Chapter - IV

SOYINKA'S USE OF SYMBOLISM

Soyinka excelled himself in the use of 'Symbolism' in his plays. The

plays like The Swamp Dwellers, The Road, A Dance of the Forests and

Madmen and Specialists abound in symbolism which brought great recognition

to Soyinka in the character delineation through symbols.

The Swamp Dwellers is rich in its symbolic value. Polar opposites are

placed in juxtaposition with each other; drought and flood, scarcity and surfeit,

corruption and juxtaposition, arrogance and humility and above all frustration

and hope. The swamp as the setting is suggestive of dirt, or mire, in the literal

sense as well as figurative. The riverine Swamp suggestive of the Niger Delta

is nature's own mire, with loose mud, spelling ruin and very rarely productive.

In addition some poisons chemical compounds, 'oils' as they are referred to,

ooze out at times, rendering its products not edible.

Floods are generally ultimately as though they wait for the harvest

time to begin the destructive fienzy. Everything rots and makes an everlasting

pottage of mud common tubers and vegetables. The mire literally sucks people

in, and it appears to reveal in its own harvest feast of farm products and human

lives. 'The Serpent of the Swans' the local deity, laughs in triumph. At the

figurative level, the swamp is pitted against the city. The whirlpool of

ignorance, superstition and frustration continues to drag human beings deeper

and deeper. The mire with its stagnant filth renders life static, while city

represents dynamism.

In this play Soyinka dexterously presents the twin brothers-Igwezu

and Awuchike as symbols for swamp and city, respectively. The former is real

and concrete;the latter does not appear in the play at all yet both are equally

alive; they stand, represent, symbolize different values in the society which is

in a state of flux. Soyinka portrays the felt presence of Awuchike who appears

to be more alive and conspicuous than his brother Igwezu appearing on the

stage.

In this play Soyinka introduced the Blind Beggar, who symbolizes the

Christ figure to be developed further in his later plays like The Strong Breed.

The first scene of the play is set at night fall in a simple hut that

stands among the swamp on a river delta. Old Makuri and his wife Alu, whose

'stale familiarity' is not without occasional touches of love and tenderness are

awaiting the return of their son Igwezu who has gone out to visit his flooded

f m , not very far from their house. The memory of their elder son Awuchike

haunts them. He had rushed off to the city before his parents could warn him

against it or never recall him. The mother, Alu insists very stubbornly, that he

had been sucked into the depths of the mire, though she knows intuitively that

it would not have happened. Makuri, the husband calls her a blood thirsty

woman keen on believing the worst about her son. In all likelihood, he would

be engaged in the process of making money, the very purpose with which he

left the swamps. The lure of money is bound to draw him gradually away fiom

his roots. Alu understands her husband's reasoning, but states that it is only

'the Serpent of the Swamps, the Snake that lurks beneath the Slough' who

knows the truth.

Makuri is in a mood of reminiscences. The swamp in all its

benevolent fertility, was a symbol of life giving force. Men and women had

such close affinity with the loose muddy earth that they had become integral

parts of the landscape. It is associated with productivity and creation. The old

man reminds his wife how they used to spend days and even nights out in the

swamps during the early days of their married life, enjoying the accidental falls

into the slough. Alu the shy bride used to quote her mother. Where the river

meets, there the marriage must begin. People used to comment that the couple

had imbibed the spirit of the river bed so much that their twins were of the very

color of the swamp.

Moral corruption is one of the aspects of worldly success as far as

Achike is Concerned. Luring his brother's bride to his side was rather a light

game for him. But Soyinka makes a powerful issue of it though the method

adopted is very light and indirect. Here Soyinka presents a clear contrast

between the characters of Alu and Desala.

Alu, as her own husband Makuri boasts repeatedly, is a rare woman

who could always turn men's heads as if "with canebrew", but could keep her

own steady forever. No trader from the city offering all the luxury in the world

could tempt her away from her firm conventional stand. On the contrary

Desala, the daughter-in-law is seduced in the city and is led to conjugal

infidelity. Men of her generation develop professions rivalry and filial

ingratitude. Alu and Desala are symbols of two opposing values. Neither

Awuchike nor Desala appears on the stage, but the negative impact created is

sopowerful that Igwezu carries their ghosts with him.

The swamp is static without progress or development, but it never

foregives those who leave it in search of brighter prospects. They will be either

shocked physically into its very depths, or kicked intc the deeper mire and filth

of the city. Igiveze is the one man symbol of the total rout.

The city is also an invisible swamp where spiritual destruction is

being threatened. The city has swallowed Awuchike, it has robbed Igwezu of

his bride. The veneer of sophistication serves just to hide the dangerous striking

slough underneath. The irony strikes in all its force while implying that the

choice for the younger generation is between two swamps; the one in the

village and the other in the city.

W.B.Yeats has used the word 'mire' repeatedly to refer to the basic

human quality, in different combinations. In one of his most popular poems

Byzantium, he refers to the "fury and mire of human veins" and "the mire and

blood" several times. The 'mire' or 'dirt' at the very depth of the human mind

becomes 'the swamp' in which the poisonous snakes lurk. In Yeals' poem, the

dome of the Cathedral of St. Sophia has nothing but 'disdain' for "all that man

is".

In Soyinka's play the swamp image expands, from the human mind,

through the village swamp to the spiritual mire in the city. Igwezu and

Awuchike are, very significantly identical twins. They symbolize two aspects

of swamp life conditioned by the relative influences of the dull dirt or the fury

of the veins urging one on to action in the city, irrespective of whether it will

have touches of sin.

