Name:-
Zankhana .M.Matholiya
Roll.No:-36
Paper
No.-14- African Literature.
Class :-
M.A. Sem-4
Topic:- Use of Mythology in ‘Swamp Dwellers’
Enrollment
No:- 2069108420180036
College:-
Smt.S.B.Gardi Department of English
Email ID
:- zankhanamatholiya96@gmail.com
Ø Introduction :-
·
The
Swamp Dwellers is a play by Soyinka in which he has portrayed the real picture
of two sides that is tradition V/S Modernity. 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.
·
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.
·
Tradition:-
Tradition is a belief or behavior passed down within group or society with
symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. Makuri, Alu
and Igwezu are representation of tradition.
·
Modernity:-Modernity
typically refers to a past traditional post medieval, historical period one
marked by the money from feudalism toward capitalism, industrialism.
Secularization, rationalization, the nation state and its constituent
institutions and forms of surveillance. Awuchike and Desala are representation
of modernity.
·
In
African Literature we can see the tint of the fighting spirit as well as the
wish to return to the roots and tradition. As they were having cruel and bloody
past; they have hardly developed the understanding of literature. In the
literature the author talks about very small and basic matters such as
revolution, day to day life, rituals etc. In the s play ‘The Swamp Dwellers’,
Wole Soyinka talks abbot the urban and village life and compare and contrast of
it.
“nothing
rescues man from loss of self within this abyss but a titanic resolution of the
will.”
- Wole Soyinka
Ø Myths & literature:
·
In
ancient classical tradition of drama, the plots were based on rituals. But it
was never performed on stage. Myths are the stories which never die through
ages and rooted the society with the ancient culture of the time and place. In
literature they are woven in such a way that creates a different texture and
gives pleasure of belongingness to the reader. It’s also helpful to define the
social background in which the text has been emerged and how the society looks
back to the past.
·
myth is a re-enactment which uses figurative
language to effect certain significant past rituals in order to reproduce the
original efficacy of such rituals for present reality. And yet Isidore Okpewho
strongly suggests that for better insight into the nature and function of myth,
"we should take seriously the view that myth is literature and therefore a
matter of aesthetic experience and the imagination"
Ø Myth
in Soyinka’s Work:
·
To explain how African theatre can re-enact
African myth, Soyinka has written several essays dealing with the mythic
sources of Yoruba ritual. According to Soyinka's interpretation, Yoruba culture
separates the cosmos into the human world and the world of the deities. At the
same time, the human world itself contains manifestations of the ancestors, the
living, and the unborn. Soyinka believes this experience differs significantly
from the Western idea that individuals orient themselves in their world through
a sense of time as past, present, and future. In the Yoruba world, it is not
the individual's sense of time that counts, but rather a community's collective
sense that it has complex ties to the ancestral community and to the unborn
community. Myths are important for Soyinka in so far as it increases
understanding of or given dramatic forces o real human concerns and conflicts.
·
The Swamp Dwellers focuses 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. Soyinka's messiahs fail as revolutionaries or as heroes who
can lead their people out of chaos. Rather they succumb to it. Their failure is
compounded by the fact that they struggle alone as individuals to steer their
destiny out of tragedy. In this regard, Soyinka has effectively interpreted the
tragic reality of our contemporary world.
·
Here the text stands on the pillar of the
myths related to Ogun, Obatala and Yoruba.
Ø Myth
of Ogun:
·
Ogun is the God of Iron. He holds Iron blades
to unite Gods with humanity. At the end he started to kill his own people and
in drunken state creating chaos and lost him completely. Here one of the
brothers Igwezo, is the representater of the God Ogun.as he is the only Igwezu
had blade in his hand in the play. Obatala is Ogun;’s friend. As blind man is
the friend of Igwezu. When Ogun wants to explore the Earthfor living Obatala
Has helped him. Same way the land is unseen due to Swamp. There is a draught
and not a single bite of food is available. When Igwezu wants to toil the land
for grain, Blind man offer the help.’
·
There was a King Sango. He was dethroned by
his brother. His wife too, left him After realisation he left his palace as
looser man. With him he has his servent. But in the jungle he has hanged
himself. Igvazo is the man who is the symbol of failed youth of Yoruba
community. He connects the tradition with the modern colonized youth who strive
for new lives in the city and also wants to be connected with the roots. The two polars tries to meet. Igwezu is the man returned to village empty
handed. Same way in the end when Igwezu
has left the story, it is believed that he has lost his courage and commit
suicide. He told Blind man that ---
“the
swallows find their nest again when the cold in over”
·
Igwezu has lost his wife. His wife started
living with his brother Awuchike. He
came back to the village full of swamp. We can compare it with Jungle or
forest.A draught is there in the village. So feeling failure Igwezu left in the
end. When Igwezu walks off, the Beggar
explains that he will fulfill the function of Sango's one loyal companion: “I
shall be here to give account”.
