Journal of Language Sciences & Linguistics. Vol., 2 (3), 67-71, 2014
Available online at http://www.jlsljournal.com
ISSN 2148-0672 ©2014
Comprehensive Power of Discourse in Wole
Soyinka’s the Lion and Jewel and the Strong Breed
Sara Talebi, Behzad Pourgharib
English Literature Department, Golestan University, Gorgan, Iran
ABSTRACT: The concept of discourse has been surveyed by many philosophers, thinkers, psychologists,
sociologists and linguistics. The issue was under great consideration when Michel Foucault, the French theorist
and philosopher, offered a novel definition for this term. Besides, he declares that in dealing with discourse, one
must examine the notions of episteme and epistemic breaks first. In other words, these great changes in politics
and in people’s minds lead to forming new discourse. Then, he necessitates the existence of some organizations
or institutions in order for the newly –made discourses to be developed. Since discourse is the cornerstone of
making individuals’ methods of thinking, analyzing the issue might be better investigated in postcolonial
situations where new discourses are being formed. Therefore, in the present paper, the researcher ponders upon
two postcolonial plays by Wole Soyinka entitled “The Lion and Jewel” and “The Strong Breed”and analyzes it
through Foucauldian discourse.
Keywords: Discourse, Episteme, Epistemic breaks, Identity, Institutions.
INTRODUCTION
Nowadays the very term “discourse” has got many different notions, and at the same time it has become the
central critical discussion in academic fields of study such as sociology, philosophy, sociological psychology
and so forth. The usage of the term is so vast that critics cannot divide or somehow define the borders; therefore,
there is no exact and clear-cut definition for it. Traces of discourse might be found in literary theories too.
During the 1960s, its general meaning was separated from its philosophic and literal notions. However, critics in
different fields have been trying to analyze it from their own standpoints. For example, Crystal (1987) in his The
Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language published in 1987 defined it from linguistic point of view. Even before
that, in 1971 Emile Benveniste in his Problems in General Linguistics put discourse against the language
system.
Norman Fairclough considers the origin of the term in rhetoric and linguistics meaning a “reasoned
argument”, but sometime especially when it is used in other areas its meaning is near to “world view” (cited in
O’Farrell, 2005). Foucault first started to use the term in general scope and only in a very limited and
specialized historical context to discuss a specific process of using words to represent the order of things during
the eighteenth century.
In 1966, he compiled his idea about this broad concept in The Order of Things. In his subsequent work,
Foucault adopted the more familiar view of discourses as verbal traces left behind by history. They, in fact,
produce some sort of gap between the past and present way of thinking and behaving. From Foucault’s point of
view, these gaps are called epistemic breaks. Epistemic breaks are, in particular, certain moments in culture
when great differences in methods of life or thinking can be observed. These breaks are made out of gaining
new knowledge and feeling a kind of difference between one’s new situation and that of his/her previous.
“During colonialism, a complex science of ordering territories and peoples was developed. Such ordering
included Western education as a system of ordering minds, bodies, and souls according to the models used in
Europe” (cited in Kenzo, 2008). Since new discourses were made after colonialism, gradually the people’s
outlooks started to change. They came to a new understanding of the world. Postcolonialism in fact, regards this
difference and tries to prove it. The observable point in each of these plays is this acceptance and their attempts
to make their own culture familiar.

Corresponding Author:
Email Address: pourgharib_lit@yahoo.com
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Filling in the Epistemic Breaks: Lakunle in the Middle of Massive Discursive Structures
The most distinctive and at the same time the main objective of this play is the conflict between tradition
and modernity: some sort of conflict which is produced through existing breaks within a society where people
with different outlooks live in. Lakunle, the school teacher, being educated in a Western society, is
representative of modernity while Sidi, the most beautiful girl in the village and Baroka, the village Bale stand
for tradition. According to Watts (2008), “some Nigerians felt that it was time for change while others wondered
if they should move from their present culture”. The existence of these epistemic breaks in such a twofold
society cause both sides strive to support their own method of thinking and living. In this play, the Bale, Sidi
and Lakunle have their own modern and traditional criterion, respectively; however, “they don’t hesitate to use
each to their own advantage”.
Accordingly, the major character who represents Western culture is Lakunle; therefore, all his actions and
words show his strong desire to rid himself and especially, the others around him of traditional way of life.
