The Swamp Dwellers

The Swamp Dwellers

By: Wole Soyinka

About Play

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

Play starts with the description of village which shows traditional side of the play.“A village in the swamps. Frogs rain and other noises. The scan is a hut on stilts, built on one of the scattered semifirm island in the swamp. The walls are marsh stakes plaited with hump ropes. Near the left down stage are the baskets he makes from the rushes which are strewn in front of him.”

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

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

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

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

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