Death and the King’s Horseman. Wole Soyinka

     Death here is a part of the sacred tradition. A culture of ancestor worship. The King of course the prominent ancestor, the horseman a hereditary title—his task to accompany the king to the final resting ground one month (one moon) after death.
     Elesin faced two challenges to the performance of his duty.
          A. The determination of the British Magistrate to stop what he sees as a “barbaric” practice.”
          B. Elesin’s own human nature—his clinging to life on this side despite the importance of his role in the system of belief, his awareness that his entire culture depends on him.
     In what ways is Elesin to blame? Is he powerless against the strong military presence of the British? In the end, we suggest some historical developments which might account for the transformation of the role of the horseman, and which may play a part in Elesin’s failure along with other factors in the play’s present.
     The play builds to the end in a series of dramatic steps. Look at some acts and the way it progresses towards the tragic end (one might say that this is tragic for almost everyone involved. Except—is the right of the “king” to rule validated, as in traditional tragedy? Has Olunde successfully salvaged the tradition? On the other hand, has the rule of Pilkings been validated (at what cost?)? These questions might be saved for later.

The play moves in 5 stages through 5 acts.
     1st act. Tradition upheld and celebrated. Through the words and gestures, but also the forms that are utilized. The praise singer invoking history and tradition. His and Elesin's utilization of proverbs. The dancing and singing used by our hero. The tribute paid to him as the supporter of generations. Keep in mind that performance is a large part of Soyinka's vision, and that the preformance of this act sets the scene of vibrant African culture.
     There is also conflict introduced towards the end. The status of Elesin. A wonder with language. An indulgent, erotic master. Elesin's desire conflicts with a pre-arranged engagement. Because of his status, he is granted his wish. (Note that the girl is not asked for her input on the matter.) Note the seed of doubt which is sown when he askes Iyaloja: “Must you be so blunt?”
     The 2nd scene introduces the real affront to tradition. The untranslatable aspects of native traditions. The lesson of the engungun masks. The drums, both wedding and funeral. The a-religiosity of the Pilkings (to whom, it appears, nothing is sacred). The ridiculousness of the imported culture. The good hearted but wrong headed attempts by Mrs. P. (Jane) to "understand" the natives through a kind of cultural anthropology. And the arrogant assertion by the foreigners that they will come in and "fix" what's wrong with the tribal customs.
     We see also different levels of cultural changes within the African society. Amusa the Moslem, Joseph the Christian, and Elesin's son Olunde (alluded to only). Now, of course there is still Iyaloja in the marketplace, who has refused the kind of advances of culture into the tribal ones.
     Scene 3. Seems to portray the capacities of the tribe to resist the imposition of British rule on them. One of the important ways this is done is through mimicry of the young girls--here the British life in this region seems as ludicrous or more ludicrous than anything the savages do. It is, at least temporarily, an effective resistance, and in fact seems (in the play) to culminate in the desire for Elesin's self sacrifice.
     Here, at the end of this scene, is evidence of the numinous transition of the horseman. Role of the praise singer in ushering Elesin into death. Use of the body as a sign on stage of the ebb of the life-force. Poetry of spiritual incantation. But isn't the failure to transit the issue?
     Scene 4. Counter enunciation of the British force. Introduces Olunde who, although westernized, reiterates the strength of sacred traditional values and customs. He is the native informant we can take more seriously (than Amusa or Joseph (because of his mastery of the English language? His lack of “superstition”?)). Here, Olunde is the man whose experience leads his to translating and understanding both cultures. The success of British repression of those rites seems to convert him altogether back to the old ways.
--themes of death, language, cultural difference. The conversation between Olunde and Jane is the key to understanding the vast difference in the understanding of the meaning of death in the two cultures.
--full expectation of father's death. When he fails, son immediately assumes his ancestral role--father had been a kind of buffer.
--?? How was he expecting to resume his studies in medical school if he was so reverent towards his role in tribal culture?
      Scene 5. Elesin in disgrace, although he remains defiant and inconsolable about his "failure."
     Through the intervention of the matriarch/ earth mother Iyaloja and the deferred acceptance of responsibility of Olunde, there is at least a measure of recapitulation of tradition. And in Elesin's final act, we discover that although he may have had a failure of will, that he is not weak willed.

Go back. What were his privileges based on? (call it a kind of economic pact). What was the historical tradition surrounding the rite? (distinction between warrior society and the present peacetime one.)
And if he was any kind of hero/warrior it was in the amorous sense. Which leads to perhaps a too strong connection to flesh and erotic desire, which leads to his usurping this woman, who by previous rights already belongs to Iyaloja's son. ("Not many men will brave the curse of a dispossessed husband”).
Scene two conveys comically and yet tragically the degree to which the sacred is misunderstood, and to which the native's intelligence is underestimated. Even the Muslim and Christian have connections to the old ways, but in the behavior of Amusa and Joseph, it appears that the Christians are less tolerant of these beliefs coexisting with theirs. But in any case, Joseph is used to portray the strength of conviction for both traditionalists and converts.
Note the continual misunderstanding even of Jane. The comparative lack of faith of the two. Except perhaps, of belief in Empire, hence the kind of magnified importance of the Prince's visit.