Character Study of the Swamp Dweller

1. Name :- Mansi Upadhyay
Roll No :- 16
Semester :- 4
Year :- 2019 - 20
Paper no :- 14 ( The African Literature )
Topic :- Character Study of The Swamp Dweller
E – Mail :- mansiupadhyay06@gmail.com
Submitted to :- Department of English
Maharaja KrishnakumarSinhji
Bhavnagar University.

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Born 13 July 1934, in Nigeria
And educated in England.
In 1986, the Nigerian playwright,
Poet, author, teacher and
Political activist became the
First African to receive the
Nobel prize for Literature.
He dedicated his Nobel
Acceptance speech to
Nelson Mandela.
Soyinka has published
Hundreds of works,
Including drama, novels,
Essays and poetry, and
Collages all over the world
Seek him out as a visiting
Professor.

3. Character of The Swamp Dweller
╺ Alu
╺ Makuri
╺ Awchike
╺ Igwezu
╺ Desala
╺ Kadiye
╺ The Beggar
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4. 4
Husband Wife / Parents
Makuri Alu
Children
Igwezu Awchike
Wife
Desala (Before) Desala (After)

5. Alu :-
╺ Alu is the wife of Makuri. She is aged about sixty.
╺ She believes in the custom of the Swamps. She thinks that the river
bed is the ideal bridal bed.
╺ They have twin sons Igwezu and Awuchike, one who has left and
made money for himself in the city and other, Igwezu who has
returned home to the village.
╺ She is a woman who believes her son to be dead, and has believed it
for a decade as he has not returned.
╺ Accustomed to the ways of the village, she stands by the traditions of
her people and the land.
╺ Alu is a loving and a loveable mother.
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6. Makuri :-
╺ Makuri is married to Alu. Makuri is the father of Igwezu and
Awuchike. He is more intelligent than his wife.
╺ His profession is a barber in the village. A trade which he taught
to his son, Igwezu.
╺ He is a man who believes deeply in his village’s deity the serpent
of the Swamp.
╺ He and his wife bicker their days away as he cannot stand her
constantly believing that one of their sons is dead, when he
knows he isn’t.
╺ Soyinka through Makuri emphasizes the importance and the
value of marital ties between husband and wife.
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7. Awuchike :-
╺ Awuchike is the brother of Igwezu.
╺ He goes to the city and leves his home – village behind forever.
The glamour of city life has changed his character.
╺ He makes money there illegally and quickly and becomes
prosperous overnight. He sales timber.
╺ He has snapped ties with the kinsmen in the swamp and is not a
man of fair dealing.
╺ He seduces his brother’s wife Desala and keeps her as his
mistress.
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8. Igwezu :-
╺ Igwezu is the son of Alu and Makuri. He is the centre of the play.
╺ The Swamp Dwellers is a drama of revelation and Igwezu gets
education through experience both in the city and in the swamp.
╺ He has just returned from the city where his wife left him for his twin
brother. There, Igwezu also lost all of his money and went in to debt
to his brother.
╺ He has returned and accuses Kadiye, the village priest of consuming
his sacrifices for wealth and marriage prior to his journey to the city.
That because of this he has lost his wife, his money, and his dignity.
╺ He is a character in the play who has tasted the ups and downs of life
both in the village and in the city.
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9. Desala :-
╺ The wife of Igwezu. She agreed to marry Igwezu only to go to and
live in the city.
╺ Desala is the embodiment of the corrupt nature of the city life.
╺ Desala married Igwezu. Igwezu later becomes poor owing to bad
returns from his business.
╺ Igwezu keeps his words. But she deceives him and leaves him for
his prosperous brother Awuchike. Then Desala leaves Igwezu and
marries Awuchike.
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10. Kadiye :-
╺ In physical appearance Kadiye is a contrast to the beggar. He is
prosperous in the midst of poverty.
╺ He receives sacrifices from the ordinary people and perform all the
rituals on behalf of the villagers to satisfy and pacify the god.
╺ The Swamp people sacrifices the best ones of their production in
order to pacify the serpent god so that they can yield a god harvest
otherwise they might suffer.
╺ The true nature of Kadiye is vividly demonstrated by the introgation
of Igwezu, who suspects is loyalty and honesty .
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11. The Beggar
╺ The beggar appears in the story in search of any land that he can
make his own.
╺ He is from Bukanji a village of Beggar in the northern nigeria.
╺ He usually does not beg. He is blind, but believes he has a healing
hand and can make any soil fertile one again.
╺ He believes Allah, which is not the god of the Swamp Dwellers.
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