Petals of Blood

 Thinking Activity: Petals of Blood

Hello Readers! This blog is response to the thinking activity assigned by Megha Ma'am. In this i will discuss about some questions which are mentioned in the task. 

Introduction of  Writer: Ngugi Wa Thingo

The birth Name of Ngugi wa Thiong'o - James Ngugi , born on 5th January 1938 is a kenyan author and academic, who has been described as "East Africa’s leading Novelist." He began writing in English, swithching to write primarily in Gikuyu. His work includes novels, plays, short stories, and essays, ranging from literary and social criticism to children's literature. He is the founder and editor of the Gikuyu language journal Mũtĩiri. His short story The Upright Revolution : Or why Humans walk Upright has been translated into 100 languages. 

 

He pens plays, novels, short stories, critical essays and children’s books. Generally Ngugi wa Thiong’o writings deal with the cultural and political legacy of colonialism in contemporary Africa. In the year 1970s, Ngũgĩ became involved in the struggle for democracy in Kenya and was imprisoned for his political activism. After his release, he went into exile in the United States, where he taught at universities and continued to write and publish. During his time in prison, he decided to cease writing his plays and other works in English language and began writing all his creative works in his native tongue, Gikuyu. 

 His books include the novels ' Petals of Blood' , for which he was imprisoned by the kenyan government in 1977. Along with that, other novels include ' A Grain of Wheat' and ' Wizard of the Crow'. He has written three volumes of the memoirs, Dreams in a time of War, In the House of the Interpreter, and Birth of a Dream Weaver. He wrote several essays including ' Decolonizing the Mind', something new, Torn and Globalectics. 

In English

• Weep Not, Child (1964) is the first novel in English to be published by a writer from East Africa.
• The River Between (1965)
• The Grain of Wheat (1967)
• Petals of Blood (1977) his last novel in English

Written in Gikuyu and translated into English

• Devils on the Cross (1980) 
• Matigari (1986)
• Wizard of the Crow (2006)

His essays

• Homecoming (1972)
• Decolonizing the mind (1986)
• Moving the Centre (1993)
• Detained (1981) 

Plays

• The Black hermit (1963)
• The Trial Of Dedan Kimathi (1976)
• I will Marry When I Want (1977)

About Novel:- Petals of Blood

The Puzzling murder of three African directors of a foreign-owned brewery sets the scene for this fervent, hard-hitting novel about disillusionment in independent Kenya. Petals of Blood is on the surface a suspenseful investigation of a spectacular triple murder in upcountry Kenya. Yet as the intertwined stories of the four suspects unfold, a devastating picture emerges of a modern third-world nation whose frustrated people feel their leaders have failed them time after time.  First published in 1977, this novel was so explosive that Ngugi was imprisoned without charges by the Kenyan government.  

Set in Kenya just after independence, the story follows four characters – Munira, Abdulla, Wanja, and Karega – whose lives are intertwined due to the Mau Mau Rebellion. In order to escape city life, each retreats to the small, pastoral village of Ilmorog. As the novel progresses, the characters deal with the repercussions of the Mau Mau rebellion as well as with a new, rapidly westernizing Kenya. 

Title of the novel derives from a line in Derek Walcott's poem, 'The Swamp'. The story centres on four characters whose lives are drastically changed as a result of the rebellion, as they learn how to adapt and survive in a rapidly Westernizing environment. This novel was well received by critics, especially for its strong political themes, that including capitalism, Westernization, neocolonialism and education. 

 Characters are living in a small village Illmorg, Kenya. They are struggling with the new developing or westernizing Kenya. Change in Kenya after getting independence from Colonial rule. This novel portrays the challenges of capitalism, politics and the effects of Westernization. The Characters are connected with the reference of the past. 

The novel has a Mau Mau rebellion as well as Political backgrounds also. Watch these video to understand the  Mau Mau rebellion in the history of African literature.

Characters:-

1. Munira :- School teacher goes Illmorg to teach. 

2. Karega :- Works as a teaching assistant connects to socialism after Nairobi trip- Joins the struggle of libetration.

3. Wanja :- Granddaughter of Nyakuniya, Worked as Barmaid and Prostitute and love relations with Munira, Karega and Abdulla. 

4. Abdulla :- A shopkeeper , lost his leg in Mau Mau rebellion. Another character Joseph whom Abdulla keeps as brother or son. 

5. Nyakuniya :- Old lady of the village.

6. Kimeria :- Bussinessman and raped wanja. 

7. Chui - Schoolboy, headmaster and educationalist. 

8. Mzigo :- A corrupt and incompetent administrator. 

9. Inspector Godfrey :- One who investigating the death of three directors. 

 10. Nderi wa Riera :- Local Politician of Illmorg village. 

Q. 1 

The novel Petals of Blood marks Ngugi wa Thiong'o's growing interest in strong women characters like Wanja. Wanja Succeeds in areas where women literary figures traditionally do not. In her relationship to the land, her strength as a mother as well as nurture figure for the entire village. Her ability to forge her own destiny, wanja is a female figure rife with agency and power. she steadfastly resolves to accompany others in their return to the city despite the unpleasant memories it holds for her, and she continues to trek even after she is raped by kimeria. she improves Abdulla's business with her knowledge of advertising and markrting and eventually makes a significant profit for them both through her appropriation of the theng'eta drink. Her final turn to prostitution, though certainly a tragic and cynical decision on her part, is also a reasoned and logical solution to the problem she faces. 

