A Study of Yoruba Culture in Wole Soyinka’s A Dance of the Forest

Name: Dhruvita Dhameliya

Roll no : 03

Semester : 04

Year: 2021 to 2023

Subject: The African Literature

Topic: A Study of Yoruba Culture in Wole Soyinka’s A Dance of the Forest

E-mail ID: dhameliyadhruvita24@gmail.com

Submitted to: S. B. Gardi Department of English   Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University

Introduction of the Writer:

Wole Soyinka, in full, Akinwande Oluwole Soyinka, Nigerian playwright and political activist who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986. He sometimes wrote of modern West Africa in a satirical style, but his serious intent and his belief in the evils inherent in the exercise of power were usually evident in his work as well.

A member of the Yoruba people. Soyinka attended Government College and University College in Ibadan before graduating in 1958 with a degree in English from the University of Leeds in England. Upon his return to Nigeria, he founded an acting company and wrote his first important play, A Dance of the Forests produced 1960; published 1963, for the Nigerian independence celebrations. The play satirises the fledgling nation by stripping it of romantic legend and by showing that the present is no more a golden age than was the past.

Introduction of the Play:

A Dance of the Forests was written for the independence celebrations of Nigeria in 1960. As a mythopoeic, Soyinka feels committed to put the rich, usable African past into perspective as the source of an ongoing process of continuity and growth. He dedicates himself to enlightening the hearts of his readers, whether African or not, by exploring into the world of African mythology, especially, the myth of Ogun. The play significantly reveals, for the first time, the playwright's political inclinations, the anxiety he had about life in general and the future of his nation in particular. 

The play emphasises the need to restore the African cultural identity as a major element of social development. Nigeria, like Kenya, and any other colonised countries, is a creation of British imperialism. We can see in Nigeria, the forcible amalgamation of different people with different languages and widely diverse cultures. Gifted with the power of foreseeing the future of his country, Soyinka warns his people of the impending class and factional conflicts, economic crises and political chaos. He warns the natives about the fragile arena of the nation state that has gained independence. Though one of the most fearless among the political activists of African writers involved in some of the most deadly events in Nigeria, Africa and the world and one who has suffered terribly from activism, Soyinka has often tried to separate his commitment to political causes Erom what he considers to be his artistic vocation. He has never presented his art as a part of this activism Still in A Dance of the Forests is discernible the political commitment which leads to the exposure of the corrupt politicians who destroy the country's unity, integrity as well as development. In this chapter it is proposed to view A Dance Of The Forests as a work that projects his dynamic mythic vision, which also embodies for the first time, his political philosophy. This philosophy very clearly reveals his philosophy of life. It also gives a broad hint as to what role a postcolonial citizen shall play to lead his country to progress.

In his most complex satirical play, A Dance Of The Forests, Soyinka displays his obsession with truth by talking about death, despair and disillusionment that await this new-born nation at a time of the highly joyous occasion of its independence. We find here a stroke of bold imagination which points at the depth and sincerity of Soyinka's vision.

Adrian Roscoe has stressed this aspect in his Mother is Gold "Here indeed was a stroke of bold imagination that pointed up the breadth, depth and sincerity of vision; for in a play offered to a nation on the euphoric occasion of its independence, the immediate victim of the satire is that nation itself; in a play ostensibly celebrating a country's birth, the talk is all of death, delusion and betrayal". An intermingling of traditional and Western elements, a juxtaposing of materials from all cultures; the Christian and the Yoruba myths for the purpose of illustrating his arguments can be observed in the play A Dance of the Forests is an aesthetic expression of Soyinkas' philosophical ambivalence, which is actually the pivot of the eclecticism of his theatre. As in other works, the use of ritual decides the ultimate meaning of A Dance of the Forests. It proclaims Soyinka's unrelenting obsession with the Ogun myth and its complicated reenactments through ritual. It convincingly proves that this is a mythic imagination. As Stanley Macebuh points out: "Soyinka is first and foremost a mythopoeic; his imagination is in a quite fundamental sense a mythic imagination". Soyinka's works in general, and A Dance of the Forests in particular, have the reputation of being ambiguous, dense and opaque. This reputation for ambiguity is all the more complicated by his effort to proffer mythic explanations and resolutions for social problems. 

Representation of Yoruba Culture in the Play:

The Yoruba people resided in Nigeria's south-western region, where they accounted for around 20% of the population. They were thought to have come from the Middle East and settled in Europe throughout the Middle Ages. They were a religious group of Christians, Muslims, and others who held traditional views. The Yoruba are mostly active in the commercial media and educational sectors of the nation. The Yoruba people have a variety of origin legends, but they all stem from the same progenitor, "Oduduwa." According to one narrative, he travelled from Mecca after being driven from his house owing to his belief in deities, and subsequently lived in Ile-Ife, where he created a dynasty that was later extended by his offspring. Another theory claims that he was an ordinary Yoruba man who wanted to overthrow the ruling elite. Another mythology claims that God sent Oduduwa - the Yoruba father from heaven to create the planet and humanity. His lieutenants took him down from heaven and landed in Ile-Ife, where he completed his mission. The connection that allowed him to arrive on Earth is said to still reside in the monument, albeit it is concealed from prying eyes. 

