What do you think?
Rate this book
Death and the King's Horseman: Methuen Student Edition
Elesin Oba, the King's Horseman, has a single destiny. When the King dies, he must commit ritual suicide and lead his King's favorite horse and dog through the passage to the world of the ancestors. A British colonial officer, Pilkings, intervenes.
"The action of the play is as inevitable and eloquent as in Antigone: a clash of values and cultures so fundamental that tragedy (ensues): a tragedy for each individual, each tribe."-Daily Telegraph
"This play, by the winner of a Nobel Prize for Literature, "On the authority of what gods" the white aliens rupture a world. It puts exciting political theatre back on the agenda ... a masterpiece of 20th century drama."-Guardian
Methuen Student Editions are expertly annotated texts of a wide range of plays from the modern and classic repertoires. As well as the complete text of the play itself, the volume contains a chronology of the playwright's life and work; an introduction giving the background to the play; a discussion of the various interpretations; an interview with Wole Soyinka; and notes on individual words and phrases in the text.
"The action of the play is as inevitable and eloquent as in Antigone: a clash of values and cultures so fundamental that tragedy (ensues): a tragedy for each individual, each tribe."-Daily Telegraph
"This play, by the winner of a Nobel Prize for Literature, "On the authority of what gods" the white aliens rupture a world. It puts exciting political theatre back on the agenda ... a masterpiece of 20th century drama."-Guardian
Methuen Student Editions are expertly annotated texts of a wide range of plays from the modern and classic repertoires. As well as the complete text of the play itself, the volume contains a chronology of the playwright's life and work; an introduction giving the background to the play; a discussion of the various interpretations; an interview with Wole Soyinka; and notes on individual words and phrases in the text.
89 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1975
About the author
Wole Soyinka
209 books1,272 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
Akinwande Oluwole Babatunde Soyinka, known as Wole Soyinka, is a Nigerian playwright, novelist, poet, and essayist in the English language. He was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature for his "wide cultural perspective and... poetic overtones fashioning the drama of existence", the first sub-Saharan African to be honoured in that category.
Soyinka was born into a Yoruba family in Abeokuta. In 1954, he attended Government College in Ibadan, and subsequently University College Ibadan and the University of Leeds in England. After studying in Nigeria and the UK, he worked with the Royal Court Theatre in London. He went on to write plays that were produced in both countries, in theatres and on radio. He took an active role in Nigeria's political history and its campaign for independence from British colonial rule. In 1965, he seized the Western Nigeria Broadcasting Service studio and broadcast a demand for the cancellation of the Western Nigeria Regional Elections. In 1967, during the Nigerian Civil War, he was arrested by the federal government of General Yakubu Gowon and put in solitary confinement for two years, for volunteering to be a non-government mediating actor.
Soyinka has been a strong critic of successive Nigerian (and African at large) governments, especially the country's many military dictators, as well as other political tyrannies, including the Mugabe regime in Zimbabwe. Much of his writing has been concerned with "the oppressive boot and the irrelevance of the colour of the foot that wears it". During the regime of General Sani Abacha (1993–98), Soyinka escaped from Nigeria on a motorcycle via the "NADECO Route". Abacha later proclaimed a death sentence against him "in absentia". With civilian rule restored to Nigeria in 1999, Soyinka returned to his nation.
In Nigeria, Soyinka was a Professor of Comparative literature (1975 to 1999) at the Obafemi Awolowo University, then called the University of Ifẹ̀. With civilian rule restored to Nigeria in 1999, he was made professor emeritus. While in the United States, he first taught at Cornell University as Goldwin Smith professor for African Studies and Theatre Arts from 1988 to 1991 and then at Emory University, where in 1996 he was appointed Robert W. Woodruff Professor of the Arts. Soyinka has been a Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and has served as scholar-in-residence at New York University's Institute of African American Affairs and at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California. He has also taught at the universities of Cambridge, Oxford, Harvard and Yale, and was also a Distinguished Scholar in Residence at Duke University in 2008.
In December 2017, Soyinka was awarded the Europe Theatre Prize in the "Special Prize" category, awarded to someone who has "contributed to the realization of cultural events that promote understanding and the exchange of knowledge between peoples".
Akinwande Oluwole Babatunde Soyinka, known as Wole Soyinka, is a Nigerian playwright, novelist, poet, and essayist in the English language. He was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature for his "wide cultural perspective and... poetic overtones fashioning the drama of existence", the first sub-Saharan African to be honoured in that category.
Soyinka was born into a Yoruba family in Abeokuta. In 1954, he attended Government College in Ibadan, and subsequently University College Ibadan and the University of Leeds in England. After studying in Nigeria and the UK, he worked with the Royal Court Theatre in London. He went on to write plays that were produced in both countries, in theatres and on radio. He took an active role in Nigeria's political history and its campaign for independence from British colonial rule. In 1965, he seized the Western Nigeria Broadcasting Service studio and broadcast a demand for the cancellation of the Western Nigeria Regional Elections. In 1967, during the Nigerian Civil War, he was arrested by the federal government of General Yakubu Gowon and put in solitary confinement for two years, for volunteering to be a non-government mediating actor.
Soyinka has been a strong critic of successive Nigerian (and African at large) governments, especially the country's many military dictators, as well as other political tyrannies, including the Mugabe regime in Zimbabwe. Much of his writing has been concerned with "the oppressive boot and the irrelevance of the colour of the foot that wears it". During the regime of General Sani Abacha (1993–98), Soyinka escaped from Nigeria on a motorcycle via the "NADECO Route". Abacha later proclaimed a death sentence against him "in absentia". With civilian rule restored to Nigeria in 1999, Soyinka returned to his nation.
In Nigeria, Soyinka was a Professor of Comparative literature (1975 to 1999) at the Obafemi Awolowo University, then called the University of Ifẹ̀. With civilian rule restored to Nigeria in 1999, he was made professor emeritus. While in the United States, he first taught at Cornell University as Goldwin Smith professor for African Studies and Theatre Arts from 1988 to 1991 and then at Emory University, where in 1996 he was appointed Robert W. Woodruff Professor of the Arts. Soyinka has been a Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and has served as scholar-in-residence at New York University's Institute of African American Affairs and at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California. He has also taught at the universities of Cambridge, Oxford, Harvard and Yale, and was also a Distinguished Scholar in Residence at Duke University in 2008.
In December 2017, Soyinka was awarded the Europe Theatre Prize in the "Special Prize" category, awarded to someone who has "contributed to the realization of cultural events that promote understanding and the exchange of knowledge between peoples".
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 431 reviews
July 13, 2026
Olunde is the hero of the play – one character who successfully walks and understands both worlds.
Death and the King’s Horseman is a 1975 play based on a true story. In a city in Nigeria, the old king has died. According to custom, to accompany the old king to the next world, his horseman is expected to die. When the British District Officer hears of this, he intends to stop this preventable death.
This play is simply riveting. Every time I planned to stop reading, I needed just a few more pages.
Soyinka strategically places every single word.
Soyinka joins other great authors with a theatrical background. Even F. Scott Fitzgerald worked in theatre, putting on plays in his youth, performing with The Triangle Club while attending Princeton, and, of course, who could forget the play, The Vegetable, which was so disastrous that most of the audience walked out during the first and only performance. The immediate audience reaction pushes creators to instantly captivate.
If you are interested, there is also a Netflix version of Death and the King’s Horseman.
The Green Light at the End of the Dock (How much I spent):
Softcover Text – $12.49
Connect With Me!
