Week 12 Soyinka, Death and the King's Horseman. Literature Essay

(1)The Horseman's Death
This play is based on a true event.  When a Yoruba king died, his horseman was required by cultural tradition to hill himself in order to escort the king's spirit to the afterlife.  If the horseman did not die, the king's spirit would remain and plague the living people.
Nigeria (the location of the play) was colonized by Great Britain, and the local British official considered this act barbaric and interfered so that the horseman could not kill himself.
After reading the first three scenes of the play, what do you think?  Is Elesin and the community (especially the Praise Singer and Iyaloja) right that his death is a responsibility he owes to his community?  Are the Brits (Pilkings and Jane) right to interfere?  Explain your answer.
(2) The Brits
We find in Section 2 an abrupt change in tone and style; we are suddenly in the District Officer’s bungalow, receiving a very different opinion of this region.  Pilkings and Jane show their insensitivity throughout the section, perhaps especially in not being aware of their own ignorance. 
What are some of the various ways they display their insensitivity?  How do you feel about them as characters, their view of the locals, and their sense of themselves?  How do their characters affect your sense of whether or not they are right to interfere in the death of the Horseman (Elesin)?

Lecture: Wole Soyinka, Death and the King’s Horseman

            Wole Soyinka was born in 1934 in what is now Nigeria, and at the time a colony of Great Britain.  His family was Yoruba, one of the four main ethnic groups in Nigeria, but his father was a Christian minister. As a result of his father’s job, he attended British school and later went to the University of Leeds in Northern England.  He worked in the theater in England, returning to his homeland when Nigeria gained independence from England in 1960.

            When civil war broke out in Nigeria in 1967, Soyinka publicly called on all parties to observe a ceasefire.  As a result, he was imprisoned by the ruling government and subjected to 15 months of solitary confinement.  After his release, he was tried in absentia and sentenced to death by the government of dictator Sani Abacha.

            Soyinka won the Nobel Prize in 1986.  He was the first African to be awarded the world’s top prize in literature.  The Nobel was awarded for his collected works, including poetry and fiction, but drama is his main medium.

            Death and the King’s Horseman was singled out by the Nobel Committee as one of his most important works.  It is based on a true event: after the death of a Yoruba king, his horseman must commit suicide in order to accompany the king to the afterlife.  When a British colonial official learned of the impending suicide, he intervened to prevent the ritual death. From this true story, Soyinka creates his own characters and events.

            The first scene of the play is set in the marketplace, where Elesin Oba (the king’s horseman) and depicts a colorful community.  The language of this scene is dense and metaphorical, suggesting a rich linguistic heritage that may be unfamiliar to Western audiences.  In writing the scene in this way, Soyinka both highlights dynamism of the Yoruba community and also displaces Westerners, who may be unused to feeling uncertain in their understanding of English.

            In scene 1, Elesin and Praise Singer discuss Elesin’s impending death.  Though Elesin is a vibrant personality who clearly relishes life, he is ready to die.  The Praise Singer notes the consequences of Elesin and his ancestors fulfilling their duty: “the world was never tilted from its groove...Our world was never wrenched from its true course” (1052-53).  In other words, the orientation of the world depends on this ritual; killing himself maintains the universe.  Nonetheless, Elesin makes a final request: he wants to marry before he dies and is given the hand of a young woman (although she is already engaged).

            Scene 2 gives us a dramatically different use of language.  Colonial official Simon Pilkings and his wife, Jane, are dressed in Yoruba ritual outfits that they intend to wear to a costume party at the European club.  This horrifies Amusa, a Nigerian police officer, who occupies a role in between the white colonizers and African colonized.  He ultimately informs Pilkings of Elesin’s intentions, and the colonial official is mostly bothered when he realizes that he might be late to his party.  His dealings with all of the Africans, including his servant Joseph, are overwhelmingly condescending.  He views the ritual as a barbaric tradition that he is required to prevent.

            In scene 3, we again see the incredibly vibrant community of the marketplace.  In particular, the women and girls are central to this scene, as they block the progress of Amusa and his deputees.  The women and girls mock Amusa, questioning his manhood for serving white masters.  As Elesin goes into a trance in the ritual, we see him gradually disengaging from this life. 

            Soyinka has claimed that the play should not simply be viewed as a clash of cultures.  Yet, it does ask us to question how and when we can judge cultures outside of our own.  Similarly, it asks us to think about our deepest values, including life itself.