Watts (2008) believes that Lakunle’s way of being a “modern gentleman” is obvious from the very beginning of
the play when he tries to seize the pail of water that Sidi has been carrying on her head by his offering “Let me
take it”. The other Western culture that Lakunle’s mind is so much obsessed with is his rejection of paying the
bride price. As a matter of fact, the bride price is the amount of money given to the bride as a gift and
traditionally it proves the bride’s virginity. James Gibbes and Bernth Lindfors, who have done a thorough
research on Wole Soyinka, are on the idea that Lakunle’s madly love towards Sidi is expressed through his
offering her a “Western’ monogamous marriage” The more Lakunle insists on evaluating the Western culture,
the more Sidi endeavours to manifest African tradition.
In fact, the major aim of colonialism is to marginalise other nations. In effect, Lakunle’s creeds indicate his
acting as a colonial agent. And also his ignoring of following African tradition would be considered to be
another instance of that. “The Invention of Africa” by Valentin Y. Mudimbe, argues about the same issue. In his
paper, he confers about the colonial library which is full of materials based on discourses on “African societies,
cultures, and peoples”. He declares that their target is to mark off Africa and the African as the other of the West
and Westerner.
On one hand, Lakunle is engaged to certain European discourses and at the same time he tries to transmit
them to African society. As a teacher, he thinks that he can teach everyone everything he wants, but he does not
consider a fact that Sidi and other villagers are living in an African society with African outlooks and
discourses. Consequently he suggests:
…And I shall start by teaching you.
From now you shall attend my school
And take your place with twelve-year-olds.
…Have you no shame that at your age,
You neither read nor write nor think?
You spend your days as senior wife.
Since discourses work in a society where they have been produced, his attempts prove futile. This futility
according to Foucault is because of his lack of knowledge about some facts. He expresses his ideas on this issue
in conversations with Duccio Trombadori in a book entitled Michel Foucault, Remarks on Marx as such: “If one
really wants to construct something new and different, or in any case if one wants the great systems finally to be
open to certain real problems, it is necessary to look for the data and the questions in which they are hidden”.
Similarly, the fact remains that pointing to the essential problems of a society where one lives, is not the
responsibility of the intellectuals. He also suggests that “their bookish, academic, and erudite investigations” is
of no use here. Nonetheless, Lakunle gained his knowledge from his books and has kept himself busy by
thinking colonially. He suggests his understanding of women through scientists and states “The scientists have
proved it. It is in my books. Women have a smaller brain than men”. Once again, he returns to his own ideas
later. When Sidi is seduced by the Bale, he refers to his previous talks about the bride-price and asserts “But I
obey my books”.
On the other hand, Sidi’s mind is also entangled with the African discourse. Consequently, whatever she
does and even whatever she says revolves around the previously shaped discourse. What she does is due to
keeping the discourses in circulation (Mills, 2005). Right through their quarrel about the notion of the bride
price, she directly mentions her idea about Lakunle which is completely based on the existing discourses:
SIDI: (looks at him wonder for a while
Away with you. The village says you are mad,
And I begin to understand. I wonder they let you
Run the school.
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Living in an African society with African discourses shapes one’s mind as it necessitates. Since “there is no
non-discursive realm” (Mills, 2005), in this situation breaking the mould is a difficult or somehow an impossible
task. In fact, the discourse of the present society (discourses change within the same society through the passage
of time) does not allow the events step beyond the predicted limitations. They produce the events within the
framework that discourse determines. In other words, they make one to say and do whatever they want
themselves.
Strongest or Strangest: Who Is to Be Victimized in The Strong Breed?
In this postcolonial play, the playwright’s aim is to juxtapose two different and deeply rooted ideologies
and display them via Eman (a stranger) and the Old Man (Eman’s father) on one side and Jaguna and Oroge (the
authorities) on the other side. In between, Ifada is a dump idiot and a practical means for the ideologies to be
expressed by the both sides.
Eman is a stranger who enters the village abundant with its own discourses. At the same time, he is charged
with certain discourses which have been being formed in a different society as well. “These systems of
formation”, Foucault (1970) believes “must not be taken as blocks of immobile static forms that are imposed on
discourse from the outside. These systems - I repeat -reside in discourse itself; or rather . . . on its frontier, at that
limit at which the specific rules that enable it to exist as such are defined” (Foucault, 1970). As a result, Eman
and the villagers come from two disparate spheres of knowledge, thought and world views. In effect, this huge
difference is not the result of “the presence of the origins”, but rather they are “treated when they occur”.
Two key characters in Eman’s past are the Old Man and the Tutor. The former is busy with a discourse
defining the strong breed while the latter is obsessed with using his given authority to treat others. The Old
Man’s desire to remain in the chain of the strong breed is so deep and burning that he willingly chooses to
sacrifice his life in order to fulfill his duty as a carrier. Moreover, he endeavours to convey this massage to his
son in a way that this strong breed reaches the coming generation. Eman’ s absence for a bout twelve years and
his living in different societies and also becoming familiar with other discourses make him doubtful about his
father’s beliefs. As a result, when he is called by the old man he states “I was away twelve years. I changed
much in that time”. And similarly later, he asserts that:
There are a lot of tasks in life, father.