Blog Threads BookTube Facebook Insta My Bookstore at Pango
Death and the King’s Horseman is a 1975 play based on a true story. In a city in Nigeria, the old king has died. According to custom, to accompany the old king to the next world, his horseman is expected to die. When the British District Officer hears of this, he intends to stop this preventable death.
This play is simply riveting. Every time I planned to stop reading, I needed just a few more pages.
Soyinka strategically places every single word.
Soyinka joins other great authors with a theatrical background. Even F. Scott Fitzgerald worked in theatre, putting on plays in his youth, performing with The Triangle Club while attending Princeton, and, of course, who could forget the play, The Vegetable, which was so disastrous that most of the audience walked out during the first and only performance. The immediate audience reaction pushes creators to instantly captivate.
If you are interested, there is also a Netflix version of Death and the King’s Horseman.
The Green Light at the End of the Dock (How much I spent):
Softcover Text – $12.49
Connect With Me!
Blog Threads BookTube Facebook Insta My Bookstore at Pango
June 13, 2019
What a delight to read a play again, after quite a while!
Death and the King's Horseman is a classical tragedy, with a distinct dramatic event that triggers the plot. Set in colonial Nigeria, the external conflict circles around the two different value systems of British administrators and local dignitaries. However, Wole Soyinka himself insists in an interview accompanying the play that the setting is secondary, and the individuals are at the centre of attention. The drama could unfold without the intrusion of the British Empire, as it is human, not cultural, in essence.
According to Yoruba belief, the King's horseman has to commit ritual suicide after the king has died, in order to guide the king properly to the next world. In exchange for this community duty, he lives a life of luxury and privilege. Elesin, the main character, however, is prevented from doing his duty during the burial rites for the deceased king, partly because the British administration intervenes, but mostly because he himself hesitates and has a moment of weakness.
His estranged son, who returns from studies in England, commits suicide in his place to restore order in the community, while Elesin kills himself in shame.
So far so good, a classical antigonesque plot: ancient rites versus new government, common laws versus religious duties, family members in disgrace that need to be restored to the way of the ancestors, bravery and cowardice, ... I see many parallel storylines between Sophocles' famous play set in Ancient Greece and Wole Soyinka's modern African version.
The characters have strengths and weaknesses, they all have a point, even though some characters come across as more sympathetic than others. They are fully fleshed out, complete human beings, not stereotypes.
Even the British administration is shown from various angles, demonstrating different levels of understanding. Wole Soyinka makes a clear statement against black and white characters, who are either completely right or wrong. He argues that it depends on his own mood how he judges his own main character, as he can see the actions from different perspectives. This clearly brings Antigone in Sophocles' interpretation to mind. Creon and Antigone are both given the opportunity to develop their thoughts, and both could possibly have acted differently and been justified to do so.
The most interesting character, in my opinion, is Olunde, the Horseman's son, who has spent four years in England to train as a doctor, and who comes back with the idea that he wants to support his old Yoruba tradition. My favourite part of the play is his dialogue with Jane, the most nuanced British character, who tries to understand at least partially how the Yoruba think:
"Olunde (mildly): And that is the good cause for which you desecrate an ancestral mask?
Jane: Oh, so you are shocked after all. How disappointing.
Olunde: No I am not shocked, Mrs Pilkings. You forget that I have now spent four years among your people. I discovered that you have no respect for what you do not understand."
This strikes me as the most significant difference between the British colonisers and the educated Yoruba: while Olunde has spent his four years trying to see and grasp the British way of life so that he will be able to judge it according to his own knowledge and convictions, the Pilkings and their friends remain childishly ignorant of the real life of the people they claim to rule and educate. They challenge deeply rooted fears and beliefs and cause harm, even within their own community, because they don't understand, and therefore do not respect the thoughts of the people with whom they share their space.
It made me think of society in Europe in the 18th century, when Kant proclaimed that enlightenment was man's release from self-incurred tutelage.
The British colonisers' refusal to make use of knowledge and understanding weakens them, and Elesin's refusal to think things through to the bitter end and see the ultimate consequences of his choices triggers his disgrace and painful, late death.
Olunde symbolises practical reasoning and ability to see which actions lead to specific results. His choices are enlightened, he acts with responsibility and awareness. The message of the play seems to be that each human being will face the consequences of his or her actions, and that childish refusal to see beyond the surface will lead to destructive events.
I thoroughly enjoyed this African take on classical drama, and Wole Soyinka clearly demonstrates his own rootedness both in Western and Yoruba tradition. The paly ends on a hopeful note, with the strong Yoruba woman Iyaloja in charge of the closing remarks:
"Now forget the dead, forget even the living. Turn your mind only to the unborn."
Outlook on the future. That is a modern take on tragedy.
Death and the King's Horseman is a classical tragedy, with a distinct dramatic event that triggers the plot. Set in colonial Nigeria, the external conflict circles around the two different value systems of British administrators and local dignitaries. However, Wole Soyinka himself insists in an interview accompanying the play that the setting is secondary, and the individuals are at the centre of attention. The drama could unfold without the intrusion of the British Empire, as it is human, not cultural, in essence.
According to Yoruba belief, the King's horseman has to commit ritual suicide after the king has died, in order to guide the king properly to the next world. In exchange for this community duty, he lives a life of luxury and privilege. Elesin, the main character, however, is prevented from doing his duty during the burial rites for the deceased king, partly because the British administration intervenes, but mostly because he himself hesitates and has a moment of weakness.
His estranged son, who returns from studies in England, commits suicide in his place to restore order in the community, while Elesin kills himself in shame.
So far so good, a classical antigonesque plot: ancient rites versus new government, common laws versus religious duties, family members in disgrace that need to be restored to the way of the ancestors, bravery and cowardice, ... I see many parallel storylines between Sophocles' famous play set in Ancient Greece and Wole Soyinka's modern African version.
The characters have strengths and weaknesses, they all have a point, even though some characters come across as more sympathetic than others. They are fully fleshed out, complete human beings, not stereotypes.
Even the British administration is shown from various angles, demonstrating different levels of understanding. Wole Soyinka makes a clear statement against black and white characters, who are either completely right or wrong. He argues that it depends on his own mood how he judges his own main character, as he can see the actions from different perspectives. This clearly brings Antigone in Sophocles' interpretation to mind. Creon and Antigone are both given the opportunity to develop their thoughts, and both could possibly have acted differently and been justified to do so.
The most interesting character, in my opinion, is Olunde, the Horseman's son, who has spent four years in England to train as a doctor, and who comes back with the idea that he wants to support his old Yoruba tradition. My favourite part of the play is his dialogue with Jane, the most nuanced British character, who tries to understand at least partially how the Yoruba think:
"Olunde (mildly): And that is the good cause for which you desecrate an ancestral mask?
Jane: Oh, so you are shocked after all. How disappointing.
Olunde: No I am not shocked, Mrs Pilkings. You forget that I have now spent four years among your people. I discovered that you have no respect for what you do not understand."
This strikes me as the most significant difference between the British colonisers and the educated Yoruba: while Olunde has spent his four years trying to see and grasp the British way of life so that he will be able to judge it according to his own knowledge and convictions, the Pilkings and their friends remain childishly ignorant of the real life of the people they claim to rule and educate. They challenge deeply rooted fears and beliefs and cause harm, even within their own community, because they don't understand, and therefore do not respect the thoughts of the people with whom they share their space.
It made me think of society in Europe in the 18th century, when Kant proclaimed that enlightenment was man's release from self-incurred tutelage.