The Blind Beggar, represents dynamism in terms of work. As

opposed to the stagnation of the swamp, the man who has been on the move for

so long wants either to move on fluher, or to remain and make the swamp

work on itself and yield. He is the agent of change both a catalyst accelerating

the process of transformation in others, and as one dedicating oneself to

challenge the lethargic slumber of the mire and rouse it into the acts of

creation. Makuri assures him that 'the aMicted of the gods are always treated

well by the people and that he is bound to get enough of charity without having

no work. The beggar underlines the differences between charity and the fruits

of one's labor. Charity is indiscriminate both for the giver and for the receiver.

In his enthusiasm to find work for his hands, the Beggar asks whether

a piece of land cannot be redeemed from the swamp, and the filth drained away

so that coco-yams and lettuce can be grown. Then Makuri sharply reacts:

Mind what you are saying, son. Mind what profanities you utter in

this house.

(Collected Plays 1: The Swamp Dwellers, p.92)

The beggar, naturally, is shocked, at the alleged profanity behind the

simple desire to cu1tivate.a piece of the useless land under the mire. Makuri

explains that the entire area is the property of the serpent of the swamps. Then

the beggar apologizes, and gets ready to leave-to continue his journey. But

Makuri asks him to stay on.

Kadiye, the local priest of the Serpent, arrives, with all ceremony and

drummers. The priest is -

... a big, voluminous creature of aboutfiftr, smooth faced except for

little tufts ofbeard around his chin ... At least half of the Kadiye's fingers are

ringed.

(Collected Plays 1 : The Swamp Dwellers, p.94)

The priest is followed by a servant who brushes off flies with a horse

tail flick. The Kadiye wants to be shaved, not by the old barber Makuri, but by

young Igwegu.

The Kadiye is startled at the Beggar's response to his greetings in the

name of Allah. He turns his begging bowl upside down when Kadiye's servant

approaches him with some coins. The formal welcome accorded to the Blind

Beggar by the old man washing and anointing his feet, is a gesture reminiscent

of the welcome offered to Jesus by Simon, and more elaborately by Mary of

Magdalena.

Water is the potential source of life. Water plays dual roles in this

context. Water is the symbol of fertility, it mates with the earth and makes it

yield. But too much of water in the form of floods can destroy what it has

created and submerge the harvest. Water can create bring up and kill. The

Ogun myth, an integral aspect of Soyinka's thinking, is represented here in the

simple village pattern-sowing the seeds, sprouting, growing, bearers of corn,

and reaching the stage of golden maturity, to be followed by disaster and

destruction. The divine balance of forces is always at work. The Earth

functions conditioned by these extremes, varying only by degrees. Water as an

archetypal symbol introduced in The Swamp Dwellers in full potential was to

be developed further by Soyinka in his later plays and in his novel The

In ferpreters.

Igwezu's entry is perfectly timed:

I have had my jiast of welcome. I found it on the farm where the

beans and the corn had made an everlastingpottage with the mud.

(Collected Plays 1 : The Swamp Dwellers, p. 101)

The beggar suddenly moves forward and declares, "Master, it will

thrive again". Igwezu is surprised by the Beggar's repeated questions. At one

point Makuri trembles with rage and warns the beggar. Then the Beggar says:

[With dignity] I beg your forgiveness. It is for the master to question,

not the slave.

(Collected Plays 1: The Swamp Dwellers, p. 102)

Igwezu is bitter against Kadiye. Yet, he says it is better that he comes

so that he would explain a few points. On being repeatedly questioned Igwezu

informs that his brother lives, that he is well, in fact "healthier than you or I.

And a thousand times as wealthy". All the same, Awuchike, is dead to his

parents, and to his parental home; it is better not to raise his ghost. He asks his

mother whether she does not want to hear about his wife 'the simple and

unspoilt child' whom she had wooed on her son's behalf. He added, much to

the shock of the father, that his brother Awuchikc has managed to win over

Desala. He wonders whether all women are taken in so easily with wealth.

Makuri proudly replies that all women are not the same, and Alu his wife, was

different.

Kadiye, the 'fatted calf' under the razor is too nervous to reply and

gets mortally scared and flees away from Igwezu threatening him. Makuri tries

to pacify his son, but Igwuezu continues to reason out, more to himself:

1 know that the floods can come again. That the swamp will continue

to laugh at our endeavours. I know that we can-ked the Serpent of the Swamp

and kiss the Kudiye 'sfiet - but the vapours will still rise and corrupt the tussels

of the Corn.

(Collected Plays 1: The Swamp Dwellers, p. 1 10)

The Blind beggar suggests that it would be better if he went back to

the city and wants to accompany him. But Igwezu warned him.

Then stay. Stay here and take care of the farm. I must go away ... I

must not be here when the people call for blood.

(Collected Plays I : The Swamp Dwellers, p. 1 I 1)

Inspite of the rising tide and the dark night outside, Igwezu decides to

leave immediately. The beggar offers to accompany him over the swamp, at

least as for as the river's edge. But Igweze refuses. He does not want "two

blind men groping in the dark".

The delineation of the character of the Blind Beggar is not convincing

in a realistic play. His elevated style, occasional touches of lyrical ecstasy or

rhetorical intensity, makes it clear that he is intended not to be a man true to the

soil, but more a symbol with a higher meaning.

In this play The Swamp Dwellers Soyinka lucidly presents the moral

and material contrast between the village and the city. The atmosphere evoked

in the play is reminiscent in many respects of that of Thomas Hardy's novel,

The Return of the Native. The contrast between the innocence of the rural life

pitted against the studied hypocrisy and prosperity of cities has been the central

theme in several of Hardy's novels. Even in Hardy's world, the exchange,

generally is between one swamp and another.

He is the master of the situation, yet he submits himself as the

bondsman of one who is on the brink of collapse it is a moral resurrection that

the Christ figure offers to the young man who considers himself a total failure.

