Death and the King's Horseman
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0 FI { 5 /05 Based on an incident that took place in 1946, Death and tbe King's E DEATH HBOOIsi Horseman is Soyinka's powerful examination of the explosive tension z berween traditional African culture and the $7est. The king of a Ni- I $ 4?g gerian village has died, and Elesin, his chief horseman, is expected to -l Itl "commit death" and accompany his ruler to heaven. The entire village joins TH in honoring him, until a colonial administrator learns of the ritual AND z and decides to imprison Elesin rather than permit the suicide. Elesin o interprets this intervention as an act of the gods, but soon comes to regret his decision, as the villagers repudiate the man who was once o so special to them. The play's unexpected and dramatic climax occurs v KING'S vl when Elesin's son comes home on leave from medical school in En- Irt gland. z= "Deatb and tbe King's Horseman blen.ds European literary theater with HORsE. total-theater traditions from the Yoruba tribe in Southwest Nigeria. ul Through poetry, chorus, politics, and storytelling, Soyinka both en- o tertains and asks subtle questions about mass psychology, individual z psychology, and universal human struggles of the will." MAN Chicago Tribane -Tbe 'trolE SoYINKA was born in 1934 in Nigeria, and studied at the Uni- A PLAY BY versity of Leeds. He was director of the Drama School of Ibadan University in Nigeria until 1967, when he was arrested for writings sympathetic to secessionist Biafra and imprisoned for twenty-rwo WOLE months. Soyinka's other writings include A S/ uttle in tbe Crypt, Madnen and Specialists, and ldanre and Other Poens.ln 1986 he became the first African writer ever to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. He SOYINKA is president of the International Theater Institute. Mr. Soyinka lives in Nigeria. iltl I WINNER OF THE DRAMA - .1. HILL aNo.'JTANG a 1986 NOBEL PRIZE us $1 0.00 A division of Farrar, Straus and Giroux -< 19 Union Square rVest / New York 10003 , llll[]lillllilililll tnfifititi z FOR TITERATURE rsBN 0-374-52210-3 a DEATH this. No ettempt should be made in production to suggest it. The Colonial Factor is an incident, a catalytic incident merely. AND The confrontation in the play is largely metaphysical, contained in the human vehicle which is Elesin and the universe of the THEKINCS Yoruba mind - the world of the living, the dead and the unborn, and the numinous passage which links all: uansition. Deatb HORSEMAN and tbe King's Horseman cen be fully realised only through an errocation of music from the abyss of transition. w.s. I I I I CHARACTERS I PRAISE-SINGER A passage through a market in its closing stages. The stalls are ELESIN Horseman of the King being emptied, mats folded. A few women pass through on IYALOJA 'Mother' of the market their way home, Ioaded with baskets. On a cloth-stand, bolts of cloth SIMON PILKINGS District Officer are taken down, display pieces folded and piled on a rray. ELESIN OBA enters along a passage before the marke r, pursued JANE PILKINGS his wife SERGEANT AMUSA by his drummers and praise-singers. He is a man of enormous vitality, speaks, dances and sings with that infectious enjoyment JOSEPH houseboy to the Pilkingses BRIDE of life which accompanies all his actions. H.R,H. THE PRINCE THE RESIDENT PRAISE-SINGER: Elesin o! Elesin Oba! Howu! What tryst is AIDE-DE.CAMP this the cockerel goes to keep with such haste that he must OLUNDE eldest son of Elesin leave his tail behind? ELESIN (slows down a bit, laughing): A tryst where the cockerel Drummers, Women, Young Girls, Dancers at the Ball needs no adornment. PRAISE-SINGER; O-oh, you hear that my companions? That's the way the world goes. Because the man approaches a brand- new bride he forgets the long faithful mother of his children. Tbe play should run uitbout an interaal. For rapid scene cbanges, one adjustable outline set is uery appropriate. ELESIN' When the horse sniffs the stable does he not strain at the bridle? The market is the long-suffering home of my spirit and the women are packing up to go. That Esu-harrassed day slipped into the stewpot while we feasted. We ate it up with the rest of the meat. I have neglected my women. PRAISE-SINGER: We know all that. Still it's no reason for shedding your tail on this day of. all days. I know the women will cover you in damask and alari but when the wind blows cold from behind, that's when the fowl knows his true friends. ELESIN: Olohun-iyo! Note to this edition PRAISE-SINGER: Are you sure there will be one like me on are Certain Yoruba words which aPPear in italics in the text the other side? explained in a brief glossary at the back of the book' 9 I ELESIN: Olohun-iyo! ELESIN: The gods havc said No. 