As the only primary woman figure, Wanja's character at first glance carries auspicious - hopes for African women and for their depiction in the works of a growing body of the African canon and post- colonial literature more generally. we find wanja's character a refreshing change from traditional, passive, melodramatic, male - dependent, luckluster heroines.  As a result of this, Ngugi - wa - Thiongo has a long list of feminist supporters. For example,

  Deirdre Lapin writes that ;  '' Wanja is an admirable, indeed heroic character.'' 

   Eustace Palmer confirms that, ' Wanja is brave, resilient, resourceful and determined.' 

 Judith Cochrane argues that ; ' it is the Gikuyu women ' rather than their menfolk who seem better able to reconcile those needs with traditional values and customs.'

Wanja is one of four main characters depicted by Ngugi to dramatize the theories of Marxist philosopher Frantz Fanon. Fanon's theories like, Ngugi's Petals of Blood chronicle the process of colonization to decolonization and the subsequent neocolonization of Africa.  Fanon concludes that the violence done by colonization cannot be entirely eradicated until a people's revolution demands a socialist government, through violence as necessary. Specifically, both fanon and Ngugi blames the new native middle class for effectively perpetuating the colonial regime, especially through their encouragement of tourist industries. They idealize the revolution of the agriculture working masses as the people of the nation, they see the people's resulting kinship to the soil as instrumental in its successful provision for all the needs of the population.  

The novel ' Petals of Blood' provides numerous examples of this environmental connection for all the villagers, in fact for anyone closer to the land rather than associated with the city. This special link between Wanja and land, the earth is revealed in the scene when wanja brings life back to the every soils of Ilmorg. she organizes a women's collective work force to till the earth, and she is among the first to reap its bounty when, after a long dry spell, it finally yields a harvest. 

As Palmer argues that, '' Wanja's dynamism and vitality are suggested by her association with the fields and the plains.''  But, Wanja's treatment as the story progresses, becomes even more organic, and it is clear that as she works the soil, together with a group labor force of her own creation, she becomes all the more empowered. 

Along with all these things, Wanja's desire to be a mother can also be read as both a generalization of the situation in Africa and as a specific allusion to woman's history. She abandoned her first child. Wanja's second pregnancy and her epiphany after karega's rejection signal new hope for new Kenya, a second chance to right old wrongs. Wanja murdered kimeria and that shows that her anger is now directed in an appropriate direction. It demonstrates that, unlike any metaphysical mother of mercy, she will remain as unforgiving as she is unforgiven. In other words, despite her numerous strengths, Wanja is quite human, and subject to human pride and error, anger and passion. And though she certainly functions as allegory, she is not merely the archetypal mother. 

Wanja reveals in her powers of representation a new birth, and the potential for a new future of hope and strength in a manner, that finally is consistent with Ngugi wa Thiongo's Marxist ideal. In this sense, Wanja is not only a historically specific representative of the female perspective of nation, but she also becomes instrumental, in Ngugi's ideal new Kenya, in the creation and re-visioning of that new Kenya, through her newfound artistic power- one that rivals Ngugi's own. In fact, her image of Abdulla closely reflects Ngugi's own perception of art and its relation to history. As Ngugi Wa Thiongo contends; 

 '' From my writing one can see that the past, present and future are bound and interrelated. My interest in the past is because of the present and there is no way to discuss the future or present separate from the past.'' 

  Like, Ngugi Wa Thiongo, Wanja has the potential, through her art, to become a force in the creation of a new nation, as well as a representative of it. Another important point is that, In Wanja's final and self - acknowledged turn to prostitution at the sunshine Lodge, Wanja may well have enough money to allow her limited access into the world of Mzigo, Chui and Kimeria to enable her revenge. 

 Conclusion :- To Conclude, Ngugi Wa Thiongo leaves Wanja a contradictory, paradoxical character consistent only in that she defies all critical attempts to entrap her within a facile and rather doctrinaire Western Classification. And he sees Wanja, Woman, as a critical figure of this nation not only in the past, as his historical specificity suggests, but integral to defining and creating the Kenyan future. 

Q. 2 

The 1977 novel Petals of Blood by Ngugi Wa Tiong'o deals with the independent Kenya where the neocolonialism was taking place of the colonial rulers and the struggle even rise in the remote obscure village, Ilmorog. The novel at first demonstrates the disillusionment; about the loss of the ideal of independence and the destruction of hope; about betrayal and hypocrisy and about the triumph of corruption over humanity. Ngugi believes that imperialism, the power of dead capital, in its neocolonial clothes will not be able to destroy the fighting culture of the African peasantry and working class. This article will attempt to present Ngugi's suggested way of redemption through violence as a constructive force to correct the neocolonialist society echoing the view of Fanon, who considers there is no other way than violence for the decolonization and this is rather a cleansing force for colonized people which redeem their inferiority complex. 

