Conflict Between Traditional and Western Culture: A Case Study of Soyinka’s Death and the King’s Horseman and the Lion and the Jewel
Chapter One
PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
What this research is setting out to do is to use the texts; The Lion and the Jewel and Death and the King’s Horseman, by Wole Soyinka to reveal the conflicting point between the traditional and western culture. In doing this, we shall focus on what these conflicts are how they have been expressed by the playwright. We shall also examine the reserved norms, nature, values and cultural practice of the Africans by looking at the plays which are set in the post-world war II Nigeria.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
INTRODUCTION
In life, there is bound to be conflicts because of the wide range of varieties and differences, as earlier mentioned in our chapter one that conflict is a clash or disagreement between people or ideas. In the same vein, the Wikipedia free encyclopaedia defines conflict as “an opposition of people, forces or other entities”1 It also went further to give the types of conflicts:
Conflict (narrative)- literary element; conflict resolution which deals with conflicts among people, emotional … group …, organisational …, workplace … (and) controversy, which deals with public debates and dispute.2
It is a common fact that humans have more complex social life, more abundant material equipment and greater continuity of tradition than other species of animal. Likewise, it is well known that these vary from one social group to another. This is a feature that can be seen in any other animal species where behaviour is nearly identical in all population.
The term “culture” can be seen differently from different disciplines. This is used by social scientist and humanist scholars that have popular currency. Sociologist, scientist, anthropologist, and even humanist attach different meanings to it from the perspective of their discipline. The non-technical meaning of culture is centred around the concept of an educated, sophisticated person as a cultured individual, i.e., a man who has culture, is polish and is familiar with the finer things produced in civilized life.3 Culture, as adopted from Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia (2011), is a term that has various meanings. Citing Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn (1952) described that the definition of “culture” has compiled in a list of “164 definitions” but the definition that best suit our course of study is that which states that:
(Culture is) an integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief and behaviour that depends upon the capacity for symbolic thought and social learning. (It is also) the set of shared attitudes, values, goals and practices that characterizes an institution, organisation or group.
Culture as a human phenomenon is universal as there is no human society without its own culture. However, there is no universal cultural standard. There are many societies ranging to the western culture and the culture of the Africans as well, there may exist diverse cultures and range one culture dominating the other, this could be depicted to the effect that western culture has on the culture of the Africans. The reason for culture variation can be found in the creative and imaginative faculties of the human brain, man can conceive of almost any possible form of behaviour or interpretation of human existence. These are ecological and economical that imposes limit to man’s capacity to establish and maintain variant forms of social life and meaning. The sheer variety of culture and earth appears to be diminishing.
SCHOLARS VIEW ON CULTURE
In whatever perspective culture is viewed, it is a human behaviour that covers a person’s entire being. The English anthropologist, Sir Edward Taylor, was one of the first English-speaking scholars to use the term “culture” in an inclusive and universal sense. He refers to culture as “the totality of ways of life of a people over a given period of time”.5 While Soyinka, our playwright being understudied, view culture as more than simply adding up all the ways people act and think and assessing the sum of their possession. In view of Lasisi, (1989), a historian, he sees culture as;
… The visible configuration of human interactions in the form of socio-political institutions, thoughts and ideas as well as artefacts emanating from them.6
In the opinion of Malinowski (1991) cited by Enahoro, culture is viewed from different perspectives. Firstly, he described it by saying:
“Culture is partly human, partly spiritual and partly materialistic. In the humanistic aspect, culture consists of ideas, values, knowledge, philosophy, laws, and morals and so on. In its spiritual aspects, it consists of system of beliefs and religious practices. In its materialistic aspect, it consists of artefacts and consumer goods made by man as opposed to things found in nature. Culture is a distinguishing factor between man and man”.7
CHAPTER THREE
A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE CULTURAL CONFLICT IN WOLE SOYINKA’S PLAYS
INTRODUCTION
As earlier pointed out in our literature review, The Lion and the Jewel is a comedy of love and marriage and Death and King’s Horseman is an epic drama. Both plays which revolve around two conflicting cultures; the western and traditional African. In most of Wole Soyinka’s plays, he engages himself relentlessly and in an intense exposure of the short-coming of the present day African society. He often contrasts the traditional with the modern culture and he is quick at pointing out the inadequacies of both cultures in the situation of rapid change. It should be noted that the main preoccupation of the two texts being understudied in this work is the “clash of culture” which is vividly portrayed.
