The document discusses Wole Soyinka's play "The Swamp Dweller" and the theme of tradition versus modernity. It summarizes that the play is set in a village in the Nigerian delta that interacts with a corrupt town, representing modernity. It explores the balance between old and new ideas, tradition taught by elders versus an individual's thoughts. The characters of Alu, Makuri, and Igwezu represent tradition, while Awuchike and Desala represent modernity. The play shows the conflict and opposition between tradition and the modernity brought by colonialism.

1. Name : Umaba Gohil B
Semester :4
Roll No: 16
Class: M.A. Part 2
Paper No : 14 African Literature
Topic: Tradition V/S Modernity in ‘The Swamp
Dweller’
Email ID : umabagohil123@gmail.com
Submitted By : Smt S.B. Gardi,
Maharaja krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar
University,
Department Of English.

2.  Wole Soyinka’s play ‘The Swamp Dweller’ was
written in 1957.
 The Nigerian playwright wole soyinka was born in
1934.
 Soyinka was one of the few African writers to
denounce the slogan of negritude as a tool of
autocracy.
 His work are like
 The Invention
 The lion and the jewel
 A dance in forest
 The swamp dweller

3.  The swamp dweller by wole soyinka is a backward
village of Nigeria in the delta region. But the
character of the play often have important
interactions with a town life.
 The town is place of the money, and luxury to the
swamp dwellers. Town is also symbol of
corruption.
 The play mirrors the socio cultural pattern, the
pang and and the sufferings of the swamp
dwellers and underlines the need for absorbing
new ideas.

4.  The swamp dwellers expresses the necessity for
balance between the old and new .
 In the play we see Soyinka's crusade against
authoritarianism, complacency and self delusion.
 the swamp the city is the result of colonialism,
capitalism,industrialization,the shift from tradition to
modernity.
 Flood is not only reason.
 Makuri explains not grain was saved, not one tuber in
the soil..and what the flood left behind was poisoned
by the oil in the swamp water

5.  “Modernity is something such as a system or a
factory means to change it by replacing old
equipment or methods with new ones”.
 Alu, Makuri and Igwezu are representation of
tradition.
 Awuchike and Desala are representation of
modernity.

6.  Tradition is taught by our elder.
 Modernity – a persons thoughts about the world
 Soyinka presented Nigeria as a country in
tradition, attempting to mold itself out of variety of
tribal cultures and a turbulent Europe
Colonization.
 Tradition and modernity both are opposite from
each other. It is not new but very old.

7.  Tradition is taught by our elder.
 Modernity – a persons thoughts
about the world
 Soyinka presented Nigeria as a
country in tradition, attempting to
mold itself out of variety of tribal
cultures and a turbulent Europe
Colonization.
 Tradition and modernity both are
opposite from each other. It is not
new but very old.
 In the play also we can find the
same problem igwezu and
awuchike they both are twins.
one is representing tradition and
another is representing
modernity.

8. •“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 marsh
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.”

9.  Swamp is chaotic and they are living in the chaos.
• Modernity does not weaken the tradition.
Tradition- a framework of nationhood
Use of River, Serpent, Swamp and use of city life
these are polar oppositions in the play.

10. Conclusion
• The play Swamp Dweller shows village life
and city life so here it shows the Village life
connected with the tradition and city
connected with Modernity.
• So tradition and Modernity are opposite
from each other .