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Collected Plays Two
A collection of 3 plays, in English, by Nigerian author Wole Soyinka.
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First published January 9, 1975
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About the author
Wole Soyinka
205 books1,243 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
Akinwande Oluwole Babatunde Soyinka, known as Wole Soyinka, is a Nigerian playwright, novelist, poet, and essayist in the English language. He was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature for his "wide cultural perspective and... poetic overtones fashioning the drama of existence", the first sub-Saharan African to be honoured in that category.
Soyinka was born into a Yoruba family in Abeokuta. In 1954, he attended Government College in Ibadan, and subsequently University College Ibadan and the University of Leeds in England. After studying in Nigeria and the UK, he worked with the Royal Court Theatre in London. He went on to write plays that were produced in both countries, in theatres and on radio. He took an active role in Nigeria's political history and its campaign for independence from British colonial rule. In 1965, he seized the Western Nigeria Broadcasting Service studio and broadcast a demand for the cancellation of the Western Nigeria Regional Elections. In 1967, during the Nigerian Civil War, he was arrested by the federal government of General Yakubu Gowon and put in solitary confinement for two years, for volunteering to be a non-government mediating actor.
Soyinka has been a strong critic of successive Nigerian (and African at large) governments, especially the country's many military dictators, as well as other political tyrannies, including the Mugabe regime in Zimbabwe. Much of his writing has been concerned with "the oppressive boot and the irrelevance of the colour of the foot that wears it". During the regime of General Sani Abacha (1993–98), Soyinka escaped from Nigeria on a motorcycle via the "NADECO Route". Abacha later proclaimed a death sentence against him "in absentia". With civilian rule restored to Nigeria in 1999, Soyinka returned to his nation.
In Nigeria, Soyinka was a Professor of Comparative literature (1975 to 1999) at the Obafemi Awolowo University, then called the University of Ifẹ̀. With civilian rule restored to Nigeria in 1999, he was made professor emeritus. While in the United States, he first taught at Cornell University as Goldwin Smith professor for African Studies and Theatre Arts from 1988 to 1991 and then at Emory University, where in 1996 he was appointed Robert W. Woodruff Professor of the Arts. Soyinka has been a Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and has served as scholar-in-residence at New York University's Institute of African American Affairs and at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California. He has also taught at the universities of Cambridge, Oxford, Harvard and Yale, and was also a Distinguished Scholar in Residence at Duke University in 2008.
In December 2017, Soyinka was awarded the Europe Theatre Prize in the "Special Prize" category, awarded to someone who has "contributed to the realization of cultural events that promote understanding and the exchange of knowledge between peoples".
Akinwande Oluwole Babatunde Soyinka, known as Wole Soyinka, is a Nigerian playwright, novelist, poet, and essayist in the English language. He was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature for his "wide cultural perspective and... poetic overtones fashioning the drama of existence", the first sub-Saharan African to be honoured in that category.
Soyinka was born into a Yoruba family in Abeokuta. In 1954, he attended Government College in Ibadan, and subsequently University College Ibadan and the University of Leeds in England. After studying in Nigeria and the UK, he worked with the Royal Court Theatre in London. He went on to write plays that were produced in both countries, in theatres and on radio. He took an active role in Nigeria's political history and its campaign for independence from British colonial rule. In 1965, he seized the Western Nigeria Broadcasting Service studio and broadcast a demand for the cancellation of the Western Nigeria Regional Elections. In 1967, during the Nigerian Civil War, he was arrested by the federal government of General Yakubu Gowon and put in solitary confinement for two years, for volunteering to be a non-government mediating actor.
Soyinka has been a strong critic of successive Nigerian (and African at large) governments, especially the country's many military dictators, as well as other political tyrannies, including the Mugabe regime in Zimbabwe. Much of his writing has been concerned with "the oppressive boot and the irrelevance of the colour of the foot that wears it". During the regime of General Sani Abacha (1993–98), Soyinka escaped from Nigeria on a motorcycle via the "NADECO Route". Abacha later proclaimed a death sentence against him "in absentia". With civilian rule restored to Nigeria in 1999, Soyinka returned to his nation.
