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Death and The King's Horseman

Death and The King's Horseman is a play by Wole Soyinka that first premiered in 1975. The play is based on a real incident in Nigeria during the colonial era (1946). The story is set in Oyo, an ancient Yoruba city in Nigeria.

The horseman of the Yoruba King is prevented from committing ritual suicide after the death of his king. The colonial district officer, Simon Pilkings, decides to intervene when he hears about the custom.

Wole Soyinka is a Nigerian playwright and a Nobel Prize (for Literature) winner. He wrote the play when he was in Cambridge after his political exile from Nigeria.

He wrote a preface for the play to explain that the play should not be seen as a clash of cultures but rather as a need for interaction between the two communities (Africa and Europe).

Various Performances

The play was performed in five scenes without any intermission. The playwright directed some productions in the US. It premiered in London in 1990 at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester and London's Royal National Theatre in 2009.

It was translated into Yoruba and performed at the National Theater in Lagos, Nigeria. The director, Olusegun Ojewuyi, directed both versions (English and Yoruba) of the play and was the first and only director to achieve this feat.

Plot Synopsis

Elesin is the King's Horseman who has to commit ritualistic suicide after the death of the king. It is a Yoruba tradition where the Horseman, the king's horse, and dog have to accompany the king's spirit and help it ascend to the afterlife.

The first half of the play presents the Yoruba traditions and shows Elesin making the most of the single day he has before committing suicide.

Simon Pilkings is the local colonial officer who gets to know of the ritual and reaches the place to prevent it. He deems it unnecessary and illegal. It leads to chaos and confusion in the community. They blame Elesin for being too attached to the earth.

Elesin's son, Olunde, returns (he is studying medicine in Europe) and decides to take his father's place to restore the family honor. Devastated by this, Elesin commits suicide.

Duty and anti-colonialism are the primary themes of the play. Death and The King's Horseman uses many Yoruba proverbs to strengthen the native flavor and sentiment.