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Name of Text: The Swamp Dwellers

The Swamp Dwellers

Key Facts-
Full Title- The Swamp Dwellers
Author- Wole Soyinka
Type of work- Play
Genre- Realistic Fiction
Language- English
Date of Publication- 1965, London
Setting (Place) - Swamp in the Southern Nigeria
Narrative style- Dramatic
Protagonist- Igwezu
Antagonist- Kadiye
Point of view- Attitude towards city
Climax- Igwezu questions Kadiye and his ways. It tells us of the
clash between tradition and modernity in Southern Nigeria.
Themes- Corruption, Religious Hypocrisy, Poverty and Town vs.
Country
Symbols- The Swamp, Two Brothers, The Blind Beggar and Water

About the Author-

Akinwande Oluwole "Wole" Babatunde Soyinka was on born 13 July
1934. He is a Nigerian playwright, poet and essayist. He was awarded
the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature, the first African to be honoured in that
category. Soyinka was born into a Yoruba family in Abeokota. After
studying in Nigeria and the UK, he worked with the Royal Court Theatre
in London. He went on to write plays that were produced in both
countries, in theatres and on radio. He took an active role in Nigeria's
political history and its struggle for independence from Great Britain. In
1965, he seized the Western Nigeria Broadcasting Service studio and
broadcast a demand for the cancellation of the Western Nigeria Regional
Elections. In 1967 during the Nigerian Civil War, he was arrested by the
federal government of General Yakubu Gown and put in solitary
confinement for two years. Soyinka has been a strong critic of
successive Nigerian governments, especially the country's many military
dictators, as well as other political tyrannies, including the Mugabe
regime in Zimbabwe. Much of his writing has been concerned with "the
oppressive boot and the irrelevance of the colour of the foot that wears
it".
The Swamp Dwellers is a play that was written by Wole Soyinka and
was published in 1958. In this play, The Swamp Dwellers, the main
conflict is between the old and the new way of life in the Nigerian society
and Africa in general. In Southern Nigeria, the individual was tightly
bound to his society, and with the introduction of more modern ideas,
this relationship was not quite as cohesive as it used to be. In addition,
the power of nature was also a difficult factor to deal with when trying to
survive and build a life and preserve the culture. There are three main
categories of characters: parents, corrupt priests and their followers, and
individuals who are always moving and changing.

Plot Overview-
The play starts with an old Couple Alu and Makuri waiting for their twin
sons. The play develops through their conversation, shows anxiety, care,
and fear of the parents towards children. The Old Couple lives in small
hut, busy in their work at the same time waiting for Igwezu younger son.
Igwezu younger son went to the city life for the search of his elder
brother Awuchike. Awuchike, in spite of elder son of the family spiritually
no longer alive for the family.
It suggests awuchike buried himself in the city without any responsibility
of family. On the other hand, Igwezu is a family man who performs all his
religious responsibility and spiritually gets attached to the village and
family. It shows in the incidence, when Igwezu earn a little money in the
city, he sends it to his father to buy a barber’s chair which he had
promised him when he left home.
After went to the city for the search of brother, Igwezu tried his own luck
in the city. He is attracted towards city life due to money and success
which had with his elder brother. Awuchike’s Settlement in the city area
and as a part of the city life attracts Igwezu in the beginning and settled
him there.
During Alu a mother of the twins waiting for the Igwezu, makuri thinks he
might be drowned in water .An unknown beggar arrives. The arrival of
beggar brings zest in the hut. In Yoruba Custom, stranger is considered
as god. It is the reason beggar gets the special treatment from the Old
Couple,
Though beggar is the older by age but younger in soul and spirit. He is a
man of principle and believes in hard work instead of shortcuts. The Role
of Kadiye is a contradictory to the beggar. He was a greedy priest. He is
a priest in a profession but couldn’t find a single quality of priesthood in
him. Kadiye misused his religious position to deceive the people. Kadiye
doesn’t believe in hard work, he gains the luxury by using his religious
position. His appearance and visit to the Igwezu’s hut reveals his
financial motives. He waited for Igwezu to come back from the city so he
will get money.
In the city Igwezu loses his job and also loses his greedy wife who
deserts him for the sake money and marries with Awuchike. Igwezu’s
inability to survive in the city in terms of financial as well as family matter
makes him frustrated and he returns to the village.