Fanonism :- In Wretched of the Earth, Fanon presents the vision of violence as a constructive force. He says, National liberation, national renaissance, the restoration of nationhood to the people, common wealth: whatever may be the headings used or the new formulas introduced, decolonization is always a violent phenomenon and  The naked truth of decolonization evokes for us the searing bullets and bloodstained knives which emanate from it. The development of violence among the colonized people will be proportionate to the violence exercised by the threatened colonial regime. but the native's violence unifies the people. It frees the natives from inferiority complex from his despair and inaction. It works like a “cleansing force” for an individual. 

Ngugi and Constructive Violence :-  This point provides the point of view of Ngugi towards violence as a constructive force and his attitude is quite positive alike Fanon. He also believes that, “Imperialism, the power of dead capital, in its neo-colonial clothes will not be able to destroy the fighting culture of African peasantry and working class for the simple reason that this culture is a product and a reflection of real life struggles going on in Africa today. 

Kenyan History of Violence :-  The coast of Kenya has been exposed to outside influences for centuries, intruders' treasure hunting started in the early eleventh century and the conflict with the natives was the seed of further violence.  Ngugi was very much influenced by Mau Mau. It was a war that touched the popular imagination and was forever to change the fate of Kenya and many other countries under British rule. For the first time the peasants, the wretched of the earth, were taking the war to a highly sophisticated country with a long military history,  This situation continued up to 1963 when Kenya was finally independent.

Constructive Violence in Petals of Blood :-  In this novel, the Kenya Ngugi writes about, the Kenya that nobody can take away from him, is the 'Kenya of working class of all nationalities and their heroic struggle against domination by nature and other humans over the centuries.  Here we see the face of Kenya whose face is reflected in Ilmorog, the center of action for the novel. Ngugi chooses a barren, drought stricken part of Kenya where neo-colonialism put the interests of foreigners and abandons the people who had suffered and died for the land. Thus capitalism was burying Ilmorog and putting a new Ilmorog in its place. The people reached to a point of no return and raised the protagonists to resist the destruction.

The Protagonists Concerning Violence :-  Petals of Blood is so bloody deep and detailed that by the time it ends nobody cares for the fate of the three petty preys, Krupps, Rockfellers and Delameres, or whether it was Wanja, Karega, Munira or Abdullah who has killed them.  

1. Wanja :- Wanja, the extra ordinary struggling female character, like Kenya itself, has to fight to stay alive and for whom destruction is never too far away. Being humiliated by the society and the hostility of the world, she allows herself to turn cruel like the surroundings. She described the reality of neocolonial situation in a plain formula- “You eat somebody or you are eaten. You sit on somebody or somebody sits on you”. She questioned, has Kimeria sinned less than her, why is she the only sufferer. She stroked his head with the punga before the arson. According to Fanon this is individual freedom and it will calm and clean her burning heart

   

2. Abdullah :-  Abdullah, the introvert Mau Mau fighter, was totally betrayed by the country he fought for. The independent Kenya failed to rehabilitate the one legged fighter who sacrificed his family and land for the country. The unsung hero had the ability to rehabilitate himself, but the same person Kimeria, who betrayed his friend during Mau Mau, involved with the spoil of his business, his earning. By killing Kimeria he wanted to avenge the death of his friend, Ndinguri and save Wanja from his claws. He reserved his manhood by this act of violence.

3. Karega :-  Karega, the man of many wanderings, devotes himself to the unity of workers and helps the trade union. He opposed Wanja's philosophy and kept searching for a lost innocence, hope and faith. He believed one could not prevent violence by being one of the violators. He was sure that there must be other way to a 'new world'. 

4. Munira :- Munira the 'man of God' was also haunted by the need to breakout from the situation, the passive “spectator of life” he wanted a connection that prompt him do something. Even taking personal revenge by dismissing Karega, was a step to prove the activity to himself. Finally inspired by a divine feeling, he too desired to establish a 'secular new world'. He wanted to save Karega from the fatal embrace of Wanja. He decided to burn the 'Sunshine Lodge', the place of prostitution. It was also a common place for Kimeria, Chui, Mzigo, the neocolonial agents. The act was a repetition of his early life, throwing the sin, the corruption into the fire.

Conclusion :-  To Conclude, Wanja's pregnancy, Joseph's school rebellion, Karega's fate in renewed strikes and protests in Ilmorog, the future generation with the spirit of purification and courage from the parents involved in freedom fighting and social revolution, will be born to restore the serenity. Constructive violence, like arson will burn down the corrupted, rotten society and there is a hope and promise for the rebirth of a new Kenya.  

