The Lion and the Jewel Summary (Gradesaver)

The play is set in the village of Ilunjinle, Nigeria. Sidi, a beautiful young woman also known as “The
Jewel," carries her pail of water past the school where Lakunle, the schoolteacher and a village outsider
with modern ideas, works. He approaches her and chastises her for carrying her water on her head and
stunting her shoulders; she is unfazed. Lakunle loves Sidi and wants to marry her, but he refuses to pay her
bride-price because he considers it an archaic tradition. Sidi does not love Lakunle; she finds him and his
ideas about making her a modern, Western bride obnoxious. However, she plans to marry him if he can pay
the price as the village traditions necessitate.

While Sidi and Lakunle are talking, several young women run up to Sidi and tell her that the stranger—a
photographer who visited the village some time ago—is back, and that he brought with him the magazine
that contained within it pictures of the village and villagers. Sidi occupies a central space and is stunningly
beautiful. Lakunle is dismayed to hear this, but Sidi glows with pride.

Sidi suggests the villagers act out and dance to the story of the stranger. She pushes Lakunle to participate
and act as the stranger, and the performance commences. The drummers and singers and actors play out the
arrival of the stranger and his camera. Lakunle gets into the spirit of the performance. As it goes on, the
Bale (i.e. head) of the village, Baroka—a.k.a. “the Lion"—arrives. He plays the role of the chief. Later that
day he stares at the pictures of Sidi and muses that he has not taken a wife for some time.

Sadiku, Baroka’s senior wife and head of the harem, finds Sidi and tells her that Baroka wants to take her
for a wife. She paints this as an incredible honor, but Sidi laughs that Baroka is old. She glories in her
photographs and says Baroka only wants her because she is so famous and has brought so much honor to
the village. Lakunle, who is jealously listening, excoriates Baroka as being against progress and modernity.

Sadiku returns to Baroka and gives him Sidi’s reply. He is calm at first but becomes distressed when she
tells him Sidi said he is old. He bemoans the fact that he is no longer virile, and tries to take comfort in the
elderly Sadiku’s gentle touch.

Sidi is standing and admiring her photos near the schoolhouse when Sadiku, cackling to herself and carrying
a bundle, arrives. Inside the bundle is a carved figure of the Bale. Sadiku looks at it and bursts into laughter,
exulting in how she and the women have undone him. Sidi is confused, and Sadiku whispers to her about
the Bale’s impotence.

Lakunle sees them talking and tries to learn what they are saying, but both women tell him to leave them
alone. Sidi announces she has a plan, and tells Sadiku that it would be wonderful if she could go to dinner
with the Bale and see him thwarted. Sadiku gleefully agrees, and Sidi bounds off. After she leaves, Sadiku
and Lakunle argue, with Lakunle telling Sadiku that his plans of modernity are what is best for the village.
The scene shifts to the Bale’s bedroom, where he is engaged in wrestling with a man hired for the purpose
of making him stronger. Sidi enters confidently, but the Bale’s dismissive attitude confuses her. She
pretends to ask his counsel on a man who wanted to marry her, describing the Bale instead.

As the Bale continues to wrestle, he criticizes Sidi for listening to Sadiku and being one of the vexing young
women of the village. He asks her if Sadiku invented any stories, and she says no. He pretends to complain
about Sadiku’s constant matchmaking. He does admire Sidi, though, for seeming much deeper and more
mature than how he once saw her.

Baroka confides in her his plan for a stamp machine that will have images of Ilunjinle on it, as well as of
Sidi herself. He ruminates more to himself that he does not hate progress but only bland similarity. He
admits he and the schoolteacher are not so different, and that they must work together.

The drums begin, and female dancers pursue a male. Sadiku and Lakunle wait for Sidi to return. Lakunle
is very nervous, and claims he will go rescue Sidi.

The mummers play in the distance, and Sadiku joyfully assumes the Bale has been brought down. She also
tells Lakunle he must pay the mummers for a performance or it would be rude. She grabs money from his
pocket and pays them; they dance out the story of Baroka and his downfall. Sadiku herself is invited to help
“kill” the Bale.

Suddenly Sidi runs in, sobbing. She throws herself to the ground. Lakunle is horrified and asks if she was
beaten. Sidi sobs that Sadiku was fooled: the Lion tricked her and was not impotent at all, so he raped Sidi
and took her virginity.

Lakunle announces he will still marry Sidi. She is perplexed and asks if this is true. He assents. However,
almost immediately when marriage preparations start, Lakunle becomes visibly distressed. He claims to
need more time.

Sidi laughs and says she is actually getting ready to marry Baroka, because it is the only thing she can do.
Sadiku blesses her and asks the gods for fertility.

The festivities begin, and even Lakunle seems to be getting into the spirit of things when he chases a young
woman who shakes her butt at him.

The Lion and the Jewel Summary and Analysis of "Morning"

Summary
The setting is a clearing on the edge of the market with a large “odan” tree; this is the village of Ilujinle’s
center. There is a bush school with children chanting arithmetic.
Sidi enters, carrying a pail on her head. She is slim and lovely. The schoolmaster, Lakunle, looks out the
window, then shuts it and comes outside to Sidi. He is 23 years old, dressed cleanly but in older clothes.
Lakunle tries to help Sidi with her pail, but she refuses. He admonishes her that she should not carry things
on her head because her neck will be squashed, but she retorts that he said he did not care about her looks
before. He agrees but says it is unwomanly to carry loads thusly. Also, he adds, she ought to cover her
shoulders because people look at her and lust after her.

Annoyed, Sidi replies that she has already fixed the fold on her dress and cannot do more or she wouldn’t
be able to move her arms. He asks if she does not care about the names or the jokes or the lusting of men.
Sidi replies that in reality everyone knows Lakunle is a madman and is full of words and curses; he is the
one people call a fool.

Lakunle is surprised, but claims he is above the taunts of savages. Sidi is furious and shakes her fists at him,
but he says this is natural because she has a smaller brain than he does. He is patronizing and adds that he
cannot be drawn into an argument with her because it goes over her head.

Sidi grabs for the pail he’d taken and tries to leave. Lakunle begs her not to be angry, because it is science
that says women are inferior to and weaker than men. Sidi asks if weak women are not the ones that pound
yams and plant millet. Lakunle explains that soon machines will do all this work for them. Sidi says this
turning her world upside down, but Lakunle sees it as turning it inside out. He will begin with Baroka, the
crafty Bale (leader of the village).

