TO MY FIRST WHITE HAIRS

                                           -Wole Soyinka

                               Wole Soyinka, a Nigerian playwright, novelist and critic, is the first black African writer to get the prestigious Nobel prize for Literature in 1986.As an African poem, his ‘To My First White Hairs’ presents the basic African theme of black vs white in a modernist expression using image and symbol in its own special way.Soyinka presents a picture of a black man’s thick curly black hair in hard, concrete and objective images in the first half of the poem. The sudden appearance of the three white hairs interpret time announcing the arrival of old age. The three white hairs itself is also a major symbolic figure in this poem. It speaks of the presence of the white people in the black majority of the African community. Finally the poet expresses a wish that the black and white hairs together may knit a nightcap of wisdom for his old age that is the reunion of the black and white people.

THE MYSTIC DRUM

                              -Gabriel Okara

                            Gabriel Okara, a Nigerian poet and novelist has infused his poetry with images of his Nigerian places, traditional rituals and writing it with the ideas and syntax of his native language, Ijaw, with English vocabulary and grammar. His poem ‘The Mystic Drum’ is African in both content and form. In African religion and folklore, drumbeating is a ritualistic process. It has also a mythical significance. By talking about this ritualistic process, the poet goes back to his roots in history, religion, culture, and folklore. The poet uses lots of images and symbols to intensify the mysterious power of the drumbeating. The beating of the drum unites the mind and heart, or rather the thoughts and feelings of the drumbeater with the external world of nature. It shows the intensity of the drumbeating and the unity of the people of Africa.

VIRGINITY TESTING IN SOUTH AFRICA: RE-TRADITIONING THE POSTCOLONY

                                     The article “Virginity testing in South Africa: Re-traditioning the postcolony” is written by Louise Vincent from the department of Political and International Studies, Rhodes University, South Africa. This article discussed about Umhlanga,a ceremony celebrating virginity. In South Africa it is practiced by the Zulu ethnic group who live mainly in the province of Kwazulu Natal. Due to some problems among the Zulu community, there was a fall in the ceremony of celebrating the virginity test for some years. Then the practice of virginity testing made a come back some ten years ago at around the time of the country’s first democratic election and coinciding with the period when the HIV pandemic began to take hold. In 2005, the South African parliament passed a new children’s bill which will prohibit virginity testing of children. This article raises many questions against the new democratic orders of the state related to the virginity test.

MARRIAGE IS A PRIVATE AFFAIR

                                      -Chinua Achebe

                            ‘Marriage is a Private Affair’ is a short story written by Chinua Achebe. Chinua Achebe is a Nigerian novelist, short story writer and poet, whose fiction has made English speaking readers familiar with the Ibo tribe’s culture since Achebe belongs to the Ibo tribe. He is deeply interested in the beliefs and traditions of the Ibo tribe. In ‘Marriage is a Private Affair’, a short story he wrote while he was a student at Ibadan, he talks about two young people Nnaemeka and Nene in love who try to break away from social traditions and pressures. Through this story Achebe also presents the conflict between a father and son when the latter chose a bride outside the Ibo tribe. The conflict is between the progressive outlook of the son and the orthodox attitude of the father.

                                      THE  STRONG  BREED

      
                              Africa’s  most prominent  and  successful  playwright  Wole  Soyinka  established  two  theatre  companies, the  1960  Masks  and  the  Orisun  Theatre  to  promote  his  own  and  English  language  theatre  in  the  region. In  the  year  1960,Nigeria  achieved  independence  from  Britain.Wole  Soyinka’s  creative  writings  in  all  genres  draw  upon  both  western  and  Nigerian  tradition.

                               Wole  Soyinka’s  play ‘ The  Strong  Breed’  published  in  1963  and  first  performed  in  1964.The  play  discussed  about  a  particular  community    and  their  customs  and  rituals. According  to  their  ritual, one  person  sacrifice  his  life  for  the  prosperity  of  the  village  and  its  people. That  was  probably  a  stranger  to  that  village. He  was  became  the  ‘carrier’  or  ‘scapegoat’  for  that  village  to  carry  the  sins  and  guilts  of  the  villagers. They  believes  that  then  only  the  community  may  regain  the  spiritual  health  for  the  following  year.Eman  was  the  scapegoat  for  that  village.

                                  Destiny  played  a  major  role  in  this  play, because  of  that  Eman  became  the  carrier  of  that  village. He  was  became  the  tragic  hero  of  this  play.Wole  Soyinka  symbolically  suggest  many  incidence  through  the  character  of  Eman.The  death  of  Eman  is  a  symbolic  image, that  has  some  resemblance  with  the  image  of  Jesus  Christ. Because  Jesus  Christ  was  born  to  die  and  take  the  sins  of  the  world  on  his  shoulders. In  that  same  manner,Eman  carried  all  the  sins  and  guilts  of  the  villagers  and  finally  died.