 References :- 

Amin, Tasnim. “World Wide Journals.” IJSR - International Journal of Scientific Research, 1 Apr. 2017, www.worldwidejournals.com/international-journal-of-scientific-research-%28IJSR%29/article/fanonism-and-constructive-violence-in-petals-of-blood/MTA3NDM=/?is=1. Accessed 02 Feb. 2024.

“Ngũgĩ Wa Thiong’o: The Booker Prizes.” Ngũgĩ Wa Thiong’o | The Booker Prizes, thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/authors/ngugi-wa-thiongo. Accessed 02 Feb. 2024.

“Petals of Blood.” Wikiwand, www.wikiwand.com/en/Petals_of_Blood. Accessed 02 Feb. 2024.

Roos, Bonnie. Re-Historicizing the Conflicted Figure of Woman in Ngugi’s ’petals Of  www.jstor.org/stable/3820979. Accessed 02 Feb. 2024.

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The Piano and Drums

 Thinking Activity: The Piano and Drums

Hello Readers! This blog is response to the thinking activity assigned by Megha Ma'am. In this blog i will discuss some questions which are mentioned in the task. 

Introduction of Writer: Gabriel Okara 

Gabriel Imomotimi Okara (24 April 1921 – 25 March 2019) was a Nigerian poet and novelist who was born in Bumoundi in Nigeria. The first Modernist poet of Anglophone Africa, he is best known for his early experimental novel, The Voice (1964). In his poems and his prose, Okara drew on African thought, religion, folklore and imagery and he has been called "the Nigerian Negritudism". He was awarded the Commonwealth Poetry Prize in 1979 for The Fisherman's Invocation.

One of Okara's most famous poems is "Piano and Drums". Another popular poem, "You Laughed and Laughed and Laughed", is a frequent feature of anthologies. Okara was very concerned with what happens when the ancient culture of Africa is faced with modern Western Culture, as in his poem "Once Upon a Time".

 Title: 

The poet uses two musical instruments Piano and Drums to symbolize two different cultures. It evokes cultural dichotomy in the poem and it forms the tiles of the poem also. The poet uses the "piano" to symbolize the western culture, and the drums to symbolize African culture. The poem is basically a postcolonial poem which exhibits the dilemma in the citizens of the colonized region when the new, opposite and complex culture is imposed upon them.

Background of the Poem:

This poem brings out the post- Independence attitude of elites who instead of going back to their traditions and cultures get stuck to the western civilization and begin the period of neo- colonialism. Which results in a collapse of African culture. Poet uses drums, a symbol of African culture which is lost by Piano, symbol of western/ white- masters culture. In African cultures drums play an important role, it begins their traditional ceremonies. These drums are called ‘djembe’ which means to stay true to the history. READ MORE ABOUT THE CONNECTION OF DRUMS AND AFRICA.

Wole Soyinka and D. O Fagunwa in 

“The Forest of a Thousand Daemons” 

page seven say “like the sonorous proverb 

do we drum agidigbo (drum), it is the 

wise who dance to it, and the learned 

who understand its language.”

Structure of the poem-

The poem is divided into Four stanzas of 29 lines. It is written in simple, visual and intelligible language. It has no consistent rhyming scheme, hence one can say that it is mainly a free verse. The mood of the poem is dilemma, mixed feeling and confusion; it had a sober tone of lamentation.

Stanza 1 : African nature/ Climate/ Environment and occupation 

Stanza 2 : Reminiscent of Childhood, the rawness of Africa, satire to white world

Stanza 3: Piano/ white culture and its complexities. Lost Africa, Satire to White world 

Stanza 4: Dilemma/ confusion/ lost between two different or hybrid cultures in Africa in the Postcolonial Period.

About the Poem:- 

The poem ‘The Piano and The Drums’ was published in ‘Collected Poems (edited and with an introduction by Brenda Marie Osbey)’ in 2016 in Part I: Early poems. The setting of the poem appears to be the poet's village and it is a typical African countryside as the poet refers to ‘riverside’.

The poem begins with a speaker sitting on the riverside at dawn. He hears ‘jungle drums’ which have ‘mystic rhythm’, some supernatural strength, and are raw which connect the speaker to the nature and culture of pre- colonial Africa. He describes the hunting occupation of African people. The traditional drums and its beating gives strength and power to Africans to hunt and fight with wild animals like leopards and panthers.

In the second stanza the poet is nostalgic about his infancy when he used to suckle in her mother’s lap. Which can be read as his connection with his motherland. He describes the rawness and connection of Africa with nature through ‘paths with no innovation’, he walked on the paths which were not tarred as in western culture, satire of their materialistic and civilized life.

In the third stanza poet/ speaker is hearing ‘wailing piano’, emergence or beginning of colonization. Through the use of complex musical technical words like ‘concerto’, ‘diminuendo’, ‘counterpoint’, ‘crescendo’, he is exhibiting the complexity of western civilization and culture. He deploys them to emphasize the difficulty in understanding this new sound.