Inspite of the 'dryness' from which he comes, his fingers can create an oasis, a

zone of hope. He can mould life out of what is already rotting.

Soyinka combines the elements of Islam with those of Christianity in

this mysterious figure. He blesses people in the name of Allah. Soyinka is

obviously referring to the steadily spreading influence of Islam in ACrica, and

the positive approach of modem religions in contrast to the superstition - ridden

paganism lending itself to be exploited by its spokesman like the Kadiye.

According to Eldred D. Jones-

"...Although the beggar is a Moslem, he is another of Soyinka's

Christ figure". (Eldred D. Jones, The Writings of Wole Soyinka, Heinemann,

London, 1973, pp. 18-19.)

"The play deals with sudden wealth and its impact on relationship in

a hither- to subsistence economy". (James Gibbs, Wole Soyinka, Macmillan

London, i986, p.39.)

In this play the old couple Makuri and Alu living at subsistence level

and using raw materials from their immediate environment are broken by the

object which stands in the middle of the room, a barber's swivel chair. Through

the chair Soyinka indicates that a different and distant world is making an

impact on Makuri and Alu's is home. In the course of the play, he suggests thal

the world from which swivel chairs are sent is a source of pain, disappointment

and frustration. It is a place where greed dominates, where family relationships

break down and where the hard hearted prosper.

"Soyinka wrote this play in prose, in a naturalistic style, the unities

are adhered to and prejudices for the well made play are not violated. But it

moves on occasions towards symbolist and melodramatic, it is a play of mood

and atmosphere". (Ibid., p.4 1 .)

According to Mary T. David "the theme of regeneration with its

greatest approximation to the Waste Land Myth occurs in The Swamp

Dwellers.

In this play the swamp is a fit symbol of decadence and denial of life.

The land therefore seems to be crying for redemption and the people need

regeneration but are unable to bring it about themselves.

The last lines of the play, the beggar's reference to swallows recalls

Eliot's use of a quotation from an anonymous Latin poem Pervigiium Veneris

when shall I be like the swallow? Where the swallow is evocative of spring and

renewal.

The Road defies all attempts at standard classification. Elred D.Jones

points out that in The Road ". . . moods range from the near tragic to the

hilariously comic, it contains biting satire as well as religious and mystical

speculations; it combines a grim realism with near abstract symbolism".

(Eldered D. Jones, The Writings of Wole Soyinka, Heinemann, London, 1973,

p.61.)

In this play, 'Aksident Store: All Part Availebul' is a concrete symbol

of the twin perspectives from which the theme of death is analyzed-death as

gruesome, an inexorable reality, and death as a trade. The 'Store' occupies one

side of a shack which has a large stock of several relics, both personal and

mechanical, of various road accidents. One is constantly reminded of the

proximity of death. The spider web in a comer, with the alert spider, is itself an

eloquent symbol of the main theme. Accidents lead to death: they can help

replenish the 'aksident store' as well. The graveyard, visible through the

window, adds to this awareness.

In this play the gang consists of children of the road in one sense or

the other. professor the central character, "the combination of rogue, mystic

and pundit" in the words of Eldred D.Jones, is not yet sixty: he is only "fifty

nine pounds, seven shillings and twenty one pence" old. He has recently

celebrated his hundredeth forgery.

Professor's very first entry conveys much about the oddities in his

character.

Professor is a tall figwe in Victorian outfit-tails, top-hat etc,, all

thread-bare and shiny at the lapels from much ironing. He carries four

enormous bundles of newspapers and a fiflh of paper odds and ends impaled

on a metal rod stuck in a wooden rest. A chair-stick hangs from one elbow, and

the other arm clutches a road-sign bearing a squiggle and the one word

'BEND '.

(Collected Plays 1: The Road, pp. 1 56- 157)

The irony inherent in this character strikes home with all its sharpness

when one realizes that all his bombast about the secret that sprouted from the

earth refers to.his timely discovery of a road sign, 'Bend', which he promptly

uprooted and has brought along with him as a trophy. This dramatic touch

proves to us the most eloquent due to Professor's character. l ie pulls out vital

traffic signals and replants them at random to mislead drivers. He manages to

precipitate road accidents which he would describe with relish. This is his main

occupation, as he has to keep regular supply of spares to his 'aksidcnt store'

which claims 'all part availebul'. He is an odd mixture of charlatan and mystic.

He indulges in criminal activities with an assumed air of seriousness and

dedication.

Kotonu recalls:

He was moving round those corpses as if they didn't exist. All he

cared about was re-planting the sign-post. To see him you would think he was

Adam re-planting the Tree of Life.

(Collected Plays I : The Road, p.167)

He is an efficient.forger of driver's licences and other documents for

which he charges beyond the means of his clients. He was a Sunday school

teacher and a lay-leader attached to the church. He had left the church coppers

highly depleted, explains his activities:

My bed is among the dead, and when the road raises a victory cry to

break sleep I hurry to a disgruntled swam of souls full of spite for their

rejected bodies. In a market of stale meat, noisy with flies and quarrelsome

with old women.. . There an dangers in the Quest I know, but the Word may be

found companion not of life, but Death.

(Collected Plays I : The Road, p. 159)

Murano is the only character portrayed in all seriousness that the

theme demands Symbolising the 'agemo' phase, he is dumb, and one of his

legs is shorter than the others.

He is a wine tapper who appears only at twilight, and disappears at

dawn. He brings the 'Communion' of fresh palm wine, sufficient for the entire

gang-

This road side shack is rich in the variety of human beings it shelters.

The playwright has presented astute mastery over the art and stamped each one

of them with touches of distinct individuality.

Samson, the Champion Tout and Driver-Apprentice breathes life into

the play not only with his expert mimicry but also with a touch of simple and

lovable human qualities. He is very sensitive to human pain and suffering. He

cannot entertain the very idea of going to the site of an accident.

