A Dance of the Forests by Wole Soyinka
This blog was assigned by Megha Mam.
The Forest of Broken Mirrors
Wole Soyinka’s A Dance of the Forests, commissioned for the Nigerian Independence celebrations in 1960, is arguably the most complex and biting "independence gift" ever presented to a nation. Instead of a celebratory anthem, Soyinka offered a mirror—one that reflected not a glorious future, but a repetitive, blood-soaked past. The play famously ends in a state of suspended animation: the "Dance of the Half-Child" concludes without a clear resolution, leaving the audience in a state of existential dread.
The original ending suggests that humanity is trapped in a "recurrent cycle of stupidity," where the crimes of the ancient Court of Mata Kharibu are destined to be repeated by the modern protagonists. But what if the cycle broke? What if the forest, weary of its own shadows, demanded a radical departure from the ancestral script?
Part I: The Alternative Ending (The Scripted Climax)
The Setting: The clearing in the forest remains thick with the "smoke" of the spirits. The Half-Child—the "Figure in Red"—is being tossed as a gaming piece between the Dead Woman and the living characters. In the original text, Demoke saves the child but eventually returns him to the Dead Woman, signaling a return to the status quo of "abiku" (the child born to die).
The Reimagined Climax: In this version, as Demoke catches the Half-Child, he does not look to the Forest Head for direction. He turns instead to the Totem—the towering, grotesque carving he created by hacking away the top of the living Araba tree.
As Eshuoro (the spirit of vengeance) screams for blood, the Forest Head (Adenebi in his spirit form) stands. But he does not speak in riddles. He reaches into the earth and pulls out a handful of white sand.
FOREST HEAD: The dancers are tired, Aroni. The drums have been beating for eight hundred years, and the rhythm has not changed by a single pulse. If the living will not change, the Forest shall.
DEMOKE: (Holding the Half-Child) His hands are cold. He smells of the damp earth of Mata Kharibu’s court. Why must I give him back to a mother who is only a shadow?
DEAD WOMAN: He is my debt! He is the century I was denied!
DEMOKE: Then the debt is cancelled.
Demoke does not hand the child back. Instead, he climbs the Totem. At the very peak, where he once pushed his apprentice to his death, he finds the hollow center of the wood. He places the Half-Child inside the tree.
Suddenly, Ogun (the god of iron and creativity) and Eshuoro (the spirit of chaos) clash in a physical struggle that shakes the stage. But as they fight, the Totem begins to burn—not with orange fire, but with a brilliant, blinding violet light.
The Transformation: The Dead Woman and the Dead Man (the Captain) begin to lose their skeletal features. They do not disappear; they become "flesh" once more, but they are transparent. They are no longer "The Dead," but "The Possibilities."
FOREST HEAD:
(To the audience/the living characters) You came here to celebrate an ending you called a beginning. I give you a beginning that has no history. The child is no longer of the Dead Woman’s womb, nor of the Carver’s guilt. He is the Forest’s first citizen.
The Totem shatters. From the shards, the Half-Child emerges. He is no longer a "Figure in Red." He is clothed in the green leaves of the Araba. He speaks his first words:
HALF-CHILD: I have forgotten the taste of the grave. Who will teach me the name of the sun?
The play ends not with a chaotic dance, but with a profound, terrifying silence. The living characters—Rola, Adenebi, and Agboreko—are left standing in the ruins of the Totem. They are no longer haunted by their past selves (Madame Tortoise or the Court Orators). They are simply humans, alone in a forest that no longer cares who their ancestors were.
[CURTAIN]
Part II: Critical Analysis – Why This Change Matters
The Death of the "Abiku" Narrative
The "Abiku" (the child who dies and is reborn to the same mother in a cycle of grief) is a central metaphor in West African literature, used famously by both Soyinka and Ben Okri. In the original A Dance of the Forests, the Half-Child is the ultimate Abiku. He represents Nigeria itself—a nation born into independence but carrying the "stilled blood" of historical trauma.
