English 319 -- Postcolonial Literature
Dr. Hastings

Wole Soyinka, Death and the King's Horseman

Life
        Soyinka was born in Abeokuta, Nigeria, in 1934, the son of a school headmaster and an activist teacher. Like Achebe, Soyinka was influenced by Christian education but retained a sense of his cultural tradition - in this case, Yoruba rather than Igbo.  He was educated at the elite high school at Ibadan and then worked briefly as a clerk in Lagos - even at this point (age 16), he was writing poetry and plays, and had some of his stories read on the radio.  In 1952, he went on to university at Ibadan and in 1954 went to Leeds, where he studied under the important Shakespearean scholar G. Wilson Knight.  After graduating in 1957, he moved to London and was affiliated with the Royal Court Theatre, at that time one of the most influential companies in British theatre.  Here, his first plays were produced, incorporating mime and dance with traditional Nigerian village comedies.
        Soyinka returned to Nigeria in 1960, simultaneously with Nigerian independence, and taught at various universities; he also founded two important theater groups (Orisun Theater and 1960 Masks).  Here, Soyinka produced and acted in his own plays, so began greater experimentation.  He published his first novel, The Interpreters, in 1965.  He was arrested for his political activism and imprisoned for pro-Biafran activity in 1967-69, an experience reflected in his writing then and after.  In 1971, he exiled himself from his country for about four years, living and writing in Europe and Africa.  In 1972, he published a memoir of prison life, The Man Died.  In addition to original plays exploring the boundaries of tribal and colonial existence, Soyinka has written adaptations of Western drama, re-set in Africa (Opera Wonyosi, a rewriting of Brecht’s Threepenny Opera - itself a rewriting of Gay’s Beggar’s Opera - and an adaptation of Euripides’ The Bacchae).  Soyinka more recently lived in exile in Germany, where he spoke out against the military regime in Nigeria.

The Play

"Death and the King's Horseman (1975) embodies [Soyinka's] post-Biafran cultural philosophy, enunciated in Myth, Literature, and the African World (1976), of the need for the distinct aesthetics of Africa and Europe to cross-fertilize each other."  (Oxford Companion to English Literature)
        The play is set in Oyo, which had been a center of Yoruba civilization from 15th to 18th century.  Oyo was a constitutional monarchy with the king (alafin) elected from several candidates within the ruling dynasty.  Oyo had a strong cavalry (it was located on the savanna, not in the forest) to consolidate military power and control trade routes. [Hence the importance of the king's horseman.]  Recall from the overview of Nigeria the hierarchical structure of Yoruba life, with various occupations inherited within a social class or family - thus the son of the king's horseman becomes the next king's horseman, as the praise-singer's father was also a praise-singer before him.
        Soyinka's prefatory note challenges the presupposition of the equality of cultures.  What do we make of this?  Do we bring a similar presupposition?  If we don't, which culture should be privileged?  He also suggests an alternative play, in which Pilkings would be tortured by the decision-making (like Pontius Pilate).  What would such a play be like?  Why does he reject this alternative?  Finally he states, "The Colonial Factor is an incident, a catalytic incident merely.  The confrontation in the play is largely metaphysical, contained in the human vehicle which is Elesin and the universe of the Yoruba mind - the world of the living, the dead, and the unborn, and the numinous passage which links all: transition."  If this is so, why bring in the colonial situation at all?  On the other hand, what does this suggest about the true focus of the play?  (Elesin as essentially a weak vessel, unable to sustain his privilege with the final act which entitles him to it.

