This document provides a summary of the play "The Swamp Dwellers" by Wole Soyinka. It discusses the plot, themes of abuse of power, wealth/poverty, tradition vs modernity. The play is set in a village in the swamps of Africa and examines the corruption of the village priest who is stealing sacrifices meant for the Serpent deity. It also follows the Beggar character who represents those in poverty seeking to claim their own life.

1. Name :- Alisha vaghasiya
Roll n :- 1
Semi :- 4
Year :- 2019 - 20
Paper :- 14 (The African literature)
Topic :- Theme of "The Swamp Dwellers"
E - mail :- alishapatel610@gmail.com
Submitted to :- Department of English, Maharaja
Krishna kumarsinhji Bhavnagar , University

2.  The Swamp Dwellers is a play
that was written by Wole
Soyinka and was published in
1958. Sole Soyinka is a writer
from Nigeria, and he was the
first African to be honored
with a Noble prize, winning
the 1986 Nobel prize in
literature. Soyinka was
politically active during
Nigeria's struggle for
independence, even getting
arrested later during the
Nigerian Civil War.

3.  The play begins with Alu and Makuri
in their hut in a village in the Swamps
of Africa. They are waitiy for their son
Igwezu to come back to the houy after
his return from the city where he and
his wife set out in order to make
money. Igwezu has a twin brother
who lives in the city, and Alu believes
he is dead. A blind Beggar then arrives
at Makuri and Alu's home, and they
give him drink and wash his feet.

4. The Beggar explains that he is in search of a
patch of land for himself in the Swamp, a place
that no one will touch because they believe it is
too far gone so that he can make it fertile to
grow food once more. But Makuri tells him that
the parts of the swamp that are not used by the
villagers belong to the Serpent of the Swamp as
a sacrifice to this dirty to keep it from
consuming the land that does produce food for
the people.

5.  Abuse of power
 Wealth and povertypoverty
 The Meek
 Tradition V/S Modernity

6.  Kadiye is the priest of the village. Moreover, he is the
man who offers sacrifices to the Serpent of the Swamp in
order to keep it satiated, this action keep the villagers
land from being consumed so that they can grow food to
survive. But learn that he is a man who is fat per the
beggar who hears in his voice that he is well fed
compared to the rest of the villagers. He has been
stealing the offerings of the people, their sacrifices to
the serpent of the Swamp and consuming them for
himself rather than offering them up to the deity. And
this betrayal is seen clearly by a Igwezu who believes his
wife leaving him and his money being taken is due to the
priestess wicked consummation of his worthy sacrifices

7. People leave the village in order to find wealth in the city.
This is why Igwezu has left. Moreover, his twin brother has
stayed away because he has made a fortune. Soyinka has
crafted a play that speaks to the morality of making money.
Igwezu has stayed true to his word by sending his father a
comfortable chair for his clients to sit in while he shaves
them. He did this weeks after he arrived in the city. However,
Igwezu's brother has been gone for nearly a decade without a
word back to his family. His mother believes he has died,
when in fact he has become rich beyond any of their wildest
imaginations

8. The Beggar is a blind man that has traveled a great distance from a
drought-ridden land in order to find a piece of land that is solely
his own to work and grow crops upon. He desires to turn what is
dead into something that is alive, even saying that he has healing
in his hands. Also, although he is blind, his other sense are
heightened. He knows that the priest is a consuming food that he
did not grow, he hears those who are coming, he can navigate the
darkness and no longer does he wish to beg but to earn his keep .
The Beggar is a symbol for the classes that reside even in great
poverty, and he represents the will of a human being to claim their
life as their own creation. That no man shall determine his position
in life, that is up to him.

9. Tradition
 Cultural, Social,
Conventional.
 Non – Western attitude
 Join family
 Village struggles to
connect myth and
actuality.
 Encompasses various
elements so called
south African tradition
or any tradition.
 A change in society.
 It is all about accepting
western ideas culture
and forgetting tradition
of ones own.
Modernity

10.  "A village in the Swamps. Frogs rain and other noises.
The scan is a hut on stilts , built on one of the scattered
semi firm island in the swamp. The walls are march
stakes plaited with hump ropes. Near the left down
stage are the baskets he makes from the rushes which
are strewn in front of him".

11.  The Swamp Dwellers the result of colonialism,
capitalism, industrialization, the shift from tradition
to "Modernity".
 Flood is not only reason.
 Makuri explains, " not a grain was saved, not one tuber
in the soil.... And what the flood left behind was
poisoned by the oil in the Swamp water".

12.  Enormous ecological and human waste due to greed.

 Economy is not the reason of corruption in the play.

 In the opening scene, " a hut on stilts ", in the hut is a
barber's swivel chair". This strange, part comic, part
pathetic icon of Modernity was a gift to Makuri from
Igwezu, when he was in the city.