Kadiye disappointed, when he finds out Igwezu return from city with
empty hand. Kadiye express his effort for Igwezu to his Success. On the
other hand, Igwezu doesn’t allow any respect for kadiye like his old
parents do. Igwezu knows Kadiye’s false intention, that’s the reason he
always ridicule Kadiye. It leads, at the end; Kadiye threatened Igwezu in
front of his parents.
At the end of the play Igwezu again left the village for the sake of his
parents, those afraid of Kadiye’s threat towards Igwezu and his family,
which proves “A Society has its own norms and Ideas. An individual,
who wishes to bring in the new ideas, has to contend with a lot of
opposition. The play ends with the beggar’s words of hopeful future.
Characters-

Alu- Alu is the wife of Makuri. She is the mother Igwezu and Awuchike.
She is aged about sixty. She believes in the custom of the swamps. She
thinks that the river bed is the ideal bridal bed. She has more concern for
Awuchike who is in the city. She has anxiety for his safety. Her anxiety
makes her shoot questions. Her questions make Makuri think of her as a
fussy neurotic wife. She is hospitable like Makuri. Her reaction to the
words of Kadiye shows her to be a traditionalist.Though she is
outspoken, she is not for change. Alu’s understanding of the world is
very limited.
Igwezu’s words about his brother Awuchike set her anxiety at rest. All
said, Alu is a loving and a loveable mother.

Makuri- Makuri is the father of Igwezu and Awuchike. He is the

husband of Alu. As a husband he is conceited. He is fond of teasing his
wife. His continuous bickering with his wife is only a show. He has
perfect mutual understanding with his wife. He is a good host. He offers
canebrew to the beggar. He gives himself totally to the serpent cult.
Though he is seemingly angry he has consideration for his fussy wife
Alu. He represents the note of tradition in the play. His affection for his
wife is unsentimental. He is more intelligent than his
wife. Igwezu exposes Kadiye’s corrupt practice. Makuri feels offended
over it.
He is afraid of facing the wrath of the villagers. Soyinka through Makuri
emphasizes the importance and the value of marital ties between
husband and wife. He does not have delusions about the character of
Awuchike. Nor does he have it in him to console Igwezu who has come
back betrayed by his wife Desala.

Igwezu- Igwezu is the son of Alu and Makuri. He is twin with Awuchike.
He is the centre of the play. The Swamp Dwellers is a drama of
revelation and Igwezu gets education through experience both in the city
and in the swamp. Igwezu’s discovery of the deficiencies of the village
life and the city life constitutes the primary thematic content of the play.
Igwezu plays a pivotal role in the play as a truth teller. He is a character
in the play who has tasted the ups and downs of life both in the village
and in the city. As a swamp dweller he knows how life goes in the
Southern part of Nigeria. It is through him Soyinka criticizes the corrupt
religious practices of Kadiye. Familial ties have meaning for him. In that
aspect, Igwezu is unlike his brother Awuchike, a city dweller. As a city
dweller for eight months, Igwezu knows the break and bounce of city life.
He knows how people like Awuchike are ruthless in making money. He is
a broke in business. He comes back home. His land is flooded. His hope
of getting a good harvest is blasted. He is betrayed by his own brother.
Desala, his wife betrays him. She changes hand. Igwezu has a frank talk
with Kadiye. The talk exposes the serpent cult as a sham. Igwezu
welcomes modernization to the swamp. He is ready for a change of
mind. For all his thinking in terms of modernization, Igwezu does not
have the grit to reclaim the land from the swamp. Igwezu’s experience of
life, both in the city and in the village disillusions him. He reflects critically
on his situation. He doubts the value system cherished by the
community. Returning to the city again is like returning to one slough
from another. He decides to entrust the land to the beggar. He rejects
the Beggar’s help because he does not like one blind man leading
another.