Sidi asks what Baroka has done to Lakunle, and he does not reply. He does say that he will make things as
they are in Lagos. Sidi tells him to go there.

Lakunle will not give Sidi the pail back until she agrees to marry him. He promises her that his love will
open her mind. It bothers him that she and the village trample his love with their ignorance.

Sidi is frustrated and says all Lakunle does is talk with no meaning. She will marry him, but he must pay
her bride-price or she will be a laughingstock: the village will say she was not a virgin. Lakunle calls this a
“savage custom, barbaric, out-dated, / Rejected, denounced, accursed, / Excommunicated, archaic,
degrading, / Humiliating, unspeakable, redundant. / Retrogressive, remarkable, unpalatable” (7). Sidi is
amused by all his words, but he continues that this is an ignoble custom. He wants a wife for love; he wants
a life-companion and an equal. She should not be his chattel or his property. She will be a modern wife,
and they will kiss in the street.

Sidi is disgusted, which wearies Lakunle. He calls her a “bush-girl” (9). She finds him and his words of
love mad, and sees why everyone thinks him to be a fool.

Suddenly young people and drummers enter. A girl tells Sidi that the stranger from the outside world with
the “one-eyed box” (10), a camera, is back. He brought all his images and the magazine. Sidi asks if she
has seen the book with the pictures of her in it. The man told her he’d “bestow upon [her] / Beauty beyond
the dreams of a goddess” (10). Another girl says she has seen it, but that Baroka is feasting his eyes on it.
She rhapsodizes that Sidi looks like the sun is her lover in one of the images.

The first girl says Baroka is jealous but pretends to be proud. He has a picture too, but the image is small
and near another picture of the village latrines. Sidi is struck that she is more esteemed than the Bale.

Lakunle is skeptical and bitter. Sidi laughs that, now that she is so famous, perhaps she does not need to
marry him. He is shocked, and she laughs that she is known to the world. She will break hearts now.
A gathering crowd cheers for the stranger and Sidi wildly suggests dancing the dance of this lost traveler.
She divvies up parts and tells Lakunle he has to be the stranger because he knows the outside world. He
does not want to do this because he sees this as foolishness, but Sidi forces him to.

The performance begins. Everyone chants and dances around Lakunle. Drummers join in. Four girls dance
as a motor-car, and Lakunle is in it. He pretends to drive; the car falters, and he swears. He abandons his
car and grabs his camera. The drums are darker. A snake and monkey menace the “stranger.” He drinks and
becomes tipsy. A girl begins to sing, and he looks for her so he can take her picture. He drunkenly stumbles
into the river. Sidi appears, and the people gather behind her as the villagers.

Suddenly Baroka appears and the performance stops. Lakunle tries to sneak off while the others kneel.
Baroka calls him back and says the performance should not stop; he says that he will play Chief Baseje.
Lakunle wonders aloud why Baroka has time for this foolishness; Baroka replies that his life would be dull
if he did not.

The play begins again with the villagers clamoring for punishment of the stranger because he took the
village maidenhood. The Chief intervenes and pacifies the villagers. Sidi is brought in; Lakunle, as the
stranger, takes pictures of her. He also drinks a great deal and becomes sick.

After the play ends, Sidi tells Lakunle he did a perfect job of playing the stranger, and that it was better
than teaching school.

Sidi then calls her friends to go with her to find the man and his book. They run off excitedly, bringing
Lakunle so he can talk to the man for them. Baroka muses he has not taken a wife in five months.

Analysis
The Lion and the Jewel is a funny, piquant, and deceptively simple play. With only a few characters and
three short acts corresponding to the morning, noon, and evening of a single day, it manages to compellingly
probe the conflict between modernity and tradition as it played out in post-colonial Nigeria.
Soyinka creates two memorable characters in this first act. Sidi is a beautiful but simplistic young woman,
narcissistically absorbed with her own image and the concomitant fame. She is lively and effervescent, and
though she is not particularly intelligent, she has a fierce spirit and feels free to tell her suitor Lakunle how
she feels about him. She will not compromise on the bride-price, is visibly angry at his patronizing
comments about the inferiority of women, and resists changing her behavior just for him. She clearly does
not love Lakunle, but at this point she is committed to marrying him if he pays the bride-price.

Lakunle is an extremely humorous character, his foibles and flaws blatantly on display. First, he extremely
arrogant and prideful. This manifests in the way he talks to Sidi and generally in his volubility. He
is always talking and trying to impress Sidi (and putatively the other villagers) with his words. When Sidi
teases him by asking why he stopped naming synonyms for “savage,” he earnestly replies, “I only own the
Shorter Companion / Dictionary, but I have ordered / The Longer One—you wait!” (7.) Sidi calls him out
on this, saying “You talk and talk and deafen me / With words which always sound the same / And make
no meaning” (7). Critic John Povey acknowledges this, noting “Lakunle’s language has the passionate
extravagance of semi-illiteracy and folly.” His view on his future with Sidi feature an “appalling, fatuous
lack of discrimination that males Lakunle a creature inviting ridicule.” Furthermore, as will become clear
when contrasted with the character of Baroka, Lakunle’s main problem “is his inability to separate the
reasonableness from the meretricious evidence of progressive change.”
Lakunle brazenly touts his own intelligence; he lambasts the village as ignorant and its customs as barbaric.
He indignantly tells Sidi he does not care if he is misunderstood “by you / And your race of savages” (3).
Second, he comes to the village with plans of turning it inside out and making it like Lagos, which does not
seem to be something that the villagers are interested in having happen. He seeks to overturn traditions in
the quest of modernity.

One of the more interesting things about Lakunle is his complicated views on women. On the one hand, he
is utterly retrogressive. He thinks it is “unwomanly” (2) for her to carry a pail and criticizes her for wearing
revealing clothing. He tells her, “as a woman, you have a smaller brain / Than mine” and “The scientists
have proved it. It’s in my books. / Women have a smaller brain than men / That’s why they are called the
weaker sex” (4). He does not want to engage in an argument with her because she can “no longer draw me
into arguments / Which go above your head” (4). On the other hand, he espouses very modern views. He
deems the bride-price a retrogressive and savage custom and claims to want “an equal partner in my race
of life” (8) rather than a wife to merely cook and clean. He paints a picture of walking next to her in the
street and kissing like a modern couple. For him, this is “civilized romance” (9). As critic Mumia Abu-
Jamal writes, “It is this self-loathing, this colonized distortion of vision, that cools Sidi, who sees in this
Westernized young man, naught but an educated fool.”