Kotonu, Samson's friend, was still recently, the proud driver of the

passenger lorry 'No danger No Delay'. But even he met with a road accident

which he could not avert. He has relapsed into a kind of lethargy, negative in

its totality. Samson tries to persuade him into taking to driving once again.

Say Tokyo Kid, the timber lorry driver and the leader of the gang of

thugs readily available for hire, is proud of his profession. He h& an assertive

spirit, and is ready to question any one whom he cannot approve of. His final

tragedy is an outcome of his unbending attitude, and fierce individuality.

Salubi, the fowl mouthed driver who is out of employment at the

moment, is a character who deserves sympathy. He needs a licence badly,

having already procured a driver's uniform-though it is blood stained and

hopes that Professor will oblige him. He is the eternal victim of every one' S

ridicule. Particulary Joe, the policeman, is delightful in his conscientious

investigation for particulars of a case. He is equally particular of giving as

many particulars as possible to the listeners as his usual habit is. Chief-in-

Town, typical of his tribe, relies heavily on thugs to break up Political meetings

or rallies. The layabouts, though minor regarding their individual roles add

spice to the main theme.

Sergeant Burma haunts the entire play even though he had gone down

with him tanker much before the play begins. Originally in charge of the

'aksident store', he no concern for human life as he himself had fought in

Burma during the World went Finally he met with death he deserved. He ended

up himself in oil flames.

Joe asserts:

There was little wrong with the end of Sergeant Burma. He went up in

a pyrr that would have honoured Sango himself

(Collected Plays I : The Road, p.2 16)

One of the most powerhl images in the play indicating the meaning

of the 'word' is that of 'a bronze eagle on whose outstretched wings rests a

huge tome'. The mighty eagle presides over life and death, while the heavy

book symbolizes intellectual quest.

Professor's death at the hands of Say Tokyo Kid, that too by an

apparent accident, is difficult to understand. The lorry driver pays for his

sacrilege and dies at the God's hands. It could be that the God did not demand

the immediate death of Professor, and that Say Tokyo Kid gets punished for

both offences, offence against God for interfering with him, and of killing

Professor though by accident.

The final message, advising the people to behave like the treacherous

road is the ultimate in obscurity, unless Soyinka has intended to present

Professor just as an archhypocrite, the incarnation of evil, the High priest of

Death. Referring to the 'Jacobian Peroration' of Professor, Eldred D. Jones

comments:

"Soyinka does not usually give his characters perorations at the

moment of death, but Professor dies with a Jacobean peroration on his lips, the

import of which seems to be as big ambiguous as anything else about him. It

has the sound of a 'moral' without being one. It has the externals of a final

revelation without revealing anything". (Ibid., p.70.)

"In this play the Professor is a scavenger and a wrecker; he is corrupt

and wicked, confused and bewildered, part wise man and part fool". (James

Gibbs, Wole Soyinka, Macmillan London, 1986, p.79.)

"In this play the style is one which combines Naturalism with

symbolism, popular comedy with ritual, political satire with choral interludes

and Shakespearean echoes with absurdist mannerisms". (Ibid.,p.80.). In the

words of James Gibbs, it is a play not to be merely understood but to be

experienced.

The setting appears to be naturalistic enough yet there are strange and

symbolic dimensions to it particularly to the Church, clock and the spider's

web which are made clear in the chorus of the play. The Church stands

symbolically and actually in the background to the religious concerns of the

play, the mammy truck is a shrine for the different religion: it is a store-house

of relics from the road. The spider's web is the symbol of the roads, the

horrifLingly dangerous roads of Nigeria, which are traps to ensnare unwary

travellers. In this course of the play, Samson draws attention to the kinship

between the spider and Kotonu, both survive on the misfortune of those who

have 'crashed'. Biodum Jeyifo finds 'The Hidden class-struggle', or the

metaphysical element, the meaning 'The word' in The Road. (Biodun Jeyifo,

(A Conference Paper) The Hidden Class Struggle in The Road, presented in

lbadan in 1976.)

In this play the Professor is presented as a syncretist, but the vision

that proceed him is verbalized in Christian terminology. 'Revelation',

'crucifixion' or again 'resqection'. 'communion' are terms that recur in the

play'. (Mary T. David, Wole Soyinka - A Quest for Renewal, B.I.Publications

Pvt. Ltd., Madras, 1995, p.71.)

The Professor's speech is strongly coloured by Biblical echoes and

imagery, assumes the tone of Christ in words like ' only the fallen have need of

restitution' or again in his exhortation of his disciple: 'Life is difficult for the

faithless, But do not despair'.

According to Mary T. David - Christian images and symbols abound

in the plan. They come when they are least expected as the image of the three

men who went up the tree, the three of them were crucified on rigid branches.

"Wole Soyinka has artistically interwoven Nigerian culture and

religious faiths in the texture of The Road. The full significance of terms like

'bolekaja' (a mummy wagon), the liberal sprinkling of the pidgin words and

the profuse employment of music suggestively and symbolically - ranging from

the organ music of the church to the guitar music of the layabouts and the

throbbing drum beats ofthe natives". (A.P.Vithal, 'Ambivalence in Wole

Soyinka 's The Road in Indian reading' Commonwealth Literature ed., by

E.S.Amur etc., Sterling Publishers, 1985, p.168.)

Affectation of piety, hypocrisy, unctuous ingenuity and a morbid

pleasure in mortifying others, appear to be the characteristic features of

Professor. He is a parasite on the users of the road.

'Soyinka gives an impressive register of Christian speech to Professor

in his quest for the 'word'. In Christian terms the word should signify the

Incarnation of Chirst - 'the word made flesh'. The meaning of the quest is

gradually defined in terms of the religious cult of death which he has found, in

the idiom of Christian religion he has left behind. He sets out with the vague

idea of the word, obsessed with language and death. Thus, the victims of an

accident are not dead bodies but 'still born', a lorry becomes a hearse'.

