Barbara
Benjamin
8 April
1994
Essay: The Strong Breed by Wole Soyinka
With the death of Eman,
the birth of conscience is acknowledged. Eman, the sacrificial
lamb, became the "willing carrier" to save Ifada
from harm, but in the end he was a coward.
The young Eman
was an idealist with a sense of purpose.
He was a thinker, as he acknowledged to Omae: "we spend much time just thinking. At least, I do. . .
. For the first time I have a life to fulfill" (1865). The revelations of his thoughts were so
important to him that he demanded that Omae leave him
alone, "I may never have such moments again to myself. Don't dare to come and
steal any more of it" (1865).
Eman left on his journey
after his tutor tried to molest Omae. Eman had spent time
contemplating this journey and the moment of opportunity came from
necessity. He intervened to protect Omae from the tutor.
This action alienated him from future contact with his peers, and
possibly the village, thus he saw that "this is a good moment to go. Nothing ties me down"
(1867). He told her, "A man
must go on his own, go where no one can help him, and test his strength. Because he may find himself
one day sitting alone in a wall as round as that [hut]" (1865).
For twelve years, Eman
stayed away. Where he was or what he was
doing wasn't revealed.
There is some evidence in the story, however, that he had acquired some
Western ways and thoughts. He came to Sunma's village as a teacher, and apparently with some
knowledge of medicine. Stage directions
call his house a "modest clinic."
Also, he asked the Girl why she hadn't come to
his clinic since she was ill (1850).
Also, another hint that he
may have learned Western ways is seen in a conversation with his father. He told his father that he was unfit for his
father's work because when he was away for twelve years he had changed much in
that time (1861). Eman
says, "I am totally unfitted for your call. . . . There are other tasks in
life. . . . There are even greater things you know nothing
of" (1861). He would be
unfit for the task of the carrier if he no longer believed in the
practice. This would explain why he didn't want to tell his father why he was unfit for the task
of carrier. He loved and respected his
father and it would serve no purpose to burden the old man with the knowledge
that his son no longer believed in his values.
After searching for twelve years, Eman returned home and found Omae
still waiting for him. He wasn't expecting her to still be there. This unswerving love for him made him realize
that what he was searching for was there all along. He said that when he realized this "I
threw away my new-gained knowledge. I buried the part of me that was formed in strange
places. I made a home in my birthplace"
(1869).
The grief of Omae's
death, though, made him again reject his birthplace, and once more he left his home village. He appeared to have lost his faith, as
well. He then went to Sunma's village to be a teacher/doctor. Here he apparently took back his newly-acquired knowledge.
According to the customs
in this village, Eman was a stranger and would remain
so no matter how long he stayed. But this was what Eman
wanted. He said, "There is peace in
being a stranger" (1853). He
appeared to be guilt ridden about Omae's death. He refused to reveal anything about his past
to Sunma, apparently the only person he ever had
close contact with.
Sunma asked him to reveal something about
himself to her, but his only comment was, "Let me continue a stranger---especially
to you. Those who have
much to give fulfill themselves only in total loneliness" (1855). This comment seems to reflect the loneliness Omae must have felt for him for twelve years, yet she
waited anyway. It's
as if Eman wanted to deny himself also of intimate
companionship to justify Omae's gift of personal
sacrifice to him.
Eman also commented to Sunma that
"love comes to me more easily with strangers" (1855). He seems to be incapable of becoming close to
others. During the twelve years he was
away from his home village, he apparently did not communicate with his
father. If he did, he would have known
that Omae was there waiting for him. After she died, he left his father, even
though he knew that the old man deeply grieved for the loss of Omae and the infant grandson. If Eman did not
have a sense of mission, as he claimed to Sunma
(1852), then his actions appear indifferent and selfish.
Eman didn't
want responsibility to others, which can be seen through his break with the
tribal customs, leaving his village for twelve years, the lack of contact with
his father or Omae, leaving his father again after Omae's death, and his refusal to become involved with Sunma. It is,
however, understandable that he would not be interested in a relationship with
another woman so soon after the death of his wife. But his actions of
indifference to Sunma seem to be more acute than what
would be common. Although he could see
that it was extremely important to her to leave the village for at least this one
night, he steadfastly refused to go with her.
No amount of pleading by her would shake him.
People who prefer to stay to themselves
and who shun intimate contact with others usually don't
want responsibilities beyond what applies to themselves. Although Eman shows
concern and compassion towards the two children, he acts with indifference to
others. A person of these personality
traits would be an unlikely willing candidate to become the martyr that Eman ultimately became.
