Why is the play, The Lion and the Jewel, termed as a comedy?

Soyinka wrote the play while living in London. It was first performed in Africa at the Ibadan Arts Theatre in 1959 and garnered positive reviews. The Times Literary Supplement stated, “In this richly ribald comedy, The Lion and the Jewel, poetry and prose are also blended, but with a marvelous lightness in the treatment of both. The big set-piece of miming in the opening scene, where the villagers re-enact the visit of the white photographer, and the seduction of the village jewel Sidi by the old Lion of a chief, are two of the pinnacles of Mr. Soyinka's achievement to date.” West Africa called Soyinka “...a brilliant dramatist-the most important in Nigeria, if not in all of Black Africa. He is helped by a profound command of the English language, reflected sometimes in the dazzling brilliance, at other times in the intense poetic quality of his writing...”