The Yoruba worldview and associated rituals provide nourishment to the traditional Yoruba world. Yoruba metaphysics encourages believers to believe in the four realms of existence. The world of the living, the world of the dead, and the world of the unborn are all related in Yoruba cosmology by the supernatural passage of transition. Yoruba cosmology demonstrates that these three states of existence are interconnected. As a result, a human being can exist in three different states, each of which requires traversing a transitory gulf to move from one state to the next. The Yoruba hold ancestors in high regard, and when a person dies physically in the world of the living, he or she joins the ancestors in the world of the dead. "In the Yoruba worldview, the unborn world is as obviously older than the living world as the living world is older than the ancestor-world." During egungun rituals, community members dressed in egungun masks physically brought the deceased ancestors back into the world of the living. This philosophical premise is central to Soyinka's works, such as A Dance of the Forests. In the setting of West African spiritualism, A Dance of the Forests depicted a complicated interplay between gods, mortals, and the dead with the ultimate goal of experiencing one's own self-discovery. The Yoruba's notion of time is flexible and non-linear, which is reflected in the way their culture is portrayed in drama: Gods, mortals, ancestors, and spirits are all represented in the plays. Soyinka depicts as figures three important deities who are commonly regarded as having extraordinary powers: Ogun, Eshu, and the Forest Head (Obatala) (Eshuoru). Soyinka illustrated a disagreement between the gods, which finally influences the lives and destinies of mankind, through this choice of words. There is only one supreme creator, and he is known as Obatala. In the Yoruba tradition, he is revered as a god of purity and morality. The Yoruba trickster god was known as Eshuoru. He is a prankster who symbolises the randomness of life. Mischiefmaking ensues because of his lack of respect for authority.

The god of conflict is Ogun in the Yoruba pantheon, nevertheless the deity of iron too, as a result warriors, hunters, blacksmiths, truck drivers, railroad workers, and artists worship him. He is a deity of many paradoxes, but he is most renowned for both being the god of creation and the god of elimination. The three gods were all interested in influencing the fortunes of the forest dwellers, which exacerbated the situation since gods used their unique skills to both destroy and protect their humans. According to the West African concept of Animism, "souls reside in things and natural phenomena such as trees, hills, streams, seas, and rocks," Soyinka included spirits that governed the universe alongside deities. The spirits gathered in the Forest Father's court to discuss their problems and come up with answers. The Integration of spirits here aims to portray a holistic cultural order in which the ultimate deity's might brings all components of the world together in harmonic oneness. Human figures were also separated into three groups: those who were alive, those who had died, and those who were yet to be born. In addition to the forest travellers who resided in the domain of the living, Soyinka urged ancestors from ancient times to rejuvenate via ceremonial ancestor worship. Furthermore, the play's final dance is focused on a fight to possess the unborn child of a deceased lady.

During rituals for forefather worship, characters in the play move between the world of the living and the dead. When they do this, they experience a kind of mobility between the worlds of the living and dead. Gods, humans possessed by real spirits, and unborn children all live together and interact in that scene. In Yoruba culture, time changes all the time, and this scene shows that. There were a lot of people who were interested in A Dance of the Forests, not just the people in Nigeria who thought it was a very good show of their culture, but also people who were more familiar with European traditions and worldviews. Soyinka uses symbols of gods and spirits, myths and rituals, songs and dancing and mime as parts of a feast in some of his work. He uses Yoruba culture because the songs and tonal rhythms are in tune with the drums and the dancing, and all three things are part of the ritual itself, so he can't separate them. Thus, he owes a lot to traditional culture, which helped shape the country's reputation as a good place to live

Conclusion

Among new commonwealth literatures, African literature stands out for its novelty. Inspiration comes from Yoruba culture, which Soyinka mixed with other African ideas. About 20% of Nigerians are Yoruba. With Middle Eastern origins, they migrated to Europe in the Middle Ages. Prior to the arrival of Christianity and Islam, the Yoruba practised their own religions. Yoruba metaphysics says a person can be in one of three states, and moving between them requires passing through a gap. During egungun rites, people physically resurrected their ancestors. Ogun is a war deity who is also a creator and destroyer. Affecting the woodland dwellers' lives was a goal for all three gods. "Souls exist in objects and natural events," Soyinka said, adding spirits to deities. Changing time is important in Yoruba culture. A Dance of the Forests captivated many. It is traditional culture that shaped Soyinka's reputation as a good writer.

Thank You!!!

Word Count:2038

Works Cited

Azumurana, Solomon. “Wole Soyinka's dystopian/utopian vision in A Dance of the Forests.” ResearchGate, 30 December 2017, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/287094308_Wole_Soyinka%27s_dystopianutopian_vision_in_A_Dance_of_the_Forests. Accessed 27 March 2023.

Duttani, Mahesh. “A Dance of the Forests.” My Exam Solution, 7 December 2021, https://www.myexamsolution.com/2021/12/a-dance-of-the-forests.html. Accessed 27 March 2023.

Simran, Dr.Ramandeep Mahal. “A Study of Yoruba Culture in Wole Soyinka's A Dance of the Forest.” IJNRD, 4 April 2022, https://www.ijnrd.org/papers/IJNRD2204052.pdf. Accessed 27 March 2023.