In Nigeria, Soyinka was a Professor of Comparative literature (1975 to 1999) at the Obafemi Awolowo University, then called the University of Ifẹ̀. With civilian rule restored to Nigeria in 1999, he was made professor emeritus. While in the United States, he first taught at Cornell University as Goldwin Smith professor for African Studies and Theatre Arts from 1988 to 1991 and then at Emory University, where in 1996 he was appointed Robert W. Woodruff Professor of the Arts. Soyinka has been a Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and has served as scholar-in-residence at New York University's Institute of African American Affairs and at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California. He has also taught at the universities of Cambridge, Oxford, Harvard and Yale, and was also a Distinguished Scholar in Residence at Duke University in 2008.
In December 2017, Soyinka was awarded the Europe Theatre Prize in the "Special Prize" category, awarded to someone who has "contributed to the realization of cultural events that promote understanding and the exchange of knowledge between peoples".
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
September 8, 2014
I really liked the two Brother Jero plays, which I thought were hilarious. I wasn't as sold on Kongi's Harvest or Madmen and Specialists. And I read The Lion and the Jewel in a separate edition, so you can see my review of that play.
Kongi's Harvest, the two Brother Jero plays, and Madmen and Specialists all deal with the confusing and (as Soyinka seems to tell it) often corrupt role of religion in society. I feel like I missed a lot from Kongi's Harvest and Madmen and Specialists, which might become more evident in performance or might be culturally/historically specific to Nigeria at the time these plays were written/premiered. But I really liked the Brother Jero plays, which I felt work really well across cultures (or at least as well in contemporary US culture, with the mega-churches and televangelists making religion a spectacle for which believers pay). Jero is a scheming religious leader, always trying to secure his position as head of a powerful religious group, and always trying to make sure his plans work out without getting caught.
Kongi's Harvest, the two Brother Jero plays, and Madmen and Specialists all deal with the confusing and (as Soyinka seems to tell it) often corrupt role of religion in society. I feel like I missed a lot from Kongi's Harvest and Madmen and Specialists, which might become more evident in performance or might be culturally/historically specific to Nigeria at the time these plays were written/premiered. But I really liked the Brother Jero plays, which I felt work really well across cultures (or at least as well in contemporary US culture, with the mega-churches and televangelists making religion a spectacle for which believers pay). Jero is a scheming religious leader, always trying to secure his position as head of a powerful religious group, and always trying to make sure his plans work out without getting caught.
November 27, 2022
This is the exact book I have, but I've been marking the plays individually. Jero's Metamorphosis, however, appears to have no separate entry even though all the rest of the plays do.
I found this collection at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland. It is the second of two collections by Nigerian playwright, Wole Soyinka.
It contains five plays. My favorite is the first, The Lion and the Jewel. I felt like I was missing too much cultural context in Kongi's Harvest. Despite disliking The Trials of Brother Jero, I enjoyed Jero's Metamorphosis. I still need to read the last play, Madmen and Specialists.
Jero, in both titular plays, is a not so righteous preacher in a group of other not so righteous preachers. In Jero's Metamorphosis, Jero finds a solution to save their land and livelihood from government expansion. It's comedic, but there's also a niggling dark side, seeing how he and the government are seizing more power.
I found this collection at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland. It is the second of two collections by Nigerian playwright, Wole Soyinka.
It contains five plays. My favorite is the first, The Lion and the Jewel. I felt like I was missing too much cultural context in Kongi's Harvest. Despite disliking The Trials of Brother Jero, I enjoyed Jero's Metamorphosis. I still need to read the last play, Madmen and Specialists.
Jero, in both titular plays, is a not so righteous preacher in a group of other not so righteous preachers. In Jero's Metamorphosis, Jero finds a solution to save their land and livelihood from government expansion. It's comedic, but there's also a niggling dark side, seeing how he and the government are seizing more power.
