Death and the King's Horseman by Wole Soyinka

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In the play Death and the King’s Horseman by Wole Soyinka, the author uses the representation of woman as the defenders of the Yoruba tradition. Soyinka tells us in this “Author’s note” that the play is based on an incident in Nigeria in 1949. In Yoruba tradition, it is the sacrifice of the king’s horseman that plays the essential role in bringing good fortune onto the community. While these leaders of the Yoruba culture are predominantly male, the role of the Yoruba woman as both defender and keeper of these traditions are of equal importance. The representation of men and women in Death and the King’s Horseman, demonstrates that nationalism is a gendered construct; in which the women are the stability in masculine nationalism. The characters Iyaloja, the daughters of the market, and the virgin bride play a role in persevering the Yoruba tradition from the colonizer, and also the males in their village.
In the play the “mother of the marketplace”, Iyaloja, serves as a matriarchal figure of great importance in preserving the Yoruba traditions. The function of the “market place” serves as the site where cultural traditions are performed. In the first act, Elesin Oba, his praise singer accompanies the king’s horseman, to the market place. As Elesin observes the market women closing their stalls, “ This market is my roost. When I come among the woman I am a chicken with a thousand mothers. I become a monarch whose palace is built on tenderness and beauty” (). It is here that Elesin intends to die and join the spirit of the king, who has fulfilled his obligation to the community by giving his spirit to the ancestors. Iyaloja is willing to sacrifice her own beliefs and betray family members in order to do what is best for the communit...

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...y for the Yoruba people. In a conversation with Olunde, Jane confesses her confusion of the Yoruba culture, “It has to be more than that. I feel it has to do with the many thing we don’t really grasp about your people . . . ” (38). Jane comes to terms with why Olunde feels his father’s death is necessary, but, after that death has been prevented, also speaks up for the Yoruba culture in pleading her husband to allow them to continue their ritual. Thus, Jane shows how in the English culture, it is the women who are more sensible to comprehend the cultural differences between the colonized and colonizer. Jane also challenges the theory that Africans are “inhumane” or not as equally intelligent as the dominant culture. While Jane is not in the position of the oppressed women, she has influence over the male and the dominant culture to see the Yoruba people as equals.

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