Wednesday 3/19

SOYINKA—A LITTLE BACKGROUND

COLONIAL MAP OF NIGERIA

ETHNIC MAP OF NIGERIA

SOYINKA, “THE FOURTH STAGE” (1973)

• --In Yoruba cosmology, as Soyinka explains it, there are three stages: the world of the

ancestors, the world of the living, and the world of the unborn. All three of these stages

are equally real and are interdependent on each other, but mediating among them can

requires entry into a “fourth stage,” which is the space of collision and transition. Tragedy

is a means of representing this “fourth stage.”

OGUN AND DIONYSUS

• -Soyinka directly compares/contrasts what he sees as the symbolic role of the Yoruba

òrìsàs Ogun (associated with transitional energy and combative will) and Obatala

(associated with serenity, clarity, and endurance) to the symbolic roles of Dionysus and

Apollo in Greek tragedy.

• -Soyinka escribes Ogun’s “transitional energy” and Obatala’s “reconcilition” as existing in

a dialectical relationship, similar to Nietzsche’s Apollonian/Dionysian dichotomy.

• -One of Soyinka’s earlier plays, The Bacchae of Euripides resets Euripides’ tragedy in a

mythical West African setting, with the character of Dionysus combining features of the

Greek Dionysus and Ogun.

CRITICISM OF SOYINKA’S RITUAL MODEL

• Soyinka’s ritual model of tragedy has been attacked in two main ways:

1) It is “too European”—by consciously fusing Yoruban and European traditions, it

ceases to be an authentic expression of Yoruban culture.

Soyinka’s response: "no matter how strongly African authors call for an indigenous tragic

art form, they smuggle into their dramas, through the back door of formalistic and

ideological predilections, typically conventional Western notions and practices of

rendering historical events into tragedy.“ (1973)

2) It is “too African”—it nostalgically celebrates “authentic” Yoruban religion and ritual

without casting a critical eye on its associated belief systems.