(1bid.q. 172.)

'In The Road, the road symbolizes death and the lorry is the main

vehicle for causing it'. O(.Santhanam, 'Tragic Dimensions in Wole Soyinka 's

The Road in The Literary Criterion ed., by C.D.Narasimhaiah & Others - Vol.XXV, 1990 No.4 p.63.)

Soyinka also portrays the road as a woman because it is that aspect of

the Earth Mother which endures the treacherous destruction of human life, as

described by Professor as a 'Menstrual Waste'. He described it as:

'Below that bridge, a black rise of buttocks, two unyielding thighs

and that red trickle like a woman washing away her monthly pain in a thin

river. So many lives rush in and out between her legs, and most of it a waste.

(Collected Plays 1: The Road, p. 197)

A Dance of the Forests was produced on Nigerian Independence Day

by the 1960 Masks', Draina Company founded by Soyinka himself soon aAer

his return from England. It won the 'Encounter' Independence Day Award. The

play presents an allegory of cosmic dimensions. The symbolic chorusing of the

past, the present and the future has been conceived as a pattern highly

suggestive of the cosmic dance - the dance of creation as well as destruction - among the deities, against the background of the forest. The title itself is

allegorical, representing the eternal, repetitive rhythm of life, cyclic in

operation. It is this pattern that Soyinka has explained in his diagrammatic

interpretation of the form of a snake devouring its own tail. He calls the pattern

the "Mobius Strip" and has explained in his poem Idanre.

In the words of Eldred Jones:

A Dance of the Forests presents a comprehensive view of man over a

massive span of history; it even -in the highly symbolic chorusing of the hture

- looks into the hture. . . The play is an attempt to represent the complexities of

the human personality and its consequences within the cyclical pattern of

history. (Eldred D:Jones, The Writing of Wole Soyinka, Heinemann, p.32.)

In this play Soyinka attempts to translate into theatrical language the

common relationships at three levels-among the gods, between gods and

human beings among human beings. The play is highly a complex work, with

a number of parts strands of ideas woven together, several of them getting

tangled in such a way them times it is difficult to loosen them. The interaction

between the mortals and the immovable presents odd situations with allegorical

potential.

The forest is the human mind, the richest source of allegory.

Generations cont together, representing the past, present and the future. Gods

and spirits are symbolic projections of human values and attitudes. The dead

and the living meet.

The 'Gathering of the Tribes' and 'the welcome of the dead' are

means a effecting such a communion among different levels of existence. The

same basic taint run through generations, evil instincts reappear in the most

pronounced manner. Mater Kharibus appears is every generation under

different names. Rola or Madame Tortoise in the coquette, the flirt or the

prostitute endangering the security of individuals and nations when she is in a

position of power. The court Historian's interpretation of history is uniform in

every generation. It is the tyrant's version. The exploited warrior coerced into

launching a war over a trifle, is the harassed common man who loves peace,

and would fight only if it is called for. He is the eternal victim. Demoke, the

court poet is the real man. He continues to symbolize humanity with its positive

as well as negative aspects.

The play is set at a crucial point in the evolutionary pattern, on the

completion of a cycle, marking the end of an era.

The Dead Man and Dead Woman push their heads up through the

earth and emerge, but the living turn away from them at the shocking discovery

of their identity. They have been invited, but the living are reluctant to give

.them the welcome and the assistance they needed. Their meeting is very

significant. Man does not like to face his own past. He would rather shun the

truth as Rola attempts to do.

The Dead woman feels intrigued at the existing relationship between

the living and the dead. But she is convinced of the supreme importance and

eternal relevance of the dead.

What is it to themfiom whom I descended-ifthaf is why they shun me

now? The world is big but the dead are bigger. We've been dying since the

beginning; the living try but the gap always widens. Whal is it to them from

whom I descended!

(Collecfed Plays I : A Dance of the Forests, p.8)

Moreover, the woman has a serious problem. She is pregnant. She has

been canying the child for a hundred generations, and was hoping "to return

the living to the living" so that she could feel lighter, and 'sleep' better. It has

been an odd welcome and they wonder why they were invited at all.

Attention is focused on a unique work of art, a totem carved by

Demoke. He had carved it as it stood. He climbed the tree and carved it without

even cutting it down. One man had helped the chief carver by cutting off the

branches, but was killed instantly when he fell off the tree accidentally. In the

process, Demoke had incurred the wrath of oro whose sacred tree was

converted into a totem. A god's punishment is bound to be severe, and Demoke

cannot expect forgiveness for the offence.

Obanji and Adenebi begin discussing passenger lorries, 'The

,Chimney of Ereko', 'God My Saviour' and the 'Incinerator' and road

accidents. At this juncture Oro, the god of sacrifice enters seriously. He

demands the blood of the mortal who had destroyed the sacred araba tree.

The ceremony begins with the prayer to the Forest Father:

... Forest Father, unveil, unveil. The phantasmagoria of protagonists

from the dead.

(Collected Plays 1: A Dance ofthe Forests, p.46)

At the instruction of the Forest Father, Aroni waves his hands in a

circle and the court of Mata Kharibu lights up gradually. Mata Kharibu and his

queen, Madane Tortoise, Rola of the present are on their thrones. Demoke, the

court poet is also present. The King is angry with the warrior who dared to

'think' for himself. The solider confess.

I plead guilty to the possession of thought. I did not know that it was

in me on exercise it, until your Majesty's inhuman commands.

