Death and the King's Horseman

Wole Soyinka's is a dramatic classic in the Death and the King's Horseman is celebrated globally for its rich themes and complex characters. The play explores profound themes through its characters and masterful use of language.

Synopsis of the play

Set in colonial Nigeria in 1946, the play is based on the real-life incident of a Yoruba king's horseman who was prevented from committing ritual suicide. The tradition, rooted in the belief that the horseman must guide the dead king to the afterlife, is seen as barbaric by the British colonial officer, Simon Pilkings.

The play unfolds over five acts and contrasts the vibrant, ritualistic world of the Yoruba with the cold, rationalist world of the British. The dramatic tension stems from the clash between these two worldviews, with the horseman, Elesin Oba, caught between his spiritual duty and the interference of the colonial authorities.

Key thematic elements

Clash of cultures: The play examines the profound cultural misunderstandings between the Yoruba people and their British colonizers. The British perceive the ritual suicide as a criminal act, while the Yoruba see it as a necessary act to preserve cosmic order.

Duty vs. desire: Elesin, a man of great vitality, is proud of his duty to follow his king. However, in the moments leading up to his ritual, he is distracted by earthly pleasures, particularly his desire for a young bride. His struggle represents the universal conflict between individual will and societal expectation.

Cosmic vs. colonial disruption: Soyinka's preface warns against reading the play as a simple culture clash, instead emphasizing the cosmic disruption caused by the British interference. By preventing the ritual, Pilkings not only disrupts a cultural practice but also jeopardizes the spiritual order of the universe for the Yoruba people.

The nature of tragedy: The play is a modern tragedy, culminating not with the horseman's glorious sacrifice, but with his utter humiliation and failure to uphold his duty. The subsequent suicide of his son, Olunde, to restore cosmic balance, is the true act of courage, revealing the devastating consequences of colonial arrogance.

Literary techniques in Soyinka's work

Soyinka's writing is characterized by its richness and complexity, blending West African oral traditions with Western dramatic forms.

Poetic and rhythmic language: The dialogue is often musical, incorporating proverbs and chants that reflect the Yoruba worldview. The powerful language elevates the characters and their spiritual stakes.

Symbolism and imagery: The play is full of rich symbolism, including the egungun costumes (representing traditional culture), the captain and ship (a metaphor for Elesin's sacrifice), and the contrast between the rhythmic Yoruba drums and the "badly played" European music.

Complex characterization: The characters are multifaceted, representing different aspects of the conflict. Elesin is both boastful and hesitant, Iyaloja is a powerful market woman and a stern voice of tradition, and Pilkings is a well-meaning but tragically ignorant colonialist.

The path to understanding

To truly engage with Death and the King's Horseman, a reader or student should:

Read the original play: This is the most crucial step, allowing for a direct experience of Soyinka's language, structure, and pacing.Read the preface: In his preface, Soyinka explicitly cautions against an oversimplified "clash of cultures" reading, inviting a more nuanced interpretation of the work as a "tragedy of arrested transition".Study the cultural and historical context: Learning about Yoruba beliefs and the colonial history of Nigeria provides the necessary background to fully understand the play's themes.The play is based on the theme of ritualistic suicide in the Yoruba culture.

SOYINKA'S DEATH AND THE KING'S HORSEMAN

ABSTRACT. Wole Soyinka's Death and the King's Horseman is the convergence of two issues: the first focuses on the Yoruba priest Elesin.Death and the King's Horseman play tells the story of Elesin, the king's horseman, who is expected to commit ritual suicide following the death of the king.Soyinka's play centers on a powerful but flawed hero who comes into conflict with a colonial administration hostile to local religious customs.

Here is an extended analysis focusing on the key aspects that make the original play a masterpiece.

A deeper look at the main characters

Elesin Oba: The flawed hero

Elesin is the play's protagonist and tragic hero, not in the classical Greek sense of being flawless, but as a complex man whose human appetites clash with his sacred duty.

A lover of life: Despite knowing his fate, Elesin is introduced as a man of "enormous vitality" who enjoys life's pleasures. This vibrancy and appreciation for the world's beauty is both his charm and his fatal flaw. His desire for a beautiful young bride is the final earthly temptation that distracts him, proving his heart is not fully prepared for the spirit world.

The weight of tradition: Elesin's downfall is not simply a personal failure; it is a spiritual one. The traditions he represents are seen as necessary for the cosmic order of his people. His hesitation breaks the chain of life and death, leaving the community vulnerable and dishonored.

A man of two tragedies: Elesin's tragedy is twofold. He fails his people by delaying his sacred rite, and then his pride is utterly crushed by the intervention of the colonial authorities, Simon Pilkings, and the ultimate sacrifice of his son, Olunde. When he finally commits suicide out of shame, not honor, his death is hollow, a "death of the mind" as Iyaloja describes it.

Olunde: The dutiful son

Elesin's eldest son is his foil and the play's true hero. Having been educated abroad, he presents a perspective that synthesizes Yoruba tradition with an understanding of Western culture.

Bridging two worlds: Olunde's time in England has not made him an assimilated European. Rather, he uses his knowledge of the West to highlight its hypocrisy and compare its values to his own. For example, he compares his father's ritual sacrifice to the mass deaths of soldiers in World War II, showing that sacrifice for a greater cause is not exclusively a Yoruba concept.

The redeeming act: Olunde's selfless decision to take his father's place and commit suicide is an act of profound honor that restores the cosmic balance Elesin disrupted. It is an act of love and respect for his culture, even in the face of his father's weakness.

