This question is based on Wole Soyinka's The Lion and the Jewel I was there when it happened to your father The line above is in reference to

Analyze the question: The line "I was there when it happened to your father" comes from The Lion and the Jewel. We need to identify whose "impotency" it refers to.

Recall the context: In the play, Baroka, the Bale of Ilunjinle, is tricked by Sidi into believing he has lost his sexual virility. Baroka tells Sadiku, his head wife, that he lost his potency. In the scene where he feigns impotence, he says this has happened to him, and it connects to his father's own experience. Sadiku is delighted. She believes she has triumphed over the Bale, whom she has long resented for refusing to submit to her.

Baroka tells Sadiku that his father experienced the same thing, and that Sadiku was present when it happened to his father. This is Baroka's pretence: he claims the condition runs in the family. Sadiku, an old wife of Baroka's father who was inherited by Baroka, then goes to share the "secret" with Sidi. In reality, this is part of Baroka's scheme to lure Sidi to his palace.

Eliminate the options:

• A. The wrestler is not the one claiming impotency. The wrestler is merely the one Baroka wrestles with, and he is not the subject of the line.
• B. Lakunle is the schoolteacher who is a modernist and wants to marry Sidi. His supposed weaknesses are not described this way, and he was not around "when it happened to your father."
• C. The traveler (the stranger) is the photographer and has no connection to Baroka's father.
• D. Baroka's impotency. The "it" that "happened to your father" is the claimed loss of virility, and the speaker (Baroka) is claiming that he has now inherited it.

Answer: The line refers to Baroka's (feigned) impotency, which is option D.

Tip: In The Lion and the Jewel, remember that Baroka's "impotence" is a trick. Whenever a question mentions impotency, think "Baroka and Sadiku," followed by Sidi's visit to the palace and her seduction. It's a good one to remember: the "old fox" uses cunning to get what he wants.