Soyinka believed that an artist should not live in an ivory tower and instead should write works which were socially relevant. Discuss how A Dance of the Forests reflect his social concerns.

A Dance of the Forests vis-à-vis the Nigerian independence; the relation of tradition to history; and the relation of the artist to politics. Written and first performed in 1960 as part of the public fests of Nigeria’s independence from Britain, A Dance of the Timbers features a unique combination of classically European dramatic rudiments and traditional Yoruba facade traditions which make the play resistant to both staging and traditional Western review. Since 1960, many attempts have been made to perform the play, due to its complexity and nebulosity. A Dance of the Forests vis-à-vis the Nigerian independence; the relation of tradition to history; and the relation of the artist to politics. A Cotillion of the Timbers presents an allegorical review of the political condition of postcolonial Africa and of the recreating political patterns in Nigeria. The play, considered unorthodox upon its debut, criticizes Nigerian history in order to satirize the political nobility of the recently independent Nigerian government and resists nationalistic sundries of a literal or unborn Golden Age in Nigerian history. The playwright, Wole Soyinka, also defied the popular African erudite and philosophical movement of Negritude, a movement he blamed for exorbitantly glorifying Africa’spre-colonial history. Soyinka was the firstsub-Saharan African author to be awarded a Nobel Prize (1986) and is honored moment as one of the most reputed Nigerian authors. In addition to his work as a playwright, Soyinka has been active in Nigerian politics for several decades, A Dance of the Forests vis-à-vis the Nigerian independence; the relation of tradition to history; and the relation of the artist to politics. including championing for Nigeria’s independence, and he was locked in solitary confinement for two times during the Nigerian civil war (1967-70), after a military achievement following increased political pressures as the civil government took control of indigenous Yoruba land. After his release, Soyinka continued to publish poetry, drama and political review prolifically and moment remains an open political activist. A Dance of the Forests vis-à-vis the Nigerian independence; the relation of tradition to history; and the relation of the artist to politics.

A Dead Man and a Dead Woman are summoned to a ethnical gathering by the deity Aroni. Rather of inviting further outstanding ancestors to the jubilee, Aroni chooses the dead couple because they were wronged by the former embodiers of several of the play’s living mortal characters. These characters — Demoke, Rola, Adenebi, and Agboreko — meet and reject the dead couple and argue about political corruption before being led off into the timber by Obaneji, who’s really the principal Orisha (or god), the Forest Head, in disguise as a mortal.

A Dance of the Forests vis-à-vis the Nigerian independence; the relation of tradition to history; and the relation of the artist to politics. Meanwhile, strife brews between the gods Eshuoro and Ogun. Ogun is Demoke the carver’s patron god, and Eshuoro is angry that Demoke sculpted Oro’s (another Orisha) sacred tree into an hero for the jubilee, and because Demoke killed his adjunct Oremole, who was also a sucker of Eshuoro. The Orisha and the dead plan to gather with the living in the timber to requital the wrongs of the history. A Dance of the Forests vis-à-vis the Nigerian independence; the relation of tradition to history; and the relation of the artist to politics.

In Part 2 of the play, The Forest Head turns back time eight centuries, shifting the setting to the Court of Mata Kharibu, when the dead couple lived. Mata Kharibu wishes to wage war for a frivolous cause. The Dead Man, known as “ the Warrior” in the history, refuses to lead his dogfaces into battle for such a cause. For his defiance, the Warrior is devitalized and enslaved and his pregnant woman, who’s the Dead Woman from Part 1, dies soon after. Demoke, Rola, Adenebi, and Agboreko’s ancestors (the Court Poet, Madame Tortoise, the Court Historian, and the Soothsayer, independently) all play a part in the fate of the Warrior and his woman.

In the present, deep in the timber, the humans are put on trial for their former lives in a facade presided over by the Forest Head, Aroni, and the other timber spirits. The pregnant Dead Woman is eventually suitable to give birth to her baby, who’s called the Half- Child. Eshuoro interferes with the form, trying to abduct the Half- Child; he’s baffled, and Demoke rescues the Half- Child, giving him back to his mama. The Forest Head laments to himself that he doubts that the intended assignment has sunk in, and fears that the humans are doomed to repeat the sins of the history. The Orisha, the dead, and the timber spirits disperse.

Eshuoro forces Demoke to climb the vill hero as an unintentional immolation. Eshuoro sets fire to the hero and Demoke falls but is saved by Ogun. When he regains knowledge, Demoke is brazened by his father and Agboreko. When they ask Demoke what happed to him and what he learned of the future, A Dance of the Forests vis-à-vis the Nigerian independence; the relation of tradition to history; and the relation of the artist to politics. Demoke is unfit to give a sufficient answer.

A Cotillion of the Timbers is one of Wole Soyinka’s best- known plays and was commissioned as part of a larger festivity of Nigerian independence. It was a polarizing play that made numerous Nigerians angry at the time of its product, specifically because of its charge of political corruption in the country. A Dance of the Forests vis-à-vis the Nigerian independence; the relation of tradition to history; and the relation of the artist to politics.

After having gone to university in England, Soyinka returned to Nigeria to write this play in 1959, submerging himself in Yoruba myth as a way of reconnecting with his motherland. The play is about a group of mortals who bring the spirits of the dead, hoping that these wiser spirits will help to guide them, but disappointed to discover that the spirits are just as petty and defective as they are.