Desala- Desala does not appear in the play as a character. But, she is
spoken off. Desala is the embodiment of the corrupt nature of the city
life. The character also echoes the materialistic attitude of city dwellers.
Desala marries
Igwezu. Igwezu later becomes poor owing to bad returns from his
business.
Desala found Awuchike prospering in his business. So, Desala leaves
Igwezu and marries Awuchike. It shows how city life has become morally
void.
Awuchike- Awuchike is the twin brother of Igwezu. He does not
appear as a character in the play. It is through telling Soyinka portrays
the character of Awuchike. Ten years ago he left the swamp. The
glamour of city life has changed his character. He has become a total
city dweller. He is in timber business. Money making carries him off his
feet. He has snapped ties with the kinsmen in the swamp. He is not a
man of fair dealing. Doing business in city has made him ruthless and
heartless. He goes to the extent of taking Desala from his brother
Igwezu. He is a betrayer. He exemplifies the statement “city turns brother
against brother”.

Kadiye- In physical appearance Kadiye is a contrast to the beggar. He

is bulky. His fingers are heavily ringed. He is prosperous in the midst of
poverty. He is a man of self‐importance. As the priest of the serpent he
fleeces the swamp dwellers. He betrays the trust of the villagers. He
encourages the serpent cult.
He has set his eye on Igwezu’s money. As a priest he is not bothered
about Igwezu’s lot. He exploits the villagers knowing full well they are in
straits. Soyinka satirizes the corrupt practices ail the society living in
superstition living in superstition through Kadiye.

The Beggar- The Beggar comes from Bukanji in North Nigeria. He is

tall and straight. His bearing is dignified. He is a devout Muslim. He is a
man of independence. He is resolute in supporting himself. Though he is
blind he is a very good judge of other characters in the play. Soyinka has
drawn him as a contrast to Kadiye. Though he has seen adversity it has
not shaken his spirits. He is full of hope. He shores up the sagging spirit
of Igwezu by offering him hope. He is for redeeming a piece of land for
cultivation from the swamp. He is a man of quick intelligence. He
analyzes the ills of the swamp dwellers. He is ready to cast his lot with
them. He braces himself to fight against those who exploit them. It is an
irony that the man from the north is termed as beggar. He may be a
beggar because he does not have means to support him. But his
intention is to work and earn his livelihood. He is against getting alms.
His self‐esteem does not allow him to beg. The Beggar is a man of
self‐esteem.

Themes-

Corruption- Kadiye’s character depicts greedy nature of the priest. He

is a priest in a profession but couldn’t find a single quality of priesthood
in him. Kadiye misused his religious position to deceive the peoples.
Kadiye doesn’t believe in hard work, he gains the luxury by using his
religious position. His appearance and visit to the Igwezu’s hut reveals
his financial motives. He waited for Igwezu to come back from the city so
he will get money. Through Kadiye’s character we find corruption in a
name of religion.

Religious hypocrisy- Religious hypocrisy is another major theme of

the play. Igwezu does well to expose the deceit of the Kadiye (Martins
Igwezu) who grows fat on the peoples' sacrifices to the water serpent.
Even though Igwezu makes sacrifices to the serpent for success in his
ventures, misfortune still pitches tent with him. His enterprise in the city
fails, his wife leaves him for his rich brother and the harvest of his farm,
which he uses as collateral for the loan his brother gives him, is
destroyed by flood. The Gods are against him despite his faithfulness
and he realises the priest has been taking the people on a ride. Igwezu
exposes the treachery of the Kadiye, who is in his father's house to
shave his beard after the rain stops through a series of penetrating
questions.

Poverty- Poverty plays important role in the play. The whole village is
suffering from poverty and for them city is place of money and luxury.
Poverty forces them to go to city for money. Awuchike and Igwezu also
go to City for money. It is an inescapable tragedy of a poor family
residing in Delta region. The play demonstrates a critical plight of a
farmer family, which is same everywhere regardless of region and
country. These farmer families follow some or other sorts of traditions
and customs which becomes the major cause of their suffering. Living
near the swamp gives picture of poor's. The farmers face natural
calamities like heavy rain and people like Kadiye also loot them in name
of religion. Thus, poverty forces two brothers to go to city and do it is
important theme of the play.