The British colonisers' refusal to make use of knowledge and understanding weakens them, and Elesin's refusal to think things through to the bitter end and see the ultimate consequences of his choices triggers his disgrace and painful, late death.
Olunde symbolises practical reasoning and ability to see which actions lead to specific results. His choices are enlightened, he acts with responsibility and awareness. The message of the play seems to be that each human being will face the consequences of his or her actions, and that childish refusal to see beyond the surface will lead to destructive events.
I thoroughly enjoyed this African take on classical drama, and Wole Soyinka clearly demonstrates his own rootedness both in Western and Yoruba tradition. The paly ends on a hopeful note, with the strong Yoruba woman Iyaloja in charge of the closing remarks:
"Now forget the dead, forget even the living. Turn your mind only to the unborn."
Outlook on the future. That is a modern take on tragedy.
November 1, 2022
“Life is honor. It ends when honor ends." (2.5 stars)
I never would have read DEATH AND THE KING’S HORSEMAN if I were not about to see it in professional performance in a few days. I am glad that I am seeing a production, which I am hoping will only enhance my appreciation of the text. As it stands today, I am not sure what I think about this play. I freely admit that there are moments in it that I am sure went right over my head.
The plot in brief- a Yoruba tribal king has died. His horseman is supposed to commit ritual suicide 30 days after the death. The colonial forces in Nigeria get wind of it, and attempt to stop it.
I feel this piece is metaphysical, maybe a bit political. It definitely deals with the idea of the traditional, and its power. I am just not sure I cared all that much for the mash up. At least as it was done in this text.
Quotes:
• “What a thing it is, that even those we call immortal should fear to die.”
• “Who does not seek to be remembered?”
• “Because he could not bear to let honor fly out of doors, he stopped it with his life.”
• “Should voyagers not travel light?”
The ending of the play is quick, and theatrically efficient. I’m not sure what I think of it (noticing a theme here) but it does seem appropriate.
Once I see this in performance, I think my feelings about DEATH AND THE HORSEMAN, either positive or negative, will be more settled.
POSTSCRIPT-I have now seen the play in performance. I was not a fan of the production, and it actually decreased my appreciation for the text. I am going to forget the production and try to remember the read.
I never would have read DEATH AND THE KING’S HORSEMAN if I were not about to see it in professional performance in a few days. I am glad that I am seeing a production, which I am hoping will only enhance my appreciation of the text. As it stands today, I am not sure what I think about this play. I freely admit that there are moments in it that I am sure went right over my head.
The plot in brief- a Yoruba tribal king has died. His horseman is supposed to commit ritual suicide 30 days after the death. The colonial forces in Nigeria get wind of it, and attempt to stop it.
I feel this piece is metaphysical, maybe a bit political. It definitely deals with the idea of the traditional, and its power. I am just not sure I cared all that much for the mash up. At least as it was done in this text.
Quotes:
• “What a thing it is, that even those we call immortal should fear to die.”
• “Who does not seek to be remembered?”
• “Because he could not bear to let honor fly out of doors, he stopped it with his life.”
• “Should voyagers not travel light?”
The ending of the play is quick, and theatrically efficient. I’m not sure what I think of it (noticing a theme here) but it does seem appropriate.
Once I see this in performance, I think my feelings about DEATH AND THE HORSEMAN, either positive or negative, will be more settled.
POSTSCRIPT-I have now seen the play in performance. I was not a fan of the production, and it actually decreased my appreciation for the text. I am going to forget the production and try to remember the read.
February 3, 2016
Wole Soyinka has written a powerful drama which treats of culture clash, ancient and modern custom, racial assumptions, entitlements, the clash of the sexes and of religions as well as of history. There is also the unsubtle history of colonialism and British superiority with condescension sprinkled throughout the dramatic interactions.
Off stage, before the action of the drama, in Yoruba, Nigeria, a King has died. Elesin Oba, the king's chief horseman, is now expected to join his king in death--a death Elesin has expected his entire adult life. It is a part of his culture and custom, his people's culture and custom. It is his duty and expectation. Simon Pilkings, the colonial district officer, does not see this as a custom he can accept and his actions and their ramifications create the tensions of the play. (after the opening sequence which sets the scene for Elesin's situation.)
According to the author this play is based on events that actually occurred and I know that I want to read more about this play and its various interpretations. No matter how literal each character is--or is not--to be interpreted, there is no diluting the power of this drama. The power of the King, the power of his place in his people's lives, the power of the chief horseman in his last days, the power of the women of the tribe who act as goddesses or priestesses or intercessors.Then there is the institutional power of the colonial district officer which has no custom behind it, only foreign law which is unrelated and unknowing.
I do recommend this to anyone interested in African literature. I intend to broaden my reach in the area, most definitely.
Off stage, before the action of the drama, in Yoruba, Nigeria, a King has died. Elesin Oba, the king's chief horseman, is now expected to join his king in death--a death Elesin has expected his entire adult life. It is a part of his culture and custom, his people's culture and custom. It is his duty and expectation. Simon Pilkings, the colonial district officer, does not see this as a custom he can accept and his actions and their ramifications create the tensions of the play. (after the opening sequence which sets the scene for Elesin's situation.)
According to the author this play is based on events that actually occurred and I know that I want to read more about this play and its various interpretations. No matter how literal each character is--or is not--to be interpreted, there is no diluting the power of this drama. The power of the King, the power of his place in his people's lives, the power of the chief horseman in his last days, the power of the women of the tribe who act as goddesses or priestesses or intercessors.Then there is the institutional power of the colonial district officer which has no custom behind it, only foreign law which is unrelated and unknowing.
I do recommend this to anyone interested in African literature. I intend to broaden my reach in the area, most definitely.
April 27, 2024
It would be easy to focus a review of this book on the clash of cultures, and though wonderfully handled here, there are lots of books about that. What I found astonishing and eye-opening was the Yoruba belief system and cultural depth of death and the responsibilities of the native society’s members around it. The absolute certitude of belief and yet the offhand dismissal of them by the colonial masters creates deep relief on how ANY religious beliefs are just magical thinking.
The native characters are deep, and beautifully and believably drawn, including the son who went to London for modern medical training and returned to honor his estranged father. The colonial characters are successfully drawn with all their typical colonial master smugness and arrogance.
I would love to see this staged.
Nobel laureate I want to read more of.
The native characters are deep, and beautifully and believably drawn, including the son who went to London for modern medical training and returned to honor his estranged father. The colonial characters are successfully drawn with all their typical colonial master smugness and arrogance.
I would love to see this staged.
Nobel laureate I want to read more of.
April 17, 2026
At first, the text was difficult to read: the language is rhythmic, deliberately anachronistic, full of repetitions and incantatory tones that initially repel and disrupt expectations of a “conventional” dramatic work. I had to learn how to read it. But at a certain point the resistance disappears—you suddenly find yourself at the very center of a Nigerian ritual, where words, gestures, and pauses obey a different, non-rational logic. From that moment on, there is no escape: the text holds you to the end not through intrigue, but through a powerful sense of presence.
Death and the King’s Horseman is not a tragedy about a cruel custom, nor about colonial violence in any straightforward sense, but about how a world breaks when someone intervenes with the confidence that they know how it should be ordered. As you read, it gradually becomes clear that the decisive blow is dealt not by an external force, but by human weakness at the very moment when absolute precision is required.