During the last stanza of the poem, the speaker laments on the level of confusion the new sound brings when it mixes with the drums. The speaker finds himself lost between the amalgamation to two completely opposite cultures.

Glossary:

• Telegraphing- send (someone) a message by telegraph.
• Pounce- spring or swoop suddenly so as to catch prey by animal
• Spears- a weapon 

• Torrent-a strong and fast-moving stream of water or other liquid.
• Topples- overbalance or cause to overbalance and fall.
• Suckling- baby who feeds through breast
• Wailing- crying
• Coaxing- persistent gentle
• Diminuendo- a decrease in loudness in a piece of music.
• Counterpoint-the technique of setting, writing, or playing a melody or melodies in conjunction with another, according to fixed rules
• Crescendo- the loudest point reached in a gradually increasing sound.
• Labyrinth- a complicated irregular network of passages or paths in which it is difficult to find one's way; a maze.
• Dagger-point- The point or tip of a dagger.

Poem Analysis-

The poem brings the difference between the normal lifestyle of Africans and that of the modern world. The central theme of the poem talks on the effect of foreign culture on Africans.

In the very first stanza poets describe the jungle drums sending ‘urgent’ and ‘raw’ messages to remind the speaker about his culture and tradition, the natural and rustic African environment where he lived his youth days before the effect of western civilization. It's a message to a son of Africa who has lost his own identity to get connected or in remembrance of his native land which is scared by Western world. The rhythms of these jungle drums raises his memories of hunters with spears stalking leopards and panthers.

With the rhythms of drums and memories of youth days, the speaker gets nostalgic about his childhood days, as a baby sucking her mother’s breast in the comfortable lap, playing in the streets of mother land. He recollects his walk on the raw ‘paths with no innovation’, simple African life. With the same recollection it seems like Poet is being satiric to the western world for their innovations and development. As Africa is using ‘rugged and untarred path which is surrounded by nature.

In the third stanza poets use the imagery of ‘wailing piano’. The piano is a musical instrument which is played individually which suggests isolation. And the use of complex terms like ‘diminuendo’, ‘crescendo’ suggests the complexities of the western civilization and the world. With the musical imagery of a concerto, the poet- speaker paints a culture that is in disarray (disorganization) despite its advancement. The piano (western world) silently tries to blend in counterpoint with the rhythm of the drums (Africans) to create a sweet melody but this attempt ends up producing discordant music, which symbolizes the impossibility of living two diverse cultures together. The "coaxing" blend of the conflicting melodies results in a dissonant tune whereby the speaker becomes lost in its "complexities".

The last stanza of the poem brings the dilemma in the speaker/ poet. The amalgamation of the two cultures has confused Africa as well as poets which culture to be adapted, there is no one in its fullest. In the end of the poem also the speaker is on the same spot ‘riverside', lost in the ‘mist’ of the two incompatible cultures. So, the poet-speaker is caught in a tangled in between his African roots and past, and his exposure to modern civilization through education.

The end of the poem has no end to the confusion of the poet/ speaker of the citizens of this tangled culture. They aren't able to balance between the two opposite cultures. They struggle to cope up with the hybridity.

Themes of Poem:

• Celebration Of nature
• no place like motherland/ home
• living a double standard lifestyle
• acculturation
• Inferiority
• cultural obliteration
• cultural conflict
• Innocent
• Neo colonialism
• cultural orientation
• Nature
• loss of Identity laws of Africa's perfect state dependence
• dilemma

Class Activity: Motherland in the poem ‘The piano and The Drums’ by Gabriel Okara.

As the blog discusses the whole poem, it will talk briefly about the importance of mother land.

Motherland: one’s native country; mother country.

We also have a Sanskrit shloka which suggests the importance of Ramayana about mother and motherland.

“जननी जन्मभूमिश्च स्वर्गादपि गरीयसी|”

Translation- One’s mother and motherland are superior to the highest heavens.

In the first two stanzas of the poem we see the speaker poet being nostalgic about his youthful period and his childhood in the raw of Africa before the white/ western world started encroaching on their region. Sitting riverside in nature he recollects the origin, tradition, culture and occupation of Africa.

‘jungle drums’, ‘mystic rhythm’, ‘hunters crouch with spears poised’, ‘paths with no innovations’, ‘naked warmth of hurrying feet’, ‘green leaves and wild flowers pulsing’,

are the phrases from the poem which suggests the speaker/ poet's memory for his motherland and love for his nation.

Currently (in poem) African culture is affected or overpowered by the western culture which is destroying the serenity, beauty and harmony of the African environment. Poet is also lured by the western culture and the ‘jungle drums’ that is his root culture/ motherland is calling him through ‘telegraphing’.

Celia wren, wrote in Washington post- 

At Round House Theatre, a playwright explores the many layers of loss

‘Their colonial education taught them to see Britain as the motherland.’

Which can also be read in present time, that is in post- colonial period and is applicable to all the one-time colonized countries.

