Summary

Soyinka’s play, The Strong Breed, opens in front of a mud house. A man named Eman is looking out the window, while Sunma is clearing the table of exercise books. Sunma tells Eman that they need to leave, but Eman instead turns his attention to Ifada, the village idiot, who is outside the house. When Sunma learns that Eman is trying to persuade Efada to join “the young maskers” (238) in tonight’s festival, she becomes upset and yells at Ifada to leave. Eman intuits that there is something else bothering Sunma, asking Sunma “what is the matter?” and “What really is it?” (239). Sunma brushes him off, explaining only that the sight of Ifada suddenly disgusts her and that she does not want a “mis-shape” (240) near her and that she wants only “some wholesomeness” (240) in her life.

Suddenly a girl...