A Dance of the Forests
by Wole Soyinka
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See Also
- Wole Soyinka (Censorship (Ready Reference series))
- Wole Soyinka (Critical Survey of Drama, Second Revised Edition)
- Wole Soyinka (Cyclopedia of World Authors, Fourth Revised Edition)
- Wole Soyinka (Dictionary of World Biography: The 20th Century)
- Wole Soyinka (Critical Survey of Long Fiction, Fourth Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Wole Soyinka
- First Published: 1963
- Type of Plot: Mythological
- Time of Work: Unspecified
- Setting: Nigeria, West Africa
- Characters: Adenebi, Obaneji, Demoke, Rola, Agboreko, Dead Woman, Dead Man, Aroni, Eshuoro, Ogun, Forest Head
- Genres: Drama, Postcolonial literature, Mythological literature
- Subjects: Africa or Africans, Tradition, Mythology or myths, Race, Betrayal, Religion, Gods or goddesses, Rites or ceremonies, Reincarnation, Feasting or feasts
- Locales: Africa, Nigeria
The Play
A Dance of the Forests presents a complex interplay between gods, mortals, and the dead in which the ideal goal is the experience of self-discovery within the context of West African spiritualism. The living have invited two glorious forefathers to take part in a feast and celebration—the “Gathering of the Tribes.” The god Aroni, however, explains in the prologue that he received the permission of the Forest Head to select instead “two [obscure] spirits of the restless dead”: the Dead Man and the Dead Woman, a captain and his wife from the army of the...
(The entire page is 2842 words.)
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