The Strong Breed

The Strong Breed is one of the best-known plays by Wole Soyinka. It is a tragedy that ends with an individual sacrifice for the sake of a community's benefit. The play is centered on the tradition of egungun, a Yoruba festival tradition in which a scapegoat of the village carries out the evil of the community and is exiled from the civilization.[1]

Background

Soyinka's 1963 film Culture in Transition contains an abridged version of The Strong Breed.[1] The play was first published in London in 1964 and then 1969 by Oxford University Press, then subsequently published by Rex Collings in 1971. The play was produced Off-Broadway in 1967 at Greenwich Mews Theater in New York.[2]

Plot

Eman, the play's protagonist, is a member of the "strong breed," a group of carriers who dump a boat into the ocean yearly, the contents of which symbolically represent evils that took place that year. Mothers of the strong breed die during childbirth, and when his girlfriend Omae dies, Eman moves to another village and becomes a teacher, with the assistance of leader Jaguna's daughter, Sunma.

In this village, the "strong breed" is not hereditary; instead, an outsider -- usually a stranger, or someone with a disability -- is chosen by the village as a scapegoat. While in Eman's old village, carriers returned to the village after their ritual was done, in Eman's new village the carrier is beaten and exiled. Eman nevertheless takes on the role to spare a young mute boy named Ifada the same fate. The ritual takes an unexpected turn as Eman flees. His pursuers set a trap for him that results in his death.

Themes

Soyinka's play explores Western classical tragic themes of fate versus free will through African atonement rituals. Critic Mpalive-Hangson Msiska places the play in the tradition of existentialist literature and Biblical tradition, likening protagonist Eman to a Christ figure. [3] Critic James Gibbs suggests that Eugene O'Neill, whom Soyinka chose as the subject of his master's thesis, was an inspiration.[1]

The play makes significant use of flashbacks.[1]

References
  1. Lindfors, Bernth; Gibbs, James, eds. (1993). Research on Wole Soyinka. Africa World Press. ISBN 9780865432192. Retrieved 9 April 2023.
  2. Jeyifo, Biodun (13 November 2003). Wole Soyinka: Politics, Poetics, and Postcolonialism. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781139439084. Retrieved 9 April 2023.
  3. Msiska, Mpalive-Hangson (November 1997). Wole Soyinka. Northcote House Publishers, Limited. ISBN 9780746308165. Retrieved 9 April 2023.


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