THE STRONG BREED

Wole Soyinka is a famous Nigerian play Wright who writes in a wide cultural perspective. He had put his role in the Nigerian fights for the political freedom and its democratization even he was arrested as a member of the political fighter of Nigeria. He worked as a professor and lecturer in various universities.

The “Strong breed” is a famous drama written by Soyinka. Major characters of the drama are EMAN, SUNMA, IFADA, GIRL, and JAGUNA. The story of the drama ends in a tragic feeling, and really it is a tragedy. The drama goes through the cultural aspect of the people who live in the Nigeria. The drama progress on the basis of traditional festival called EGUNGUN. It is a yoba festival tradition in which a man from the society became the victim of the society. The whole wicked deeds of a society are taken on the back of one man called EMAN. This play offer more thought than any another plays of Wole Soyinka. I co- read the works of Samuel Beckett and Francis Kafka who are the famous writers with the elements of absurdity in the writings, as in Waiting for Godoth and The Trial. In the drama strong breed wole Soyinka really approach the belief in myths in critical manner. The supernatural belief may cause for the fall down of the human being as he refers in the drama, sometimes it may destroy the family relationships and other personal relations as the character Sunma says to Eman that “I have renounced it; I am jaguna`s eldest daughter only in name”.

As I told that some of the philosophical elements exist in the play of wole Soyinka that is palpable in the conversation of the characters clearly. As Eman says that “there is love comes to me more easily with strangers”. Here the word strangers repeat whole through the conversation of Eman in the drama and it is used in a philosophical manner by picturizing the human being as a stranger to the world. The words of the old man explicitly go through a philosophical manner as he says that:”ours is a strong breed my son. It is only a strong breed that can take this boat to the river year after year and wax stronger on it. I have taken evils for over twenty years. I hope you would follow me”. Here the old man speaks about the philosophy of the scape goat who is the victim of the society and the prey of the social evils. I like to read the work of Khalil Gibran with the work strong breed. Man is picturized as a stranger to the world in the work while Gibran picturizes the man as a wanderer in the world until he finds the ultimate reality. The words of the each characters picturizes it well. Even though ifada is a human being he is considered as a wicked creature. Sunma calls him as idiot, foolish, insect such ugly words. The work of Gibran , the wanderer, picturizes the life of man as travel which goes on infinite. Like that the words in the drama also points out it clearly as Eman says that “there is peace in being a stranger” again he says that “Let me continue a stranger” again “there is peace in being stranger”.

However the drama deeply affects the heart of the reader as it goes in a flowing manner.