A Dance of the forest

 Thinking Activity: A Dance of the Forest 

Hello Everyone! This blog is a response to the thinking activity assigned by Megha Ma'am from the Department of English, MKBU. I will  delve into the paper of African literature, focusing on Wole Soyinka's most renowned play, 'A Dance of the Forests'. African literature can be challenging to grasp initially, so first I will start by discussing Wole Soyinka, followed by an overview of the play's plot. Additionally, I will provide answers to two questions from the play. 

Introduction of Writer: Wole Soyinka 

Nigerian Playwright and Political activist Wole Soyinka received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986. He was born in 1934 in Abeokuta, near Ibadan, into a Yoruba family and studied at University college in Ibadan, Nigeria and 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 and 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 that was the past. 

An outspoken opponent of oppression and tyranny worldwide and a critic of the political situation in Nigeria, Soyinka has lived in exile on several occasions. During the Nigerian civil war in the 1960s, he was held as a prisoner in solitary confinement after being charged with conspiring with the Biafrans. In 1997, while in exile, he was tried for, convicted of, and sentenced to death for antimilitary activities, a sentence that was later lifted. Soyinka's poetry draws on Yoruba myths, his life as an exile and in prison, and Politics. 

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 onward he taught literature and drama and headed theatre groups at various Nigerian universities. Soyinka has taught at a number of universities worldwide, among them Ife University, Cambridge University, Yale University, and Emory University. 

Though he considered himself primarily a playwright, Soyinka also wrote the novels 'The Interpreters' (1965), Season of Anomy (1973), and chronicles from the Land of the Happiest people on Earth (2021), the latter of which drew particular praise for its satirical take on corruption in Nigeria. 

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 Biafra from Nigeria. Wole Soyinka was long a proponent of Nigerian Democracy. His decades of political activism included periods of imprisonment and exile, and he founded, headed or participated in several political groups. 

About the Novel: A Dance of the Forest 

Wole Soyinka's theatrical debut, ‘A Dance of the Forests’ was presented at the Nigerian Independence celebrations in october 1960. In it, Soyinka reveals the rotten aspects of society and demonstrates that the past is no better than the present when it comes to the seamy side of life. Soyinka lays bare the fabric of Nigerian society and warns people as they are on the brink of a new stage in their history. 

‘A Dance of the Forests’ is considered one of Soyinka's early and significant works. The Play is known for its complex and Symbolic narrative, which explores themes related to Nigerian identity, the impact of colonisation, and tension between tradition and modernity. It delves into the rich cultural heritage of Nigeria, drawing on Yoruba mythology and symbolism. The entire Play revolves around a community and gathers in the forest to perform a ritual dance. Throughout the Performance, various characters embody different aspects of Nigerian society, and the narrative unfolds through a series of symbolic encounters and dialogues. Wole Soyinka uses traditional African elements such as Dance, and music to convey the deeper meanings of messages. 

As With many of Soyinka's works, ‘A Dance of the Forests’ reflects the complexities of post colonial African identity and the challenges faced by a nation transforming from colonial rule to independence. It is a layered and thought provoking Play that invites readers and viewers to engage with its themes and interpretations. 

Plot Overview:-

 During Yourba festival, known as the 'Gathering of the Tribes' , A Dead man and Dead woman come out - from their burial ground. They are sent by Aroni - A God, with Permission from the Forest Head. Four villagers now come to the forest - Rola ( A Prostitute), Adenebi ( A court Historian) of the emperor ; Mata Kharibu. Agboreko ( who was a soothsayayer to Mata kharibu and plays the same role in his life, and finally Demoke ( who is now a wooden carver but, was once a poet in the court. 

Aroni has selected these four in order for them to gain knowledge about their past lives and to atone for their sins. Obaneji ( The Forest Head) disguised in human form, invites the characters to Join in a welcome dance for the Dead woman, and Dead woman. But, Eshuorou ( A Spirit of tree) comes and interrupts the proceedings. 

He is seeking Vengeance for the death of Oremole [ Demoke's apprentice], whom Demoke killed by Pulling him off. The top of an Araba tree they were carving. Yourba God - Ogun ( Gurdain of metal workers and artisans) wants to protect Demoke from Eshuoro, so he tries to distract Eshuoro. 

Aroni and the Forest Head now transport the characters back in the time into the court of Mata Kharibu, where the Dead woman was a soldier. He refuses to go to war against another tribe. Because, Kharibu has taken by force one of the tribe leader's wife - Madame Tortoise. None of the courtious help the soldiers, who is castrated and given to a slave dealer. The soldier's wife comes in, pregnanat and it is left up to the audience to determine how she is killed. 

The last section depicts the meaning of the last human and the natural worlds. One by one, varoius natural elements, earth, the sun, the water, the ants awaken and address the Forest Head. The Dead woman appears holding the hands of a half child. A figure is red also appears luring the child away with its games. 

