The Lion and the Jewel

 Sidi, a Nigerian village beauty
 featured in a glossy magazine

The Lion and the Jewel is a play by Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka that was first performed in 1959. It chronicles how Baroka, the lion, fights with the modern Lakunle over the right to marry Sidi, the titular Jewel. Lakunle is portrayed as the civilized antithesis of Baroka and unilaterally attempts to modernize his community and change its social conventions for no reason other than the fact that he can. The transcript of the play was first published in 1962 by Oxford University Press. Soyinka emphasizes the theme of the corrupted African culture through the play, as well as how the youth should embrace the original African culture. 

Summary

Lakunle is a school teacher who wants to marry Sidi, the belle of Ilujinle, but does not want to pay the bride price because he says that such a custom is barbaric. He wants to wed Sidi in the Western fashion. Sidi on the other hand will marry him only on the ground that he pays the bride price. 

The Bale, the lion of Ilujinle, (he is 62 years old) also wants to marry her because of her "beauty and fame that has spread to Lagos and beyond the seas". Sidi refuses the Bale's proposal, saying he is too old for her. The Bale then lied to his head wife, Sadiku, that he has lost is potency as a man a week ago. He warned her not to "parade his shame before the world". Sadiku later told Sidi about it so that she can go and subtly mock the Bale. From their conversation, the Bale soon discovered that Sadiku has betrayed his trust by divulging  the secret to Sidi. He started praising Sidi's beauty just to seduce her. She lost her virginity before she realized what was happening. Lakunle is angry but still willing to marry Sidi without the bride price since she was no longer a virgin. Sidi however married the Bale instead, claiming that at sixty, Baroka is still full of life but Lakunle would be probably "ten years dead".

Ah! did u get that right? I mean the part where she decided to marry the man she once claimed was too old for her. Hehe!