This one is not for me. There are even greater
Thing you know nothing of. Here, the playwright not only shows the generation gap which causes epistemic
breaks and then forming new sets of discourses, but he may also point to a key concept called knowledge. In a
paper entitled “Ideology and Discourse Analysis” written by Van Dijk (2006), knowledge is considered to be a
cornerstone in the process of discourse formation. He believes that inhabitants of the certain place share general
social beliefs such as knowledge, attitudes and ideologies. These general beliefs within society, according to
Van Dijk (2006), control the production and understanding of discourse. In other words, dos and don’ts of
communities are put up by this type of knowledge. Because Eman and the Old Man have not lived in the same
place for a couple of years, they cannot make an identical picture of similar issues. In addition, considering the
fact that this kind of knowledge is acquired and also shared by all members of the union, it is presupposed for all
of them. In other words, according to the theory presented by Van Dijk (2006), “All other socially shared
beliefs, and hence also ideologies of groups, are based on, and presuppose the general knowledge of the
community. The same is true for the construction of mental models and the discourses based on them: the
interpretation of meaning and reference is a process in which various kinds of knowledge are activated and
formed”.
Corresponding to what has been suggested above, there is no doubt that Eman’s behaviour would be
criticized by his own father. In Msiska’s terms (2006), Eman’s father is an appropriate model of “that form of
agency that is very much a matter of inheritance of responsibility”. As a matter of fact, the essence of
responsibility in Old Man lays in his fervent sense in holding the strong breed. He is, in effect, encouraging
Eman to keep these words in his ears forever. But the condition of the society where Eman was living in for
years has made him so stubborn that nothing would change his mind easily. Eman’s disapproval is well
presented in Soyinka’s words. Then the readers are immediately faced with the Old Man saying:
I am very sad. You only go to give to others what
Rightly belongs to us. You will use your strengths among
Thieves. They are thieves because they take what is ours,
They have no claim of blood to it. They will even lack the
The knowledge to use it wisely.
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In this part, Soyinka intentionally or unintentionally calls the readers’ sympathy towards the Old Man who is
helping African norms to be progressed gradually.
Back to Eman’s past, one can notice the tutor’s attitude towards his surroundings. As soon as he realizes
that he cannot take advantage of Omae, he starts using the “established discourse of ethics for the oppression of
those socially located below him” (Msiska, 2006). Through this careful selection of words by Mpalive-Hangso
Msiska, one might link this idea to that of Van Dijk’s “shared Knowledge”. He declares that knowledge is no
longer “the justified true belief” but rather nowadays it is defined as “the beliefs in a community”. Accordingly,
his being a tutor is the only justified factor to prove him.
Since the current discourse of that particular period allowed the tutor to act in a way as such, Eman had to
leave the village because this scandal would embarrass his father. In practice, the present discourse of the time
gives the tutor a kind of power which enables him to choose how to behave in that way. Thus one can judge
Eman’s escape to be out of the effects of the prevailing discourse of his society which threatens his life. But in
reality, who is to blame? As stated by Michel Foucault, history does not exist by itself. It is in fact a “magical
field”. “For many philosophers”, he believes, its existence is established by discourse and “the actors of history
are identified with the authors of histories, even histories garnished with ideological presuppositions” (cited in
Gutting, 2005). In accordance with what has been mentioned above, it is not merely the tutor who could be
blamed completely. In other words, his own actions are mingled with the accepted norms and criteria of the
society and at the same time affected by the common thoughts.
On the other hand, as the major setting of the play implies, the readers are faced with another set of
discourse different from that of Eman’s past. Jaguna and Oroge as the authorities of the village are also
preparing a scarifice ceremony for the New Year. They are influenced by their own discourses too. In other
words, the present situation has imposed some discourses on them and they have unconsciously accepted them.
In order to accomplish their mission based on sacrificing a stranger, Ifada, a defenseless dumb idiot stranger
might be the best alternative. In such a tough situation, the only reference that can justify them for this act to be
carried on is discourse. Eman as the member of the strong breed also behaves based on his own discourse and
does not allow it occurs. He brings some reasons to prevent them from taking Ifada and says “Yes. But why did
you pick on a helpless boy? Obviously, he is not willing”. In Eman’s point of view, willingness is a basic
principle for one being sacrificed. However, he is rejected by Oroge when he states: “…One morning, he is
simply there, just like that. From nowhere at all. You see there is a purpose in that”. But later, Eman puts
emphasis on his opposition by proposing “A village which cannot produce its own carrier contains no men”.