 The Spirit of Darkness speaks, than the Spirit of Precious Stones, than the Spirit of Pachyderms, than the Spirit of the rivers. They all move, and speak in a large chorus, when suddenly they all stop. The figure in red rips off his mask and reveals himself to be Eshuoro. Demoke succeeds, in taking the child to the Dead woman, and Aroni leads the mother and the child off. 

The Dance of the unwilling sacrifice begins, and Eshuoro pushes Demoke towards a totem. Demoke climbs it and as he gets higher, Eshuoro lights the totem on fire. Ogun enters to catch Demoke, when he falls. As Igbale music plays, Demoke, Agboreko, The old man, Rola and Adenebi speak an epilogue. 

The Play ends with the mortal characters, who experienced rebirth, learning the lessons of their former ( Past) lives and evolving into new people. 

Q. 1 Write a note on the play - A Dance of the Forest by Wole Soyinka 

In characterisation too Soyinka uses the method of contrast. In all his plays there are characters who are strong, fecund, full of spirit, never at a loss for words, and not always moral or trustworthy. They defend the right to life and to joy. They are Ogunian characters, "alloys of contradictory essences" like the god Ogun as Femi Osofisan puts it, who are both creative and destructive, both unscrupulous and brave, both fierce and gentle. Demoke, Rola and to a lesser,  degree Murete fall into this category. 

This Play - A Dance of the Forests contains three divisions of the characters. 

In opposition to this group are the more stuffy, serious characters. completely lacking a sense of humour, and often full of the sense of their own iiportance. They are the embodiments of sterility, emptiness, parsimony. They are men of order, order that stunts, curbs and cripples. Invariably these characters are outwitted by the former group. Agboreko and Adenebi and even the Old Man to a certain extent fall into this category. 

Lastly there are the demagogues who are obsessed and blinded by a lust for power, power at all costs. Mata Kharibu is the obvious example of this, as is Eshuoro. 

Apart from Ogun representing the artist, Demoke , who is protected by Ogun also has the qualities of the artist in him and like the artist has to undergo experiences which will leave him a new and more enlightened person. Thus he undertakes the challenge of saving the Half - child. 

● Structure of the Play :- 

The structure of this play has nothing in common with the usual five-act structure of traditional western drama. It is divided into two parts. The first part deals with the adventures of the characters as they get to know one another and, led by Forest Father himself, disguised as Adenebi, move towards the forest and the celebration of the gathering of the tribes. At the same time Ogun and Eshuoro are on the lookout for Demoke. Murete is forced by both to reveal all that he knows. The Old Man, Demoke's father, and Agboreko, both try to find Demoke and save him. In this scenario. the invited guests from the past, the Dead Man and the Dead Woman, are ignored by all the characters. 

The second part takes us in a flashback to the court of Mata Kharibu where the characters we have already been introduced to double up as characters from the past- apart from, of course, the Dead Man and the Dead Woman, who play themselves as they were when they lived, the brave warrior and his pregnant wife. However, after the scenes from the court of Mata Kharibu, the dramaturgy becomes a little confused as we have a succession of different choruses, the spirits, the ants, and the masque of the Triplets. Disguise and masquerade take the place of regular story telling, and the story does not really move forward. The tempo relaxes, only to pick up again as Demoke intervenes in the game of ampe to restore the Half-Child to its mother and to undergo the expiation ritual of climbing the totem pole. Dawn breaks, Ogun leaves, Eshuoro and his jester flee, and Agboreko and the Old Man come across Demoke and hear a little of the happenings of that strange night. The play is thus part reality, part something beyond material reality as we know it, part ritual, part straightforward narrative. The movement is circular, to a certain extent, to suggest the cycle of sin that is carried on from the days of Mata Kharibu to the present and which is hopefully broken by Demoke's selfless act of expiation on behalf of the entire community.

 The structure of the play highlights the contrast Wole Soyinka sets up between the past and the present, between the llving and the dead, between sombre or chilling moments and between moments of light-hearted tomfoolery.  

 Such contrast may be seen in Part One of the play.  In the juxtaposition of the comic scenes of Murete and Ogun with the anxiety of the Old Man searching for his son and the darker and more secretive interaction of the four characters, Demoke, Rola, Adenebi and Obaneji, in the forest. 

● Language :- 

 There are many different kinds of speech employed by Wole Soyinka in this Play. Agboreko speaks like a typical village elder, relying on his proverb-filled utterances to suggest the gravity and wisdom that he sorely lacks: "proverbs to bones and silence" is a particular favourite. 

Rola and Madame Tortoise's speech is coquettish, swiftly changing to a vicious vulgarity when they are spumed or thwarted. Murete's speech is imaginative, filled with vivid insults. 

Towards the end of the play the language takes on a heightened poetic quality, befitting the dignified anguish of the Spirits of the Rivers, Volcanoes, Precious Stones, Palm, Darkness and others. Even the ant leader and his followers are given considerable time to speak of the way in which their species has been decimated. Wole Soyinka also used non - verbal elements enhances the theatrical impact. 