The Lion and the Jewel Summary and Analysis of "Noon"

Summary
Sidi walks into the market, utterly engrossed by her pictures in the magazine. Lakunle follows behind
her. Sadiku, an old woman and the Bale’s chief wife, comes to meet them. She tells Sidi she wanted to see
her and that the Lion (Baroka) wishes her well.
Sidi babbles on about her photos, but Sadiku tells her she has important news: Baroka wants her as a wife.
Lakunle bounds forward and interrupts angrily. He kneels and begs Sidi not to listen to Sadiku.

Annoyed, Sidi tells Lakunle that she is beautiful and must be left alone. She will not, though, acquiesce to
being one of Baroka’s wives. Sadiku tells her that she ought to reconsider because such wifehood is a life
of bliss. Baroka will die soon, and Sidi, as the last wife, will be the senior wife of the new Bale. She will
also be the favorite. Sadiku knows this from experience: she has been the senior wife for the last forty-one
years.

Sidi tells Sadiku she is wasting her time. Baroka only wants her now since her pictures came out and her
worth multiplied above his own. He seeks only fame in his desire to posses her, the jewel of Ilujinle.

Sadiku is shocked at her words and asks if Sidi does not hear the strangeness of them. She then yells at
Lakunle that this is his doing. Sidi tells her to desist, and that she made up her own mind—Baroka is old.

Sidi looks lovingly at her own picture, praising her skin and breasts and wondering why no one said
anything about them before. Lakunle offers that he would have, but did not think it was appropriate.

Sidi ignores him and dreams to herself. She knows there is a message in her eyes beckoning men to doom.
She is so much younger than Baroka. Her face glistens, while his is a leather piece like a horse’s saddle.
She is young and alive, while he is spent; she is a jewel and he is a lion’s ass.

Sadiku is still horrified, but says Sidi should come to dinner at the house because there is a feast in her
honor. Her face in the magazine has brought fame to the people of Ilujinle.

Sidi scoffs that she does not eat with married men, and that she knows about these suppers. Sadiku tells her
that what she has heard are only rumors: not all women who dine with Baroka become his concubines.

Lakunle begins to talk loudly, telling the women how Baroka thwarted the Public Works project to build a
railway through the village. His father told him this. Sidi begs to hear the story.
Lakunle explains that prisoners were brought in to do work. He conjures up a picture of the past. In the
picture, a white surveyor idly watches the men work. A foreman tells the workers what to do. The men
mark the route with stakes. This will be “Trade / Progress, adventure, success, civilization, / Fame,
international conspicuousity” (24) all within the grasp of Ilujinle. However, a bullroarer then sounds loudly
and the men are frightened. The Bale arrives with his attendants. He bribes the surveyor with money and
goods, and the track no longer will go through the village.

Lakunle rails that Baroka loves his life too much to part from it, and that he fears civilization brought by
roads and railways. The two women slip away. Lakunle wonders to himself if he does not envy Baroka for
his many wives, but then says that he does not: he only wants one woman.

Baroka is in bed in his luxurious room. His current favorite wife is plucking hairs from his armpit. He talks
about wanting to take another wife, and criticizes her when the plucking hurts too much.

Sadiku enters. Baroka sends the favorite away, and asks if Sadiku has brought balm for him. Sadiku tells
him Sidi wants nothing to do with him. He is not bothered, but when Sadiku tells him Sidi said he was old,
he becomes distressed. He bursts out with descriptions all the things he has done to prove his strength and
virility, but then he tells Sadiku to come comfort him.

Sadiku tickles Baroka's feet when he lies down. He looks at the pictures in the magazine and sighs that
maybe this is for the best. She asks what he means, and he says there would be jeers and scorn if he took
Sidi: his manhood (i.e. virility) ended about a week ago. She is surprised and he continues, saying he wanted
Sidi in the foolish hope of saving his pride. He pandered to his vanity and now he is “withered and unsapped,
the joy / Of ballad-mongers, the aged butt / Of youth’s ribaldry” (29).

Suddenly Baroka reminds Sadiku that he has told no one else this, and she should say nothing. He knows
he is irritable, but he feels that this is unfair because he is only sixty-two. Why should he have to give up
his wives at this young age?

Baroka ruminates on how he has felt the rough hands of women, the dainty hands of women, and the light
hands of women. It is Sadiku’s plain hands though, that “Encase a sweet sensuality which age / Will not
destroy” (31). To him, she is the queen of them all.

Analysis
Sidi is still self-absorbed and Lakunle is still blustering and obnoxious, but now there are two new characters
to consider: Sadiku and Baroka. In this act, Sadiku’s true characteristics are not yet known, so at this point
she is just the elderly, senior wife of the Bale who encourages Sidi to join the harem to experience untold
amounts of bliss and comfort. She appears to love the Bale and her role in the household, and she comforts
him when she learns the unfortunate news of his impotency.

Baroka is a far more complex figure, even at this early stage. According to Lakunle, Baroka stymied the
plans for the railway because he did not want civilization to disrupt his comfortable life. He is clever and
witty, as well as boastful and self-indulgent; he also demonstrates a keen understanding of his own
shortcomings. However, he does not see women as people: he views them more as his possessions. He
seems to only want Sidi now that she has attracted a wider fame. As critic John Povey writes, “it is
apparently only after Sidi’s exposure as a local beauty in the national magazine that he recognizes what a
catch she is. Perhaps he is as much impressed by her new importance as by her charms as a woman.”

Sidi, though, is not interested. To her, the Bale is the past; he is aged and outmoded. She seems to embrace
the modern, as exemplified in the camera that took her photo. Povey notes, “while the power of the Bale is
beleaguered by contemporary change, hers has been established by the very elements of technology that
the Bale has urgently fought.”

Sidi is caught between the modern and traditional. In fact, it is possible to see the play as an allegory, with
Sidi as Nigeria, Lakunle as the modern/Western, and Baroka as the traditional. Sidi finds the Bale old, but
she also finds Lakunle’s views on marriage disturbing. She insists Lakunle pay the bride-price, but she
exults in her newfound, modern fame as a model. She knows she must marry, but she prefers to indulge in
her image and celebrity.