'fhere home to the life of a river- PRAISE-SINGER: Far be it for me to belittle the dwellers of PRAISE-SINGER, is only one home the life of a tortoise; there that place but, a man is either born to his art or he isn't' And mussel; there is only one to is world I don't knou certain that you'll meet my father, so who is only one shell to the soul of man: there only one 'or leaves its course and is going to sing these deeds in accents that will pierce the to the spirir of our race. If that world whose world will give deafness of the ancient ones. I have prepared my going - just smashes on boulders of thc great void, tell me: Olohun-iyo, I need you on this journey and I shall us shelter? be behind you. EI,ESIN, It did not in the time of my forebears, it shall not in ELESIN: You're like a jealous wife. Stay close to me, but only mine. on this side. My fame, my honour are legacies to the living; PRAISE-SINGER: The cockerel must not be seen without his stay behind and let the world sip ia honey from your lips. feathers. PRAISE-SINGER: Your name will be like the sweet berry a ELESIN: Nor rvill the Not-l bird be much longer without his child places under his tongue to sweeten the passage of food' nest. The world will never spit it out. PRAISE-SINGER (stopped in his lyric stride): The Not-l bird, ELESIN: Come then. This market is my roost. When I come Elesin? among the women I am a chicken with a hundred mothers. ELESIN: I said, the Not-l brrd. I become a monarch whose palace is built with tenderness respcct to our elders but, is the re really and beauty. PRAISE-SINGER' All such a bird? They love to spoil you but beware. The PRAISE-SINGER: ELESIN: What! Could it be that he failed to knock on your door? hands of women also weaken the unwary. PRAISE-SINGER (smiling)' Elesin's riddles are not merely the lay head upon their lap and go to ELESIN: This night I'll my nut in the kernel that breaks human teeth; he also burics the their feet in a dance that sleep. This night I'll touch feet with kernel in hot embers and dares a man's fingers to draw it out. is no longer of this earth. But the smell of their flesh, their sweat, thi smell of indigo on their cloth, this is the last air I ELESIN: I am sure he called on you, Olohun-iyo. Did you hide wish to breathe as I go to meet my great forebears. in the loft and push out the servant to tell him you were out? PRAISE-SINGER: In their time the world was never tilted from (ELESIN executes a brief, half-taunting dance. The drummer its groove, it shall not be in yours. moves in and draws a rhythm out of his steps. ELESIN dances towards the market-place as he chants the story of the Not-I said No. ELESIN: The gods have bird, his voice changing dexterously to mimic his characters. PRAISE-SINGER: ln their time the great wars came and went, He performs like a born raconleur, infecting his retinue with the little wars came and went; the white slavers came and his humour and energy. It{ore women arrive during his recital, went, they took away the heart of our race, they bore away including IYALOJA.) mind and muscle our race. The ciry fell and was rebuilt; the of Death came calling. city fell and our people trudged through mountain and the Who does not know his rasp of reeds? but - Elesin Oba do you hear me? forest to found a new home A twilight whisper in the leaves before ELESIN, I hear your voice Olohun-iyo. The great araba falls? Did you hear it? PRAISE-SINGER: Our world was never wrenched from its true Not l! swears the farmer. He snaps his head, abandons course. His fingen round A hard-worn harvest and begins ll 10 I .d - A rapid dialogue with his legs. Sealed up his leaking roof but wait! This sudden care was not for Frwomi 'Not I,' shouts the fearless hunter, 'but - But for Osan1,in, courier-bird of Ifa's It's getting dark, and this night{amp Heart of wisdom. I did not know a kite Has leaked out all its oil.