(Collected Plays 1 : A Dance of the Forests, p.48)

His prophecy has not failed. The warrior who revisits the earth as the

Dead Man finds that his successors have really become cannibals in different

disguises. Tyranny runs on unabated, through generations. Only names change.

The basic human traits defy the passage of time and remains as eternal facts.

Mata Kharibus are re-born in every generation under different names,

exercising their tyranny over generations. They have historians to flatter them,

and urge them on thepaths of destruction. Idi Amin and Bokassa are such

incarnations whom Soyinka has presented in his later plays like A Play of

Giants and Opera Wonyosi. They never realize that the path could lead to their

own fall. The irony strikes them too late. A nation remains in obscurity unless

it is involved in a war.

The Forest Father orders Aroni to relieve the Dead Woman of the

burden and to "let the tongue of the unborn, stilled for generations, be loosed".

Aroni leads her away. She re-enters, leading the Half-Child by the hand. The

Half-Child is perhaps the most significant of all the characters in the play,

representing the future generations in varying aspects. He moves about, feeling

scared, all the time murmuring "branded womb".

The Figure in Red is no other than Eshuoro. He claims to have won

the Half-child fairly in the game of 'sesan; and reaches out towards him. Ogun

prevents it. There is a frightening dance that goes on, Eshuro trying all the

while to get at the child. Ogum intercedes, and manages to pass him on to

Demoke who rushes forward to protect him. He tries to restore the Half-Child

to the Dead Woman, but Eshuro blocks his way. Finally Demoke manages to

pass the child on to his mother. All the human beings, including Rola have a

few moments for introspection. The Forest Father explains his function, as well

as the purpose with which he had planned to organize their welcome.

Referring to the spiritual journey of the central characters into the

forest, led by the Forest Head, "in order to make men discover their own

generations through a series of confrontations which would uncover hidden

guilt", the Forest Father's agony is not that of helplessness, but of awareness. It

would be similar to the agony experienced by God the creator at Adam's

disobedience. The exercise of Freewill has its own repercussions and it is this

realization that God in The Bible and the deities in the Yoruba mythology

experience.

The Dead Woman appeals to Demoke who takes time to make up his

mind. The Forest Head had already disappeared. In the midst of vigorous

dancing, Eshuoro and Orgun confront each other. As the Forest rhythm

becomes confused and wild, Demoke sags to his knees. The Dead Woman runs

to him, snatches up the falling Half-Child who Was on Demoke' s shoulders,

and is virtually swallowed by the forest. Demoke collapses on the ground,

clearly revealing that Eshuoro, the mischievous god of Fate, has way.

An allegorical concept is at the basis of the elaborate symbolic

network of the play. An allegory being a representation of an abstract or

spiritual meaning thrum concrete or material forms, it follows that the

figurative treatment of the subject universal validity in the form of a symbolic

narrative is an elaborate allegory one of the universal magnitude. The series of

symbols with the characteristic Soyinkan complement help the playwright

work out the scheme.

Margaret Laurence is justified in her observation:

There are some parts of A Dance of the Forests which seen

overloaded. Then are moments where the multiplicity of themes creates that

feeling that there are few ton many plates spinning in the air-some of them

speed by without being properly seen, and some crash down. (Margaret

Laurance, Long Drums and Cannons, Macmillan, London, 1968, p.4)

The theme of the play centres round the African concept of 'rites of

passage which means that no man can pass directly from one state of life to the

next, without passing through a transitional phase. Man's need for conscious

awareness forms the basic theme, stretching over a wide canvas, through a

number of lives, reaching forward to include posterity. The super humanbeings,

gods, spirits etc., help in conjuring up the dead, and in bringing about the right

occasions for introspection, possible generations and chastening.

In this play Soyinka presents an eloquent and effective group of

allegorical personifications that serves as an appropriate background. He

introduces them with a slight difference: they are not conventional

personifications. They are not given concrete physical forms. The Forest Head

can only say: "I take no part; but listen". The spirit of the palm has gloomy

forebodings. It asserts:

White skeins wove me, I, Spirit of the Palm

Now cause I red.

I who suckle blackened hearts, know

Heads will fall dawn,

Crimson in their red!

(Collected Plays I : A Dance of the Forests, p.64)

The Ants and their leader who appears at the crucial point in the play

have significant allegorical function, justifying the Forest Head's impression of

volcanic eruption From supernatural profundity, the play suddenly touches

down to the level of human life at its most realistic level. The ants carry the

smell, the touch and the message of the earth. It is a question mark raised

against those who impose martyrdom on the common man for tomorrow' s

mirage - sacrificing today's pulsating reality for the illusion of tomorrow.

The Triplets are very powerful allegorical figures representing

Soyinka's comprehensive vision of the future of mankind. The three make very

brief appearances, and have very little to say. But the grotesque figures convey

an ominous message.

Man's need for conscious awareness is the basic theme of the play.

The canvas is quite wide - it stretches back through a number of lives, and

stretches forward to include posterity. The super human beings, gods, spirits,

etc., help in conjuring up the dead, and in bringing about the right occasion for

introspection, possible regeneration and chastening.

Eldred D. Jones says - "Although a particular geographical and social

setting is selected for what amounts to a trial, it is important to remember that it

is not just Nigerian man who is under examination but homo sapiens as a

whole. The use of gods and spirits, the backward plunge into history, as well as

the peering into the future with the aid of possessed humans, all continue to

give the play an archetypal quality and 'an application broader than any

confining parcel of space or time". (Eldred D. Jones, Note 1 , p.34.)

Demoke is the key human figure in the play. A true artist and an

ardent votary of Ogun, Demoke is still not free from typical human

shortcomings. As a court poet in Mata Kharibu's palace he stoops to rather low

levels to please the queen, Rola of the present life. He flatters her a good deal,

appears to enjoy even her coquetry; he undertal climb to a steep and perilous

roof top to get the queen's pet canary. Eldred D, points out:

"Demoke combined the destructive and the creative capabilities of

man. His act of creation involves destruction. The majestic 'araba' has to be

destroyed in order produce the totem". (Ibid.,p.38.)