One of the components of the text is its evocation of the Yoruba religion (see the “Other” section in this
study guide). The Yoruba represents the traditional, whereas Christianity represents the Western; it is no
surprise that when Lakunle seeks to praise Sidi’s beauty, he compares her to biblical women like Bathsheba
and Rachel. Critic Nadia Maher Ibrahim Moawad notes that Soyinka expresses his belief in the moral order
of the Yoruba. Within the Yoruba cosmology are “three worlds of the unborn, of the living, and of the
ancestors that can coexist and communicate through a principle of transformation. The Yoruba worldview
considers that good and evil coexist naturally in a dual unity that makes the balance and harmony possible.”
This manifests itself in the contradictory views of Lakunle and Baroka, ultimately summed up in Baroka’s
admittance to Sidi that he and the schoolteacher have a lot to learn from each other. As will be clear by the
end of the play, Soyinka does not come down firmly on the side of either the traditional/modern divide;
rather, he acknowledges the merits and flaws of both and tries to suggest ways in which to navigate their
relationship.

The Lion and the Jewel Summary and Analysis of "Night"

Summary
Sidi is standing and admiring her photos as before. Sadikufurtively carries in a bundle and takes an object
out of it. It is a small statue of the Bale, and she begins to laugh at it. She exults that women have taken
down the mighty Lion. She notices Sidi and tells her about this battle that has been won. When Sidi hears
what happened regarding Baroka’s virility, she also laughs uproariously.
Lakunle hears them and comes over, asking what they are talking about. Sadiku’s jokes clue him in, and he
is shocked.
Sidi suddenly says she has an idea: she will go to the palace for the supper Baroka invited her to, and then
she will delight in thwarting him because he cannot have her anymore. Sadiku is excited by this, and tells
her to look bashful and repentant.

Lakunle begs them not to torment the man, and warns that he may turn violent against her.

After Sidi leaves, Sadiku scoffs at Lakunle that it is absurd to think he can have a girl like that. Sadiku asks
if he has paid the bride-price for her and he tells her to mind her own business. She responds that he wants
to get rid of that.

Lakunle boasts that in a few years the whole village will be transformed. There will be cars, new goods, a
modern park, newspapers, and cocktail parties. Sadiku stares at him in terror. He smiles. He tells her she
must embrace this and start going to his school with the twelve-year-olds. Her mind is unformed, and she
must change.

In Baroka’s bedroom, the Bale wrestles with another man. The contest is balanced. Sidi enters, admiring
the room. Baroka continues to wrestle; he asks her if there was no one to stop unwanted strangers from
entering his house. Sidi is surprised.
Baroka starts to act a bit friendlier towards her, but he asserts that it annoys him when young women are
spiteful or forward.

Sidi claims she has come as a repentant child; her earlier message was thoughtless. Baroka acts
indifferently, and she becomes upset. Finally he tells her that she is too quick to be aggrieved. She then
decides to move forward with her mission, saying that she thought the Bale's favorite was a gentle woman.
She teases that maybe the favorite was dissatisfied with her husband. Baroka looks at her and asks if she
really thinks he has time to care about women’s spite.

Baroka’s change of mood unnerves Sidi, but then he tells her to sit and try not to make him feel like a
humorless elderly man. She sits and watches the contest.

Sidi comments that she thinks the other man will win. Baroka says the other man must win, because he only
fights against people who can make him stronger; when Baroka can win, he will find a new wrestler. He
adds that he also changes wives when he tires of them.

Sidi thinks of a new strategy. She tells Baroka a woman spoke to her that afternoon and brought a message
from a suitor. Baroka tells Sidi that many men must want to “build their loft to fit your height” (43). Irritated,
she says yes, and that this man had many lofts. She asks Baroka if he would pay the bride-price for her,
were he her father. He replies that he must know more about the man.

A series of questions ensues. Baroka asks if the man is rich; Sidi says it is rumored that he is. He asks if he
is repulsive; she says he is old. She then mentions a scandal of Baroka regarding snuff and he breaks, angrily
saying that this was misunderstood, throwing his wrestling opponent at the same time. Sidi gleefully laughs
and dances.

The questioning game continues, with Baroka asking if the man is wise, can beget children, etc. Sidi says
he could once beget children, but cannot anymore. He smiles that perhaps maybe he is husbanding his
strength. She giggles.

Baroka seems to be speaking to himself for a bit, complaining about Sadiku and the daring little girls of the
town who vex him. He knows he is growing ill-tempered.

Baroka turns to Sidi and asks if Sadiku invented some tale when she spoke to Sidi. Sidi denies this. He
sighs that Sadiku always plays matchmaker without his permission. His life is not terrible, as Sidi wonders,
but he grows tired of women’s immodesty.

Baroka hands Sidi an addressed envelope and asks her if she knows what the red piece of paper in the corner
is. She says it is a stamp, and he asks if she knows what it means. He goes to a strange machine and pulls
the lever up and down. He tells her to come over to it, and explains that while the machine is not working
properly now, he will figure it out; the village of Ilunjinle will have its own tax on paper.

He asks what she thinks about the bridge in the stamp's image, then explains there will be many more
images, including even Sidi’s visage. She drowns in this glorious contemplation. He softly tells her, “I hope
you will not think it too great / A burden, to carry the country’s mail / All on your comeliness” (51).

Baroka begins to ruminate out loud. He comments that he does not hate progress; he only hates “its nature
/ Which makes all roofs and faces look the same” (52). This sameness disgusts him. Sidi is listening
bewilderedly. He continues, saying that they are two different generations but they will unite in the stamp
with her face on it. She tells him he speaks ambiguously like the schoolteacher does. His words are like
beetles jumping at her ears, and she says that, sadly, she has a simple mind.
Baroka pats Sidi and says her mind is straight and truthful. He admits that he and Lakunle are a great deal
alike and must learn from each other. The old and new must join; old wine thrives in new bottles. Sidi
seems overcome. Her head drops on his shoulders.

As the scene shifts, a troupe of dancers files in. Female dancers pursue a male dancer. Lakunle and Sadiku
are waiting for Sidi’s return. Lakunle is very nervous and assumes that either Baroka has killed her or that
she is languishing in a dungeon. He plans to risk his life to save her, even though she little deserves it.

The mummers can be heard in the distance. Sadiku tells Lakunle he ought to pay for a performance. Lakunle
refuses, but when the mummers come by Sadiku grabs money from his pocket and gives it to them.

