[1] Soyinka's 1963 film Culture in Transition contains an abridged version of The Strong Breed.
The play was produced Off-Broadway in 1967 at Greenwich Mews Theater in New York.
[2] Eman, the play's protagonist, is a member of the "strong breed," a group of carriers who dump a boat into the ocean yearly, the contents of which symbolically represent evils that took place that year.
Eman nevertheless takes on the role to spare a young mute boy named Ifada the same fate.
Ifada, a mentally invalid man, approaches Eman's hut sheepishly.
She tells Eman that, irrespective of age, the people in this village are filled with evil.
Ifada appears at the scene, and the girl takes him with her to the play with the effigy.
Omae visits him even though girls are not supposed to go near these huts where the male students reside.
He also remembers how his father, a carrier in their village, tried to pass on his legacy to Eman, stating that they belong to the strong breed and have strong blood, and it was their call to work as carriers, and how he refused to carry on the job passed down by his forefathers.
After his death, the villagers are filled with superficial sadness and direct their blaming sight towards Jaguna and Oroge.
Soyinka's play explores Western classical tragic themes of fate versus free will through African atonement rituals.
[3] Critic James Gibbs suggests that Eugene O'Neill, whom Soyinka chose as the subject of his master's thesis, was an inspiration.