"Morning"
Summary
The scene opens at the edge of the market. There is a large “odan” tree. This is the village center of Ilujinle’s. There is a school. The children are chanting arithmetic.
Sidi enters, carrying a pail on her head. She is slim and lovely. The schoolmaster is Lakunle. He looks out the window. He then shuts it and comes outside to meet Sidi. He is 23 years old, dressed cleanly in western clothes.

Lakunle tries to help Sidi with her pail, but she refuses. He advices her that she should not carry things on her head because her neck will become short. Sidi replies that someday before he had said he did not care about her looks. He agrees. But says it is unwomanly to carry loads. He also points her shoulders and asks to cover her body because people look at her and lust after her.
Sidi replies that her dress is already covered hence, she cannot cover any more. He asks if she does not care about the village people looking at her with lust. Sidi replies that everyone in the village calls Lakunle as madman.
Lakunle is surprised. He says that he above the village people in knowledge. Sidi gets angry. She rises her figure at Lakunle. But Lakunle says that this is natural because she has a smaller brain than he does. Sidi stops her argument and tries to move away.
Sidi grabs for the pail from Lakunle. She tries to leave the place. Lakunle begs her not to be angry. He tries to convince Sidi saying that it is science. According to science, Lakunle believes that women are inferior and weaker than men. Sidi asks if weak women are able to pound yams and plant millet. Lakunle explains that soon machines will do all this work for them. Sidi gets angry.
Lakunle further says that he will make things as they are in Lagos. Sidi asks Lakunle to go Lagos.
Lakunle refuses to give Sidi the pail back. He asks her to marry him. He promises her that his love will open her mind.
Sidi is tired and says Lakunle to stop talking. She further says that she will marry him, only when he pays her bride-price. If she marries without brideprice she will be a laughingstock. The village will say she was not a virgin. Lakunle calls this a “savage custom, barbaric, out-dated, / Rejected, denounced, accursed, / Excommunicated, archaic, degrading, / Humiliating, unspeakable, redundant. / Retrogressive, remarkable, unpalatable” (7). Sidi is amused by all his words, but Lakunle continues. He says that this is an ignoble custom. He wants a wife for love; he wants a life-companion and an equal. She should not be his property. She will be a modern wife, and they will kiss in the street.
Sidi now says that at last she has understood the reason for the village people calling him ‘Madman’.
Suddenly young people and drummers enter. A girl tells Sidi that the stranger from the outside world with the “one-eyed box” (10), a camera, is back. He brought all his images and the magazine. Sidi asks if she has seen the book with the pictures of her in it. The man told her he’d “bestow upon [her] / Beauty beyond the dreams of a goddess” (10). Another girl says she has seen it, but that Baroka is looking at it. The girl says that Sidi looks like the sun is her lover in one of the images.
The first girl says Baroka is jealous but pretends to be proud. He has a picture too, but the image is small and near another picture of the village latrines. Sidi is struck that she is more respected than the Bale.



Sidi says that, now she is so famous. Hence, she will not marry him. Lakunle is shocked. She says that she is known to the world.
A gathering crowd cheers Sidi. The suggests dancing the dance of this lost traveler. Sidi agrees. She assigns roles. She asks Lakunle to perform as the stranger. Lakunle refuses but Sidi forces. At last he accepts.
The performance begins. Everyone dances around Lakunle. Drummers join in. Four girls dance as a motor-car. Lakunle is in it. He pretends to drive. He stops his car and takes his camera. A girl begins to sing. The stranger looks for her to take her picture. He drunkenly stumbles into the river. Sidi appears. The stranger capture Sidi in his camera.
Suddenly Baroka appears. The performance stops. Lakunle tries to get away from the palce. Others kneel and give respect to the Bale. Baroka calls him back. He asks the performance to continue.
The play begins again.The villagers claim to punish the stranger for taking Sidi in the one eye box. Baroka comes and pacifies the villagers. Sidi is brought in. Lakunle, as the stranger, takes pictures of her. He also drinks a great deal and becomes sick.
After the play ends, Sidi appreciates Lakunle . Sidi then calls her friends. She goes to find the stranger and his book. She runs and brings Lakunle to translate. Baroka thinks that he has not taken a wife in five months.

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