The mummers dance the story of Baroka. It first depicts him in his prime, but then shows his downfall.
Sadiku is given the honor of participating and “killing” him. Lakunle enjoys the performance against his
will.

Sidi suddenly comes running in, sobbing. She will not let Sadiku touch her, and Lakunle assumes she has
been beaten. Sidi lifts her head and calls them both fools, telling them the Bale lied to Sadiku and is more
cunning than they knew. It was a trick: he knew Sadiku would not keep the story of his impotence to herself.

Lakunle is horrified and asks if she is still a maid. Sidi shakes her head no. Sadiku shrugs and says this
happens to the best of us.

Lakunle recoils, but then stands tall. He says his love is selfless and he will still marry Sidi. He also does
not need to pay the bride-price anymore, because she is not a maid. Sidi looks at him, puzzled. She asks if
he would still marry her; when he says yes, she darts away.

Sadiku tells Lakunle, who feels like he is making a noble sacrifice, that Sidi is getting things ready for the
wedding. Lakunle is a bit confused and replies that there ought to be no hurry. They need to do things right;
he cannot be unmarried one day and married the next. He even begins to think that he is being bamboozled
into marriage.

A crowd and musicians arrive, and Sidi enters. She is lovely and clothed in rich garb. She hands Lakunle
the magazine; she says she tried to rip it up but was not strong enough. She invites him to come along to
the wedding, which confuses him. She says, surprised, that he surely cannot think she was going to marry
him. She cannot ever endure the touch of another man after Baroka. Now she has felt strength and zest, so
why would she “choose a watered-down…beardless version of unripened man?” (63.) Lakunle tries to stand
in her way, but she pushes him away.

Sidi kneels before Sadiku, who blesses her fertility. The musicians play and sing. The air is festive, and a
young girl shake her buttocks at Lakunle. He runs after her.

Analysis
The third act of the play, “Night,” is certainly full of surprises (some more surprising than others). Sadiku
is not the loving, dutiful wife she initially presented herself as; Baroka is not opposed to progress as Lakunle
insinuated; Baroka’s tale of impotence was a ruse, and he seduces Sidi; Sidi decides to marry Baroka; and
Lakunle seems to rapidly forget about Sidi. Soyinka demonstrates a plethora of wit and irony as he engages
with the larger theme of tradition vs. modernity.

Baroka the Lion is able to get his Jewel due to several factors: his vacillating temperament that destabilizes
her confidence; his subtle compliments; and his impressing her with the stamp machine that would
putatively issue stamps with her visage on them. As Sidi is a veritable Nigerian Narcissa, this allows her to
relax her guard and to sink into the warmth of her pride. Of course, it should be clear that Baroka is a
lascivious old man who lies and deceives in order to rape Sidi, something that is rightly very difficult for
audiences to come to terms with.

However, Baroka is clever, witty, and even poetic at times; Soyinka gives the audience many things to like
about him. The fact that Lakunle is such an obnoxious rival for Sidi’s affections also helps to promote
Baroka over him. Critic Robert Willis writes, “the winning of Sidi by the Bale is logical and right. His
concern is for life; Lakunle’s is for rhetoric. Lakunle plans to ‘civilize’ her by marrying her, without
considering Sidi’s own feelings and desires. The expectations of reformer Lakunle are stifled in the face of
the Bale’s cunning and expertise. Lakunle’s own follies result in his loss of Sidi.” One of the more amusing
Lakunle moments is when he comments that at least he doesn’t have to pay the bride-price, because one
should never compromise their principles: obviously, the truth is that he is selfishly relieved that he does
not have to pay money.

As stated above, Baroka’s views on progress are not as black-and-white as Lakunle made them out to be.
Yes, he is polygamous, he tricks Sidi so he can rape her, and he did divert the railway away from Ilujinle
so his life would not be affected; however, he does not “hate progress, only its nature / Which makes all
roofs and faces look the same” (53). He asks Sidi if this “sameness does not revolt your being” (53). He
uses a metaphor of a skin of progress covering “the spotted wolf of sameness” (53). He is willing to learn
from the schoolteacher and claims that “the old must flow into the new” and “old wine thrives best / Within
a new bottle” (54). Even though they are also slyly sexual puns that are meant to go over Sidi’s head, these
comments make the Bale a much more nuanced character.

What the Bale is proposing is modernization, but modernization on African terms. He does not see the need
for progress-for-progress’s-sake. Critic Mumia Abu-Jamal sees Soyinka suggesting “that Western learning
is out-of-synch with village life, and is impotent. For Lakunle, his ‘learning’ reflects an alienating distance
from village life and from their perspective, so much foolishness.” John Povey agrees, saying the play’s
satire “is directed at the sacred cause of progress and change and not as might be anticipated at the stubborn
reaction exemplified by the old chief. in short, this ridicule is not, as is common, directed against
conservatism and age but against the follies implicit in change.” The past can be valid when it contains
elements of social continuity, and change ought to respond to the past, not challenge and combat it. J.Z.
Kronenfeld asserts a similar conclusion, claiming that the play seeks to expose self-seeking and
inconsistency in all characters and “shows how people use ‘traditional’ for ‘modern’ purposes, and the
‘modern’ for traditional purposes, in accordance with universal human motivations of pride, power, and
sex, rather than out of loyalty to an abstraction such as ‘tradition,’ or even primarily out of religious or
moral conviction.” The binaries of traditional and modern, Kronenfeld warns, “may be rather meaningless
and indeed misleading ready-made categories to use in the analysis of modern African literature.”

One final thing to consider: why does Sidi marry Baroka? On the surface it seems like it is because he took
her virginity. She also says that he is strong and manly and Lakunle is a “watered-down… beardless version
of unripened man” (63). He is also more deeply connected to her background, her village, and her
worldview. Sadiku, for all her cunning, also genuinely seems to like being part of the Bale’s group of wives,
and Sidi may be influenced by the older woman’s assertions of power and harmony.

The Lion and the Jewel Summary (Litchart)

The play begins as Sidi, the village belle of Ilujinle, enters the square with a pail of water balanced on her
head. Lakunle, the western-educated schoolteacher, sees her, runs from his classroom, and takes Sidi's pail.
He berates her for carrying loads on her head and not dressing modestly, and she retaliates by reminding
Lakunle that the village calls him a madman. Sidi grows angry as Lakunle tells her that women are less
intelligent than men because of their small brains. He says that soon the village will have machines to do
all the hard work and he describes the beauty of Lagos, which is an entirely modern city. Lakunle refuses
to give Sidi her pail of water back until she agrees to marry him and he offers a number of flowery lines
that describe his intense love for her. Sidi reminds him that she'd marry him any day if he'd agree to pay
the bride price. Lakunle deems this barbaric and refuses. He grabs Sidi and tells her how wonderful their
modern marriage will be. When he kisses her, Sidi is disgusted. Though Lakunle insists that he loves Sidi
and that kissing is something normal for modern couples, Sidi replies that kissing is only a way to avoid
paying the bride price. She calls Lakunle mad.

