Death and the King's Horseman

Death and the King's Horseman · published 1975 · ISBN 9780393322996

Wole Soyinka — Wole Soyinka (b. 1934) — Nigeria, writing in English. Awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1986.

“who in a wide cultural perspective and with poetic overtones fashions the drama of existence” — The Nobel Committee citation

About Wole Soyinka

Nigerian playwright, poet and essayist, the first African writer to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature. He builds his plays at the meeting point of Yoruba ritual and European theatre, with Ogun — god of iron, of creation and destruction — recurring as a central figure. A lifelong critic of those in power, he was held in solitary confinement for more than two years during the Biafran war and has repeatedly been forced into exile since.

How it came to be

The play is based on a real incident in Oyo, Nigeria, in 1946, when a British colonial officer stopped the ritual suicide of a king's horseman. Soyinka wrote it while teaching at Cambridge and it was first staged in 1976. In his own author's note he warns sharply against reading the play as a "clash of cultures": in his account the colonial officer is only a catalyst, and the real drama takes place inside the Yoruba world.

Summary of Death and the King's Horseman

The king of Oyo is dead. Custom requires the Elesin — the king's horseman — to follow him willingly in ritual death and lead his master's spirit across, or the whole community loses its place in the order of things. That night in the market, the Elesin prepares to go. The British District Officer, Simon Pilkings, hears of it and intervenes, certain that he is saving a life. Olunde, the Elesin's son, newly returned from studying medicine in England, is left to carry the consequence.

Analysis & legacy

What Soyinka asks of a Western reader is to give up the first reflex — that stopping a death is always right. In the order the play sets out, the Elesin's passing is not the end of a life but an act that keeps the world continuous between the living, the dead and the unborn; to prevent it is to tear something, not to rescue anyone. But the play idealises no one. The Elesin fails not because of the English but because of his own hold on life, on the young wife he takes that very night — and Soyinka has him admit it. Language is where the confrontation shows most clearly: the Elesin and Iyaloja, the mother of the market, speak in proverb, metaphor and drum-rhythm, while the Pilkingses speak an administrative English with no vocabulary for what is in front of them. That they wear a confiscated egungun ancestral costume to a fancy-dress ball says the whole thing: one people's sacred is another people's party outfit.

Themes: Ritual and duty · Yoruba cosmology · Colonialism · Fathers and sons · Honour and will

Rating: 4.3/5 from 4 ratings (Open Library).

What critics say

• The 1986 prize was awarded to Wole Soyinka, who in a wide cultural perspective and with poetic overtones fashions the drama of existence. — NobelPrize.org, Nobel Prize in Literature 1986 summary

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Frequently asked questions

What is Death and the King's Horseman about?

The king of Oyo is dead. Custom requires the Elesin — the king's horseman — to follow him willingly in ritual death and lead his master's spirit across, or the whole community loses its place in the order of things. That night in the market, the Elesin prepares to go. The British District Officer,…

Is Death and the King's Horseman worth reading?

On booknest, Death and the King's Horseman is rated 4.3/5 from 4 ratings on Open Library. What Soyinka asks of a Western reader is to give up the first reflex — that stopping a death is always right. In the order the play sets out, the Elesin's passing is not the end of a life but an act that keeps…

When did Wole Soyinka win the Nobel Prize, and why?

Wole Soyinka won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1986: “who in a wide cultural perspective and with poetic overtones fashions the drama of existence”

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