July 18, 2020
I've grown to admire Soyinka's dramatic work over the years. This collection features five compelling plays. The Lion and a Jewel tells the humorous tale of a wily chieftain who vanquishes a rival with a Western education and seduces the belle of the village. Kongi's Harvest examines the rise of dictators in postcolonial West Africa, and the Jero plays (The Trials of Brother Jero and The Metamorphosis of Jero) take on corruption and charlatanism in modern Nigeria. Madmen and Specialists, set during the Biafra secession in the late 1960s, explores the inhumane and cannibalistic aspects of civil war through the figure of the mad Dr. Bero.
March 1, 2020
Good read
March 29, 2025
I didn't enjoy The Lion and the Jewel, but the rest (especially the Brother Jero plays) are incredible
May 9, 2012
The Trials of Brother Jero and Jero’s Metamorphosis are the most comic and exciting plays I have read so far; and this is all due to its Nigerian colloquial speech, and charismatic characters! What is very remarkable about the characters is that Soyinka was able to allocate diverse character traits to them, but still unite them with the common trait of having multiple faces to their personalities and of being incredibly dynamic.
My favorite character is Amope. Everything she says is incandescent with emotion and vivacity. And she is even vivacious when she is frustrating, that I did not notice her being annoying. This makes her a constantly amusing character. Also, since it is an unusual character trait, I felt like I wanted to know more about her; it makes her mysterious. For example, she makes the biggest deals about the littlest things. When Chume suddenly applies the brakes, she tells him “after all these years one would think [he] could set [her] down a little more gently” (ii). One would be very irritated if a person kept on complaining about such silly and unintentional things. However, the sarcastic and witty tone she uses makes it funny.
The best part of the plays is the mentioning of the African foods, like “cola” (ii) or “yam” (ii), and the African colloquial speech! Both elements allow the reader to feel more involved, as if he is there with the characters. The African colloquial speech makes the play so much more exhilarating and droll. The characters would say phrases, such as “I dey” (ii), “de thing” (ii), “commot” (ii), which is the slang used in most West African countries.
In The Trials of Brother Jero, both Jero and Chume curse Amope in their own ways; but they do not know that their annoyance is caused by the same woman. The irony here adds some mystery to the play. The reader knows that this is not accidental, and thus that something unpredictable will occur as a result of it.
What is also humorous is the way in which they disrespect religion. Jero, a Prophet, uses religion to gain money. For instance, Chume wants to beat his wife; but Jero prevents him because if “he doesn’t beat her, he comes here feeling helpless, and so there is no chance of his rebelling against [him]” (iii). Jero also desperately tries to resist his temptation to have affairs. This is also comic because he wants the best of both worlds, money and women, and suffers to stick to one. However, the funniest of all is their actual prayers! Jero utters phrases such as “Abraka, Abraka, Hebra, Hebra, Hebra, Hebra, Hebra, Hebra, Hebra, Hebra…” (iii), in order to put his customers into some kind of Trans. The fact that such phrases do not officially mean anything shows that he is manipulating his clients for money and cleverly mocking them.
Nevertheless, what I really did not appreciate is all the unnecessary repetition. For example, when praying they would repeat “Forgive him, Father, forgive him” (iii) countless times. These repetitions take away from the play’s energy and make it a little boring.
I recommend these plays to everyone. You will not find yourself sitting for hours trying to understand them, like other literature books, but you will rather enjoy them!
My favorite character is Amope. Everything she says is incandescent with emotion and vivacity. And she is even vivacious when she is frustrating, that I did not notice her being annoying. This makes her a constantly amusing character. Also, since it is an unusual character trait, I felt like I wanted to know more about her; it makes her mysterious. For example, she makes the biggest deals about the littlest things. When Chume suddenly applies the brakes, she tells him “after all these years one would think [he] could set [her] down a little more gently” (ii). One would be very irritated if a person kept on complaining about such silly and unintentional things. However, the sarcastic and witty tone she uses makes it funny.