What remains after the final page is a cold, unsettling feeling. The play offers no consolation, no moral foothold, and it does not distribute blame in a way that would make it easy for the reader. That is precisely why Death and the King’s Horseman remains a living text: it speaks not about exoticism or the past, but about how easily good intentions and personal hesitation together can destroy something that can never be fully restored.
I hope that one day I will have the chance to see this play on stage.
Death and the King’s Horseman is not a tragedy about a cruel custom, nor about colonial violence in any straightforward sense, but about how a world breaks when someone intervenes with the confidence that they know how it should be ordered. As you read, it gradually becomes clear that the decisive blow is dealt not by an external force, but by human weakness at the very moment when absolute precision is required.
What remains after the final page is a cold, unsettling feeling. The play offers no consolation, no moral foothold, and it does not distribute blame in a way that would make it easy for the reader. That is precisely why Death and the King’s Horseman remains a living text: it speaks not about exoticism or the past, but about how easily good intentions and personal hesitation together can destroy something that can never be fully restored.
I hope that one day I will have the chance to see this play on stage.
June 22, 2020
Does the deep voice of gbedu cover you then, like the passage of royal elephants? Those drums that brook no rivals, have they blocked the passage to your ears that my voice passes into wind, a mere leaf floating in the night? Is your flesh lightened Elesin, is that lump of earth I slid between your slippers to keep you longer slowly sifting from your feet? Are the drums on the other side now tuning skin to skin with ours in osugbo? Are there sounds there I cannot hear, do footsteps surround you which pound the earth like gbedu, roll like thunder round the dome of the world? Is the darkness gathering in
your head Elesin? Is there now a streak of light at the end of the passage, a light I dare not look upon? Does it reveal whose voices we often heard, whose touches we often felt, whose wisdoms come suddenly into the mind when the wisest have shaken their heads and murmured; It cannot be done? Elesin Alafin, don't think I do not know why your lips are heavy, why your limbs are drowsy as palm oil in the cold of harmattan. I would call you back but when the elephant heads for the jungle, the tail is too small a handhold for the hunter that would pull him back. The sun that heads for the sea no longer heeds the prayers of the farmer. When the river begins to taste the salt of the ocean, we no longer know what deity to call on, the river-god or Olokun. No arrow flies back to the string, the child does not return through the same passage that gave it birth. Elesin Oba, can you hear me at all?
your head Elesin? Is there now a streak of light at the end of the passage, a light I dare not look upon? Does it reveal whose voices we often heard, whose touches we often felt, whose wisdoms come suddenly into the mind when the wisest have shaken their heads and murmured; It cannot be done? Elesin Alafin, don't think I do not know why your lips are heavy, why your limbs are drowsy as palm oil in the cold of harmattan. I would call you back but when the elephant heads for the jungle, the tail is too small a handhold for the hunter that would pull him back. The sun that heads for the sea no longer heeds the prayers of the farmer. When the river begins to taste the salt of the ocean, we no longer know what deity to call on, the river-god or Olokun. No arrow flies back to the string, the child does not return through the same passage that gave it birth. Elesin Oba, can you hear me at all?
January 22, 2026
Incredible. The king's horseman is meant to accompany his king in death through ritual suicide, and even before the drama's events unfold, the reader questions whether Olesin will be up for the task given how much he loves life, or rather certain aspects of his life: the praises and privileges his position as the king's horseman grant him. Mystifying, demystifying, and captivating to its climatic end, this was a fantastic wild ride of a read.
November 25, 2022
Nobel prizes aren't given for nothing
September 4, 2017
University reading. An interesting play revolving around Yoruba culture based on a true story. I found some of the dialogue difficult to read but it would be an AMAZING play to see live.
Read
September 21, 2009Of all the Norton Critical Editions I've read recently (and it seems like I'm busting right through my back-log over the past few weeks!), the one whose extra materials I found most useful is Wole Soyinka's Death and the King's Horseman. Which is kind of ironic, since a big theme in this post-colonialist Nigerian drama is the cultural arrogance of western white folks who think that because they've been educated in England, they know best how to interpret and control the cultural traditions of the "natives" colonized by the Crown. As I perused the appendices of my scholarly volume, all working to foster an understanding of Nigerian culture and "background sources" in the predominantly-white US undergraduate population, I'll admit to a rueful smile. What would Soyinka think of the book I'm holding in my hands? Obviously, I don't know the answer, but my bet is that he would feel, as he did about many things, somewhat ambivalent. Son of Westernized Anglican schoolteachers and educated in the most toney of Nigerian prep schools before leaving for University in England, Soyinka identified as "truly bi-cultural"; out of this background came a deep grounding in the Western canon, as well as the Yoruba beliefs of his grandfather, and an acquaintance with the ways in which the English thought of their own subjective perceptions as "natural" and "universal," and anything else as barbaric. Perhaps this background explains some of the reason that, in contrast to many of his liberation-era contemporaries, Soyinka wasn't primarily interested in educating white folks about Nigeria, but about making Nigerian literature that referred to its own subjective universe. From the introduction:
I have to say, I was cheering Soyinka on here, and I hadn't even started reading his play yet. I've always found it so awkward - almost dirty-feeling - to be reading a novel about a non-US culture, and suddenly get the feeling that its primary goal is to educate US/European/first-world readers about The Other. I mean, novels where the narrator (or even the speaking character!) takes time out to explain every culture-specific term she uses: how unnatural is that? It makes it really difficult to craft believable characters, because who stops in the midst of their dinner preparations to think to themselves, "Now I'll open the refrigerator: a large metal box in the corner of my kitchen, which keeps my food cold via an electric current running through coils near the floor"? This kind of aside is so disruptive to the narrative, and so inaccurately representative of how peoples' minds actually work. (And yeah, that's a comic exaggeration, but I've read examples almost as bad! Even in novels as acclaimed as Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, I got this vibe.) In actual life, people take for granted their everyday surroundings and cultural contexts, and I applaud Soyinka for creating characters who do so as well. At the same time, it does make the learning curve on his play a sharp one for anyone coming to it from the Western tradition.
Nevertheless, an aficionada of English literature is never wholly at sea. Death and the King's Horseman opens in an almost Shakespearean manner: Elesin, the primary horseman of the late king, engages in verbal parry and thrust with his "Praise-Singer" in a way that reminded me of a kind of reverse take on Lear's relationship with his Fool. They're bantering about Elesin's planned transition to the land of the spirits and ancestors; the king he served has died, and it's now his duty (along with the King's favorite horse and his trusty dog) to join his master. Central to the play's tragedy is the different metaphysical realities of Yoruba people and their English colonizers: for the English, an act they understand as "suicide" is both a crime and a sin, as well as the end of a life, whereas in the Yoruba cosmos (according to my Norton, at least), Elesin is merely helping the natural order of the world continue on its course by helping the spirit of his King through the door to the world of gods and spirits. Elesin greets his impending transition with cocky joy; he radiates strength and will, dancing with and around the market women, and singing a long song about the foolishness of those who attempt to evade Death. His Praise-Singer is his straight-man and his counter-point as he teases the women, and claims, on his prerogative as an honored man about to pass to the next world, one last young bride:
In contrast to this vital, cocksure young horseman, we are introduced to the colonial bureaucrat Simon Pilkings, all set to attend a fancy-dress ball with his wife Jane (in ceremonial "death cult" attire confiscated from the natives, no less) when he gets word of the rumor that a local chief is about to take his own life. Because the Prince is visiting the colony, and because Simon wants to show he is in charge, he takes it upon himself to "save" Elesin from his impending death; tragedy ensues.