        Structure: Scene 1, in the marketplace, is firmly anchored in traditional Yoruba culture, with no mention of whites at all - it could be any time in the past 500 years.  This is the most difficult part of the play, since it employs more traditional forms/knowledge.  Scene 2, at the Pilkings' home, is more familiar to Western reader - it is told in conventional modern prose drama style, within a familiar culture.  Scene 3, back at the marketplace, begins the confrontation of cultures.
        Scene 1 establishes Elesin's status within this society, the great respect with which he is regarded - even to the sacrifice of another man's prospective bride to his phenomenal lust.  It also, through the story of the Not-I bird, conveys the spirit with which he contemplates his own death.  What is his character like?  The initial comparison of death to a sexual assignation becomes literalized by the end of scene 1; so, too, the Not-I bird story becomes Elesin's story later in the play (note how the various "Not-I"'s make use of perfectly acceptable excuses to absent themselves).  Much of the sense of the story is conveyed through metaphors, proverbs, and folktales, so it may seem obscure to Western eyes not part of the society.
        Consider the significance of statements in this scene about "the world's course," especially in view of the play's later catastrophe.  Contrast the Yoruba view of this action with Pilkings' perspective.  Part of the great sacrilege involved in reversing the willed death is suggested by the Praise Singer's long speech at the end of Scene3 - he mentions all of the irreversible processes of life, and this is one as well - thus its reversal is truly "shaking the earth out of its course."
        Scene 2 establishes the British district officer's complete obliviousness to Elesin's position.  The Brits see the masks of the dead cult as simply fancy costumes for a costume ball; even the Moslem Amusa is horrified by the sacrilege, but Pilkings does not care.  Pilkings is even lacking in Western spiritual character, as witness his calling the baptism "nonsense."  Pilkings treats the Yoruba tradition as unimportant, but both Pilkings salivate over the prospect of the prince visiting their ball; contrast their view of the British prince with their attitude toward Elesin.
         Scene 3 - in the marketplace.  [NOTE: In Yoruba cosmology, "The world is a market, heaven is home" - i.e., the marketplace here stands as a represtentative for the world at large.]  In the marketplace, Amusa has become a eunuch who does not understand the sexual act of Elesin Oba.  His participation in the white man's government has made him so - as it saps the will of Elesin himself.  Note that the girls of the marketplace are more adept at language than Amusa, who consistently speaks pidgin - while they are at home in their culture, they also are better equipped for the "English" world.
        Here we see the beginnings of Elesin's transformation, following consummation of the sexual act.  Consider the significance of his union with the bride - creating a new life in the passage to the next has particular power.  But talking of the marketplace (the world) reminds him of all the pleasures he has had: "This is where I have known love and laughter. . . in the market, nothing ever cloys."  Then his eyes cloud - as if he were experiencing a loss of nerve, which he disguises by claiming to have "felt my spirit's eagerness."
        Scene 4 - at the Residency.  The Pilkings' costume has reduced a sacred ritual to the level of party entertainment.
A very important passage is the exchange between Jane Pilkings and Olunde, which emphasizes the Pilkings' insensitivity to the sacrilege they have committed.  The English captain who destroyed himself to save others (contrast to Elesin, to Pilkings - Jane signficantly doesn't understand) demonstrates that the problem is different individual viewpoints on life and death, not a cultural distinction - both English and Yoruba are capable of sacrificing themselves for others, and both are capable of losing their nerve for the sacrifice.  Jane Pilkings says, "Life should never be thrown deliberately away," but Olunde disputes the point.  From where does Olunde derive his philosophy?
        Scene 5 - Elesin's cell.  Elesin begins by trying to blame Pilkings: "The night is not at peace ghostly one.  The world is not at peace.  You have shattered the peace of the world for ever."  He describes the process that was happening; the moment is already past when he should have died.  Pilkings' response to his charge is lame: "You don't really believe that." Next Elesin has a "metaphysical" confrontation with his bride, whom he blames for sapping his will  - she has contributed "a weight of longing on my earth-held limbs" that made him susceptible to the white man's intervention.  Consider this in relation to  his statements about the market, his general vitality and verve for life, and Soyinka's prefatory remark about the metaphysical confrontation within the human vessel of Elesin and the Yoruba mind.
        Iyaloja castigates him for being an eater of leftovers - he could have had/was to have the best of everything, if only he had remained true to his culture; but he betrayed them by accepting a secondary position vis-a-vis the colonial governors.  He submitted himself to colonial power when he allowed himself to be taken - his will was polluted by the aliens, so that he committed the "blasphemy of thought - that there might be the hand of the gods in a stranger's intervention.” When he finally does die, it is too late, and the passage that he should have gone through first has been clogged (by the horse, the dog, his son) - so he remains an eater of leftovers.  This is shown also by his being so completely in the power of the foreigners that he cannot even perform the secondary task of sending a message through his son, the courier.
        The Praise-Singer tells him, just before his death, "our world is tumbling in the void of strangers, Elesin."  Note that ensuing events have borne out the claim - although Nigeria is independent, it remains clogged with European structures and dominated by European capital.  It has fought a war to reinstate the artificial boundaries created by Europeans, reaffirming the colonialists' power in independent Nigeria.  The damage is irreparable, because Olunde has no children, and Elesin and Olunde carry the secrets of their hereditary task with them into death.
 

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Last updated October 23, 2003

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