The best part of the plays is the mentioning of the African foods, like “cola” (ii) or “yam” (ii), and the African colloquial speech! Both elements allow the reader to feel more involved, as if he is there with the characters. The African colloquial speech makes the play so much more exhilarating and droll. The characters would say phrases, such as “I dey” (ii), “de thing” (ii), “commot” (ii), which is the slang used in most West African countries.
In The Trials of Brother Jero, both Jero and Chume curse Amope in their own ways; but they do not know that their annoyance is caused by the same woman. The irony here adds some mystery to the play. The reader knows that this is not accidental, and thus that something unpredictable will occur as a result of it.
What is also humorous is the way in which they disrespect religion. Jero, a Prophet, uses religion to gain money. For instance, Chume wants to beat his wife; but Jero prevents him because if “he doesn’t beat her, he comes here feeling helpless, and so there is no chance of his rebelling against [him]” (iii). Jero also desperately tries to resist his temptation to have affairs. This is also comic because he wants the best of both worlds, money and women, and suffers to stick to one. However, the funniest of all is their actual prayers! Jero utters phrases such as “Abraka, Abraka, Hebra, Hebra, Hebra, Hebra, Hebra, Hebra, Hebra, Hebra…” (iii), in order to put his customers into some kind of Trans. The fact that such phrases do not officially mean anything shows that he is manipulating his clients for money and cleverly mocking them.
Nevertheless, what I really did not appreciate is all the unnecessary repetition. For example, when praying they would repeat “Forgive him, Father, forgive him” (iii) countless times. These repetitions take away from the play’s energy and make it a little boring.
I recommend these plays to everyone. You will not find yourself sitting for hours trying to understand them, like other literature books, but you will rather enjoy them!
February 4, 2015
Wole Soyinka, a Nigerian, was the 1986 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature; he was the first African, and so far the only Black African, to win the prize. Although he has written poetry, fiction and non-fiction, he is best known as a playwright.
The Lion and the Jewel [1959] 58 pages
The second of his plays, this was written and performed in London in 1959, and published in 1963. It is a comedy, based on the rivalry of a young schoolteacher and an old polygamous chief to marry the village beauty. It is quite funny and there are unexpected turns; all of the characters are depicted as rather vain and foolish. The theme, though not treated as seriously as in the first play, is progress and tradition. This was the first play of the second volume.
Kongi's Harvest [1964] 83 pages
This somewhat dark satirical play was first performed at a celebration in Nigeria, and has a celebration as its subject. The situation concerns the Harvest or New Yam Festival in a country called Isma (there are various plays on words, and references to -isms) ruled by a dictator named Kongi. Kongi succeeded to a traditional king or Oba named Danlola, who is now held in detention. The plot revolves around Kongi's attempt to get Danlola to present him with the ritual first yam, thus recognizing his authority over the harvest and legitimizing his regime to the religious among his subjects. (I would recommend that persons not familiar with Nigerian culture read Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, written a few years earlier, first, as it also deals with the New Yam Festival and makes the situation clearer.)
The Trials of Brother Jero [1960] 29 pages
The shortest play in the collection; like the previous play it alternates between two nearby locations and could probably be performed with two sets on the same stage as with many of Shakespeare's plays. Another farcical comedy, it concerns a professional "prophet", Brother Jero, who is openly hypocritical in his asides to the audience, his assistant, and a woman to whom the prophet owes money. Soyinka later added two other plays about Brother Jero to form a trilogy.
Jero's Metamorphosis [1973] 41 pages
A sequel to his comedy The Trials of Brother Jero, but even funnier; a satire on the relations of church and state.
Madmen and Specialists [1970] 62 pages
One of the most interesting of his plays I have read, a symbolic political satire. It begins with a discussion among four mendicants, survivors of the civil war. They are working in some mysterious way for "the Specialist". Gradually we learn more about what is happening; this is another play I can't really summarize without spoilers.
