In The Swamp Dwellers, how does Soyinka artistically convey the plight of the swamp dwellers?

In The Swamp Dwellers, Wole Soyinka exposes the conflicts between the opposing cultures present in a pre and post colonial Nigeria and also within cultures themselves. The religious Kadiye, an elder and adviser to the humble swamp people is "fat" and contrasts with the families and especially the beggar, bringing his sincerity into question and later exposing him. The hard-working locals, full of superstitions and longing rely on the land and the floods constantly ruin their crops. Kadiye cannot stop the floods and yet he still takes from the people who trust him and believe in him. Makuri, and his wife Alu, refuse to believe what their sons tell them. Makuri is prevented from getting the most out of his land because of his traditions and superstitions.

Rural life and the allure of the city are also contrasts that the swamp dwellers must contend with as Makuri's sons go off to the city like so many others, most of whom do not return to help their aging families. City lifestyles also reverberate throughout the community and the definition of "family" and filial piety and unquestioning devotion of the swamp dwellers is brought into question amongst inconsistencies and contradictions. Soyinka conveys the difficulties through the creation of characters that embody specific antagonistic or opposing personalities. Kadiye, the beggar and Igwezu each present the opportunist, the ideal or the striving for it and the effect of making choices whether in a rural  setting or city bound. 

How does Soyinka dramatize man's struggle against a hostile environment in The Swamp Dwellers?

To start with, the setting of Soyinka's most simple and first play The Swamp Dwellers symbolically establishes the themes of rural social decay and humankind's quest for salvation. According to John Nkemngong Nkengasong, Ph.D., of the University of Yaounde, Soyinka uses African myth, idiom, and ritual to examine humanity's absurdist struggle against a hostile environment, thus representing life's ever-present problems and contradictions and humanity's unending quest for salvation. Nkengasong points out that the setting contrasting swamps and the arid North represents the existential predicament of living in an environment that can not be explained and presents a continual hazard. The central dilemma lies in choosing whether to placate an impotent god (the Serpent) on the hope of bringing order to a hostile environment or to abandon the hope of salvation altogether, while knowing full well that salvation is a central quest of humankind.