Pulled and Pushed Between Progress and Disillusionment: Migration in Wole Soyinka’s The Swamp Dwellers

Abstract

Wole Soyinka’s The Swamp Dwellers presents migration as a movement the characters initiate in search of better economic opportunities away from home. These characters, in their journeys, are faced with hope, success, failure and disillusionment. Existing criticism do focus on these thematic elements but no work has used any theory of migration in the comprehension of the plays’ thematic dynamics. This paper seeks to fill this gap by analyzing these characters’ migrations and the associated elements through Everett Lee’s ‘Theory of Migration.’ This theory deals with how elements such as pull-push factors, intervening obstacles and personal factors affect migration. The objective is to investigate how the plays’ characters responding varyingly to these factors affect the outcome of their migrations, and how these outcomes influence other prevailing thematic elements. Taking findings from existing research, the discourse of the play will be analyzed in light of Lee’s theory to comprehend the characters’ senses of homelessness and disillusionment as they relate to their migration experiences. This paper’s investigation of the migration presented in The Swamp Dwellers through Lee’s migration theory shows that migration itself, with all its concerning factors, is a driving force behind the feelings of hope, homelessness and disillusionment in individuals.