The performance is temporarily interrupted by Baroka, who then joins in with the performance himself. The villagers join together to do mimed/dance performance telling the story of The Stranger’s previous visit to the village. The villagers inform Sidi that she looks very beautiful in the magazine. When The Stranger last visited the village he took photographs of Sidi and he has now returned with a copy of the magazine in which Sidi’s pictures have been printed. Some of the villagers enter the stage and inform Sidi that a man known only as The Stranger has returned to the village. Lakunle claims that the custom of paying for a wife is offensive and refuses to do it. Lakunle mentions his desire to marry Sidi and Sidi tells him that she will marry him whenever he likes, as long as he pays her “bride-price” (9) first.
Lakunle then criticizes Sidi for dressing immodestly. Sidi carries a pail of water on her head as she walks by and Lakunle rushes outside to criticize her for carrying it on her head, claiming that it will damage her neck. The first scene, “Morning,” takes place outside of the schoolhouse. Her choices are Lakunle, a schoolteacher, and Baroka, the Bale of the village, meaning its senior authority figure. The Lion and the Jewel by Wole Soyinka tells the story of Sidi, a young woman living in an isolated Nigerian village in the 1960s, as she decides who to marry. The following version of this text was used to create this study guide: Soyinka, Wole, The Lion and the Jewel.
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