WAEC Literature in English 2021 Theory — Question 14

Model answer

Points to develop: relation to theme; customary love and marriage; western type of marriage; conflict between traditional/modern love and marriage; the triumph of traditional love/marriage based on the payment of bride price. Bride price is central to the play's conflict between tradition and modernity. Lakunle refuses to pay bride price for Sidi and consequently loses her to Baroka. Baroka, the Bale of Ilujinle, epitomizes traditional love and marriage, which is polygamous and based on payment of bride price; Lakunle, a young half-educated schoolteacher, upholds the western type of marriage based on courtship and non-payment of bride price, but is portrayed as a caricature of the western values he preaches. In the end, tradition (represented by Sidi and Baroka) triumphs over the modern values Lakunle stands for.