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Finding libraries that hold this item You may have already requested this item. Please select Ok if you would like to proceed with this request anyway. As a consequence of the killing of many Northern leaders in the coup, riots erupted in the North with many Easterners being killed, and later the same year a group of Northern officers killed both the head of state and the governor. A military clash between Northern and Eastern regions now seemed inevitable.
In May , the governor of the East declared his region the Republic of Biafra, and about a week later, the armed conflict that was to last more than two years erupted between the federal government and Biafra. It was at the beginning of this conflict that Wole Soyinka spoke out for peace, and was jailed for the duration of the conflict.
He was not released until after the cease-fire had been declared following the defeat of the Biafrans on January 15th, A series of government changes throughout the following twenty years, including two military coups and several involuntary resignations, meant continuing political chaos in Nigeria.
After the sudden death of General Abacha, the man who pronounced the death sentence on Soyinka, in , civilian rule was restored and continues today. The ethnic variety in Nigeria is enormous. There are estimated to be between and distinct ethnic groups, with almost different language groupings.
However, the official language is English, and many university-educated families speak English in the home. The Ogoni number roughly , and live in an area no bigger than square kilometres in the River State in Nigeria. They live mainly off farming and fishing. In , Shell discovered oil in Ogoni. As Nigeria was still under British rule, the Ogoni had no say in the oil exploitation, and Shell quickly began their work.
When Ken Saro-Wiwa was tried and executed on spurious charges in November , the world was forced to react and Nigeria was immediately ousted from the Commonwealth. Nigeria is now enjoying a period of relative political calm. After years of military rule, however, corruption is not uncommon and faith in the government remains low. The strong traditions and styles of Yoruban theatre are very evident in The Lion and the Jewel.
The name "Yoruba" is of more recent origin than the concept. It was originally the Hausa name for the Oyo kingdom, meaning "the people of the state of Oyo", and was given a wider use by missionaries only in the s. Over the centuries their position between the Islamic north of Africa and the Atlantic Ocean in the Bight of Benin has meant that they were exposed to influences, opportunities and pressures coming variously from the ancient world of Greece and Rome, the Arab world, and the exploratory voyages of western European traders, missionaries and colonisers.
The Yoruba, over many centuries, developed a sophisticated society based on strong city- states, with a vibrant culture and important spiritual structures. They were traders and farmers, artists and inventors, extending their own influence well beyond their nominal ethnic boundaries. The Yoruba are not strictly one single ethnic group, but are formed from various individual cultures within a general Yoruba context. There were in the past frequent conflicts between the rival city-states, vying for economic and political power.
West Africa has always been the most populous part of the African continent, and though it is not possible to give an accurate figure of the contemporary Yoruba population, something in the region of 20 million would be a reasonable assumption.
Oduduwa founded the city of Ife when, having been sent down to earth by his father, he separated the dry land from the water. He eventually sent out princes to form settlements in the surrounding region. Although it was the pre-eminent city- state of the Yoruba between the 16th and 18th centuries, it was not the only one. The people of the City of Benin speak a closely related language. They also trace the ancestry of the institution of kingship to Ife.
The old Yoruba kingdom of Oyo was traditionally one of the largest states of West Africa, but after the mids its power slowly waned. The slave trade affected the Yoruba states as all other regions. All the states were either capturing slaves, dealing in slaves, suffering from the political instability which resulted from slave-raiding or becoming debilitated by the reduction in productive population, both male and female, which slave-raiding brought about.
The break-up of the Oyo Empire in the early 19th century destabilised surrounding states. In the second half of the 19th century the Yoruba gradually fell under British control, and they were under direct British administration from until Vestiges of Yoruba culture can still be found in Brazil and Cuba, where Yoruba were imported as slaves.
Yoruba Culture The Yoruba culture is communal, where the good of the community is traditionally more important than the good of the individual. The Yoruba value truthfulness, but not to the extent that it will harm the community. It is not considered prudent to be honest in a situation that will harm the communal good.
Seniority and rank in each community was structured predominantly by age, but also took into account if a person was native to the village and when they entered the community, for instance through marriage. Marriage and Polygyny Differing views abound on the positive and negative aspects of polygyny — the marrying of multiple wives - in traditional Yoruba society.
Since in many groups women do not have sex while pregnant or nursing, polygyny allows for a family to have more than one child every three years.
Included in polygynous practice is the tradition of widow inheritance, in which a man marries the widow of a deceased brother. This practice ensures that the woman and her children remain under the economic and social care of the family.
Economic and political prestige can be displayed through acquiring multiple wives, and thus kings, chiefs, and other wealthy personages may take many wives to boast their wealth, virility and power.
Women also enjoy prestige in the hierarchy of marriage. While a second or third wife holds higher status over a single woman, the first wife maintains the most privilege among the women in the family. Along with the social status provided by supervising other women in the household, the first wife benefits from the division of labour that polygyny provides.
With multiple wives to do the housework, the first wife may have more time for her own business, such as harvesting and selling yams, that she may have outside the home. Varied views on polygyny may be due to different reactions to the practice in each family.
The husband is careful in disbursing his resources to wives and children. He avoids excessive discrimination so as not to trigger too many rivalries among his wives and children. The senior wife enjoys some power over the younger ones. Where the system works, the women support one another in raising their children and managing their businesses.
Where it does not work, especially in modern times, the man may end up losing his wives. That the writer was having pure, unadulterated fun and intended for us to join in. Some years ago, I was working with a group of people in Nigeria, led by Wole Soyinka himself, on a series of satirical sketches which we called Before The Deluge.
In other words he wanted the piece to be just plain fun and enjoyment for the audience. Despite what other messages come through in The Lion and the Jewel, that same idea fun comes through very strongly. My own desire to partake in some of this fun was a major attraction for me. What kind of preparatory work have you done for rehearsals? I have been trying to get a notion of what has changed since those productions were done and how a more contemporary effort would address them.
So locking them in early for a shared vision is vital. A lot of the preparatory work is done in the dialogue between us all.
Could you describe a little about how you work in the rehearsal room? The rehearsals start with the auditions, which are generally done in groups like a workshop.
Actors are asked to dance, sing, improvise and read in a very ad hoc way. They are also introduced to a theatre game or two. There is a lot of discussion. He asks hard questions about racial attitudes, inter-ethnic and religious violence, the viability of nations whose boundaries were laid out by outsiders, African identity on the continent and among displaced Africans, and more.
Soyinka's exploration of Africa relocates the continent in the reader's imagination and maps a course toward an African future of peace and affirmation.
A masterwork of Tibetan Buddhism—providing the complete foundation for study and practice—from beginning to Buddhahood. Includes teachings on Buddha-nature, finding the spiritual master, impermanence, karma, cultivation of bodhicitta, development of the six perfections, the ten bodhisattva bhumis, Buddhahood, and the activities of the Buddha. Skip to content. The Lion and the Jewel. The Lion and the Jewel Book Review:.
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