Aroni, the Lame One, is rather Yeatsian in the symbolic concept of

physical deformities. He is in the company of the Blind Beggar in The Swamp

Dwellers Murans in The Road, and the Cripples in Madmen and Specialists.

Yeats' Blind Man plays very crucial roles, though negative in effect, in On

Baile 's Strand and The Death Cuchulian.

William Walsh is of the opinion - "The play has the lucidity and

fantasy of dream; the transitions from point to point are conducted with the

same unquestionable but lunatic logic that dreams accustom us to". (William

Walsh, Commonwealth Literature, Oxford University Press, London, 1973,

p.83.)

The Triplets are clearly reminiscent of the Seven Deadly Sins in

Marlowe's Doctor Faustus. Their gleeful appearance, bursting with pride in

themselves, is similar to that of the grotesque Triplets. A Dance of the Forests

bears close resemblance to the Morality plays of the 15" and 16" centuries.

Everyman the extant Morality play, deals with the spiritual progress of all

individuals, the title signifying the symbolic nature of the theme. This play has

no direct moral lesson to convey; but the elements of a morality play can be

traced in almost all the characters, especially in the personified spirits of

elements, the Ants, the Half-Child and the Triplets, all of whom stand very

eloquently for the ideas transcending their literal meaning. Inspite of the

absence of moral sermons, the play can be considered a Post-modem Morality

Play against the complex twentieth century background.

Peter Enahoro, a distinguished journalist, was one of those who

conscientiously tried to extract a meaning from the production, to penetrate the

symbolism, and uncover the allegory. (Peter Enahoro, 'Wole Soyinka Has

Overdone it this Time', Daily Times, Lagos, 7, October, 1960, p.5.)

In A Dance of the Forests Soyinka took up the challenge to write a

full-length African tragedy for the stage and to address his countrymen at a

time of 'new beginning'. The result was an ambitious combination of elements

from classical, Elizabethan, symbolist and expressionist dramas with African

rites and rituals, all in a framework of festival theatre. (James Gibbs, Wole

Soyinka, Macmillan, London, 1986, p.70.)

A Dance of the Forests presents a comprehensive view of man over a

massive span of history; it even-in the highly symbolic chorusing of the future-

looks into the future. (Eldred D. Jones, The Writing of Wole Soyinka,

Heinemann, London, 1973 - p.32.)

''The play is an attempt to represent the complexities of the human

personality and its consequence within this cyclical pattern of history. The

result is a very complex play with tremendous possibilities for staging as well

as for interpretation; it is a warning against moral complacency and escapism".

(Ibid.)

In this play, in addition to the multiplicity of themes, there is

multiplicity of symbols. One of the difficulties of interpretation may arise not

merely from the multiplicity of symbols, but from the use of different syr~bols

to reinforce the same idea. Man is the central figure in the play and man is

represented by living men and women- Demoke, Adenebi, Rola, Agboreko,

The Old Man and others. Some of these have dual existence in that they also

appear as historical characters in the court of Mata Kharibu. The Dead Man and

Woman also represent man-man as victim of other men-and history as an

indictment of man's past actions. The ants also represent man or rather men-the

mass of men who are the victims of those in power-the manipulated masses.

Man is also represented by the Half-Child, that ambiguous symbol of man's

future. One has to be prepared for these changing symbols for different aspects

of the same thing and respond to them. (Ibid.,p.34.)

In Mary T. David' s opinion "A Dance of the Forests is more

Christian in spirit than any other plays of Soyinka inspite of its elaborate

structure of the supernatural from Yoruba myth and oral tradition". (Mary T.

David, Wole Soyinka A Questfor Renewal, B.I.Publications Pvt. Ltd., Madras,

1995, p.63.)

The Mendicants introduced at the very opening of the play Specialists

are living symbols of maimed humanity. They are cases of deformity. inflicted

on them by the state authority. They represent what the way humanity with

maimed bodies and distorted minds. They f o m an interesting at the same time,

they have developed a cheerful philosophy of their own. Gambling, the pawns

being their remaining healthy limbs. They exaggerate disabilities to win some

petmies from passers by. Aafaa, obviously the leader from the nervous disease

known as St.Vitus spasms. But the playwright audience into confidence:

Aafaa 'S St. Vitus spasms are designed to rid the wayfarer of his last

desperate bid to be rid of the sight.

(Collected Plays 2: Madmen and Specialists, p.85)

Evil, cunning and deformity function together in these odd remnants

of human. The Blindman predicts, in fatalistic tones: Sooner or later we aN eat

sand.

(Collected Plays 2: Madmen and Specialists,, p,88)

They are in the present condition, less than complete human beings:

yet eager to lessen themselves further by staking whatever remains. They

expedite the total destruction. This scene itself is a symbolic representation of a

miniature where man engineers his own downfall.

According to his son Bero, the Old Man has committed two

unpardonable1 The first crime was that he had tricked the soldiers into tasting

human flesh. The more unforgivable. Bero explains to his sister:

Father's assignment vas to help the wounded readjust to the pieces

remnants of their bodies. Physically Teach them to make baskets if they still

fingers. To use their mouths to ply needles f they had none, or else use it to

their vocal chords had not been shot away. Teach them to amuse themselves,

something of themselves, Instead, he be& to teach them to think, think,

thinking.

Can you picture a more treacherous deed than to place a working

mind in a mangled body?

(Collected Plays 2: Madmen and Specialists, p.242)

This was the crime Socrates, Galieo, and Copernicus had committed.