By allowing the Half-Child to survive and "forget the grave," the alternative ending proposes a radical break from historical determinism. Soyinka’s original vision was a warning: You cannot escape your past. The alternative ending offers a different challenge: The past is a choice, not a destiny. By placing the child in the Totem—a product of both nature (the tree) and human labor (the carving)—we suggest that the future can be "carved" into something new.
The Resignation of the Gods
In Yoruba cosmology, the gods (Orishas) are deeply involved in human affairs. Ogun is the god of the forge, of war, and of the artist. In the original play, the gods are just as petty and vengeful as the humans.
In this alternative ending, the Forest Head performs an act of "divine abdication." By declaring the world "bankrupt" of debt, he is essentially retiring the old gods. This reflects a modern secular-humanist reading of Soyinka’s work. For a post-colonial nation to truly thrive, it must eventually move beyond the "prophetic" and "ancestral" fears that keep it shackled to old tribal or colonial grievances.
The Totem as a Symbol of Sacrifice
The Totem in the play is born of a crime—Demoke’s murder of his apprentice, Orehu. In the original ending, the Totem is a symbol of human vanity and the "fall" of the artist.
In the reimagined version, the Totem becomes a chrysalis. It suggests that even our crimes and our "grotesque" history can be repurposed to protect the future. This is a more "hopeful" take on the role of the Artist in society. The artist (Demoke) is not just a witness to horror; he is the one who provides the vessel for rebirth.
Part III: Historical and Political Context
When Soyinka wrote this in 1960, the "Dance" was a warning about the impending Nigerian Civil War, which Soyinka saw coming long before his contemporaries. His cynicism was a shield against the naive optimism of the time. However, writing an alternative ending today requires us to look at the "Long Independence." After sixty years of the "cycle," the question is no longer "Will we fail?" but "How do we stop failing?"
The Failure of the "Glorious Dead"
The most shocking part of Soyinka’s play was his portrayal of the ancestors. Traditionally, ancestors are venerated. Soyinka portrayed them as "obscene" and "decrepit." My alternative ending honors this by not allowing the Dead Woman to reclaim her child. In many post-colonial struggles, the "sanctity of the past" is used to justify modern corruption. By having the Forest Head dissolve the ancestors into the roots of the trees, the alternative ending argues that the past must stay in the ground so that the living can breathe.
Part IV: Philosophical Underpinnings
Soyinka was heavily influenced by the Nietzschean concept of the "Eternal Return"—the idea that one must live their life as if they would be willing to repeat it exactly, forever.
The original A Dance of the Forests is a nightmare version of the Eternal Return. The characters are forced to repeat their crimes because they haven't learned. The alternative ending proposes a Nietzschean Overcoming. To "overcome" history, one must destroy the "Self" that belongs to that history. When the characters lose their memories at the end of the reimagined play, they are being given the ultimate gift: the ability to exist in the now.
Conclusion – A New Myth for a New Forest
A "Dance of the Forests" with a hopeful ending is not a "happy" ending. It is a terrifying one. To be free of the past is to be without a map. The original ending provided a map—even if it was a map of a graveyard. The alternative ending leaves the characters in a forest they no longer recognize. This, perhaps, is the truest form of "Independence." It is the moment when the "Forest Head" stops speaking, and the "Half-Child" finally speaks for himself.
References
Adelugba, D. Before our very eyes: Tribute to Wole Soyinka. Ibadan: Spectrum Books.
Appiah, K. A. In My Father's House: Africa in the Philosophy of Culture. Oxford University Press.
Gibbs, J. Wole Soyinka. New York: Macmillan.
Jeyifo, B. Wole Soyinka: Politics, Poetics, and Postcolonialism. Cambridge University Press.
Moore, G. Wole Soyinka. London: Evans Brothers.
Nwoga, D. I. Critical Perspectives on Wole Soyinka. Washington D.C.: Three Continents Press.
Okpewho, I. Myth in Africa: A Study of its Aesthetic and Cultural Relevance. Cambridge University Press.
Quayson, A. Strategic Transformations in Nigerian Writing. Oxford: James Currey.
Soyinka, W. A Dance of the Forests. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Wright, D. Wole Soyinka Revisited. New York: Twayne Publishers.
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