Despite certain references and metaphysical contexts of Yoruba life that might be unclear to Western readers, it's obvious that Soyinka is drawing heavily on the traditions of the Western canon as well. The contrast between Elesin's nobility and Pilkings's essential pettiness, for example, is communicated brilliantly through the differences in their modes of speech: whereas Elesin delivers most of his speeches in the nobility of blank verse, Simon's and Jane's speech is utterly banal prose, peppered with bourgeois British colloquialisms:
Without giving away too much of the plot and the tragic denouement, I'll just say that the final scene of the play does interesting things with this dichotomy that's been set up between the blind demands of bureaucracy and the individual's ability to be noble within the context of his or her own society. Soyinka apparently despised and fought against the tendency of critics to interpret his play as merely a chronicle of an oppressive colonial encounter, and pleaded with his audiences to look beyond the historical details of the play to the metaphysical truths within. I think the most universal message that I got out of Death and the King's Horseman is that even the traits we hold most intrinsic to our personalities - our confidence that we will react a certain way in a certain situation, our vitality, the decrees of our moral compass that X is right and Y is wrong - are dependent, not only on our general background and upbringing, but on our immediate circumstances, and can be altered forever in a single moment.
Death and the King's Horseman, like all plays, loses a lot by being read on paper rather than watched in performance. I don't read a lot of drama, for exactly this reason: plays yearn to be interpreted by a company, and reading them to myself always comes off as flat. Soyinka's work suffers perhaps more than most drama in this regard, because his Yoruba characters use music and dance as important modes of character expression - modes that are obviously not present in my head. Still, I am glad I read this play and some of its accompanying materials, and I would leap at the chance to see a good performance of it live.
Soyinka has no patience for those who argue that works of art are most effective when they are clear, direct and didactic ... [He:] was unhappy with the romanticism, naïveté, and idealization of the African image in classic African novels such as Camara Laye's The Dark Child. He understood the political imperative behind such works - namely, the desire by a whole generation of African writers to counter the European image of Africa - but was categorical in his belief that idealization was not a substitute for what he considered to be literary truth. However, in explaining why he had disavowed and attacked movements that celebrated African or black identity, Soyinka was keen to insist that he was not against the idea of the African world as such ... He wanted the African world ... to be taken for granted as a self-evident cultural experience. As far as Soyinka was concerned, the artist's commitment was not to a particular idea of Africa, a set of political or ideological commitments, but the self-apprehension of the African world.
I have to say, I was cheering Soyinka on here, and I hadn't even started reading his play yet. I've always found it so awkward - almost dirty-feeling - to be reading a novel about a non-US culture, and suddenly get the feeling that its primary goal is to educate US/European/first-world readers about The Other. I mean, novels where the narrator (or even the speaking character!) takes time out to explain every culture-specific term she uses: how unnatural is that? It makes it really difficult to craft believable characters, because who stops in the midst of their dinner preparations to think to themselves, "Now I'll open the refrigerator: a large metal box in the corner of my kitchen, which keeps my food cold via an electric current running through coils near the floor"? This kind of aside is so disruptive to the narrative, and so inaccurately representative of how peoples' minds actually work. (And yeah, that's a comic exaggeration, but I've read examples almost as bad! Even in novels as acclaimed as Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, I got this vibe.) In actual life, people take for granted their everyday surroundings and cultural contexts, and I applaud Soyinka for creating characters who do so as well. At the same time, it does make the learning curve on his play a sharp one for anyone coming to it from the Western tradition.
Nevertheless, an aficionada of English literature is never wholly at sea. Death and the King's Horseman opens in an almost Shakespearean manner: Elesin, the primary horseman of the late king, engages in verbal parry and thrust with his "Praise-Singer" in a way that reminded me of a kind of reverse take on Lear's relationship with his Fool. They're bantering about Elesin's planned transition to the land of the spirits and ancestors; the king he served has died, and it's now his duty (along with the King's favorite horse and his trusty dog) to join his master. Central to the play's tragedy is the different metaphysical realities of Yoruba people and their English colonizers: for the English, an act they understand as "suicide" is both a crime and a sin, as well as the end of a life, whereas in the Yoruba cosmos (according to my Norton, at least), Elesin is merely helping the natural order of the world continue on its course by helping the spirit of his King through the door to the world of gods and spirits. Elesin greets his impending transition with cocky joy; he radiates strength and will, dancing with and around the market women, and singing a long song about the foolishness of those who attempt to evade Death. His Praise-Singer is his straight-man and his counter-point as he teases the women, and claims, on his prerogative as an honored man about to pass to the next world, one last young bride:
ELESIN All you who stand before the spirit that dares
The opening of the last door of passage,
Dare to rid my going of regrets! My wish
Transcends the blotting out of thought
In one mere moment's tremor of the senses.
Do me credit. And do me honour.
I am girded for the route beyond
Burdens of waste and longing.
Then let me travel light. Let
Seed that will not serve the stomach
On the way remain behind. Let it take root
In the earth of my choice, in this earth
I leave behind.
In contrast to this vital, cocksure young horseman, we are introduced to the colonial bureaucrat Simon Pilkings, all set to attend a fancy-dress ball with his wife Jane (in ceremonial "death cult" attire confiscated from the natives, no less) when he gets word of the rumor that a local chief is about to take his own life. Because the Prince is visiting the colony, and because Simon wants to show he is in charge, he takes it upon himself to "save" Elesin from his impending death; tragedy ensues.
Despite certain references and metaphysical contexts of Yoruba life that might be unclear to Western readers, it's obvious that Soyinka is drawing heavily on the traditions of the Western canon as well. The contrast between Elesin's nobility and Pilkings's essential pettiness, for example, is communicated brilliantly through the differences in their modes of speech: whereas Elesin delivers most of his speeches in the nobility of blank verse, Simon's and Jane's speech is utterly banal prose, peppered with bourgeois British colloquialisms:
PILKINGS You know the Prince is on a tour of the colonies don't you? Well, he docked in the capital only this morning but he is already at the Residency. He is going to grace the ball with his presence later tonight.
JANE Simon! Not really.
PILKINGS Yes he is. He's been invited to give away the prizes and he has agreed. You must admit old Engleton is the best Club Secretary we ever had. Quite quick off the mark that lad.
JANE But how thrilling.
Without giving away too much of the plot and the tragic denouement, I'll just say that the final scene of the play does interesting things with this dichotomy that's been set up between the blind demands of bureaucracy and the individual's ability to be noble within the context of his or her own society. Soyinka apparently despised and fought against the tendency of critics to interpret his play as merely a chronicle of an oppressive colonial encounter, and pleaded with his audiences to look beyond the historical details of the play to the metaphysical truths within. I think the most universal message that I got out of Death and the King's Horseman is that even the traits we hold most intrinsic to our personalities - our confidence that we will react a certain way in a certain situation, our vitality, the decrees of our moral compass that X is right and Y is wrong - are dependent, not only on our general background and upbringing, but on our immediate circumstances, and can be altered forever in a single moment.
Death and the King's Horseman, like all plays, loses a lot by being read on paper rather than watched in performance. I don't read a lot of drama, for exactly this reason: plays yearn to be interpreted by a company, and reading them to myself always comes off as flat. Soyinka's work suffers perhaps more than most drama in this regard, because his Yoruba characters use music and dance as important modes of character expression - modes that are obviously not present in my head. Still, I am glad I read this play and some of its accompanying materials, and I would leap at the chance to see a good performance of it live.
