This essay is based on the play Death and the King’s Horseman written by Wole Soyinka. The play is set in 1944 in the ancient Yoruba city of Oyo, Nigeria, and it focuses on the consequences that occur when duty and responsibility are not fulfilled. Through the portrayal of women and girls of the marketplace, Soyinka highlights important social science issues such as civic sense and social responsibility, the maintenance of social order, tradition versus personal desire, peace within society, and the burden placed on women when men fail in their duties. This essay examines how the portrayal of women contributes to the dramatic effect of the play through the use of symbolism, characterisation, and language and dialogue.
Symbolism is used by Soyinka to present women as the upholders of societal and cultural order. From the beginning of the play, the market women constantly remind Elesin Oba of his responsibility to die after the death of the Alaafin in order to maintain peace and balance in society. Elesin’s love of life foreshadows his failure, and the women recognise this weakness early. Iyaloja, the Mother of the Market, uses Yoruba proverbs to guide him, saying, “Eating the awà nut is not so difficult as drinking the water afterwards.” This proverb symbolises the importance of cultural discipline and responsibility in holding society together. Another powerful symbolic moment occurs when the women bring Olunde’s body and Iyaloja states, “It drags behind me, on the slow, weary feet of women.” The adjectives “slow” and “weary” highlight the heavy burden women must carry when social duty is neglected, showing that women are forced to restore order when peace is disturbed.
Characterisation is also used to show the changing motives and strength of women in the play, particularly through Iyaloja and the Bride. At the beginning, Iyaloja praises Elesin and respects his readiness to fulfil his duty, stating that “it takes an Elesin to die the unknown death of death… gracefully.” This shows her belief in tradition and civic responsibility. However, towards the end of the play, when Elesin fails and is imprisoned, Iyaloja openly condemns him, saying, “We placed the reins of the world in your hands and you watched it plunge over the edge of the bitter precipice.” Her shift in tone highlights the serious social consequences of failing one’s responsibility. The Bride, in contrast, is unnamed and treated as an object of desire, highlighting the issue of gender inequality. However, at the end of the play, Iyaloja instructs her to “forget the dead, forget even the living,” presenting her as a symbol of hope and the future stability of Yoruba society.
Language and dialogue further emphasise the emotional awareness and cultural values of the market women and girls. When Elesin jokes insensitively, the women fear they may have offended tradition and immediately ask for forgiveness. This shows their deep respect for social order and peace. Additionally, the market girls’ mockery of Amusa reflects resistance to colonial interference and the defence of freedom of cultural expression. Their imperative and mocking tone shows how women and girls actively protect their cultural identity and social values passed down through generations.
In conclusion, Death and the King’s Horseman by Wole Soyinka explores key social science issues such as civic responsibility, social order, peace, gender roles, and the preservation of cultural values. Through symbolism, characterisation, and language, Soyinka portrays women and girls as central figures who maintain balance and stability in society. Their portrayal significantly contributes to the dramatic effect of the play and reinforces the idea that when duty is ignored, it is women who carry the responsibility of restoring order. Yoruba Cosmology
The Yoruba have an elaborate hierarchy of divine beings, each with special duties and functions. They believe in a supreme but remote spirit, Olodumare, also known as Olorun, the lord of heaven and the creator. Some four hundred lesser gods and spirits, known individually and collectively as Orisa, are recognized. An Orisa is a person who lived on earth when it was first created and from whom present-day people are descended. They were brought forth by Olodumare to serve as ministers and functionaries in the government of the universe. Although the Supreme Being is transcendent, he is not removed from humanity; he is interested in the lives of people. He is accessible, and can be called on at any time, but he controls the world from a distance.
The foundation of this religion is interaction between human beings and the Orisa. Each Orisa is associated with particular ideas, objects, or natural phenomena. The Orisas appear at religious celebrations through a possession trance of Orisa believers. When one is possessed by an Orisa, one speaks and behaves as though one were that Orisa.