Town vs. Country- There is a contrast between town and country.

Life in town is source of pain, disappointment and frustration. It is a
greed dominated place and only hard- hearted people prosper. But life in
country is blend & sorrow and happiness. In village, the family is
integrated, people are simple minded, hospitable, capable of being
deceived very easily. Besides, the country people are the puppet at the
hand of nature. Nature shatter their hope again offers the victim an
optimism.

Symbols-

The Swamp- The swamp as the setting is suggestive of dirt, or mire,

in the literal sense as well as figurative. The riverine Swamp suggestive
of the Niger Delta is nature's own mire, with loose mud, spelling ruin and
very rarely productive. In addition some poisons chemical compounds;
'oils' as they are referred to, ooze out at times, rendering its products not
edible. The mire literally sucks people in, and it appears to reveal in its
own harvest feast of farm products and human lives. 'The Serpent of the
Swans' the local deity, laughs in triumph. At the figurative level, the
swamp is pitted against the city. The whirlpool of ignorance, superstition
and frustration continues to drag human beings deeper and deeper. The
mire with its stagnant filth renders life static, while city represents
dynamism. The swamp also can be symbolise city life. The city is
spiritually dead and it pulls people inside it. Soyinka touches the aspect
of the drain of the youth to city place. The city is also an invisible swamp
where spiritual destruction is being threatened. The city has swallowed
Awuchike; it has robbed Igwezu of his bride. The veneer of
sophistication serves just to hide the dangerous striking slough
underneath. The irony strikes in all its force while implying that the
choice for the younger generation is between two swamps; the one in
the village and the other in the city. In this play the swamp is a fit symbol
of decadence and denial of life. The lands therefore seem to be crying
for redemption and the people need regeneration but are unable to bring
it about themselves.

Two Brothers- In this play Soyinka dexterously presents the twin

brothers-Igwezu and Awuchike as symbols for swamp and city,
respectively. The former is real and concrete; the latter does not appear
in the play at all yet both are equally alive; they stand, represent, and
symbolize different values in the society which is in a state of flux.
Soyinka portrays the felt presence of Awuchike who appears to be more
alive and conspicuous than his brother Igwezu appearing on the stage.
Awuchike buried himself in the city without any responsibility of family.
On the other hand, Igwezu is a family man performs all his religious
responsibility and spiritually gets attached to the village and family. As
both brothers stand for city and village, their characteristics suggest that
city has lost humanity, but village has still preserved humanity and
spirituality.

The Blind Beggar-The Blind Beggar, represents dynamism in terms

of work. As opposed to the stagnation of the swamp, the man who has
been on the move for so long wants either to move on further, or to
remain and make the swamp work on itself and yield. He is the agent of
change both a catalyst accelerating the process of transformation in
others, and as one dedicating oneself to challenge the lethargic slumber
of the mire and rouse it into the acts of creation. Makuri assures him that
'the aMicted of the gods are always treated well by the people and that
he is bound to get enough of charity without having any work. The
beggar underlines the differences between charity and the fruits of one's
labour. Charity is indiscriminate both for the giver and for the receiver.
The Kadiye is startled at the Beggar's response to his greetings in the
name of Allah. He turns his begging bowl upside down when Kadiye's
servant approaches him with some coins. The formal welcome accorded
to the Blind Beggar by the old man washing and anointing his feet, is a
gesture reminiscent of the welcome offered to Jesus by Simon, and
more elaborately by Mary of Magdalena. He is the master of the
situation, yet he submits himself as the bondsman of one who is on the
brink of collapse it is a moral resurrection that the Christ figure offers to
the young man who considers himself a total failure. In spite of the
'dryness' from which he comes, his fingers can create an oasis, a zone
of hope. He can mould life out of what is already rotting.
The delineation of the character of the Blind Beggar is not convincing in
a realistic play. His elevated style, occasional touches of lyrical ecstasy
or rhetorical intensity, makes it clear that he is intended not to be a man
true to the soil, but more a symbol with a higher meaning.

