1. The Road
by Wole Soyinka
The Road is about of a group of drivers and their associates in a poor neighborhood in a Nigerian city, the
story shows the daily lives of drivers on a Nigerian road. One of the main characters is Professor.
At the very beginning of the play we see the professor so much eagerly seeks for a ‘Word’, as if it is the
ultimate aim of his life. Throughout the play professor does not provide any definition of this ‘Word’ but
he gives so many features of this word. Professor owns a store on the road. Samson, a driver’s aide, and
Salubi, a young, unlicensed driver, converse inside the store about the merits of their jobs. Salubi and
Samson talking about various issues from the police to the church. Samson works for Kotonu, the driver
of an informal bus adapted from a truck, while Salubi does private jobs and only takes single passengers.
Professor and Kotonu soon join the conversation. Professor is disoriented and does not recognize Samson,
while Kotonu has been working with Professor since he stopped driving after a serious accident.
Salubi is trying to acquire Kotonu’s license. Professor’s dialogue makes him seem far more like a
religious fanatic than a businessman, as he apparently believes he can provide consolation to the souls of
the dead. He leaves with Kotonu to visit a crash scene. Near the shop is a church where Professor had
formerly preached,although he is not a minister. As they listen to the organ music, Samson tells Salubi
why Professor left after a disagreement with the bishop, which resulted in a church wall falling down.
When Kotonu returns from the crash scene,Samson makes him confess to helping Professor stealparts
from the wrecked vehicles, which they sell in the shop. Numerous unemployed drives and aides hang out
at Accident Store, where Professor also dispenses palm wine.
Professor sells pare parts of vehicles in his store. he is the one causing accidents, then supplying the spare
parts. This is how he gets his business done. His money results from the deaths he himself caused.
Professor would trick drivers by displacing warning signs, thus luring them to their deaths. The god of
death, Ogun rules the road, leading drivers to their death which is his primary role. He is the mechanism
through which the cycle of life and death works, keeping the cycle running. Everyone will someday have
to go through death anyway. The road they are on symbolizes the road from life to death. We all seem to
ignore the dangers of lives and instead try to stall or postpone it. We are unaware of the importance of our
existence. We are just so caught up with the various issues of life that we hardly give time to ponder
about life's frailties.
In the play, the professor describes the word as “companion not to life, but death”. To him it is a powerful
thing that “can crack any one’s bones in a hundred splinters” He may consider word, which is the basic
component in writing process,as a dead entity that when it comes out of mind and mouth or once being
written down on the paper, it becomes stable, unchangeable and dead. To him word is nothing but a key
to control of the universe. So, in order to search the ‘word’ he goes to severalstages.
As the ‘word’ actually indicates human existence so Professor does not find ‘word’ in Bible or church. He
goes to church thinking that he will find ‘word’ in Bible. But he does not find it in Bible.
