Death and the King's Horseman
Death
and the King's Horseman is a play
by Wole Soyinka
based on a real incident that took place in Nigeria during British colonial
rule: the horseman of a Yoruba King was prevented from committing ritual
suicide by the colonial authorities. In
addition to the British intervention, Soyinka calls the horseman's own conviction
toward suicide into question, posing a problem that throws off the community's
balance.
Soyinka
wrote the play in Cambridge,
where he was a fellow at Churchill College during his political exile from Nigeria. He has also
written a preface to the play, explaining what he sees as the greatest
misconceptions in understanding it. In particular, he says that the play should
not be considered as "clash of cultures." Rather, the play
demonstrates the need for interaction between African and European cultures, as
per Soyinka's post-Biafran
cultural philosophy.
Plot
Death
and the King's Horseman builds
upon the true story on which Soyinka based the play, to focus on the character
of Elesin, the King's Horseman of the title. According to Yoruba tradition, the death of the king must be followed by the ritual death of the king's horseman as well as the king's dog and horse,
because the horseman's spirit is essential to helping the chief's spirit ascend
to the afterlife. Otherwise, the king's spirit will wander the earth and bring
harm to the Yoruba people. The first half of the play documents the process of
this ritual, with the potent, life-loving figure Elesin living out his final
day in celebration before the ritual process begins. At the last minute, the
local British colonial ruler, Simon Pilkings, intervenes, the suicide being viewed as
barbaric and illegal by the British authorities.
In
the play, the result for the community is catastrophic, as the breaking of the
ritual means the disruption of the cosmic order of the universe and thus the
well-being and future of the collectivity is in doubt. The community blames
Elesin as much as Pilkings, accusing him of being too attached to the earth to
fulfill his spiritual obligations. Events lead to tragedy when Elesin's son,
Olunde, who has returned to Nigeria from studying medicine in Europe, takes on the
responsibility of his father and commits ritual suicide in his place so as to
restore the honour of his family and the order of the universe. Consequently,
Elesin kills himself, condemning his soul to a degraded existence in the next
world. In addition, the dialogue of the native suggests that this may have been
insufficient and that the world is now "adrift in the void".
Another
Nigerian playwright, Duro Ladipo,
had already written a play in the Yoruba
language based on this incident, called Oba
waja ("The King is Dead").
Themes and motifs
- Duty
- Anti-colonialism is considered a theme by some scholars based on aspects of the text, but Soyinka specifically calls the colonial factors "an incident, a catalytic incident merely" in the "Author's Note" prepended to the play.
Yoruba proverbs
Almost
every character in Death and the King's Horseman at some point uses a
traditional Yoruba proverb. Through his vast knowledge of Yoruba proverbs,
Soyinka is able to endow his play with a strong Yoruba sentiment.
Characters
often employ Yoruba proverbs primarily as a means of bolstering their opinions
and persuading others to take their point of view.
The
Praise-singer gets annoyed with Elesin for his decision to take a new
wife and tries to dissuade him:
Because the man approaches a brand-new bride he forgets the
long faithful mother of his children.
Ariyawo-ko-iyale:201
Similarly,
Iyaloja tries to admonish Elesin against his earthly attachments
and stay true to the ritual upon which the good of his society depended:
Eating the awusa nut is not so difficult as drinking water
afterwards.
Ati je asala [awusa] ko to ati mu omi si i.:201
Another
common way in which Soyinka uses proverbs is with Elesin. Elesin
himself uses several proverbs in order to convince his peers that he is going
to comply with their ritual and thus join the ancestors in orun:
The kite makes for wide spaces and the wind creeps up behind
its tail; can the kite say less than thank you, the quicker the better?
Awodi to'o nre Ibara, efufu ta a n'idi pa o ni Ise kuku ya.:202
The elephant trails no tethering-rope; that king is not yet
crowned who will peg an elephant.
Ajanaku kuro ninn 'mo ri nkan firi, bi a ba ri erin ki a ni
a ri erin:202
The river is never so high that the eyes of a fish are
covered.
Odu ki ikun bo eja l'oju:202
The
final way in which proverbs appear in the play is when Iyaloja and the
Praise-singer harass Elesin while he is imprisoned for failing to
complete his role within the ritual:
What we have no intention of eating should not be held up to
the nose.
Ohun ti a ki i je a ki ifif run imu:202
We said you were the hunter returning home in triumph, a
slain buffalo pressing down on his neck; you said wait, I first must turn up
this cricket hole with my toes.
A ki i ru eran erin lori ki a maa f'ese wa ire n'ile:202
The river which fills up before our eyes does not sweep us
away in its flood.
Odo ti a t'oju eni kun ki igbe 'ni lo:202
Performances
Written
in five scenes, it is performed without interruption. Soyinka himself has
directed important American productions, in Chicago in 1976 and at Lincoln
Center in New York in 1987, but according
to Andrew Gumbel, the play "has been much more widely admired than performed".
The
British premiere was directed by Phyllida
Lloyd at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester
in 1990. It starred George Harris
and Claire Benedict.
The
play was performed at London's Royal National Theatre beginning in April 2009, directed by Rufus
Norris, with choreography by Javier
de Frutos and starring Lucian
Msamati. The play was also staged by the
St. Louis Black Repertory Theater February 2008, directed by Olusegun Ojewuyi,
who has been dramaturge for the Oregon Shakespeare's production. It was
performed at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival from February 14 to July 5, 2009 as well. A Yoruba
translation Iku Olokun Esin was also performed at the National Theater, Lagos
Nigeria, directed by Olusegun Ojewuyi (thus making him the first and only
director to have staged the play in both English and in Yoruba – the language
and culture of the play).
Translations
References
· Gale (January 2006). Marie Rose
Napierkowski (ed.). "Death
and the King's Horseman: Introduction. Drama for Students". ENotes. Detroit. 10. Retrieved 23 January 2009.[dubious – discuss](registration required)
· · Gumbel, Andrew (8
April 2009). "Wole
Soyinka on how he came to write Death and the King's Horseman". The
Guardian. Retrieved 20 July 2015.
·
The concise Oxford companion to English literature. Birch, Dinah,,
Hooper, Katy,, Oxford University Press. (Fourth ed.). Oxford: Oxford University
Press. 2013. ISBN 9780191744556. OCLC 849653968.
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