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 modernAfrica 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.
The Swamp Dwellers reflects the life of the people of southern Nigeria. Their vocation mainly is agro based. They
weave baskets, till and cultivate land. They believe in serpent cult. They
perform death rites. They offer grain, bull, goat to appease the serpent of the
swamp. Traders from city come there for crocodile skins. They lure young women
with money. Alu withstands their temptation. Young men go to the cities to make
money, to drink bottled beer. In fact the city ruins them. The Swamp Dwellers consummate their wedding at the bed where the rivers
meet. They consider the river bed itself as the perfect bridal bed. Sudden
flood ruin the crops throwing life out of gear.
The swamp dwellers are hospitable. They give cane brew in calabash cups. Fly
sickness blinds them. Merry making and drumming both go together in their
lives. Sheep and goats are fed on cassava. They believe in salutations through
drumming. They believe in sooth saying. Any attempt to reclaim the land from
the swamp is considered an irreligious act. Friends who meet after a whole
season indulge in drinking bouts. When the stream is swollen people are ferried
across by folk like Wazuri. The swamp dwellers believe in the infallibility of
Kadiye, priest of the serpent of the swamp. Their belief is exploited by Kadiye
to the hilt. Igwezu questions Kadiye and his ways. It tells us of the clash
between tradition and modernity in southern Nigeria. Rain brings them
hope. It brings the marvel of new birth to the land. Water plays the role of
both the creator and destroyer in the life of the swamp dwellers. Crops are
suddenly destroyed by the swarming locusts.
The Swamp Dwellers makes use of contrast, parallelism, humour and irony
in a suitable manner. Soyinka focuses the plight of the swamp dwellers in the
play realistically. The swamp dwellers are at the mercy of furious nature
unless they compromise tradition with modernity, embrace modern technology they
wouldn’t have a bright future.
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