A group of young villagers enter the square and tell Sidi that the stranger returned to the village with a
magazine of images. Sidi excitedly asks if the stranger made Sidi as beautiful as he said he would, and the
girls tell her he did. They say that Baroka, the village Bale, is still looking at the images and is jealous of
Sidi, though he pretends to be proud of her. Another girl says that Baroka appears in the magazine as well,
but his image is very small and shows him next to the latrines. Upon hearing this, Sidi declares that she's
more powerful than Baroka and has no reason to marry Lakunle.
"My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." -Graham S.
Sidi suggests that they dance the dance of the "lost traveler." She assigns parts to the villagers and forces
Lakunle to play the part of the stranger. Despite his initial unwillingness to participate, Lakunle throws
himself fully into the dance. The rest of the villagers dance while Lakunle performs realistic miming of
driving a car, drunkenly wandering through the jungle, and discovering Sidi in the river. Suddenly, Baroka
joins the dance and the action stops as the villagers kneel and bow to him. Lakunle tries to leave, but Baroka
insists he stay and they continue the dance. Baroka instructs his attendants to seize Lakunle/the stranger,
but he then takes pity on the stranger and sets out a feast in his honor. The stranger takes photographs of
the village and is especially entranced by Sidi and her dancing. The dance ends when the stranger vomits.
Sidi and the villagers chase Lakunle towards the actual stranger so he can translate for them, and Baroka
muses that he hasn't taken a new wife in five months.

Later that day, Sidi and Lakunle walk down the road. Lakunle carries a bundle of firewood, while Sidi is
engrossed in the photographs of herself in the magazine. Baroka's first wife, Sadiku, startles Sidi. Sadiku
tells Sidi that Baroka wants to marry her, which makes Lakunle angry. He tells Sidi not to listen, but Sidi
insists that she's very powerful now that the stranger has brought her images to the village. Sadiku insists
that if Sidi marries Baroka, she'll be very powerful—when Baroka dies, she'll be the new head wife. Sidi
refuses and says that Baroka only wants to possess her beauty and keep it for himself. Sidi opens the
magazine, shows the photographs to Sadiku, and laments that nobody ever complimented Sidi on her
breasts. She calls Baroka old and leathery. Sadiku is shocked, but she invites Sidi to come to Baroka's for
a feast anyway. Sidi laughs and says that the women who attend the suppers become wives or concubines
the next day. Lakunle inserts himself into the conversation and says that Baroka is called "the fox" for a
reason. He describes how Baroka paid off a foreman to reroute a railway away from Ilujinle, thereby
robbing Ilujinle of the ability to modernize. He loses himself in thought and muses about how wonderful
Baroka's life of luxury with so many wives must be. Sidi and Sadiku slip away.

In Baroka's bedroom, his favorite wife plucks the hairs from his armpit. He tells her that he's going to take
a new wife soon and she plucks the hairs harshly. Sadiku enters the bedroom and Baroka sends his favorite
away. Sadiku tells her husband that Sidi refused his offer of marriage because of his age. Angry, Baroka
lists his achievements of the past week. He lies down, asks Sadiku to rub his feet, and picks up a copy of
the magazine. He suggests that it might be for the best, as his manhood ended the week before. Sadiku cries,
and Baroka tells her that she cannot tell anyone of this secret.
That evening, Sidi continues to admire the photographs in the village square. Sadiku enters the square, pulls
out a carved figure of Baroka, and laughs. She begins a chant of "take warning my masters/we'll scotch you
in the end" and dances around the figure. Sidi, shocked, approaches Sadiku and demands to know what's
going on. Sadiku swears Sidi to secrecy and whispers in her ear. Sidi is overjoyed and joins in the dance.
Lakunle enters the square and watches the women for a moment before deeming them crazy. Sidi suddenly
stops and says she wants to taunt Baroka. She decides to go to him, ask forgiveness, and torment him.
Sadiku gives her blessing and Sidi runs off.

Lakunle calls the women foolish. Sadiku tells Lakunle he's unattractive and reminds him that he could
marry Sidi soon if he paid the bride price. When Sadiku laughs about Lakunle's wish to modernize the
village, he insists that she come to school with the children so she can learn to do something besides collect
brides for Baroka.

When Sidi enters Baroka's house, he's engaged in a wrestling match with his wrestler. Baroka is annoyed
that nobody was there to greet Sidi and keep her out of his bedroom, and he explains that his servants take
Sundays off now that they've formed a union. Sidi asks Baroka for forgiveness for her hasty reply. He
pretends to not know what she's talking about, throwing Sidi off guard. Sidi asks after Baroka's favorite
wife and asks if she was somehow dissatisfied with her husband. Baroka insists he has no time to consider
his wives' reasons for being unhappy, which scares Sidi. Baroka asks her to sit down and not make him feel
old.

Sidi says that the wrestler will win. Baroka explains that the wrestler must win, as Baroka only fights men
who challenge him and he changes wrestlers when he learns how to beat them. Similarly, he takes new
wives when he learns how to tire the old ones. Sidi tells Baroka that someone brought her an offer of
marriage earlier that day and asks Baroka if he'd consent to allow her to marry this man if he were her
father. She describes Baroka and answers his questions about her suitor in such a way as to offend Baroka.
Baroka throws his wrestler and Sidi celebrates Baroka's victory. The men begin to arm wrestle and Baroka
resumes his line of questioning about Sidi's suitor. Sidi insults Baroka's virility. Baroka wins the match
again and sends his wrestler away. He sits down next to Sidi and laments how old he's becoming. He asks
if Sadiku invented a story for Sidi, saying that Sadiku is constantly finding new women for him to marry.

