The document provides biographical information about Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka and summarizes characters from his play "The Swamp Dweller". It describes the main character Igwezu, who returns home from the city to the village after his wife left him for his twin brother. It also summarizes other characters including Igwezu's mother Alu, father Makuri, former wife Desala, and the village priest Kadiye, who Igwezu accuses of misusing sacrifices. The document also briefly describes the character of the Beggar, a visitor from another village with healing powers.

1. • Name : Hansa Bhaliya
• Batch : 2019 - 21
• Roll no : 6
• Enrollment no : 20691086209004
• Email ID : hansabhaliya20@gmail.com
• Paper no : 14 ( The Afican Literature)
• Topic: Character study of The Swamp Dweller
• Submitted to : Department of English, MKBU.

2. About wole Soyinka :
• Born 13 July 1934, in Nigeria and
educated in England.
• In 1986, the Nigerian playwright, poet ,
author , teacher and political activist
became the first African to receive the
Nobel prize for Literature.
• He dedicated his Nobel Acceptance
speech to Nelson Mandela.
• Soyinka has published Hundreds of
works, Including drama, novels, Essays
and poetry, and Collages all over the
world seek him out as a visiting
Professor.

3. Character of The Swamp Dweller
• Alu
• Makuri
• Awchike
• lawezu
• Desala
• Kadiye
•The Beggar

4. Alu :
• Alu is wife of Mukuri. She is aged about sixty .
• She believes in custom of the Swamps. She thinks that the river
bed is the ideal bridal bed .
• They have twin sons lgwezu and Awuchike, one who has left
and made money for himself in the city and other,
lawezu who has returned home to the village.
• She is a woman who believes her son to be dead, and has
believed it for a decade and has not returned.
• Accustomed to the ways of the village, she stands by the
traditions of her people and the land.
• Alu is a loving and loveable mother.

5. Makuri :
• Makuri is married to Alu. Makuri is the father of lgwezu and
Awuchike. He is more intelligent than his wife.
• His profession is a barber in the village. A trade which he taught
to his son, lgwezu.
• He is a man who believes deeply in his village's deity the serpent
of the Swamp.
• He and his wife bicker their days away as he cannot stand her
constantly believing that one of their sons is dead, when he
isn't.
• Soyinka through Makuri emphasizes the importance and the value
of marital ties between husband and wife.

7. lgwezu :
• • lgwezu is the son of Alu and Makuri. He is the centre of the play.
• The Swamp Dwellers is a drama of revelation and lgwezu gets
education through experience both in the city and in the swamp.
• He has just retuned from the city where his wife left him for his
twin brother.
• He has returned and accuses Kadiye, the village priest of
consuming his sacrifices for wealth and Marrage prior to his
journey to the of this he has lost his wife , his money , and his
dignity.
• He is a character in the play who has tasted the ups and downs
of life both in the village and in the city.

8. Desala :
• The wife of lguwezu. She agreed to marry lgwezu only to go to
and live in the city.
• Desala is the embodiment of the corrupt nature of the city life.
• Desala marrid lgwezu. lgwezu later becomes poor owing to bad
returns from his business.
• lgwezu keeps his words. But she deceives him and leaves him
for his prosperous brother Awuchike. The Desala leaves lguwezu
and marries Awuchike.

9. Kadiye :
• In phisical appearance Kadiye is a contrast to the beggar. He is
prosperous in the midst of poverty .
• He receives sacrifices from the ordinary people and perform all
the rituals behalf of the villgers to satisfy and pacify the god .
• The Swamp people sacrifices the best ones of their production
in order to pacify the serpent God so that they can yield a god
harvest otherwise they might suffer.
• The true nature of Kadiye is vividly demonstrated by the
introgation of lgwezu, who suspects is loyalty and honesty.

10. The Beggar :
• The Beggar appears in the story in search of any land that he can
make his own.
• He is from Bukanji a village of Beggar in the northern nigeria.
• He usually does not beg . He is blind ,but belives he has a
healing hand and can make any soil fertile one again.
He believe Allah, which is not the Swamp Dwellers.