● Issues :- 

Some of the issues of this play are - Nigerian Independence , the relation of tradition to history and the relation of the artists to Politics. 

(a) Nigerian Independence :- This play was performed as part of the celebrations of Nigerian Independence.  In the beginning of the play we are told that all the people are going to an important festival, the ritual gathering of the tribes. This play, as mentioned earlier, is modelled on the Yoruba New Year festival which takes place in March and which includes purificatory rites in which people help one another to confess and to begin the new year afresh. The occasion of Nigerian independence would also be the beginning of a new era, a fresh start. 

This play was first performed as part of the Nigerian independence celebrations. This celebration is one in which people from , the past have also been invited. As mentioned in the earlier section on Yoruba religion, ancestors are crucial to the Yoruba world view because they are seen as : links between the mortal and the immortal gods. They can intervene on behalf of the mortals. However, in this play, the living characters neither recognise nor offer help to the Dead Man and the Dead Woman who have invited to the festivities. In fact, a number of characters say that the wrong people have been invited to the festival.  In fact, they reject them outright. This shows that the living characters are unable to distinguish between the good and the evil characters in history and that they do not  want to accept their contribution in the cycle of historical injustice. The brave warrior who fought against the tyranny of Mata Kharibu (who reappears as the Dead Man) and his helpless, pregnant wife (who reappears as the Dead Woman) can hardly be termed thieves and traitors. 

(b) The relation of tradition to history :- 

 By having the four living characters double as in the play-within-a-play in Part Two, Soyinka is perhaps saying that history repeats itself in the most distressing way. Human nature is only fitfully able to ameliorate itself, to learn from its own mistakes.

 The warrior and his wife who made the supreme sacrifice of their lives are not welcomed or celebrated in the new age--they are treated with suspicion or indifference or their identity is misrepresented. Madame Tortoise is a type of shallow and flirtatious woman who uses her sexual charms in a completely ruthless and self-seeking way- she is quite content to let men risk their lives trying to rescue canary from a rooftop. The absurdity of the request- canaries are birds and so have no need of being rescued from heights; a bird's life is far more important than a human being's- underlines the callousness of the character. Rola, among the living characters, displays the same self-seeking ways. She feels she is irresistible to all men-any man who resists her must necessarily be less than a man.

(C) The relation of the artist to society :- 

 In a number of Soyinka's plays there is an artist or a craftsman figure. In A Dance of the Forests this figure is Demoke. We are told that he is a carver (and in the court of Mata Kharibu he appears as a poet) -he has been responsible for carving the totem pole for the festival of the gathering of the tribes. Demoke has pushed his apprentice Oremole to his death from the top of the pole. This act has come about partly because of the vertigo Demoke feels once he climbs high. However, at the end Demoke pays the price for his deed by trying to save the Half-Child from Eshuoro. 

Question 2 :- Write a Proposed alternative end of the Play -  'A Dance of the Forests' by Wole Soyinka. 

Answer :-   □ Actual end of the Play 

 In "A Dance of the Forests" by Wole Soyinka, the play concludes with a symbolic dance of rebirth and renewal, celebrating the potential for positive change and transformation in society. The specific details of the ending can vary depending on the production and interpretation of the play, but it typically emphasizes themes of hope, renewal, and the possibility of a better future.

 It is like a celebration of the possibility for things to change for the better in society. Overall, it is about hope and the belief that we can make things better if we can work together. It is a hopeful and optimitic way to conclude the story, leaving the audience feeling inspired and uplifted. 

  □ Proposed Alternative end of the play :- 

 In an alternative ending to "A Dance of the Forests" by Wole Soyinka, the play could culminate in a moment of introspection and realization rather than a celebratory dance. As the characters confront the issues and conflicts presented throughout the play, they could come to understand the gravity of their situation and the urgency of taking action. Instead of a joyous conclusion, the ending could evoke a sense of somber determination, highlighting the challenges that still lie ahead and the sacrifices that may be necessary to bring about meaningful change.

In this alternative ending, rather than resolving all conflicts neatly, the characters might acknowledge that the journey toward transformation is ongoing and fraught with difficulties. There could be a sense of uncertainty about the future, tempered by a newfound resolve to confront injustice and oppression. The play could conclude with a powerful speech or exchange between characters, emphasizing the importance of unity, resilience, and perseverance in the face of adversity.

Ultimately, the alternative ending would leave the audience with a sense of urgency and a call to action, challenging them to reflect on the themes and messages of the play and consider how they can contribute to positive change in their own lives and communities. While it may lack the overt optimism of the original ending, this alternative conclusion would offer a more nuanced and thought-provoking perspective on the complexities of social transformation.

Conclusion :- 

The Play - A Dance of the Forests uses humour and irony to criticize the idea of contemporary society and dangers of avoiding or neglecting cultural heritage. This play is very much powerful that continues to inspire new generations and will teach also that how one can learn from his past and moves on in life. Along with that, Wole Soyinka's mastery of narrative technique is also very evident and thought-provoking in this powerful play.