Baroka pulls out the magazine and an addressed envelope. He asks Sidi if she knows what the stamp is.
Sidi does; she says it's a tax on "talking with paper." Baroka motions to a machine in his bedroom and says
he wants to use it to print stamps for Ilujinle with Sidi's face on them. Sidi loses herself in this dream, and
Baroka explains that he doesn't hate progress, he hates the sameness that progress brings. He tells Sidi that
the two of them are very alike and they fit together perfectly. Sidi wonders if she's dumb like Lakunle says
she is, but Baroka says she's simply truthful. He insists that the old and the new must embrace each other
as Sidi's head falls onto his shoulder.

In the market that night, Lakunle and Sadiku wait for Sidi to return. A group of mummers passes them and
Sadiku suggests they've heard about Baroka. She steals money from Lakunle's pockets and pays the
mummers. They dance the story of Baroka's downfall, and Baroka is portrayed as a comical character.
Sadiku herself gets to dance the final "scotching" of Baroka.
Sidi runs into the market crying. Both Sadiku and Lakunle try to comfort her, but she won't let them. She
says that Baroka tricked them and she's no longer a virgin. Lakunle is angry for a moment, but then says he
still wants to marry Sidi and no longer has to pay the bride price. Sidi runs away. Lakunle sends Sadiku
after her to find out what she's doing. Sadiku returns and says that Sidi is dressing herself like a bride, and
Lakunle insists that he can't get married immediately.

The dancers and Sidi re-enter the square. Sidi is beautiful. She offers Lakunle the magazine and invites him
to the wedding. He insists that he must be invited, since he's the groom. Sidi laughs and says she'd never be
able to marry him after experiencing Baroka. She asks the musicians to play music while she walks to
Baroka's house and the dance begins. A young girl dances suggestively at Lakunle, and he chases after her.
Themes
Tradition vs. Modernity
The Lion and the Jewel was written and first performed the year before Nigeria was granted its
independence from Great Britain, and the script was published two years after independence. As such, one
of the primary conflicts of the play pits traditional Yoruba customs against a western conception of progress
and modernity, as represented by the conflict between Baroka and Lakunle for Sidi's hand in marriage.

Lakunle represents the modern Nigerian man. He wears western clothing, has been educated in a
presumably British school, and wants to turn his village into a modern paradise like the city of Lagos.
Lakunle doesn't just admire and idolize western society; he actively and loudly despises the traditional
customs of his village and the people who support them. This is best illustrated by Lakunle's refusal to pay
Sidi's bride price. Sidi indicates that she'd marry Lakunle any time if he'd only pay the price and observe
local custom. Lakunle's refusal shows that it's more important to him to convert Sidi to his way of thinking
and turn her into a "modern wife" than it is for him to marry her in the first place.

For much of the play, other characters describe Baroka as being directly opposed to modernity and
extremely concerned with preserving his village's traditional way of life. Lakunle, in particular, finds
Baroka's lifestyle abhorrent. He describes how Baroka paid off a surveyor to not route train tracks through
the outskirts of Ilujinle, thereby robbing the village of a link to the modern world that would modernize the
village. However, when Baroka himself speaks, it becomes apparent that he doesn't actually hate modernity
or progress. While he obviously delights in the joys and customs of village life, when it comes to modernity
he simply hates having it forced upon him. He sees more value in bringing modern customs to the village
on his own terms. For example, he argues that creating a postal system for the village will begin to bring it
into the modern world without entirely upending the village's way of life. Further, when he does talk about
modern ideas that were forced upon him, such as his servants forming a union and taking Sundays off, his
tone is resigned rather than angry—he sees it as inevitable and annoying, but not bad.

The competition between Baroka and Lakunle for Sidi’s hand in marriage brings the conflict between
tradition and modernity to life. Baroka wishes to add Sidi to his harem of wives, while Lakunle dreams of
having one wife who, in theory at least, is his equal. Both men promise Sidi a different version of power
and fulfillment. When Baroka dies, Sidi will become the head wife of the new Bale, a position that would
make her one of the most powerful women in the village. Lakunle, on the other hand, offers Sidi the
possibility of an equal partnership in which she's not required to serve her husband as is traditional.
However, the way Lakunle talks to and about Sidi indicates that agreeing to marry Lakunle and embracing
modernity won't necessarily be better for her, as modern science provides Lakunle specious evidence that
women are weaker and less intelligent than men. Sidi recognizes that Lakunle's idea of modernity might
not improve her life; in fact, it might mean that she would have less power and fewer rights than she would
have in a traditional marriage.

Baroka's actions (and the fact that he triumphs in the fight for Sidi's hand) suggest that while Lakunle may
be right that Ilujinle will indeed need to join the modern world, modernization and the outright rejection of
local custom simply for the sake of doing so are foolish goals that benefit nobody. Instead, Baroka's triumph
suggests that progress must be made when and where it truly benefits the village and its inhabitants.
Men vs Women
The Lion and the Jewel focuses on the competition to win Sidi's hand in marriage, which makes the play,
in a sense, a battle of the sexes. As such, the play asks a number of questions about the nature of each sex's
power: why men or women are powerful; how they became powerful in the first place; and how they either
maintain or lose that power.

The men who fight for Sidi see her only as a beautiful prize to be won; Baroka and Lakunle value Sidi for
no more than her beauty and her virginity. Meanwhile, the men in The Lion and the Jewel are valued by
others (and value themselves) based on what they can do or have already done. Lakunle, for example, values
himself because he's educated and he seeks to bring education, modernity, and Christianity to Ilujinle, and
Baroka’s value derives from his role as the Bale of Ilujinle and his responsibilities to keep his people safe
and build his image by taking many wives and fathering children.

To both Baroka and Lakunle, Sidi is a jewel—a valuable object capable of teasing and annoying the men,
but an object nonetheless. Lakunle wants Sidi to marry him so he can better perform modernity by taking
a modern wife, one who wears high heels and lipstick. Similarly, Baroka wants Sidi to be his wife and
complete his harem. While it's unclear whether or not Baroka will keep his promise that Sidi will be his
final wife, she too will be the jewel of his wives. To both men, then, marriage to Sidi is a status symbol and
an indicator of their power, virility, and the superiority of their respective ways of life (modern versus
traditional). Further, the end of the play suggests that what Lakunle wants from Sidi (a modern wife to make
him seem more modern) doesn't even require Sidi specifically; by immediately turning his attention to the
next woman who dances at him, Lakunle indicates that while Sidi may have been an appealing prize, he
can accomplish his goal of having a modern wife by marrying any woman up to the task. This reduces
women in general to objects who must simply play a part in the lives of their husbands.