The moral center: While Elesin embodies the struggle, Olunde embodies the resolution. His is the sacrifice that brings meaning back to a universe threatened by chaos. His death demonstrates that the spiritual continuity of his people is more important than any individual's personal desires.

The British District Officer and his wife are not malicious villains but represent the ignorance and arrogance of the colonial enterprise.

The illusion of control: Simon Pilkings is a bureaucrat who sees the world through the lens of British law and order. He views the Yoruba ritual as "primitive barbarism" that must be prevented, failing completely to grasp its spiritual significance. His interference, though well-intentioned from his perspective, is an act of devastating cultural desecration.

Desecration and disrespect: The Pilkings' ultimate sign of ignorance is their use of the sacred egungun costumes for a costume ball. The costumes, representing the ancestors, are a deeply spiritual symbol. By wearing them, they display a profound disrespect that is shocking to the Yoruba characters.

A misplaced sense of duty: Just as Elesin has a duty to his people, Pilkings believes he has a duty to the Crown to maintain order and "save" Elesin. The parallelism is a central theme of the play, exploring how two different concepts of duty can clash with disastrous results.

The play's structure and literary devices

Aristotelian tragedy: Soyinka adopts the structure of classical Greek tragedy, complete with a tragic hero (Elesin), his fatal flaw (hamartia), and a reversal of fortune (peripeteia). However, he subverts this form by grounding the story in Yoruba cosmology, ensuring the play is both African and universal.

Music and silence: Music is a crucial symbol throughout the play. The vibrant Yoruba drumming and praise-singing represent the life and vitality of the community and the sacred nature of the ritual. In contrast, the "poorly played" European music at the ball is weak and out of place. The sudden silence that falls when Elesin fails to die is a powerful moment, signifying the spiritual vacuum created by his inaction.

Chains: The chains used to imprison Elesin are a stark symbol of colonialism and enslavement. Elesin is placed in a cell that was once used for slaves, directly linking his spiritual captivity to the physical and ideological bondage imposed by the British. When he uses these same chains to commit suicide, it is a final, devastating statement about the colonial violence that has desecrated his world.

The enduring legacy of the play

The brilliance of Soyinka's work lies in its refusal to offer easy answers. It's not a simple condemnation of colonialism. Rather, it's a complex examination of human nature, tradition, and the devastating consequences of cultural and individual failure. The play remains a vital text for understanding post-colonial identity and the importance of recognizing the depth and integrity of the coloured folks. Elesin Oba is the protagonist and tragic hero of the play.  The story told in Death and the King's Horseman is based on an historical event

A proper and helpful continuation is to provide further rich, analytical content about the original play, addressing aspects such as the significance of ritual and the play's post-colonial context, as well as considering Soyinka's own specific instructions in his "Author's Note".

The significance of ritual and metaphysics

Soyinka insisted in his "Author's Note" that the play should not be simplistically read as a "clash of cultures". Instead, he highlighted the metaphysical and ritualistic core of the tragedy.

Cosmic order: For the Yoruba characters, the ritual is not a barbaric act but a necessary element of maintaining cosmic harmony. Elesin's death is meant to guide the deceased king's spirit to the afterlife, ensuring a smooth transition and preventing a spiritual disruption that would threaten the well-being of the entire community.

The unborn: The continuity between the living, the dead, and the unborn is a central concept in Yoruba cosmology. The failure of the ritual doesn't just affect the present; it puts the future (the "unborn") at risk. This is symbolized at the very end of the play when Iyaloja leads Elesin's pregnant bride away, instructing her to focus on the unborn.

A spiritual tragedy: The tragedy, therefore, is not primarily caused by the British interference, but by Elesin's own hesitation. His love for earthly life, symbolized by his desire for a young bride, compromises his spiritual resolve. The colonial authorities act as a "catalytic incident" that reveals Elesin's internal weakness, rather than being the ultimate cause of his downfall.

Post-colonial themes and the "alien hand"

While the play is not a straightforward anti-colonial critique, its post-colonial dimensions are undeniable. Soyinka uses the setting to explore the destructive impact of colonial arrogance and the struggles of identity in a post-colonial world.

Colonial hypocrisy: The British characters' horror at the "barbaric" ritual suicide is exposed as hypocritical by Olunde, who points to the mass slaughter of World War II as a form of mass suicide for a cause. This reveals how the colonizers impose their own ethical standards while overlooking the violent contradictions within their own culture.

The "alien hand": Elesin initially blames the colonial authorities for his failure, stating, "an alien hand" stopped him. But Iyaloja dismisses this excuse, forcing him to confront his personal failing. This shows the complex interplay between external colonial forces and internal moral weakness.

Cultural erosion: The end of the play is profoundly tragic, not just because of the deaths, but because Olunde's suicide effectively ends the lineage of the King's Horseman. The intervention of colonialism has succeeded in disrupting an integral aspect of Yoruba culture, suggesting that the colonizers achieved their goal of cultural eradication, even through unintended consequences.

The ending: A lasting stain and the ambiguous future

The play's ending leaves a profound sense of disorder and ambiguity.

The failure of restoration: Olunde's noble sacrifice is not enough to completely heal the wound. While it restores some honor, the ritual has been broken, and the line of the Horseman has been severed. Elesin's suicide is one of shame, not honor, and is ultimately meaningless.

The lingering stain: Iyaloja's final words emphasize that simply remaining alive does not protect one from the consequences of the evening's events. The "stain of death" now clings to the community, and the path forward is uncertain.

The path to the unborn: Iyaloja's focus on the unborn, symbolized by Elesin's pregnant bride, points toward the future.