the second scene of the play entitled "Noon," Lakunle interrupts Sadiku and Sidi's conversation regarding the Bale's reputation.Through pantomime, Lakunle tells the story of how Baroka successfully halted a Public Works project. The flashback scene depicts how a surveyor is commissioned to build a railway through the village of Ilujinle. After clearing much of the jungle and laying an extensive amount of track, Baroka arrives with his attendants and a young woman carrying a calabash bowl filled with money and kola nuts. Baroka proceeds to bribe the surveyor by giving him more money, a coop of hens, and a goat. The surveyor accepts the gifts, and "miraculously" discovers that the earth is unsuitable to support the weight of the railway engine. After sealing the deal by drinking some palm wine, the surveyor and his men pack up their things and leave the area.

There are a couple flashbacks throughout the play The Lion and the Jewel. The first flashback takes place during "the dance of the lost traveler." The flashback tells the audience the story of how a foreign photographer gets lost in the jungle after his car breaks down. The lost traveler spots Sidi bathing naked in a pool and begins to take pictures of her until he is discovered. The villagers are angry with the foreigner and lead him to the Bale. However, Baroka is hospitable towards the lost traveler, holds a feast in his honor, and allows him to take numerous photos of Sidi. This flashback demonstrates Baroka's cleverness and shares the story of how Sidi's images came to be in a popular magazine.

Another flashback takes place in the second scene of the play entitled "Noon." Lakunle tells the story of how Baroka foiled a Public Works project by bribing the surveyor. The surveyor and his workers began building a railway that would travel through the village of Ilujinle. One day, Baroka arrives at the construction site with a beautiful girl holding a calabash bowl full of money and kola nuts. Baroka then gives the surveyor more money, a coop of hens, and a goat. The surveyor accepts Baroka's bride and stops the construction of the railway under the pretense that the ground is unsuitable to hold the weight of the railway engine. This flashback again demonstrates Baroka's cleverness and also depicts his support to maintain traditional ways of life.

As a play that embodies African village culture, Wole Soyinka's The Lion and the Jewel is full of dancing and music. Many flashbacks are portrayed in the dances and pantomimes that accompany the dances.
One example of a flashback can be seen fairly early on in the play. Early on, a fight between Lakunle and Sidi is interrupted by village girls. During the fight, Lakunle tells her not to show so much cleavage, and she states she refuses to marry him because he won't pay her bride price. The village girls interrupt the fight to tell Sidi that "the stranger," meaning the white photographer, has just returned to the village like he said he would, bringing the book he just made containing photographs of the village. Sidi shows her vanity when she asks the village girls if he had indeed brought the book that he promised would "bestow upon [her] / Beauty beyond the dreams of a goddess?" (p. 10). After the village girls report that the stranger has returned, Sidi decides to orchestrate a ceremonial dance that mime's the stranger's first arrival to the village. During the dance, the village girls imitate the car that the stranger drove into the village while Lakunle imitates the drunken visitor himself, as we see in part of the stage directions: "A mime follows of the visitor's entry into Ilujinle, and his short stay among the villagers" (p. 14). Hence, since this dance captures the visitor's first arrival into the village, we know that the dance is being used as a flashback to his first arrival.