“We must reject the palm wine habit,
And take to tea, with milk and sugar.” (129)
Justification of colonization has many methods, one of which is by showing both the sides of both sides. These lines justify tea with milk and sugar over wine, or in other words, the colonizer over the colonized. The former is reflected as being healthier and more civil, the latter as being unhealthier and a tool leading to uncivil behavior. Throughout centuries, the ongoing debate of colonizer vs. Colonised has been an issue for many studies, one of them which is literature. Many novels and plays and poems have used this debate as a topic in conveying certain messages. The play, The Lion and The Jewel, seems to be a way of settling the debate between the colonized and the colonizer. In the play, the audience and/or reader gets the impression that through Lakunle’s knowledge and Sidi’s liberal views the British colonization is justified but also criticised through Lakunle’s corrupted views and Sidi’s ignorance, and through Sidi and Baroka’s ignorance the primitive and uncivilized ways of the colonized are disparaged.
The play starts with a known theme, male repression over women. We see Lakunle and Sidi talking about women and how they should ‘look’ in society. Lakunle is disturbed by the fact that Sidi is walking around with a towel around her and her shoulders are bare. The point that makes us think in this scene is that Lakunle is a school teacher, who has very different ideas about women, marriage, and society in general. These ideas we see to be more modern and liberal than the general societal views. An example of this is Lakunle’s ideas on the so-called “bride-price” that Sidi insists on Lakunle paying so that he can marry her. To this Lakunle answers, “A savage custom, barbaric, out-dated, rejected… Sidi I do not seek a wife to fetch and carry, to cook and scrub… I want to be wed because I love, I seek a life-companion…” (99-100) These lines show how Lakunle, who is the representation of knowledge, is seen here as the civilized modern hero. He is, in other words, a good presentation of the British colonization. However, the problem here is that he is a little hypocritical, because of his views on women. He says, “For, as a woman, you have a smaller brain, than mine.” (96) Here he claims that women are intellectually inferior, which goes back to the Victorian Era when women were forced to subjugate to men because they had a ‘smaller brain’ and therefore were intellectually inferior. We are confused on Lakunle, is he the civilized modern man, or the hard-hatted man who claims superiority over women? Sidi is another character like Lakunle who becomes the representation both of ignorance and liberal views. Sidi does not understand the references of valued women given by Lakunle. He tells her; “My Ruth, my Rachel, Esther, Bathsheba. Thou sum of fabled perfections…”(112) She answers, “Now that’s your other game, giving me funny names, from your wretched books.”(112) The way Lakunle goes on with synonyms to express his thoughts and feeling shows his literacy level, and the way Sidi answers him back shows her ignorance because if she had understood the references, she would feel the compliment. However, we see that Sidi’s views on women are much more modern than Lakunle when she claims, “Is it a weaker breed who pounds the yam, or bends all day to plant the millet, with a child strapped to her back?” In these lines, she defends the hard-work of women and claims that women cannot be the weaker sex because they are the hard-working species. The same character also claims that her ‘bride-price’ be paid before she can be married. In this sense, we are confused on who is the more primitive and uncivilized one; Sidi because of her views on getting married, or Lakunle because of his views on women in general. Or who is the more civilized modern one, Sidi because of her ideas about women being strong because of the hard work they do or Lakunle because of his literacy and views on marriage being a love-based companionship institution. Sidi and Lakunle, although very different characters have a similarity, their wit, and cleverness. When Sadiku comes to Sidi to talk about Baroka’s proposal, Sidi replies, “Why did Baroka not request my hand, before the stranger, brought his book of images? Why did the Lion not bestow his gift, before my face was lauded to the world?” (113). We see her wit here and how she can make interpretations and comments based on situations. Towards the end of the play, we see that Lakunle accepts to marry Sidi, even though she has been sexually abused and is now considered as ‘unvirtuous’ within society. But he says to her, “But you will agree, it is only fair, that we forget the bride-price…” (152) We see here that he takes advantage of the situation, where he gets to marry the woman he loves and does not have to pay the ‘bride-price’ that he thinks is very primitive. In these lines we see that; Sidi, who does not read like Lakunle is clever and witty, and she uses this wit to get through life, whereas Lakunle having both knowledge and the wit uses this to gain more knowledge.
The first part of the big picture here is the criticism on the British Colonisation: the British colonizer is the modern civilized one, who can bring equality regarding the marriage institution within the society, but then the same colonizer is deformed in the views about women’s intellectual and sexuality. The colonizer, just like Lakunle who wants a life-companion, sees the marriage institution as a companionship between woman and man, but the same institution, like Lakunle who claims to have a bigger brain than Sidi, sees women as inferior to men in intellectual levels.
The second part of the picture here is that, despite the criticism on the colonizer about the views on women, the colonizer is still justified through knowledge and liberal views; the former presented through Lakunle and the latter presented through Sidi. Lakunle being a school teacher and using his wit to gain more knowledge is shown that the British Coloniser brings knowledge that lifts the society up regarding intellectual and literacy. Sidi, having liberal views on women being strong sex is shown as the British Coloniser having liberal views about women, even though at times these views are corrupted. The fact is that, despite Lakunle’s male dominance and Sidi’s repressed self, the audience and/or reader does not seem to focus on the negative aspect of the British Coloniser, although it is criticised. Instead, the play shifts the focus on the positive emphasis on having liberal views on the marriage institution, conveyed through Lakunle and women, conveyed through Sidi.