Water- Water is the potential source of life. Water plays dual roles in
this context. Water is the symbol of fertility; it mates with the earth and
makes it yield. But too much of water in the form of floods can destroy
what it has created and submerge the harvest. Water can create bring
up and kill. The Ogun myth, an integral aspect of Soyinka's thinking, is
represented here in the simple village pattern-sowing the seeds,
sprouting, growing, bearers of corn, and reaching the stage of golden
maturity, to be followed by disaster and destruction. The divine balance
of forces is always at work. The Earth functions conditioned by these
extremes, varying only by degrees. Water as an archetypal symbol
introduced in The Swamp Dwellers in full potential was to be developed
further by Soyinka in his later plays and in his novel The Interpreters.

Annotated Bibliography

Mahamud, Akhtar. The Swamp Dwellers. 4 January 2017. 11 March 2018

<http://studyhelpctgbd.blogspot.in/2017/01/the-swamp-dwellers.html>.

In this article the writer has included many things. Characters, themes, narrative
style, plot etc. But mainly writer has described polar opposites of the novel. Two
brothers, mother in law and daughter in law, town and village, tradition and
modernity, etc.
Osae-Brown, Funke. Religious hypocrisy in The Swamp Dwellers. 5 October 2009.
11 March 2018
<http://funkeadetutu.blogspot.in/2009/10/religious-hypocrisy-in-swamp-dwellers.html
>.
In play villagers are portrayed superstitious. They believe in many superstitions and
corrupted priest like Kadiye increase their beliefs for his profits. He is called priest of
the serpent. People believe that Kadiye can control the serpent and so give him
harvest. He is a symbol of the rots in the society

Rahaman, Muhammad Mushfiqur. Instances of powerful family bond in Soyinka’s

The Swamp. 11 March 2018
<http://www.iosrjournals.org/iosr-jhss/papers/Vol19-issue4/Version-1/A019410104.pd
f>.

Family bond is one of the theme in The swamp dwellers. The married couple Alu and
Makuri have great concern for both the sons and for each other also. Write has given
example of love between Awuchike and Desala, Tensions of Alu and Makuri, Love
and bond between Alu and Makuri. Writer has used dialogues to support arguments.

Soyinka's use of symbolism. 11 March 2018

<http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/103269/10/10_chapter-iv.pdf>.

In this play many symbols can be found like swamp, two brothers, blind begger,
water and Kadiye. In this article these symbols are described in detail.

The Swamp Dwellers' Attitude to City as Expressed in Wole Soyinka's Play The
Swamp Dwellers. 11 March 2018
<http://www.literary-articles.com/2012/10/the-swamp-dwellers-attitude-to-city-as.html
>.
The play is much about backward village of Nigeria but characters of the play often
see town. Alu and Makuri see city in negative way. For Makuri city is place of
immortality and corruption. It is also proved by their older son Awuchike and
Igwezu's wife Desala. Other swamp Dwellers believe city a place to make money.
Igwezu also believe by his experience that in city only money matters.

Wole Soyinka’s Art of Characterization in the Play The Swamp Dwellers. 14 October
2012. 11 March 2018
<https://literacle.com/wole-soyinkas-art-of-characterization-in-the-play-the-swamp-d
wellers/>.

The writer of the article has attempted to give brief overview of characters by
comparing them with others. For example two brothers, Alu and Desala, Beggar and
Igwezu, Makuri and beggar, Beggar and Kadiye. So characters in this play clearly
contrasts with each other.

Wole Soyinka's plays: The lion and jewel, The swamp dwellers & The trials of brother
zero. 11 March 2018
<http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/148339/7/07_chapter%202.pdf>.

Clear summary with dialogues is noticeable in this article. Apart from that analysis
also is given with the help o dialogues.