Drama: the lion and the jewel questions and answers
the lion and the jewel questions and answers
Brief Questions and Answers
1. Who is Wole Soyinka?
Ans: Wole Soyinks is a Nigerian playwright and poet.
2. What is the full name of Wole Soyinka?
Ans: Akinwande Oluwole Soyinka.
3. When and where was Wole Soyinka born?
Ans: Wole Soyinka was born in the city of Abeokuta, Nigeria.
4. When was Wole Soyinka awarded Nobel Prize for Literature?
Ans: He was awarded Nobel Prize for literature in 1986.
5. When did Wole Soyinka win International Humanist Award?
Ans: He won International Humanist Award in 2014.
6. To whom did Soyinka dedicate his Nobel lecture?
Ans: Soyinka’s Nobel lecture entitled “This Past Must Address Its present” was dedicated to the then still-imprisoned Nelson Mandela.
7. Who is the titular lion in The Lion and the Jewel?
Ans: The tilular lion is Baroka.
8. Who is Baroka?
Ans: Baroka is the chief of the village of Ilujinle. He wants to keep things like the old ways. He is the Lion in the play The Lion and the Jewel.
9. Who is Lakunle?
Ans: Lakunle is the local schoolteacher who wants to marry Sidi, and westernize everyone.
10. Who is Sidi?
Ans: Sidi is a egotistical beautiful village girl who is famous for her beauty. She is the Jewel in the play The Lion and the Jewel.
11. Who is Sadiku?
Ans: Sadiku is Baroka’s first wife who is extra sneaky.
12. What genre is The Lion and the Jewel?
Ans: Post Modernism/ Contemporary.
13. What kind of plot does The Lion and the Jewel have?
Ans: The play has a chronological causal plot.
14. Into how many parts is the play The Lion and the Jewel divided?
Ans: The play is divided into three parts: Morning Noon and night.
15. What is Ilujinle?
Ans: Ilujinle is an African village.
16. What does the name ‘Ilujinle’ mean?
Ans: ‘Ilujinle’ means ‘deep or distance village’. It suggests a remote community.
17. What is odan?
Ans: Odan is a type of tree that grows to majestic proportions. It spreads it branches widely and provide deep shade which make it a pleasant place to gather and discuss village affairs.
18. Who is ‘a true village belle’?
Ans: Sidi is ‘a true village belle’.
19. What is Lakunle?
Ans: Lakunle is a school teacher.
20. How old is Lakunle?
Ans: He is about twenty-three years old.
21. With whom is Lakunle in love?
Ans: Lakunle is in love with a beautiful village girl, named Sidi.
22. What is a pail?
Ans: A pail is a beautiful decorated water pot.
23. What is ‘unwomanly’ to Lakunle?
Ans: Carrying load on the head is ‘unwomanly’ to Lakunle.
24. Why does Sidi leave her arms free?
Ans: She leave her arms free to do her chores.
25. Who is “the madman of Ilujinle”?
Ans: People call Lakunle “the madman of Ilujinle”.
26. How does Lakunle consider himself to be a Christ-figure?
Ans: Christ was rejected by the people of his own territory. Similarly, Lakunle’s new ideas are rejected by his villagers. Thus, Lakunle considers himself to be a Christ-figure.
27. What is bride-price?
Ans: Bride-price is money or property given by the bridegroom to the family of his bride.
28. When will Sidi be a laughing stock to the villagers?
Ans: If she marries Lakunle without any bride-price, she will be a laughing stock to the villagers.
29. Why does Sidi refuse to marry Lakunle without bride-price? Or, Why doesn’t Sidi agree to marry Lakunle without bride-price?
Ans: Sidi refuses to marry Lakunle without bride-price for the fear of being guilty of losing her virginity before marriage.
30. What is Lakunle’s attitude to bride-price?
Ans: Lakunle hates paying bride-price. He considers it to be a savage custom, barbaric, out-dated, accursed, degrading, humiliating etc.
Short Questions
1. How does Lakunle try to convince Sidi tp marry him without bride-price?
2. Describe in brief ‘the dance of the lost traveller’.
3. What picture of African polygamous society do you find in The Lion and the Jewel?
4. What do you know about the life of the head wife? Or, What is the role of head wife?
5. How does Sadiku try to convince Sidi to marry Baroka?
6. On what grounds does Sidi reject the marriage proposal from Baroka?
7. Describe the mime of the white surveyor. Or, How does Baroka foil the construction of railway through Ilujinle?
8. Describe Sadiku’s victory dance. Or, How does Sadika celebrate Baroka’s impotence?
9. How does Baroka seduce Sidi? Or, How does Sidi fall into the trap of Baroka?
10. Why does Sidi marry Baroka at the end of the play The Lion and the jewel? Or, In what ways does Sidi’s attitude to marriage and her choice of husband change during the play?
11. Describe the Lion and the Jewel as a comedy? Or, What conventions of comedy does The Lion and the Jewel satisfy?
12. Who is the protagonist in the play The Lion and the Jewel?
13. Who is the antagonist in The Lion and the Jewel?
Explanations
1. It’s in my books.
Women have a smaller brain than men
That’s why they are called weaker sex.
2. A prophet has honor except
In his own home. Wise men have been called mad
Before me and after, many more shall be
So abused.
3. Ignorant girl, can you not understand?
To pay the price would be
To buy a heifer off the market stall.
You’d be my chattel, my mere property.
4. Baroka merely seeks to raise his manhood
Above my beauty
He seeks new fame
As the one man who has possessed
The Jewel of Ilujinle!
5. I am no man Sadiku. My manhood
Ended near a week ago.
Or,
Why then must I, descendant of these loins
Forswear my wives at a youthful sixty-two
My veins of life run dry, my manhood gone!
6. Take warning, my masters
We’ll scotch you in the end.
7. But you will agree, it is only fair
That we forget the bride-price totally
Since you no longer can be called a maid.
Short Notes
1. The bale
2. The Head Wife
3. Yoruba
4. Ogun
5. Sango
6. Bride-price
7. Expressionism
8. Afrocentricity
9. African Drama
Broad Questions
1. What picture of African society do you get in The Lions and the Jewel?
2. Do you think Soyinka disparages women in “The Lion and the Jewel”? Discuss with special reference to his portrayal of Sidi and Sadiku.
3. Is “The Lion and the Jewel” uniquely African as a play, or does it simply present universal themes in an African setting? Give reasons for you answers.
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