Death and the King's Horseman

Death and the Kings Horseman (1975) is a play written by the Nigerian playwright and Noble Prize winner Wole Soyinka. It dramatizes an actual story that took place in Yoruba land in 1940s. Soyinka dramatizes the impact of the presence of the colonizer amongst the local people. What the play shows is that the colonizer brought destruction to the Yoruba society. Actually, the play shows that Mr. Pilkings, the Colonial Officer, intervened to hinder the ritual of Elisen, a thing resulted in two deaths of the local people instead of one. DKH also articulates Soyinka’s critique toward the thought system of the West and its ineffectiveness to be deployed and adapted by all nations. The play also shows how the West’s universalism hinders the western man from understanding and appreciating other cultures that belong to different people from different countries.