Eman, in fact, exhibited cowardice
in the end. This is not to say that Eman was not a man of moral convictions. As James Gibb says in "Ritual
Sacrifice in The Strong Breed," "when faced by moral choices he
rises to the occasion and sacrifices himself for his convictions" (
Eman was obviously ignorant
of the methods this village used during the carrier ceremony. It was referred to as a
"festival" by both the Girl and Sunma. The word festival has a happy, cheerful
connotation. Eman
wanted to go into the village and "be part of the
living" (1854) and chastised Sunma for wanting
to stay indoors "when the whole town is alive with rejoicing"
(1854). Sunma
never told him what was done to the carrier in her
village. Since his father had been the
carrier for twenty years in his own village, and unharmed, Eman
viewed the activities in this village in a similar light. He had no information to the contrary.
Eman harbored Ifada because Ifada was
frightened to death by his capture.
Since Ifada was an idiot, this would seem a
natural response. He
was told by Jaguna and Oroge
that this village used strangers like Ifada because
once a carrier received all of the old year's curses, he must leave the village
and never return. If he does, the people
would stone him to death. This
explanation clearly shows that the carrier was not sacrificed
by death, unless of course, he returned to the village. Oroge explained
that, "The evil of the old year is no light thing to load on any man's
head (something Eman is already familiar with by his
village's customs). . . . Surely it is too much to ask a man
to give up his own soil" (1858).
Eman's concern was that the carrier should be
"willing." He felt it was a
sham to use someone who was unwilling, and to use someone such as Ifada who didn't have the capacity
even to understand.
The only threat made was that if a carrier
should get into one's home, it was then contaminated and must
be burned down. The two men told
him they would be willing to overlook that Ifada had
been in his house if he let them have the boy back. He finally allowed them to take Ifada away. After
they left, Eman decided to take Ifada's
place because of Jaguna's challenge to him that he
should offer himself as a "willing" carrier. At this point, Eman
knew that the individual carries all the evils away, not an object like a boat which was used in his village. The individual, then, was
contaminated and must never return to the village. No suggestion was made
yet that any harm came to the individual.
It is clear, also, from the comments made
by Oroge and Jaguna that Eman was unaware of the violent treatment the carrier
received as he "collected" the evils from each house. Oroge said, "it took him by surprise.
He was not expecting what he met" (1860). Eman had been taken through only one compound when he ran
away. The question is,
why did he run?
Eman knew that when he
offered himself as the carrier that he would not be able to return to this village again. He
also knew his responsibility was to take all the evils upon himself and take
them into the bush. After he ran away
from them, he remained in or near the village.
As he was hiding he said to himself, "I
will simply stay here till dawn. I have
done enough" (1859). In light of
what he knew he was getting into, this comment makes no sense. If he remained in the village, he would certainly be killed---especially since he did not
fulfill his responsibility as carrier.
The anger of the people would be violent since they believed the curses
would remain in their village because he did not carry them away.
But Eman
did not run into the bush, nor to his home village. He had three flashbacks during his flight
from the villagers. The first was of his
father on his last run as the carrier.
In this flashback, Eman told his father that
he would never return to the village or take up his father's position as
carrier. The second was when he walked
away from Omae and his village for twelve years. Third was at the burial site of Omae. Just after the
burial scene he encountered his father as carrier with
the boat on his head. This scene appears
to be a hallucination or, perhaps, a ghost.
In the first scene with his father, the old man said this would be the
last Eman would see him. He talked as if he knew he was dying. This would have been right after Omae died, probably about a year before.
At the end, Eman
had been running and hiding for several hours and was desperate for water. He had looked back and made
an assessment of his life. His
wife was dead, presumably the child too, and his father---(apparently), plus
now he would not be able to stay in this village any longer. He had shown cowardice by running away from
his commitment to replace Ifada as the carrier. He had finally met the challenge he was
looking for as the young Eman, which he said he never
found in the twelve years he was away.
"A man must go on his own, go where no one can help him, and test
his strength. Because
he may find himself one day sitting alone in a wall as round as that"
(1865). He met this challenge,
but he failed. He did not have the
strength to stand up to his commitment. He
knew that he was a coward.
Eman's cowardice, though, was measured against his own standards. He could not have known that his presence in
the village, and the strength of his conviction that they were wrong to use
"unwilling" carriers, would have such an impact on the
villagers. He was not a coward, but an
enigma to them. He was part of their
evolution of conscience. There were
already those, like Sunma and Oroge,
who were beginning to question the values of their community. The strange death of Eman
in the sacred trees was the catalyst to shake the awareness of the
community.
Eman choose a village who did
not like strangers because he wanted to remain a stranger. Because he did not resist their alienation of
him, and, in fact, preferred it, he created an aura about himself. He, in a sense, returned their
alienation. This would tend to create a
curiosity. It is ironic then, that a
stranger who wanted to remain a stranger was ultimately the sacrifice, however
unwittingly, that caused a community to question some of their own values and
attitudes towards strangers. Eman was the carrier of a very important evil, the lack of
compassion for others.