The Swamp Dwellers takes a look at the Nigerian society, progressively moving towards the path of retrogression, degeneration, corruption and moral decadence. This is a clear manifestation of the Nigerian society as a class society with all the contradictions and problems inherent in such society. 

1. Topic:- Brief Overview in Swamp Dweller
Submitted to:
Smt. S.B. Gardi
Department of English
M.K.Bhavnagar University, Bhavnagar.

2. Nigerian Author Playwright Poet
Nobel Prize in Literature
(1986)
First African awarded
from New Literature
Wole
Soyinka’s
He took an active role
in Nigeria’s political
history and its struggle
fori independence from
Great Britain.
“Even when I am writing
plays I enjoy having company
and mentally I think of that
company as the company I
am writing for.”
‐Wole Soyinka

3. His Notable Works
Soyinka has written a number of plays and poems. His prominent works are
The Jero Plays (1960,1966),
The Road (1963),
The Lion And The Jewel (1966),
The Madmen and Specialists (1971),
Death and the King’s Horseman (1975),
A Play of Giants (1984),
From Zia ,With Love (1992

4. Meaning of Swamp
 Swamp is an area of low-lying, uncultivated ground where
water is collected.
 Swamp is an area of low-lying well or seasonally flooded
land, often having tress and dense shrubs or thickets.

5. The Swamp Dweller Character
Alu
Makuri
Igwezu
Kadiye
The Beggar
Awuchike
Desala

6. The Swamp Dweller
Struggle
between old &
new way of
life
Conflict
between
tradition &
modernity
Absurdity of
human
existence
Individual
world
Hopelessness,
helplessness
The play is comparatively short of all of Soyinka’s plays. It relates a
story of a poor family residing in Niger Delta region. When the
play opens we find Makuri and Alu awaiting for their beloved
younger son Igwezu. They fear that their younger song Igwezu
should not go missing like their elder son Awuchick, who had gone
to the city some ten years ago. Both the brothers had left the
village to seek their fortune in the city.

7. It is a play of mood and atmosphere, constructed so as to provide the
audience with liberal opportunity to make comparisons and reach
judgment. Soyinka makes his points through implied contrasts and
comparisons.
The Swamp Dweller
In
the
play,
There
is
contrast
between:
twin brothers
father and son,
between mother-
in –law and
daughter- in- law,
between the
Beggar and host,
comparison
between Igwezu
and the Beggar
the final contrast
between the
Beggar and the
Priest Kadiye.

8. The Swamp Dwellers takes a look at the Nigerian society,
progressively moving towards the path of retrogression,
degeneration, corruption and moral decadence. This is a
clear manifestation of the Nigerian society as a class
society with all the contradictions and problems
inherent in such society.
Igwezu went into city to earn more in life but he can’t
accept the reality of life which is in city. There is
starvation for shelter in city, so cold sophisticated life
than village so we can say that Igwezu and Awuchike
both are suffering because of their acceptance or to
much exaggeration of their life. There is Constance
struggle or conflict between the old and new ways of life
in Africa.

9. . There is the dialogue that old and children are living in village. It
means that yougs are living in city. It means that yougs are living in
city.
Second dialogue shows the reality which lies in city life. In
city there is not any feeling in between human being. Even
they don’t know each other if they are living near. And this
is the harsh reality of city life. You will lose yourself in city.

10. It is an inescapable tragedy of a poor family residing in
Delta region. To me it is the main theme of the play. The
play demonstrates a critical plight of a farmer family, which
is same everywhere regardless of region and country.
These farmer families follow some or other sorts of
traditions and customs which becomes the major cause of
their suffering. In the swamp Dwellers, villagers offer
valuable gifts to the priest like the Kadiye, in order to
appease the divine serpent of the swamp. Similar is the
condition of the farmers in India, there are thousands of
suicide on the part of the farmers following several
customs like dowry marriage animal sacrifice (bali) and so
on.
Themes:

11. In The Swamp Dwellers Characters fell into to three groups :
First
• The parents Makuri
and Alu conservative
second
• The corrupt priest
Kadiye, who beguils
his superstitious
followers
Third
• the two positive
individuals Igwezu and
the Begger moving,
wondering, seeking
and then uncertain
what they have found

12. Realism in Two Ways
Tradition
Cultural, social,
conventional
Nonwestern attitude,
Joint Family
Village struggles to
connect myth and
actuality
Modernity
take in various
elements of the so-
called South African
tradition or any
tradition
A change in society
Is it all about
accepting western
ideas, culture and
forgetting the
tradition of one’s own

13. Makuri
Alu
Igwezu
Awuchike
Desala
Tradition
Modernity
In his conversation with Igwezu, the Kadiye asks Igwezu, the
Kadiye asks Igwezu repeatedly about how much money he did
make in the town.
The Kadiye thinks that had made enough money to buy the
whole village.

14. Critical Thinking
Makuri in his words:
“Makuri: Dead men don’t go to the city.
They go to hell.”
He says so because he wants to so the Alu’s anxiety over Awuchike’s
disappearance. Makuri defends his son’s position by saying:
“Makuri: … Awuchike got sick of this
place and went into the city.”
Here we can found Love bond in Alu and Makuri. The famous essayist
Francis Bacon in his, Of Parents and Children emphasizes the
importance of choosing children’s profession by their parents not by
themselves.
Bacon says; Let parents choose be times the vocations and courses they
mean their children should take. But we observe in the play that
parents hardly have their control over the sons. Moreover, they are
found in the midst of calamities made by nature two some extent and
mostly by their twin issues.

15. Wole Soyinka not only writes about the Nigerian
background in a sociological sense, but about human
beings, who happen to exist in this particular time and
place. He uses his background to add originality to his art.
In Soyinka’s plays one makes contact with the Nigerian
Society in a meaningful manner from the inside, by
means of symbols and images.
The Ibaden Magazine records: “The play does not end on
a positive note by showing the villagers casting off their
superstitions and marching off to construct dykes and
increase the amount of land available for farming.”(1959:
27-30)

16. http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/7588/6/06_chapter%20
1.pdf
DRAMATIC CONSTRUCTION IN SOYINKA’S THE SWAMPS DWELLERS Ingole
Kailash M N.C. Law College , Nanded.
http://www.reviewsofliterature.org/UploadArticle/81.pdf
http://nasirlost.blogspot.in/2011/01/swamp-dwellers.html
Sejal Vaghela’s Asssignments 2013/15
Riddhi Jani’s Assignment’s 2013/15