African literature about author Alu & Desala Traditional & Modernity city vs village

1. Women’s character in
swamp dwellers
Name :- Urvashi Chauhan
M.A Sem :- 4
Paper :- African Literature
Mail Id :- urvashichauhan157@gmail.com
Year :- 2020
Department of English MKBU

2. About Author
• Akinwande oluwole Babutunde
Soyinka known as wole Soyinka
• He is Nigerian playwright, poet &
essayist.
• He was awarded the 1986 Nobel
prize in literature.
• First African to be honored In tha
category.
• Politucally active during Nigeria’s
struggle for independence.

3. About book
• Play written by wole Soyinka
• Published in 1958
• This play main conflict between the old
and new way of life in Nigerian society
• Soyinka explore controversial themes of
power, social injustice and balance of
functional society
• about traditional and modern way of
African culture
• He focused on the problems of youth in
his time.

4. Alu
• Alu is a wife of Makuri and mother of twins Awuchike and Igwazu.
• Alu is present on the stage most of the time.
• She presented with traditional thought
• Lives to stay in village
• Her age near to sixty
• We study that character we find that she is suppressed woman
by her husband.
• With good or bad behaviour of him
• She choose to live only with him

5. • Makuri says “ there wasn’t a woman anywhere
more faithful than you”.
• Alu : ‘ I never had a moment of worry in the
whole of my life’.

6. Desala
•She is wife of Igwazu
•She is not present in the stage physical but she was
present in the talks of Igwazu , Makuri and Alu
•She is Facilitated towards the city
•She has demanded on her wedding that Igwazu has to
take her to the city after marriage.
•Igwazu fails to make fertune in the city. So she choose
his brother and left Igwazu.
•In this play past is not clear about character like the
Birthday Party

7. Traditional & Modernity
• Alu and Desala both are totally opposite character to each other
• Wolw Soyinka portrayed two opposite point of view of women in the
play
• Alu represent traditional mind and Desala follow Modernity
• One who like to live in village and other who like to city.
• We can also say that is represented the generation gap situation in
also connected with present time.
• Soyinka write on the conflict between city life and village life.
• Both is the opposite pillar

8. City vs village
• Desala
• City life is good life
• She has demanded on her wedding
• Alu : she ( Desala ) made him (
Igwazu) Promise to take her the
city before she would wedding
him.
• She believe in village nothing can
be grow
• Love welth
• Alu
• Belived that city life is bad
• She lost her one Child in the city
and now she don’t want to lost
Igwazu
Here give negative connotation of
the ‘ city’.
• She believes where once goes city
never comes back
• Leve more family

9. • She takes her dream
• Happines is more important than anything else.
• Alu Don’t wish to go to the city are virtues of woman
• Both have different Idea about happiness
• Both woman character have not their own identity.
• Depends on man
• Botb woman as a pride of their man.

10. Alu & Mrs. Ramsay
• Always fulfilled every needs of her
husband as well as her son.
• Suppression of the female in the
male dominated world.
• Both pampered male ego
• Faithful to their husbands
• Perfect traditional woman
• Choose family first

11. Desala & Bathsheba
• Bathsheba – far from the Madding crowd
• Desala and Bathsheba‘ s choice are same
• The common Thing is both like to modern
lifestyle
• Igwazu and Gabriel oak lived in village
• Bathsheba rejected him because of she don’t
like simple life
• Desala and Igwazu divorce The reason she
demanded to live in city
• Both love a wealth and modernity

12. Conclusion
•The main conflict between the old and new way of life
in the Nigerian society and present society
•Wole Soyinka has captured conflict between wealth
and family and city and village.
•He put binaries of life.
•Mybe he like new generation he try to accepting the
new way.

13. Work cited
C, S. (2018, November 25). The Swamp Dwellers- Background. Retrieved Feb 23, 2020, from
GradeSaver: https://www.gradesaver.com/the-swamp-dwellers