SECTIONA (AFRICAN DRAMA) WOLE SOYINKA: The Lion and The Jewel Why does Lakunle lose Sidi to Baroka?

Answer Details

In Wole Soyinka's The Lion and the Jewel, the contest for the village beauty Sidi is fought between the young schoolteacher Lakunle and the old chief Baroka, the "Lion" of Ilujinle. Lakunle loses her for several linked reasons.

His refusal to pay the bride-price

• Sidi insists on the bride-price as proof that she is a virgin and a woman of honour. Lakunle, calling the custom savage and out of date, refuses to pay it.
• To Sidi this refusal looks like meanness or an attempt to cheat her of her dignity, so she will not marry him on his terms.

His empty modern talk

• Lakunle is full of borrowed Western ideas and grand speeches about progress, magazines, cars and city life, but he does nothing practical and cannot back his words with action.
• His half-baked civilisation makes him seem foolish and pompous rather than admirable, and Sidi loses respect for him.

His timidity and weakness

• Lakunle is hesitant, cowardly and physically feeble. He talks of love but shrinks from decisive action.

Baroka's cunning

• Baroka, though old, is shrewd and experienced. He spreads a rumour that he has become impotent, knowing it will reach the proud Sidi.
• Curious and feeling safe, Sidi visits the palace to mock him. There Baroka flatters her, plays on her vanity with talk of putting her image on a postage stamp, and finally seduces her.
• Once Sidi has lost her virginity to Baroka, the bride-price question is settled and she chooses the virile, clever "Lion" over the ineffectual teacher.

Conclusion

Lakunle loses Sidi because his shallow, undigested modernity, his refusal to honour tradition by paying the bride-price, and his personal weakness make him no match for the wily, self-assured Baroka. The play thus favours rooted native wisdom over borrowed, empty Westernisation.