March 8, 2016
First published at: http://www.meexia.com/bookie/2016/03/...
Death and the King's Horseman is a play by Wole Soyinka, a Nigerian and the first African to be honored the Nobel Prize in Literature. The play was published 1975, and Soyinka won the prize in 1986. I was reading this together with my GR book group. It also adds nicely to my Nobel project and my intention to read more plays.
The play is inspired by a real life incident that took place in Nigeria during the British occupation: the horseman of a king was prevented to do his last duty on earth, which is to commit a ritual suicide - to follow his king into the afterlife and help lead the way.
Everybody has a duty. The king's horseman Elesin has lived a lavished lifestyle, with the understanding of the duty his community expects him to perform one day. Failure to do this would throw everything out of balance. The British officer Simon Pilkings also has a duty, and that is to keep order in the Majesty's realm. A murder - that includes killing oneself, is a disorder and does not make sense to the British eyes. The stake is made higher as the Prince is visiting when this event takes place, so Pilkings is desperate to resolve (resorting to postpone) the problem without the Prince noticing.
The other important characters include Iyaloja, a matriarch of the market - so in effect, the community; and the horseman's son Olunde who has gone to study abroad in England and come back when he heard the news about the death of the king, knowing the implication for his father.
In one way it is very much about the issue of colonization, though Soyinka doesn't like it to be categorized that narrowly, as mentioned in the extra materials of my edition. It's about a clash of cultures, but it could be between any cultures or subcultures, and does not necessarily point its finger to the white colonists vs the natives.
Soyinka is of Yoruba tribe in Nigeria, so this story is about people of Yoruba. To contrast, Chinua Achebe and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie are both Igbo people. I haven't read enough Nigerian literature to know the subtle differences, but I found these interesting. It just happens that the colleague sitting next to me is a Yoruba Nigerian, and he said his mother knows Soyinka personally (which I guess isn't very surprising if they're from the same tribe). He mentioned that there are some conflicts in the past between the tribes (Yoruba and Igbo are 2 of the 3 biggest tribes in Nigeria) but things are well now, and in fact his wife is Igbo. And that's my little crash course on Nigerian tribes :)
I had the opportunity to go to Wole Soyinka's talk at the British Library a couple of weeks ago - which was a very nice conjunction with my book group discussion (it's online and nobody is in London - so I went by myself). It was a full house and more than half of the audience were Nigerian or African descent, so he seemed a very well respected man. I had my edition of Death and the King's Horseman signed, but the signing was very rushed so I'm a bit disappointed on that end.
Last interesting point is Soyinka writes in English, so his works are not translated. His choice of language to produce his art is somewhat a sore point among different groups of people, as English is obviously the colonist language. This was asked also at the talk, and his answer is somewhere along the line of wanting to have his work as far reaching as possible. He also writes in his native language, but mostly privately. Considering that he did his higher studies in England and therefore went through Western education, I can absolutely understand this reasoning.
Mee's rating: 4/5 - Great selection for book group as there are a lot of things to discuss. I can recommend my edition: Methuen Student Edition (pictured above) as it has plenty of extra materials to help you better understand the play and its place in the context of society and its time. Since reading this play I've been looking for more plays in Methuen Student Edition, which luckily my favorite secondhand bookshop in Charing Cross has many.
Death and the King's Horseman is a play by Wole Soyinka, a Nigerian and the first African to be honored the Nobel Prize in Literature. The play was published 1975, and Soyinka won the prize in 1986. I was reading this together with my GR book group. It also adds nicely to my Nobel project and my intention to read more plays.
The play is inspired by a real life incident that took place in Nigeria during the British occupation: the horseman of a king was prevented to do his last duty on earth, which is to commit a ritual suicide - to follow his king into the afterlife and help lead the way.
Everybody has a duty. The king's horseman Elesin has lived a lavished lifestyle, with the understanding of the duty his community expects him to perform one day. Failure to do this would throw everything out of balance. The British officer Simon Pilkings also has a duty, and that is to keep order in the Majesty's realm. A murder - that includes killing oneself, is a disorder and does not make sense to the British eyes. The stake is made higher as the Prince is visiting when this event takes place, so Pilkings is desperate to resolve (resorting to postpone) the problem without the Prince noticing.
The other important characters include Iyaloja, a matriarch of the market - so in effect, the community; and the horseman's son Olunde who has gone to study abroad in England and come back when he heard the news about the death of the king, knowing the implication for his father.
In one way it is very much about the issue of colonization, though Soyinka doesn't like it to be categorized that narrowly, as mentioned in the extra materials of my edition. It's about a clash of cultures, but it could be between any cultures or subcultures, and does not necessarily point its finger to the white colonists vs the natives.
Soyinka is of Yoruba tribe in Nigeria, so this story is about people of Yoruba. To contrast, Chinua Achebe and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie are both Igbo people. I haven't read enough Nigerian literature to know the subtle differences, but I found these interesting. It just happens that the colleague sitting next to me is a Yoruba Nigerian, and he said his mother knows Soyinka personally (which I guess isn't very surprising if they're from the same tribe). He mentioned that there are some conflicts in the past between the tribes (Yoruba and Igbo are 2 of the 3 biggest tribes in Nigeria) but things are well now, and in fact his wife is Igbo. And that's my little crash course on Nigerian tribes :)
I had the opportunity to go to Wole Soyinka's talk at the British Library a couple of weeks ago - which was a very nice conjunction with my book group discussion (it's online and nobody is in London - so I went by myself). It was a full house and more than half of the audience were Nigerian or African descent, so he seemed a very well respected man. I had my edition of Death and the King's Horseman signed, but the signing was very rushed so I'm a bit disappointed on that end.
Last interesting point is Soyinka writes in English, so his works are not translated. His choice of language to produce his art is somewhat a sore point among different groups of people, as English is obviously the colonist language. This was asked also at the talk, and his answer is somewhere along the line of wanting to have his work as far reaching as possible. He also writes in his native language, but mostly privately. Considering that he did his higher studies in England and therefore went through Western education, I can absolutely understand this reasoning.
Mee's rating: 4/5 - Great selection for book group as there are a lot of things to discuss. I can recommend my edition: Methuen Student Edition (pictured above) as it has plenty of extra materials to help you better understand the play and its place in the context of society and its time. Since reading this play I've been looking for more plays in Methuen Student Edition, which luckily my favorite secondhand bookshop in Charing Cross has many.
July 15, 2014
From BBC Radio 3 - Drama on 3:
In celebration of Wole Soyinka's 80th birthday, a drama based on a real event in 1940s Nigeria. A colonial district officer intervenes to prevent a local man committing ritual suicide
Death And The King's Horseman is considered to be Professor Soyinka's greatest play. In awarding Soyinka the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986, the Swedish Academy drew special attention to Death and the King's Horseman as evidence of his talent for combining Yoruban and European culture into a unique kind of poetic drama.
Composer and Musical director, Juwon Ogungbe.
In celebration of Wole Soyinka's 80th birthday, a drama based on a real event in 1940s Nigeria. A colonial district officer intervenes to prevent a local man committing ritual suicide
Death And The King's Horseman is considered to be Professor Soyinka's greatest play. In awarding Soyinka the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986, the Swedish Academy drew special attention to Death and the King's Horseman as evidence of his talent for combining Yoruban and European culture into a unique kind of poetic drama.
Composer and Musical director, Juwon Ogungbe.