No government can afford to encourage free thinking. Those who indulge in it

should be served 'hemlock' as in the play Kongi's Harvest. Original thinkers

are the rebel figures the scapegoats who develop into Christ figures through

sacrifice.

The incident of poisonous berries is invested with symbolic

significance, highlightening the inherent paradox in the theme. Si Bero had, by

sheer accident, collected some poisonous berries mistaking them for medicinal

ones, as they were identical in appearance. Iya Agba recognizes it as the

poisonous 'twins' of the life giving variety, always growing together and

misleadingly similar. Si Bero keeps them on the assurance that even poison has

curative effects if administered cautiously.

Like light and dark, good and bad, creative and fatal properties grow

together. They are twins. They are inseparable. They strike roots together, are

nourished by the same soil and can hardly be distinguished. Life and death co-

exist. They are always in juxtaposition. Identification comes rather too late.

Bero's character is conveyed through the contradictory roles he plays-that of

the life giving physician and of the death- inflicting Intelligence Officer-is

symbolized here. Therapy and murder draw close to each other when the doctor

turns into the agent of death. The berries go to the right person, Bero, the

'poisonous twin' of the life giving sister, Si Bero. He happens to come across

them, and finds the 'right' use for them.

The identification between the Old Man and Socrates is very subtly

worked out. Enforced suicide with hemlock as in the case of Socrates will rid

Bero of the direct responsibility of killing his father. Suicide or murder, ancient

wisdom should be put an end to, so that its poisonous twin can flourish in the

modem world.

The title Madmen and Specialists is paradoxically ironic, No one in

the play is really mad; nor is any one a real specialist. The Old Man treated as a

mad man by his son, is perfectly sane. In fact, it is his sharp intelligence and

sanity which Bero. He had taught the disabled men to exercise their brains, and

incurred the wrath authorities.

In the final scene, the Old Man displays signs of alertness and

practical wiscitis. He indulges in the parody of an operation on the cripple only

to distract his son firing at the Old Women, risking his own life. His 'madness'

just means that his are unorthodox, not concurring with those of others. It is not

the fust time that a person holding unorthodox views has been termed 'odd' or

'insane'. Great scientists like Galileand Copernicus have suffered for their

'heretic' views. Socrates had to pay for his wisdom with his life.

Regarding 'specialists', it is an equally heterodox term, because one

wonders in what specific sense Bero is a specialist and in which field. He is not

a specialist in the field of his choice, medicine which he has abused. He

becomes an agent of death, while defecting into the Army Intelligence Service.

His specialization has dehumanized him to such a degree that his father

reminds him:

... I am the last proof of the human in you. The last shadow. Shadows

are tough things to be rid of (He Chuckles). How does one prove he was never

born of man? course you could kill me.. . . (Collected Plays 2: Madtnen and Specialists, p.253)

And, Bero has to get rid of the shadow.

It is very significant that the father and daughter do not meet even

once during the course of the play. Bero prevents it lest she should find out the

truth that her father is not mentally deranged as her brother has made out.

Between his two children he is in contact only with the 'poisonous twin' and

not with the daughter who can be identified as the very spirit of cure. That

certain medicinal herbs have 'poisonous twins' identical to the original has

been already proved. Bero keeps his father out of his sister' s reach, and takes

the poisonous berries to him. His sinister designs do not permit a meeting

between life-giving forces. Si Bero stands for the positive side of medical

sciences, coupled with the still greater force, that of love.

The two Old Women, as their names suggest, are Mothers, the twin

manifestations of the benevolence of Mother Earth: Iya Mate and Iya Agba are

cult herbalists

Two long lives spentpecking at secrels grain by grain

(Collected Plays 2: Madmen and Specialists, p.235)

They are not witches signifying evil; they would like to spread good

will through Si Bero. They have worldly wisdom. They ask Si Bero not to

destroy the poisonous berries but to keep them because:

You don 't learn good things unless you learn evil.

(Collected P l q s 2: Madmen and Specialists, p.225)

In the climax they are determined to bum down the room with herbs,

lest Bero should abuse the precious collection.

In this play the mendicants represent physical violation caused by

war, and the Old Man symbolizes the psychological aspects as the worst

victims. Bero himself is one of the victims, though he believes himself to be the

victor, a specialist. He has lost the most precious asset of any human being, his

human quality, the link that binds the individual with his very source. His

killing ofhis father signifies this total break.

Madmen and Specialists is the most Yeatsian among Soyinka's plays

considering the symbolic use of physical deformity. Aroni in A Dance ofthe

Forests, Murano in The Road, and Ifada in The Strong Breed represent this

group. But the Mendicants in Madmen and Specialists form the most eloquent

and significant group as they introduce more than one level of meaning.

'The play purged the rancor and despair which had accumulated

during the months in detention and confronted the evil which Soyinka had

encountered with fierce, acerbic humour' (James Gibbs, Wole Soyinka

Macmillan, London, 1986, p.99.)

"There is apparent naturalism and a significant degree of symbolism

in the play". (Ibid.,~. 10 1 .)

According to Mary T. David-The death of the Old Man is therefore

significant in different ways. He is a symbol of the sacrificed scapegoat of

humanity, offering.

Si Bero is attuned to the Old Women symbolizing the regenerative

energies of the earth where Bero is polarized from them. Bero has let himself to

be so permeated with evil that he does not make himself receptive to the

healing love of his sister and he does not come alive spirituality. The Old

Woman rightly speak of him as carrion:

I waste no strength on carrion. I leave him to earth 's rejection.

(Collected Plays 2: Madmen and Specialists, p.274)

The unnatural spiritual ailment of Bero is demonstrated in his

violation of the final taboo, which as James Gibbs has pointed out, links him

with Oedipus and lsola and all those who are condemned to go through life

with the blood of their fathers on their hands.