                                    The  character  of  Eman  also  symbolically  signified  as  the figure  of  Oedipus. Oedipus  tried  to  avoid  his  destiny  that  to  kill  his  father  and  marry  his  mother, but  he  did  not  escape  from  that  fact. Like  Oedipus,Eman  also  tried  to  avoid  his  destiny  as  a  member  of  the  strong  breed, but  at  last  he  eventually  accept  his  fate.

                                    There are some women characters  presented  in  this  play. The  major  figure  is  that  of  Sunma.In  the  beginning  of  the  play,Sunma  appeared  as  a  selfish  and  cruel  character. She did not  show  sympathy  to  anyone. Her  approach  towards  the  poor  Ifada  was  a  best  example  for  that. She  was  a  very  individualistic  character  in  this  play. She  has  strong  reason  for  her  arguments. In  the  beginning  she  urges  Eman  to  leave  that  village  by  evening. At  first  we  did  not  know  that  why  she    did  like  so, but  later  we  can  understood  that  she  was  fully  aware  of  that  ritual  and  customs  and  their  after  effects. After  that  there  was  a  slight  change  in  her  character  and  she  willing  to  challenge  her  fathers  authority.

                         Comparing  with  other  plays ‘ The  Strong  Breed’  has  no  definite  structure. There  is  no  differentiation  between  the  scenes. The  title  of  the  play  The  Strong  Breed  was  very  significantly  suitable  for  this  play.

                                                    Wole  Soyinka  was  born  to  Yoruba  parents  in  Nigeria  in  1934.The  Yoruba  people  are  one  of  the  largest  ethnic  groups  in  West  Africa.Ogun  was  a  deity  of  Yoruba. He  was  the god  of  creation  and  destruction.Wole  Soyinka  often  associated  his  plays  with  the  deity  Ogun  and  the  traditional  Yoruba  ritual. In  Yoruba  mythology,Ogun  distressed  by  the  separation  between  the  gods  and  mortals  and  build  a  bridge  towards  humanity.

                              THE  HUNGRY  EARTH

                            Maishe Maponya was one of the major figure in the African literature. He was born in 1951 in Alexandra township in Johannesburg. Maponya,like all south Africans, had been personally affected by the discriminatory practices of the apartheid system. He was actively involved in the Black Consciousness Movement which emerged in the 1970s.He wrote his famous play ‘The Hungry Earth’ in 1978.

                             In ‘The Hungry Earth’ Maponya portrays the real life situations and the sufferings of the black peoples in South Africa, especially the working people in the gold mine industry. He also focuses on the problems like child labour,poverty,family breakdowns,colour discriminations etc..The play consists of a prologue, six scenes and an epilogue. Each scene focuses on a different aspect of apartheid oppression.

                          The play opens with an introductory song which is followed by a prologue. The first scene in a hostel room.  The four main characters and umlungu (the white man) appears in this scene.Matlhoko,Usiviko,Beshwana,Sethotho are the child labourers who are working in the gold mine. They discussed about the white people and the evil deeds they had done against them. They come and capture their prosperity and make them as a puppet on a string. In this scene, we see that Sethotho is not against the white man.

                             Scene two is in a plantation. The four child workers, a visitor and an investigator are the characters in this scene. There takes place a conversation between the visitor and the child workers about their works and life in the mine. They are all thirteen years old and they never go to school.It shows the social situation of that time in Africa.In the third scene,in the train,we can see the white man’s imperialism up on the black people.The ticket examiner and the child workers are the characters in this scene.

                                    The fourth scene is in the mine,where the child labourers are working.All the four children,Jannie,a white miner and a compound manager appear in this scene.Jannie gave orders to the boys to drill the rocks.Then there takes place a great explosion and the miners collapse.Lots of people died in that explosion.Through this the dramatist shows us the common thing that happened in African mines and the sufferings of the people who were working in the mines.Here we can also see some economical problems. The child labourers worked hard in the mine but they didn’t  get the satisfied salary for their work.In this scene there is also a small description about the gumboot dance.It is a traditional ritual in Africa.It evolved in the mines as a means of communication between black workers who were not allowed to speak to one  another.

                               The fifth and sixth scenes in a compound.In the fifth scene we can see the presence of some tourists and in sixth, there enters a female character.She is the only female character in this play.She is a prostitude.The situation changed her as a prostitude.Her husband is a mine worker and died in an explosion.

                                 The Hungry E arth is a suitable title for this play.In the last scene, the woman lamented that our men will never stop dying to feed this hungry earth.The use of the language zulu in some of its songs  and dialogue as an affirmation of black south african’s cultural heritage.

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