The image to the right is of the cosmos as the Yoruba understand it. There are two halves of one whole sphere: Aye, this physical world, and Orun, the Otherworld. The Otherworld is the home of the Orisa and of the Sprits, including the spirits of one’s ancestors. This world is populated by the Living, who are divided into Those Who Know [the Truth] and Those Who Do Not Know. The barrier between these worlds is Death. But this barrier is not impenetrable; the Orisa possess those who wear their masks, and one’s ancestors can be called upon to manifest themselves in this world as well.
Esu is the messenger of Olodumare, taking sacrifices to him and bringing his commands to humans, acting under his orders and punishing the wicked for him. But Esu is also important in and of himself. He has a number of manifestations, can change his form when he wishes, and has two hundred names, signifying how diverse an Orisa he is. In some of his manifestations he is benevolent and a protector of humans, but he is mainly considered to be malicious, causing confusion and promoting malice. The Yoruba believe him to be the cause of almost every evil tendency and practice in humans. He is capricious, and elusive, yet the Yoruba still offer him sacrifices, mainly to avoid or escape his wickedness, callousness and evil plans. He is generally described as buruku (bad, malevolent). The Yoruba often consider their pantheon not as just four hundred gods, but four hundred and one, with Esu being the divinity on top of the four hundred.
He is also called Elegba or Elegbara. Ifa is the oracle divinity of Yorubaland. He is the deputy of Olodumare in matters of wisdom, prognostication and foreknowledge. People consult him on all occasions for advice, prophecy, guidance, and solutions to problems. The rituals associated with divining the future are also known as Ifa.
Soyinka is also presenting the complications that arrived with the Scramble for Africa and its aftermath. With the expansion of European colonization in the early twentieth century, the traditional religions of the Yoruba were seriously changed. The colonial powers curtailed or banned many religious practices, including the practice of Ifa. They also forbid polygamy and the common practice of marrying a dead male relative’s widow and adopting his children. The Yoruba were no longer able to bury their dead in or near their own dwellings, because the Europeans insisted on the use of communal graveyards. This change complicated the connection between the Yoruba and their ancestors.
Death and the King’s Horseman is a complicated play, and some familiarity with both the Yoruba people and their religion is necessary to understand even the most basic plot points in the play. The Yoruba are one of the three largest ethnic groups of Nigeria, concentrated in the southwestern part of that country. Most Yoruba men are farmers, growing yams, corn (maize), and millet as staples and plantains, peanuts, beans, and peas. Cocoa is a major cash crop. Others are traders or craftsmen. Women do little farm work but control much of the market system—their status depends more on their own position in the marketplace than on their husbands’ status.
Historically, the Yoruba founded and ruled numerous kingdoms of various sizes. Each kingdom had its own capital city or town and was ruled by a hereditary king, or oba. The action of Death and the King’s Horsemanbegins a month after the king’s death. Per Yoruba religious tradition, Elesin, the titular horseman (a title that signifies that he’s in service to the king and shares many of the same rights and perks, but without the same responsibilities), must commit ritual suicide so that he can accompany the king to the afterlife. Things become complicated, however, when the Englishman Simon Pilkings, the local district officer, discovers that Elesin intends to commit suicide while the prince of England is visiting. Through Pilkings’s attempts to stop Elesin from committing suicide, the play begins to explore the function and the cultural significance of death, both for the Yoruba people and for the English. Ultimately, the play makes it very clear that death is something different for every culture—and that interrupting one culture’s way of thinking about the relationship between life and death can have disastrous consequences.
For Elesin, the past month has been a time of transition. The death of the king a month before means that Elesin has had thirty days to prepare for his own journey toward death and has therefore been existing in a liminal, transitional state. Despite this—and despite Elesin’s assurance to both his praise- singer and Iyaloja, the mother of the market, that he plans to follow through with tradition and die—the way that Elesin behaves and is described in the stage notes suggests that he’s more connected to life than he might think. This, Soyinka suggests in his introduction, is the true conflict of the play: that Elesin is too entrenched in the land of the living to successfully cross over to the land of the dead to join his king.
By: Ritoja Ghosh
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