January 6, 2016
An incredibly subtle statement on culture, imperialism, and tradition that masterfully explains the complexities of cultural interaction and do gooders in the context of the British colonial empire in Africa. This is the story of a British colonial officer in Africa who is appalled at a tradition that the King's horseman commits suicide to be alongside the dead king, and intervenes to stop the suicide with tragic consequences. It is very hard to write this story without caricatures and over-simplified plot lines, and Soyinka's ability to do this shines through every word. Years after reading this play, it has stuck with me as an example of how very good, kind, well-meaning people can nevertheless create tragic events due to cultural misunderstanding even as they try to prevent death.
April 14, 2010
A somber and threnodic theme runs through this play. It demonstrates how men's lives are bound up in the cultural bubble in which they were conceived and brought forth; this cuts across races, tribes, ethnicities and epoch.
Many today would consider themselves modern, independent and learned as compared to those who lived say 1000years ago. But the truth is if they had been living 1000years ago their world outlook would only mirror and conform to that particular period. Which raises the question; is there really any such thing as 'independent thinking'? Or are we simply products of our environment?
Many today would consider themselves modern, independent and learned as compared to those who lived say 1000years ago. But the truth is if they had been living 1000years ago their world outlook would only mirror and conform to that particular period. Which raises the question; is there really any such thing as 'independent thinking'? Or are we simply products of our environment?
October 28, 2025
basically brilliant. crazy insane batshit ending. it's a tough opening, act i is hard to follow and soyinka refuses to provide handholds - he wants a culture shock. but you don't win a nobel prize for nothing (nor does the nobel committee casually mention one of your plays in their citation without good reason). every character feels human, no one is perfect, no one is right, no one proclaims an obvious agenda. just death and life, and misunderstanding and pain. a play you want to discuss, and to see a real production of.
I have no father, eater of left-overs.
Our world is tumbling in the void of strangers, Elesin.
I have no father, eater of left-overs.
Our world is tumbling in the void of strangers, Elesin.
March 3, 2019
One of my co-workers is involved in an online romance with someone from Nigeria.
It is the season.
During the cursory conversation where I discovered this, I thought rather often that I should be reading more Soyinka.
So I did.
Much of the play was rather familiar and I suspect I read this some time ago. The plot is pretty simple--native religious rites are halted by the colonialists for reasons of alleged civilization and, also, as a fumble for propriety. The fated Horseman is a remarkable character; the colonial authority is truly human.
It is the season.
During the cursory conversation where I discovered this, I thought rather often that I should be reading more Soyinka.
So I did.
Much of the play was rather familiar and I suspect I read this some time ago. The plot is pretty simple--native religious rites are halted by the colonialists for reasons of alleged civilization and, also, as a fumble for propriety. The fated Horseman is a remarkable character; the colonial authority is truly human.
January 25, 2010
Be sure to read the author's note, because if you don't, you might take it as an East vs. West, colonial vs. tribal, new vs. old story as it would appear on first reading. But in his note, Soyinka states that the "threnodic essence" of the work is a theme even more universal: "the numinous passage which links all: transition." Change is indeed common to us all, and as my mother-in-law points out, change is usually perceived as bad. Yet change is something we all must come to terms with, and since one of literature's great benefits is to act as a mental dress rehearsal for life, this lean play (acessible on first reading, yet rich enough to reread) should find a place on every thoughtful reader's shelf.
The university-educated Soyinka (as one can infer from the author's note) has quite the erudite vocabulary, yet the prose style of Death and the King's Horseman reminded me more of ancient Greek tragedy in translation than anything else: simple yet poetic phrasing, and the homespun proverbial sayings of a pre-industrial age. What struck me as an information-age Westerner was how many of these Yoruba sayings (being related to animals or farming) were hard to relate to; an incidental lesson of this book was how detached from the natural world I've become. Visiting nature for recreation isn't the same as having your livelihood dependent on it.
Another aspect of this play that happens to be particularly interesting in juxtaposition to the film juggernaut of Avatar is that neither the Nigerian characters nor the English are portrayed as completely right or wrong, sympathetic or not. Sure, the English come off as somewhat ignorant intruders, yet they act in good faith; conversely, Elesin, the protagonist, initially appears heroic but as events unfold he grows less so. Whereas in Avatar the modern Westerners are evil caricatures and the Na'vi noble savages, in Soyinka's work matters are more nuanced--more like real life.
The university-educated Soyinka (as one can infer from the author's note) has quite the erudite vocabulary, yet the prose style of Death and the King's Horseman reminded me more of ancient Greek tragedy in translation than anything else: simple yet poetic phrasing, and the homespun proverbial sayings of a pre-industrial age. What struck me as an information-age Westerner was how many of these Yoruba sayings (being related to animals or farming) were hard to relate to; an incidental lesson of this book was how detached from the natural world I've become. Visiting nature for recreation isn't the same as having your livelihood dependent on it.
Another aspect of this play that happens to be particularly interesting in juxtaposition to the film juggernaut of Avatar is that neither the Nigerian characters nor the English are portrayed as completely right or wrong, sympathetic or not. Sure, the English come off as somewhat ignorant intruders, yet they act in good faith; conversely, Elesin, the protagonist, initially appears heroic but as events unfold he grows less so. Whereas in Avatar the modern Westerners are evil caricatures and the Na'vi noble savages, in Soyinka's work matters are more nuanced--more like real life.
September 5, 2016
4.5*
Wow! A powerful play based on a real-life event. To quote from Soyinka's Author's Note at the beginning of my edition,
" The bane of themes of this genre is that they are no sooner employed creatively than they acquire the facile tag of 'clash of cultures', a prejudicial label which, quite apart from its frequent misapplication, presupposes a potential equality in every given situation of the alien culture and the indigenous one, on the actual soil of the latter. ... It is thanks to this kind of perverse mentality that I find it necessary to caution the would-be producer of this play against a sadly familiar reductionist tendency, and to direct his vision instead to the far more difficult and risky task of eliciting the play's threnodic essence."
With this in my mind as I read the play, I tried to not focus on the conflict between the English colonial government and the Yoruba natives but on the transition between life and death that the King's Horseman is facing.
Wow! A powerful play based on a real-life event. To quote from Soyinka's Author's Note at the beginning of my edition,
" The bane of themes of this genre is that they are no sooner employed creatively than they acquire the facile tag of 'clash of cultures', a prejudicial label which, quite apart from its frequent misapplication, presupposes a potential equality in every given situation of the alien culture and the indigenous one, on the actual soil of the latter. ... It is thanks to this kind of perverse mentality that I find it necessary to caution the would-be producer of this play against a sadly familiar reductionist tendency, and to direct his vision instead to the far more difficult and risky task of eliciting the play's threnodic essence."
With this in my mind as I read the play, I tried to not focus on the conflict between the English colonial government and the Yoruba natives but on the transition between life and death that the King's Horseman is facing.
September 28, 2013
The blurb compares this to plays such as Antigone, but I think it falls short of that in its imitations. At times I felt the lines were too disconnected, too alienating (both topic wise and lyrically) to the reader--although I totally think this may be a culture difference. As someone who just finished reading a collection of Sophocles and Euripides, I feel that this play is an imitation. It's too many jangles and not enough meaning--towards the end the idea of transitioning, of death, slowly starts to be realised but the mark is missed. Pilkins as an 'imperialist' character is far too one-dimensional, Jane not developed enough (though one of the more interesting characters). I really want to like this play, but I don't think it holds enough tragic power--something is not transmuted through into the translated words.