The Lion and the Jewel [1959] 58 pages
The second of his plays, this was written and performed in London in 1959, and published in 1963. It is a comedy, based on the rivalry of a young schoolteacher and an old polygamous chief to marry the village beauty. It is quite funny and there are unexpected turns; all of the characters are depicted as rather vain and foolish. The theme, though not treated as seriously as in the first play, is progress and tradition. This was the first play of the second volume.
Kongi's Harvest [1964] 83 pages
This somewhat dark satirical play was first performed at a celebration in Nigeria, and has a celebration as its subject. The situation concerns the Harvest or New Yam Festival in a country called Isma (there are various plays on words, and references to -isms) ruled by a dictator named Kongi. Kongi succeeded to a traditional king or Oba named Danlola, who is now held in detention. The plot revolves around Kongi's attempt to get Danlola to present him with the ritual first yam, thus recognizing his authority over the harvest and legitimizing his regime to the religious among his subjects. (I would recommend that persons not familiar with Nigerian culture read Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, written a few years earlier, first, as it also deals with the New Yam Festival and makes the situation clearer.)
The Trials of Brother Jero [1960] 29 pages
The shortest play in the collection; like the previous play it alternates between two nearby locations and could probably be performed with two sets on the same stage as with many of Shakespeare's plays. Another farcical comedy, it concerns a professional "prophet", Brother Jero, who is openly hypocritical in his asides to the audience, his assistant, and a woman to whom the prophet owes money. Soyinka later added two other plays about Brother Jero to form a trilogy.
Jero's Metamorphosis [1973] 41 pages
A sequel to his comedy The Trials of Brother Jero, but even funnier; a satire on the relations of church and state.
Madmen and Specialists [1970] 62 pages
One of the most interesting of his plays I have read, a symbolic political satire. It begins with a discussion among four mendicants, survivors of the civil war. They are working in some mysterious way for "the Specialist". Gradually we learn more about what is happening; this is another play I can't really summarize without spoilers.
June 2, 2014
These plays show a great deal of creativity and verve. They depict the plight of African nations struggling beneath the influence of Western political models and the struggle to preserve traditional structures and norms.
In The Lion and the Jewel and Kongi’s Harvest, Soylinka looks grimly upon Western influence, and justifiably so. And while he doesn’t present traditional society as a panacea, he seems to leave many questions unresolved. What are African nations to do? Can you turn your back on Western forms of government and society, yet enjoy the benefits of Western technology and medicine?
It’s not necessarily a playwright’s job to answer these questions. However, to leave them so open invites a cynical fatalism.
Kongi’s Harvest is a wonderful play that I’d love to see performed, mixing poetry, song, dance and drama. And the twist at the end provides an outstanding theater experience.
In The Lion and the Jewel and Kongi’s Harvest, Soylinka looks grimly upon Western influence, and justifiably so. And while he doesn’t present traditional society as a panacea, he seems to leave many questions unresolved. What are African nations to do? Can you turn your back on Western forms of government and society, yet enjoy the benefits of Western technology and medicine?
It’s not necessarily a playwright’s job to answer these questions. However, to leave them so open invites a cynical fatalism.
Kongi’s Harvest is a wonderful play that I’d love to see performed, mixing poetry, song, dance and drama. And the twist at the end provides an outstanding theater experience.
August 6, 2015
La primera y la última obra de esta colección, "The Lion and the Jewel" y "Madmen and Specialists", fueron sin duda las mejores; ambas simultáneamente cómicas y poéticas. De las otras tres, diría que "Kongi's Harvest" falla como un todo pero igual tiene algunas secuencias que pienso tal vez disfrutaría más viéndolas en tarima que leyéndolas y, por último, las dos obras sobre el personaje religioso/timador "Jero" no me agarraron para nada.
May 4, 2013
Biting.
May 4, 2021
From school.
April 2, 2008
Only have read "The Road" a "A Dance in the Forests."
April 19, 2011
an interesting story,funny characters.
March 24, 2013
read "Madmen & Specialists" an inspiration!
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews