African Literature Term Paper

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DEATH AND THE KING'S HORSEMEN

The purpose of this paper is to compare and discuss the play, "Death and the King's Horseman," by Wole Soyinka. Specifically, it will discuss the style and language used by the Praise Singer throughout the play, and show how the Praise Singer fits the understanding of oral literature and storytelling. It will also look at the part ritual suicide plays in the story.

DEATH AND THE KING'S HORSEMAN

Soyinka's work as a playwright, essayist and novelist won the 1986 Nobel Prize for Literature. Many critics believe he is the best writer in modern Africa. One critic wrote, "His unique style blends traditional Yoruban folk drama with European dramatic form." This play takes place in Soyinka's native Nigeria in 1946, and he based it loosely on true events. He wrote it while he was a fellow at Cambridge, England in the early 1970s, and it was published in 1975.

The Praise-singer serves as a type of narrator in this play. He moves the action along from the first page, and helps to prepare the characters (and the audience) for what is to come. He is part confidant, part sooth-sayer, and part storyteller as his beautifully written speeches are woven throughout the story.

In the first scene, this is especially apparent as Elesin prepares for death and the Praise-singer spouts a flood of questions aimed at finding answers to the mystery of death. "There is only one world to the spirit of our race," the Praise-singer says. "If that world leaves its course and smashes on boulders of the great void, whose world will give us shelter?" Here he is trying to gain understanding about what would happen if Elesin isn't successful in carrying out his death ritual. He struggles to know what their fate would be. Later, as Elesin is further into his transition into death, the Praise-singer asks him questions about what he is experiencing, hoping to gain an understanding. "Is there now a streak of light at the end of the passage, a light I dare not look upon?" he asks. "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?" He continues, "Your eyelids are glazed like a courtesan's, is it that you see the dark groom and master of life?" In these passages, the Praise-singer represents our "human" questions, and he hopes Elesin, in his half-earthly, half-heavenly state, will help him to understand.

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But Elesin cannot answer him, and all remains a mystery.

The theme of ritual suicide serves several purposes in the play, and as the above passage shows, the Praise-singer prepares Elesin, and later Olunde for what they see as their ultimate destinies. The basic plot all relates to the main character, Elesin Oba, who is the King's Horseman. His destiny is preordained. He knows that when the King dies, he must commit ritual suicide. Only then can he lead his King's favorite horse and dog through the passage to the world of the ancestors. A British Colonial Officer, Pilkings, intervenes to prevent the death and arrests Elesin, preventing him from doing his duty.

When Pilkings interferes, Elesin's son, Olunde, feels it is his destiny to do what his father could not, and he does indeed kill himself so he can follow his king, and allow him passage into another world. The Praise-singer, in his questioning language, has helped him prepare for his "duty," and even offered to accompany Elesin on his journey, if he only asked. "I have prepared my going - just tell me: Olohun-iyo, I need you on this journey and I shall be behind you." However, he is not above criticizing Elesin when he is arrested, and cannot complete his duty to his king.

Elesin sees his duty this way, "The world was mine. Our joint hands Raised houseposts of trust that withstood the siege of envy and the termites of time. But the twilight hour brings bats and rodents - Should I yield them cause to foul….....

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