The Strong Breed       

          In the play The Strong Breed (1963) Wole Soyinka presents the ritual based on Yoruba festival on New Year where they sacrifice a “carrier”. Wole Soyinka mainly employs traditional African forms of expression in his plays. The play has a tragic ending. Eman who is a member of The Strong Breed sacrifices his life instead of Ifada. Many instances in the play looks unusual like, Eman leaving his place of birth and going to a strange village and serving there as a healer and his hesitation to go out on the New Year night along with Sunma to another village. The concept of carrier which wole Soyinka mentions in the play shares a parallel with some of the rituals practiced in the remote villages of our country where even infant babies are sacrificed. These reveal the existing orthodox beliefs in present world.

                               A parallel can be drawn between the character of Eman in this play and that of Oedipus by Sophocles. In both these plays the issue of destiny appears .Towards the end of both of the plays the central characters are driven by their destiny to a tragic ending. Even they knowingly or unknowingly migrates from place to place the evils of their ancestors haunts them and drives them to ruin .This shows the influence of Greek tragedy on Wole Soyinka. Eman’s sacrifice did not really satisfy the villagers. And we the readers also have in our minds that what is the kind of purification that the villagers meant by sacrificing a human being? The characters Jaguna and Oroge in the play chase Eman and finally set a trap to catch him. They represents the community of that village .They are only concerned about the communal gain. So they are much into the act of sacrificing .Wole Soyinka says for the villagers “death is a crucial mark in the struggle between individual will and community wholeness”.

                           Wole Soyinka mentions of free will, which is another most important question that the play addresses. Eman‘s willingness to stay in the village and also his sacrificial role which he takes by substituting Ifada illustrates this. The intersection of will and destiny in Yoruba world-view is another important point mentioned by Wole Soyinka. Soyinka also interprets Christian themes, motifs and symbols in this play along with mythologies.

                          Wole Soyinka draws both Western and Nigerian traditions in his plays. Likewise his play synthesises both Yoruba and European performance idioms and the philosophical concepts attached to it .Soyinka has always tried to bring out the realism constructed by Western theorists between ritual and theatre. Some of Soyinka’s plays have the characteristics of theatre of absurd .In the play Soyinka use rituals as a tool of suppression. The existence of these rituals has made the people of that village live under an orthodox belief and they are unaware of the fact that they are being suppressed. Here we can get a clear picture of the power structures that existed during that time .Thus Soyinka unravels the hidden hands of suppression through this play.

                         

                          

                             

                        

                          

On Maishe Maponya's The Hungry Earth  
Maishe Maponya is a South African playwright.From his very young age itself he was interested in politicl theatre.He was born in Johannesburg in 1951.He was also a victim of the aparthied practices during the colonial rule.Later he was an active participant of Black Consciousness Movement.His works include-The Cry(1976),Umongikazi/The Nurse(1983),Dirty Work(1984) and Jika(1986).The Hungry Earth was staged in Soweto in 1979.Moponya introduced a minimal set designe to cut the cost and to make mobility easy for the actors.The use of props were also less.In the play the playwrigh deals with the miseries undergone by the rural palntation labourers to the migrant labourers.He draws the sorry plight of innocent people who are suppresses and the way their are being tortured for unnecessary guilt.The Hungry Earth is an eye opener against dehumanisation of workers and it also call for resistance/rejection of the controling authority.
The play The Hungry Earth ,is a criticism of the aparthied regime and have much political implications.The play can be viewed as a resistance from the part of the suppressed Black people of South Africa.The play mainly tell the socio,economic and cultural effects of South African migrant labour system and its relation to gold mining industry.The treatment of the Black people by the colonizers were very harsh.They were devoid of basic facilities and were made to work for hours and over time.They lost their families and lives an isolated life.They were also not allowed to communicate with each other and in the play the finds out a solution to this in the form of Gumboot dancing.Later it gets commodified.
The playwright presents the play in scenes.Through this he is trying to bringforth the real condition of Africa during colonial rule.Scene one is set in the hostel,scene two in the plantation,scene three in the train,scene four in the mine and scenes five and six in the compound.Among theem the mine scene is too miserable where 'mines are living hungry earth that swallows up peoples lives' .He presents it in a realistic manner.He makes use of zulu in some instances in the play inorder to sustain the essense of Black African cultural heritage.The mentioning of Gumboot dance also addds to this. Even though the scenes are set in different locations we does not confront any detachment.The play makes the readers to think and criticize.Here we can see the influence of Bertolt Brecht on Maponya.
Reading this play was an insight into the South African dramatic tradition.The use of traditional languages add a peculiar beauty to the play.The playwright had in his mind a correct notion about the historical past of Africa and alon with that his personal experience also helped him to render the play very well.The play helped me to understan the situation that prevailed in South Africa during the colonial rule.We can draw similar type of plays in our literary traditions also.Street theatre,agitprop theatre etc can be mentioned.Like South Africa ,India was also colonized by the British so reading The Hungry Earth was like a returne into our past.