various levels. One of these levels is the group of symbols that are drawn from nature. Soyinka places emphasis on the symbolism in nature right from the beginning of the play. And the characters talk about how the rains have washed away their farms crops and the blind stranger talks about the severe drought in the north.

Symbolism is used in The Swamp Dwellers for the revolutionary conscientisation of a people who are dwelling in an unjust social arrangement. Symbols, for Soyinka therefore, have to operate in a very dynamic sense. In his perspective, symbol should not just add colour to a work of art but should also play an active role in conscientising a people in the general process of reforming the society. Symbolism in The Swamp Dwellers operates at various levels. One of these levels is the group of symbols that are drawn from nature. Soyinka places emphasis on the symbolism in nature right from the beginning of the play. And the characters talk about how the rains have washed away their farm crops and the blind stranger talks about a severe drought in the north.

The play also exposes religious hypocrisy in the character of the Kadiye. The Kadiye is the religious figure in Wole Soyinka’s The Swamp Dwellers, is masterfully portrayed and is very convincing. Kadiye is portrayed in this drama as the main priest of the swamp dwellers. As a professional priest, he is anything but pious. He portrayed as a corrupt and self-centered person. But Kadiye is not the sole example of his type.

The physical feature of Kadiye indicates that he is more like a villain than to be a religious person. He is fat like a blood-swollen insect. He is a monstrous looking person. He is described as ’a big ,voluminous creature of about fifty.’ He is smooth-faced and his head is shaved clean. He is bare above the waist and at least half of his fingers are ringed. This physical look suggests something ugly about his moral nature. Kadiye is very rich and has a good control over the swamp like a Godfather featured in the western films. Kadiye destroys people wearing the mask of religion.

As the priest of the Serpent, the Kadiye betrays the trust of the villagers by encouraging them to indulge in meaningless cult which are profitable. The villagers give of their harvest to the Kadiye so he can appease the serpent but unknown to them he is feeding fat on their sweat. No one questions where the goods go, because it is almost blasphemous to do so. But it seems that the dramatist is very critical to the Kadiye and Kadiye’s real nature is exposed through the confrontation between the Kadiye and Igwezu.

Conclusion:

In all, the play itself is a symbol of the rots in the society. The rottenness of the era which is part of the origins of poverty is presented in more physical terms by the ugly sight of the swamp where the masses dwell.

Works sited

https://sites.google.com/site/theswampdwellers/summary

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/557228/Wole-Soyinkahttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/557228/Wole-Soyinka

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/swamp