June 25, 2018
Death and the King's Horseman tells the story of a man who wants to stay in the realm of the living when he already belongs to the realm of the dead. The results are tragic for himself and for his nation. Bravo to Simon Gikandi, editor of the Norton Critical Edition that I read. His outstanding selection of analytical and expository articles enabled me to properly appreciate Soyinka's brilliant play. The text is dense. The characters are all clearly drawn and the dialogues are superb. The play rigorously adheres to the Aristotelian model while eloquently pleading for Yoruba Cosmology. Death and the King's Horseman is a masterpiece of twentieth century theatre.
September 12, 2009
I didn't care for the beginning, which used poetic language.....I was somewhat lost through Act I. Thank goodness, this was the only place I struggled. All in all, it had a good message: don't judge that which you don't understand.
October 20, 2015
A play based on the natives of Yoruba, Death and the King’s Horseman marks the journey of Elesin Oba (the chief Horseman of the King) who is meant to sacrifice his life and follow the dead King into the afterlife. Filled with ritualistic nuances and a strong emphasis on the conflicts between colonizer and colonized, the play portrays Elesin’s conviction to perform the ritual and ultimate failure in sticking to his words. Simon Pilkings, a British Officer, not only intervenes in the sacrificial ritual but plays an integral role in sending Elesin’s eldest son Olunde abroad to study, thereby separating father and son. The ploy of the colonizers to tame the supposedly “uncivilized” natives pushes the plot forward to its ultimate disheartening end.
We had to read this play as part of the curriculum for Postcolonial Literature in college. While the authenticity of the culture of Yoruba natives is kept intact through their dismissal of the colonizers rules, their freedom to practice rituals as per their heritage is denied because of the might of the colonizer. Apart from the theme of culture and freedom, we also witness a spark in the Women of the society who know their place and are firm in their beliefs. They are depicted to be the strong face of Resistance that is gradually building up. I found the character of Simon Pilkings to be so infuriating and that of his wife Jane Pilkings to be rather insensitive and foolish. Even though she is more docile and approachable than Simon, she doesn’t stand up for herself when mistreated by him. Her views are unworthy in his eye as he often orders her to “shut up”.
The innate tendency of the colonizer to classify what they don’t comprehend as “insane”, “barbaric” is more than evident in the manner Simon speaks about the natives. The plot is so rich in the way it intersperses the fight of indigenous people – against foreign forces that attempt to oppress them in their own lands – with that of the ignorance of the colonizer which finally leads to dire consequences. It was very enlightening and wholesome but I had to give it a 2 star rating because of Elesin’s monologues and dialogues with others which flew above my head. I didn’t understand most of what he was trying to say as he always spoke in riddles. I had to rely on a lot of other sources to get the gist of it. And I believe that if you can’t make sense of what’s going on in a book then you can’t get the complete essence of it. So while the story is really good, I found it difficult to process a lot of the content.
We had to read this play as part of the curriculum for Postcolonial Literature in college. While the authenticity of the culture of Yoruba natives is kept intact through their dismissal of the colonizers rules, their freedom to practice rituals as per their heritage is denied because of the might of the colonizer. Apart from the theme of culture and freedom, we also witness a spark in the Women of the society who know their place and are firm in their beliefs. They are depicted to be the strong face of Resistance that is gradually building up. I found the character of Simon Pilkings to be so infuriating and that of his wife Jane Pilkings to be rather insensitive and foolish. Even though she is more docile and approachable than Simon, she doesn’t stand up for herself when mistreated by him. Her views are unworthy in his eye as he often orders her to “shut up”.
The innate tendency of the colonizer to classify what they don’t comprehend as “insane”, “barbaric” is more than evident in the manner Simon speaks about the natives. The plot is so rich in the way it intersperses the fight of indigenous people – against foreign forces that attempt to oppress them in their own lands – with that of the ignorance of the colonizer which finally leads to dire consequences. It was very enlightening and wholesome but I had to give it a 2 star rating because of Elesin’s monologues and dialogues with others which flew above my head. I didn’t understand most of what he was trying to say as he always spoke in riddles. I had to rely on a lot of other sources to get the gist of it. And I believe that if you can’t make sense of what’s going on in a book then you can’t get the complete essence of it. So while the story is really good, I found it difficult to process a lot of the content.
August 4, 2014
After reading the Author's Note, I had high hopes for this play. I really appreciated the blunt nature with which Soyinka described his work, and I found his assertion that it was not a story about colonialism or a clash of cultures interesting. The first of many problems with this story is that it is indeed a story about prejudice and colonialism. The entire theme of the play centers around a clash of cultures. Soyinka is Nigerian, and wanted the reader to focus more on the Yoruba culture and the life after death theme. However, that part of the tale is so secondary to everything else that's going on, it is hard to give credence to it. Without having any real knowledge about the Yoruba culture, I am unable to appreciate the piece the way the author intended. I have no knowledge of cosmology or the other aspects of the Nigerian culture. I noticed the huge disparity in understanding between the two cultures, and I appreciated the lesson within the play; We need to learn to understand and respect one another. (Live and let live). This is a lesson that is just as useful now as it was in the past. I hated the language Soyinka used for the play. I read that this style is typically called "lyrical." However, I thought it was a hot mess. The entire play is full of clichés, short sentences, word repetition, and abundant nonsensical metaphors. While some of the insults used by the characters are interesting and a nice change of pace from the otherwise bleak nature of the play, they lack any real punch. The changes in tone within the dialogue further illustrate the culture clash that is evident here. Soyinka's use of accents is insulting, and he largely marginalizes his characters through his use of broken English dialogue. It's lazy writing. It feels almost like he is trying to write in the style of Shakespeare or T.S Eliot, with the abundant sorrow and tragedy of the story. However, Shakespeare knew how to write a great play. His story about clashing cultures, The Tempest, was a work of genius and extremely funny. Even the evil characters, like Caliban and Antonio, were friendly and likeable. There is no one to like In Death and the King's Horseman. There is no character development, no backstory, ect. It's just a badly written play about the British attitude towards cultural sacrifice.
August 6, 2012
European and African culture clash over the impending ritual suicide of a chief. Characters from the two cultures consistently show a desire NOT to understand one another. Ideas about death saturate the play and reveal deep roots to the cultural differences. In the end, though, I felt that the Yoruba culture was striking in its similarities to the world's better known cultures. The play left no doubt that the Yoruba culture is a patriarchy unconcerned about denying rights and choices from women so high-ranking men can enjoy a sexual conquest. And its religion, pressing its adherents to hurry toward a nonexistent spirit world, insists on the familiar false hope for eternal life.
May 11, 2018
This is an incredible play! Soyinka truly reinvented plays with this work. Its shifts in dialogue from very elevated figurative language when the Nigerians are speaking to the more colloquial and basic jargon of the British who colonized the country is fascinating. It explores themes of race, principles and the practice of willing oneself to die. I recommend this play to anyone who has the time to really analyze and understand the language.
September 26, 2015
Just something I had to read for class.
December 13, 2021
I loved the way Soyinka dealt with honour and culture in this text. He didn't make it a simple comparison piece between British and Yoruba cultures. He really took the time and space to focus the conflict within the mind and spirit of one man, and to expand that consciousness to encompass an entire town. I found the poetry lyrical and stunning, and the way it contrasted with the sharp speech of British characters was fascinating. Truly a work of art and a drama that will endure throughout the decades.
May 19, 2025
“And does quiet mean peace for you?”
4/5
4/5
Displaying 1 - 30 of 431 reviews