Death and the King's horseman
Death and the King's horseman (1975) by Wole Soyinka 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.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..
Quotes
[edit]- Look, just when did you become a social anthropologist, that's what I'd like to know” – Simon Pilkings,
- Act 2
- Then tell him to leave this market. This is the home of our mothers. We don't want the eater of white left-overs at the feast their hands have prepared” –
- Girl, Act 3
- This market is my roost. When I come among the women I am a chicken with a hundred mothers.
- Elesin, 10
- Iyaloja, who is she? I saw her enter your stall; all daughters I know well.
- Elesin, 19..
- When they get this way there is nothing you can do. It's simply hammering against a brick wall.
- Pilkings, 25
- You know this business has to be stopped, Simon. And you are the only man who can do it.
- Jane, 31
- We don't want the eater of white left-overs at the feast their hands have prepared.
- Girl, 39
- Is there now a streak of light at the end of the passage, a light I dare not look upon?
- The Praise-Singer, 44
- Then I slowly realised that your greatest art is the art of survival. But at least have the humility to let others survive in their own way.
- Olunde, 53
- First I blamed the white man, then I blamed my gods for deserting me. Now I feel I want to blame you for the mystery of the sapping of my will.
- Elesin, 65
- Because he could not bear to let honour fly out of doors, he stopped it with his life. The son has proved the father Elesin, and there is nothing left in your mouth to gnash but infant gums.
- Iyaloja, 75
