his people Corrupt Tradition Soyinka also satirizes traditional leaders like Baroka Baroka uses traditional village customs to his own benefit He pays the bride price and marries many wives He is cunning and a trickster He stops a railway from being built because he wants to keep his power But later he talks about his own stamp machine to prove his wisdom and power Vanity The playwright satirizes vanity In the play Sidi is vain She feels very special when her photograph is published in a magazine She is proud of her beauty She thinks herself more important than anyone else in the village Sidi says I am greater than the living god among men Sidi s sense of pride blinds her to Baroka s trickery who rapes her to get her as his wife Attitude to Women Soyinka satirizes how women are treated Both Lakunle and Baroka try to get Sidi as a prize Lakunle forces her to be a modern wife and wants to marry her without paying the bride price Baroka wants to add her to his harem of wives Both men treat Sidi like property This shows women like Sidi have little choice of their own In short Soyinka satirizes nonsense modernization and corrupt tradition in his play The Lion and the Jewel He also shows how men treat women in a male-dominated society He also mocks false pride