Cultural conflict as earlier depicted is a protest against process of estrangement from tribal life. It can further be said to be a clash between two opposing cultures. Conflicts can also be faced by an individual, which can be called psychological conflict. Conflict could also be called social, which can be stipulated as societal conflict. Societal conflict could be within a certain society, (Intra-cultural conflict) and it can be between two or more societies (inter-cultural conflict). Conflict occurs at diverse levels in the family, within an individual, in the society, between races and so on. The conflicts in the texts will be analyzed under three sub headings; societal norms and belief system, psychological conflict and generation gap system.
SOCIETAL NORMS AND BELIEF SYSTEM
Social custom is known as the usual and generally accepted behavior of a social group. A social custom is transmitted through the culture and other educational means. It may be a simple art or complex of actions. Social customs include; greeting, eating habit, dressing, marriage and others. It is derived from usage and has reason to meet problems, needs, or situations. The custom of a society reflects its culture.1 Social norms are means by which societies are ordered and organized. It constitutes standard for regulating the behavior of individuals in the society. Norms are culture bound and this is stressed by Richard Olaniyan (1982) when he stated that:
CHAPTER FOUR
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
SUMMARY
It has been viewed that culture is a human phenomena that characterizes the existence of man. Likewise through culture, man can dramatizes the various aspect of his life. Symbolically, culture is a means by which man identifies with his community. From the texts we used in this work, the expression of culture comes in two dimensions in the literature of Africa. On one hand, it is expressed as a protest against imposition of a foreign culture or the other. While on the other hand, it serves as the background of a literary piece. We have, however, focused our attention to the imposition aspect in our work.
In this work, we have already demonstrated Soyinka’s strong opposition to injustice in whatever form it might take. He dwells mostly on traditionalism for cutting across and portraying his message to the audience and readers. Therefore, however the clashes between these two cultures occur, he criticizes old values but attack often extends beyond the traditional towards the western culture of the contemporary society as it is portrayed in The Lion and the jewel and Death and the King’s Horseman.
As far as Soyinka is concern, traditionalism is imperfect. The representatives of westernization tend to displace traditional values for its inadequacies but ironically, westernization they introduce is even worse. This can be seen in the texts.
CONCLUSION
In The Lion and the Jewel and Death and the King’s Horseman, Wole Soyinka tries to restate the place and importance of African culture. He displays the beauty and unity of African culture, by treating the various aspects of the African culture, as an embodiment of morals and ethics of behavior. Culture has a strong hold in the African society as represented in the plays and this is evident in the characters in the plays.
It is observed that there is an element of culture which is stronger and in which all other elements revolve around. This is the element of religion or belief system. One could see that other elements of culture like; custom, norms and others are either derived from the society belief system or are aspect of it.
Finally, from the analysis of the plays, we could see that culture and its attending components are not as bad as they are sometimes portrayed. Traditional and western culture is very much a part of our awareness.
Also, westernization, whether it exist as an influence or not, should be inculcated into the works of African writers in a way that traditional values are not obscured and at the same time westernization not ignored. If the effect of westernization becomes enormous, then it should be given the position of less importance than that of traditionalism.
BIBLOGRAPHY
PRIMARY SOURCES
- Soyinka, W. (1963). The Lion and the Jewel. Ibadan: Ibadan University Press.
- Soyinka, W. (1975). Death and the King’s Horseman. London: Methuen.
SECONDARY SOURCES
- Abubakar, A. (2009) “An Approach used in Probing the Mind of the Character: The Psychological Approach”. Unpublished Lecture Notes. Retrieved on November 11, 2009.
- Achebe, C. (1967). “The African Writer and the English Language in Achebe(ed). Morning Yet on Creation Day.
- Adams, Lois. (1980). The Prison and Post Prison Writing (1967-1973) of Wole Soyinka. An Arbor, Michigan, USA. London, England: University Microfilms International.
- Alice, W. In the Norton Anthology of Literature by Women (eds) Sandra, M. G. and Susan, G (NY: 1985)
- Amadi, L. (1972). Historical and Cultural Elements in the Writings of Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka. Kansas City: University of Missouri.