Death and the King's Horseman

Death and the King's Horseman
Written byWole Soyinka
CharactersElesin
Olunde
Iyaloja
Simon Pilkings
Jane Pilkings
Amusa
Date premiered1 March 1975 (1975-03-01)
Place premieredUniversity of Ife
Original languageEnglish
SettingNigeria, during WWII

Death and the King's Horseman is a play by Wole Soyinka based on a real incident that took place in Nigeria during the colonial era: the horseman of a Yoruba King was prevented from committing ritual suicide by the colonial authorities.[1][2] In addition to the intervention of the colonial authorities, Soyinka calls the horseman's own conviction toward suicide into question, posing a problem that throws off the community's balance.

Soyinka wrote the play in Cambridge, where he was a fellow at Churchill College during his political exile from Nigeria.[3] He has also written a preface to the play, explaining what he sees as the greatest misconceptions in understanding it. In particular, he says that the play should not be considered as "clash of cultures."[3] Rather, the play demonstrates the need for interaction between African and European cultures, as per Soyinka's post-Biafran cultural philosophy.[4]

  1. ^ Gale (January 2006). Marie Rose Napierkowski (ed.). "Death and the King's Horseman: Introduction. Drama for Students". ENotes. 10. Detroit. Retrieved 23 January 2009.[dubious – discuss](registration required)
  2. ^ Jeyifo, Biodun (9 May 2018). "This Wole Soyinka play showed the future of English". BBC.
  3. ^ a b Gumbel, Andrew (8 April 2009). "Wole Soyinka on how he came to write Death and the King's Horseman". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 July 2015.
  4. ^ Birch, Dinah; Katy Hooper (2013). The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature (Fourth ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780191744556. OCLC 849653968.