The ignorance of both Sidi and Baroka represents the primitive and uncivilized nature of the colonized. We see that the women are not valued, the marriage institution is used for sexual pleasures, and the gaining of knowledge is disparaged within society. The fact that Baroka has many wives shows that he does not care for valuing women or having a single wife to spend his life in a marriage that is based on love and companionship. Baroka is a representation of the uncivilized, barbaric man of the colonized society who is selfish in his life, when he says; “I wanted Sidi because I still hoped-a foolish thought I know, but still I hoped that, with a virgin young and hot within, my failing strength would rise and save my pride.”(121) In these lines, we see that Baroka is selfish in his sexual desires and pride because he sees no problem in using Sidi to make himself feel better. We also see the devaluing of women and their needs, because he sees Sidi as a tool to boost up his self-esteem and pride. Once again through Baroka, we see his de-estimation of the marriage institutions when he says; “who are my eldest, my most faithful wife” (121) These lines show his hypocrisy, while seeming to compliment his first wife, he is insulting all women and the marriage institution in general. If he were a faithful, decent and civilized man, he would not have taken as many wives as he had done. This is really what the author wants us to see. Towards the end, after trapping Sidi and managing to be with her, we see how Baroka uses his wit to abuse women-both concerning taking advantage of the curious nature of women and concerning using them to satisfy his physical and sexual needs. Another example of Baroka devaluing woman is from his conversation with Sidi when he says; “I change my wrestlers when I have learned to throw them. I also change my wives, when I have learned to tire them.”(135) In these lines, we see how quickly he can go from one woman to another and how he considers his hobbies and marriage as the same thing. All these emphasizes his primitiveness and uncivilized nature. Sidi is yet another character whose ignorance is criticised and represented as the weak side of the colonized. She is the woman who submits to men, although she is young and pretty and capable of building a life of her own. She depends on men for getting through life. And she depends not just on any men but strong and wealthy ones. In the beginning, when Lakunle wants to marry her, she claims, “Known my as I am to the whole wide world, I would demean my worth towed, a mere village school teacher.”(104) In these lines, we see that she is well aware of her capabilities and her worth, but she does not see the teacher good enough for herself. This shows that she has high self-esteem, but later when she accepts Baroka as her husband and says to Lakunle, “Did you think that after him, I could endure the touch of another man? I who have felt the strength, the perpetual youthful zest, of the panther of the trees? And would I choose a watered down, a beardless version of unripened man?”(155) Here we see Sidi preferring Baroka over Lakunle or in other words, primitiveness over knowledge. She shows herself as the woman who subjugates to a man only because he is strong and rich. In a sense, she is devaluing herself and therefore women of the society. She insults Lakunle on not being able to pay her ‘bride-price,’ which once again shows her choice of the uncivilized rather than the civilized. In this framework of the uncivilized being criticised, we see that the society also criticises the gaining of knowledge. Lakunle, who is the representation of knowledge, is shunned out and made fun of because of his different views on societal views. In the beginning, as Lakunle is dragged to dance with the crowd, he claims, “No, no. I won’t. This foolery bores me. It is a game of idiots. I have to work of more importance”(106) We see here how Lakunle is different from the others because he prefers not to participate in the dance but rather to do a lesson on geography. However, he is constantly criticised by both Sadiku and Sidi for his liberal views. Sadiku claims that he will not be able to pay the bride price unless he gets a farm when she says, “Why don’t you do what other men have done. Take a farm for a season. One harvest will be enough to pay the price, even for a girl like Sidi. Or will the smell of wet soil be too much for your delicate nostrils?” (128) In these lines, we see how she is both critical of him and advising him on how not to be and on how to get what he wants. She advises him to be like other men, work hard on the fields and leave the books alone, like the primitive colonized men. She criticises him of being too delicate because of his constant interest in books and intellectual knowledge. Another character who disparages the gaining of knowledge through lakunle is Sidi. She rejects him even after he agrees to marry her after thinking that she has been sexually abused. The reason for this rejection she gives to be that he is a simple man, with no strength, money, and honor. She sees Lakunle as incapable and all this she relates to him being the man who reads books and tries to gain knowledge instead of being a man, like Baroka, who wrestles and has strength and power over others. The criticism directed to the primitive society show that the people are unhappy with the existing order, even though they seem to be happy with it. The audience and/or reader thinks what Sidi would do or what Sadiku would say if and when they were given other opportunities, ones where they could be their true selves.
Another big picture emerges here, and that is the criticism laid on the primitive colonized society. The so-called primitive ways of the colonized society are laid out for the audience-reader to make up their mind about the nature of the society. The rejection of knowledge, the abusing and devaluing of women, the demeaning of the marriage institution and the emphasis on the superiority of men over women only because they have a ‘smaller brain’ are all reflected through the characters of Lakunle, Sidi, Sadiku, and Baroka. We come to think about how better off this society would be if they were colonized by the British who would bring the modern and civilized ways. The ways where the women are valued for their self, the marriage institution is seen as an equal companionship of two people who love each other, and men and women are given equal rights within society. And although the British Coloniser is seen as having a few corrupt views about women, we see that the play shows that it is better than having a corrupted civilized society than having a primitive, uncivilized society.
In the end, we see the choice made: Sidi prefers Baroka over Lakunle. In other words, she prefers ignorance over knowledge. This emphasizes that despite all the positiveness of the colonist, the colonized still wants to be left alone. The author seems to be saying that although the British Coloniser has many advantages that would improve the society and the individuals, the colonized still does not want any interference. The trick that Sidi plays on Lakunle seems to be a symbol of what will happen if the colonizer does interfere with the colonized. The former will be ridiculed by the latter, hence making this play more of a threat against the colonizer. In a sense then, we can say that the colonized is subjecting its strength and so-called primitive power over the knowledge and enlightenment of the colonizer. We see that just like Sidi becomes more submissive to Baroka and Lakunle becomes submissive to the reality of Sidi’s choice, ignorance also submits into a stronger ignorance and knowledge submits into reality.