In any society, certain institutions are called for to improve the role of the newly formed discourse. In order
for these set of discourses to be grown up in an appropriate conditions, some centers, organizations or agencies
must come alive. The roles of these centers become clearer when they refer to the issue of those in the margin
e.g. the black. Since they have come to know themselves better in recent decades, their expectations have altered
too. As a result, they must find places for performing their actions which are connected to strengthening their
ideas. According to Gutting (2005), discourse is nothing in itself, but rather they are made of institutions, rules,
gaps, voids, practices and events. Not only the physical presence of individuals is emphasized here but also
there must be different kinds of relationships. These institutions might either belong to private or public spheres.
Clearly, the latter is more systematized and regulated that the former (Danaher, Schirato, & Webb, 2000).
Foucault necessitates the existence of such institutions in his “Politics and the Study of Discourse”
published in 1991. He declares that discourses are neither appear nor are decided in advance. Moreover he is on
the idea that:
Any formation depends upon relations among other types of discourse and within the non-discursive contexts in
which it functions-including institutions and social relations, and the conjunction of the economic and the
political. The episteme of a period is not a general developmental stage of reason but ‘a complex relationship of
successive displacements’ (cited in Wang, 2011).
Therefore, in the following paragraphs the researcher pinpoints some centers or organizations where discourses
will be empowered at.
In The Lion and the Jewel, there is a school where Lakunle is the teacher, so he may easily transform the
others’ minds and shape them as he wants; however, Sidi and other villagers are on idea that Lakunle is not a
suitable option for teaching there and they do not like to accept him as the developer of the new discourses. The
fact that the villagers do not regard him as the teacher of the only school in their village roots in their perpetual
attempts to make themselves and their abilities known to the world. Thus the school will soon become a secure
place for spreading the values of the villagers, where they can freely decide about themselves. As Sidi
mentions, they call him “mad” and do not regard his “bookish knowledge”.
Eman in The Strong Breed works in a clinic with his friend Sumna, Jaguna’s daughter. Here, the clinic is
considered to be an institution where Eman can easily support his ideas under the umbrella of postcolonial
discourses. This clinic is at the same time a shelter for Ifada where Eman hid him. Therefore, Eman is indirectly
moving towards his postcolonial attitudes e.g. trying to prove their independence while accepting all the
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differences. Whilst the play is marked with flashbacks between Eman’s past and present, the readers are faced
with two different sets of discourses. The first one belongs to his past and the other one exists in his present era.
Looking at Eman’s past, one can mention the tutor’s key role at school and its succeeding consequences. Here,
the tutor’s role is the same as that of Lakunle in The Lion and the Jewel. In both, they are, in fact, developers of
the current discourse of the society. Ergo, regarding the especial settings of the play, this can be the second
institution improving the discourses.
Thus all they do and even whatever they say are directly or indirectly affected by discourse. To
commensurate with the definition of discourse offered by Merquior (1987) as a complicated complex of the
relationships of social process, behavioural methods and ranking systems, the traces of discourse could be seen
even in the smallest and trivial parts of one’s actions and speeches.
CONCLUSION
In dealing with discourse through Foucault’s description in theses three plays, two currents of discourses
can be observed by which each group try to defend and vindicate themselves. Since discourse is considered to
be a means which behaviours, actions, speeches, and even thoughts are controlled by, in the process of
colonization both the colonizer and the colonized possess their own. Regarding episteme as the cornerstone of
each discourse, they follow different epistemes, thus. On the other hand, Foucault does strongly believe that
epistemes are monolith; therefore, in a period of particular time there is only one discourse. Moreover, in each
play one can notice two categories with absolutely different creeds.
Thus, in The Lion and the Jewel, the teacher stands on one side while the villagers stand on the other side.
And each side attempts to develop its own discourses. To reach this aim, they need an organization. The only
place where they can expand the newly formed discourses is the school. Although Lakunle is the teacher, the
villagers do not accept him and call him “mad”. Hence he can hardly manage to expand European discourses.
The same story happens in The Strong Breed. In this play, currents of different discourses can be clearly
observed. As the colonizer tries to wipe out other attempts to develop new discourses, the colonized stands
firmly on their opinions to prove themselves.
All in all, the existence of multiple discourses in one community in a particular time period is rejected by
Foucault. As a result, Foucauldian discourse cannot be traced in these plays. On the other hand, some other
theorists such as Merquior (1987) think the other way. Along with Merquior (1987), Doerner is on the idea that
Foucault’s method of examining the issue is unilateral.
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