The Lion and the Jewel
The Lion and the Jewel (1962) by Wole Soyinka The Lion and the Jewel is a play by Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka that was first performed in 1959 in Ibadan. In 1966, it was staged in London,, England, at the Royal Court Theatre. The play chronicles how Baroka, the lion, fights with the modern Lakunle over the right to marry Sidi, the titular Jewel. Lakunle is portrayed as the civilized antithesis of Baroka and unilaterally attempts to modernize his community and change its social conventions for no reason other than the fact that he can. The playscript was first published in 1962 by Oxford University Press. Soyinka emphasises the theme of the corrupted African culture through the play, as well as how the youth should embrace the original African culture. A review by Naijabanquet describes The Lion and the Jewel as "a masterpiece that successfully combines the concept of literature as a tool both for socio-cultural activism and shining spotlight on aesthetics."
- You are as stubborn / As an illiterate goat.
- Lakunle, Morning
- Will you make me / A laughing-stock?
- Sidi, Morning
- Be a modern wife, look me in the eye / And give me a little kiss.
- Lakunle, Morning
- I am greater than ... the living god among men.
- Sidi, Morning
- It is five full months since last / I took a wife.
- Baroka, Morning
- The greedy dog! Insatiate camel of a foolish, doting race.
- Lakunle, Noon
- It is a rich life, Sidi.
- Sadiku, Noon
- He's a die-hard rogue / Sworn against our progress.
- Lakunle, Noon
- I am withered and unsapped.
- Baroka, Noon
- Race of mighty lions, we always consume you.
- Sadiku, Night
- Goad him my child, torment him until he weeps for shame.
- Sadiku, Night
- Will the smell of the wet soil be too much for your delicate nostrils?
- Sadiku, Night
- She'll be found ... in a dark corner / Sulking like a slighted cockroach.
- Baroka, Night
- Everything you say, Bale, / Seems wise to me.
- Sidi, Night
- Would I choose a watered-down, / A beardless version of unripened man?
- Sidi, Night
- How often must I tell you, Sidi, that / A grown-up girl must cover up her... / Her... shoulders? I can see quite... quite / A good portion of—that!
- Lakunle, 2
- What I boast is known in Lagos, that city / Of magic, in Badagry where Saro women bathe / In gold, even in smaller towns less than / Twelve miles from here...
- Lakunle, 5
- Bush-girl you are, bush girl you'll always be; / Uncivilized and primitive—bush-girl!
- Lakunle, 9
- My Ruth, my Rachel, Esther, Bathsheba / Thou sum of fabled perfections / From Genesis to Revelations
- Lakunle, 20
- Sadiku, I am young and brimming; he is spent. / I am the twinkle of a jewel / But he is the hind-quarters of a lion!
- Sidi, 23
- No! I do not envy him! / Just one woman for me!
- Lakunle, 26
- To husband his wives surely ought to be / A man's first duties—at all times.
- Sidi, 47
- I do not hate progress, only its nature / Which makes all roofs and faces look the same.
- Baroka, 52
- Moreover, I will admit, / It solves the problem of her bride-price too. / A man must live or fall by his true / Principles. That, I had sworn, / Never to pay.
- Lakunle, 61
- Lakunle, last seen, having freed himself of Sadiku, clearing a space for the young girl.
- Soyinka, 64
- That is what the stewpot said to the fire. Have you no shame—at your age licking my bottom? But she was tickled just the same.”
- (Act I , Page 2)
- For that, what is a jewel to pigs? If I am misunderstood by you and your race of savages, I rise above taunts and remain unruffled.”
- (Act I , Page 3)
- No, don’t! I tell you I dislike this strange unhealthy mouthing you perform.”
- (Act I , Page 9)
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