·
Eldred Jones observes that human life
presents constant challenges and constant choices, and man has to thread his
way through all the contradictory alternatives. Soyinka prefers the personality
of the Yoruba God, Ogun, to express this thought. Ogun has always lived a life
amidst the challenges and the risks of wrong choices. It is after learning from
our experiences that we reach true wisdom.
Ø The
Yoruba Myth:
·
It is very famous myth of Yoruba community
about the twins. The mother of twins is considered as earthly Goddess Eden. The
birth of twins can be connected with the God Ibeji. The mother is respected and
twins are symbol of fertility. In the play there is a chacharacter named Alu
who gave birth to twins name Awuchike and Igwezu. She is strong and perfect
woman in the play as his husband Makuri used to say to her-
“There
wasn't a woman anywhere more faithful than you, Alu; I never had a moment of
worry in the whole of my life”
·
Here notiable thing is that for Soyinka,
“nothing rescues man ancestral, living or unborn from loss of self within this
abyss but a titanic resolution of the will” .It is dreadful to say that one of
the twins is died, if it is died. It is belief that twin has linked the another
twin. So instead of saying that they used to say that the twin went to market.
And they kept a wooden doll of that twin in the house.
·
Here when Awuchike went to the city and never
come back, Alu as frighten if he was died. But she never speaks about it. The
constant absence of Awuchike makes him present in the play throughout. Igwezu
once said that he is died for us…But Alu don’t want to say it but she says – “I
had another son before the mire drew him into the depths” . Althought the
brothers are quite mature for effects of myth, Makuri and Alu has fear about
it.
·
The portrayal of tragedy on the stage is done
through visual images and metaphor. The most striking tragic image is death. It
could be a spiritual death, a physical death or an emotional or mental death.
The causes of death may be many but the emotion that surges is one of grief and
anguish. Whether it is living with the age-old meaningless traditions of the
village or in the corrupted heartless city, it is the death of the spirit in
modern times. “Is it of any earthly use to change one slough for another?” asks
Igwezu. So the spiritual death and draught both are presented with myths.
Ø Myth
of Obatala:
·
As Ogun is the God of Iron, Obatala is the
God or creation. He has created human beings. Once he was drunk and created
deformed shaped human beings. Blind Bagger is the character who overpowers his
deformity and tried to help the villagers. He resembles the deformity and
mistakes of ancient God. Obatala is known for two great acts. In the beginning,
the earth was covered with water and swamp.
·
All the gods ignored the marshy earth, but
Obatala went to the supreme god, Olorun
also called Olodumare ,24 and volunteered to drain the marsh and make
solid land that could support life. Olorun agreed, and Obatala descended from
heaven and made land. But there were as yet no people to live there. So Obatala
took up his second great task. He reached into the wet clay and shaped the
human form, into which Olorun breathed life.
The
Beggar focuses on the “miles” of swamp before the sea, where, as Makuri warns
him, “you'll not find a human soul” (89), and he wishes, like Obatala, to
“redeem […] the swamp […] to drain the filth away and make the land yield”
(92). He is prevented only because Makuri and the Kadiye, deviating from the
principles of Olorun himself.
·
“Angel from the God,’ would probably correct
words for this character. His is a character that eclipses the importance of
the protagonist Igwezu as he is the guide and listener for Igwezu. For
villagers he speaks on behalf of Igwezu. “My faith promises me and I knew that
I was living but blind”.
·
But due to drunkard state the disability was
there So Obatala has special blessings for these deformed human beings. Obatala
have had Palm Vine then, but beggar refuses to have vine or any other alcoholic
drink. He is also the offspring’s of
Obatala. When other god comes they asks for the drum and other things while
Obatala never likes all. He is recognized from his white cloths only. Bagger
also has used the white cloth to wear. “He wears a long, tubular gown,
white, which comes below his calf”.It shows the purity and divinity.
Ø Conclusion
·
Thus use of myth makes this work very much
African in it’s tone. The Yoruba Myth is the famous Nigerian myth in Africa.
The tradition contained in Myths – universal truths – is directly hits the civilized
society. Return to the tradition and the quest of post colonization period is
seen it the work.
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