The idea of reducing people with little power to objects, however, works in reverse as well. When Sadiku
believes Baroka's tale that his manhood (virility) is gone, she dances gleefully around a statue of Baroka
and chants that women have won the war against men. She knows that Baroka's position of power in the
village is tied to his ability to perform sexually and produce children, and she believes that when this
specific power is gone, the rest of his power will also disappear, leaving his wives (who are still capable of
performing sexually and bearing children) victorious. In this case, when Baroka appears to have lost what
gives him power, he's reduced to being represented by an actual object (the statue). However, the play
suggests that there's a great deal of difference between Baroka's weakness being represented by an object
and the fact that women are literally treated as objects. When Sadiku dances around the statue of Baroka,
it's important to note that she cannot celebrate her victory publically. She can celebrate in private and taunt
a representation of Baroka, but she cannot taunt Baroka himself. In contrast, Sidi, Sadiku, and other female
villagers are teased, taunted, and demeaned to their faces throughout the play. They're grabbed, fondled,
raped, and told that they're simple and backwards because they're women. The male characters don't have
to privately taunt inanimate objects; their culture, regardless of how they engage with modernity or
tradition, allows them to reduce women to objects and treat them as such.
Pride, Vanity, and the Power of Images
As the village belle, Sidi is exceptionally vain. She knows her worth is tied to her beauty, and she wastes
no time reminding Lakunle and the other villagers that she's beautiful. However, when the stranger captures
Sidi's beauty on film and returns to Ilujinle with photographs, Sidi's vanity grows exponentially. The
photographs introduce Sidi and the villagers to the power of images, and the ensuing events of the play
explore the power derived from imagery and its relationship to pride and vanity.

After the stranger returns to Ilujinle with the magazine of photographs, Sidi deems herself more powerful
than Baroka himself. The magazine and the photographs become evidence of her beauty and her power,
and they demonstrate the power of images in several different ways. First, Sidi seems to have never seen
herself in a mirror before. Because of this, seeing the magazine is the first time that Sidi has the opportunity
to interpret her own image herself, rather than interpreting how others see and treat her. This turns Sidi into
a Narcissus-like character, obsessed with her own image. While seeing her own image allows her to take
possession of her beauty and body, it also blinds her to the fact that others, too, are attempting to control
her image and body. For example, while Sidi might misinterpret the particulars of Baroka's interest in her,
it's undeniable that the magazine allows him to enjoy Sidi's image without Sidi herself present and it
certainly influences his decision to pursue her as a wife.

When the magazine arrives in the village, Sidi isn't the only character who's shown to be vain and prideful.
The village girls make it very clear that while Baroka appears in the magazine, it would've been better for
him to be left out—the photo of him is tiny and shows him next to the village latrine. By only appearing
once, in a small image, and next to the toilets, Baroka's power is greatly reduced. The scorn of the village
girls suggests that the image, in some ways, negates the power he has in real life.

Sidi’s newfound sense of beauty and power, combined with Baroka's unflattering photo, leads Sidi to the
conclusion that his offer of marriage comes from a desire to possess and control Sidi's worth. Sidi isn't
wrong, and it can't be ignored that Baroka certainly wants to control her worth and keep her beauty for
himself by taking Sidi as a wife. However, he also wants to control her worth by putting her photograph on
a postage stamp—something that's mutually beneficial for them. By putting Sidi's face on a stamp, Baroka
both appeals to her vanity and embraces the power of images. It allows Sidi to enjoy the fame that the
magazine brought, while making her even more famous and distributing her image even further. However,
it's important to make the distinction that while Sidi will certainly enjoy the fame and recognition that will
come from the stamp, fame and recognition are all she'll get. She won't enjoy the economic power from the
profits, and she won't be credited with modernizing the village by developing a postal system. Baroka will
enjoy both of these things because he ultimately has the power to control Sidi's image and, by extension,
Sidi herself.
 Language, words and trickery
The Lion and the Jewel is filled with instances of trickery, particularly surrounding language. Language is
the tool by which characters fool one another, create false impressions of superiority, and convince others
to support their goals. Thus, language is shown to be a source of power. However, the play ultimately
suggests that language is most powerful when used without lies or misdirection, and when it is applied in
service of concrete, achievable goals.

Lakunle delights in using big words and flowery language to try to impress Sidi and other villagers. While
his grasp of the English language makes him feel powerful, in reality it only makes him look like a fool.
For example, when Lakunle describes the custom of paying a bride price as "excommunicated" or
"redundant," it becomes obvious to the play’s audience that Lakunle doesn't have a complete grasp of
English, despite how much he loves and flaunts the language. He uses complicated words because he knows
that they are beyond the understanding of his fellow villagers. However, though he expects such language
to be impressive, Sidi tells Lakunle scornfully that his words "always sound the same/and make no
meaning." This suggests that even if Sidi isn't specifically aware that Lakunle is misusing words, Lakunle's
performance still exposes him for the fool he is, and both the characters and the audience laugh at him for
it.

Lakunle’s attempts to woo Sidi by using language she doesn't understand are just one example of characters
engaging in trickery to try to achieve their goals. Sadiku and Sidi try to humiliate Baroka by tricking him
into believing Sidi has accepted his offer of marriage, Baroka himself tricks both women into believing his
manhood is gone, and he tricks Sidi into marrying him. All of these tricks are carried out through the use
of language; they're verbal tricks rather than physical tricks. Though the success of the tricks varies from
character to character, their verbal nature is indicative of the power of language and words to control others.

The play does, however, draw a distinction between tricks that are meant to spur action (like marriage or
modernization of the village), and tricks that are meant to create an emotional reaction, such as humiliation.
Sadiku and Sidi's attempt to humiliate Baroka by exposing his supposed inability to perform sexually (an
emotional trick) is ultimately unsuccessful and makes both women look like fools in the end. Similarly,
while one of Lakunle's goals was to convince Sidi to marry him, he seems far more interested in making
himself look educated and modern. These tricks with purely emotional goals only work to make the
tricksters themselves look silly. Baroka, on the other hand, has concrete goals and he uses a combination
of trickery and telling the truth to achieve them. Much of what Baroka tells Sidi seems to be truthful: he
doesn't hate progress and, in fact, he wishes to help spur progress by developing a postal system for the
village. By using the truth to his advantage and setting comparatively reasonable and concrete, achievable
goals (marriage to Sidi and modernization in moderation), Baroka is able to wield actual power over others.