Chapter IV

Ogun Heroes: A trilogy

I

As we have seen in the preceding chapters, Soyinka has

~volved the concept of a dramatic hero based on the myth of

Ogun, drawing upon both - its creative and destructive

essence. It has already been discussed how in ~ ~~

Kongi's Harvest, ~ Bacchae Q! Euripedis, A Dance QL ~

Forest and Madmen and Specialists the Ogun heroes

dramatically render to us Soyinka's world view and interpret

his ideals for a new political and social order in Nigeria.

The present chapter will examine how the seeds of the Ogun

hero were latent even in his early plays, focussing on three

texts: !ha Swamp Dwellers,( 1958) ~Strong Breed ( 1960)

and Death and ~King's Horseman ( a play that he had

conceived in 1960 but after mulling over it for years,

finally wrote in 1975). 1 These have not so far been discussed

because in the context of myth and rituals ce~tain later

plays of Soyinka demanded more detailed and immediate

attention. The three plays to be taken up in this chapter

have certain thematic features that unite them concern

~ith a religious tradition - but Soyinka has no wh~re said or

written that they are part of a trilogy.

In terms of faith and rebellion the three plays mark a

distinct trajectory. In the first of the three, the central

190

character opposes the village priest and the customs of the ;

tribe, in the second, the protagonist attempts half-heartedly I

to follow the tradition, and in the third play the hero

submits himself to the self - sacrifice ritual completely,

testifying to his total faith. This· progression from

scepticism to an affirmation of Yoruba wisdom that saw the

human body as a divine embodiment which could be used as a

ritual object to enable the spiritual regeneration of the

society, marks the three plays as being three parts of' an

undeclared trilogy.

II

The Swamp Dwellers

~ Swamp Dwellers 2 is one of the earliest plays to

show Soyinka's concern with his own culture, landscape,

people and their belief systems, although at this stage he is

critical of certain practices that he considers superstitious

or outdated. Against this social space Soyinka introduces

his Ogun hero - a rebellious character with a social and

spiritual vision. Although the play bears the impression of

Synge's ~ Riders ~ ~ 5Aa (1932) it is systematically

structured on the Ogun myth narrative.

Alu and Makuri are a poor peasant couple who make a

living by basket making and working as barbers. They live

in the swamps on a subsistence level. Ten years before the

191

play has begun, Awuchike, one of their twin sons, has left

for the city in sea~ch of his fortune. And recently Igwezu,

·their second son, has also followed his brother with his

wife. Before his departure, he has planted his fields and

given the Kad iye, the Priest of the Serpent of the Swamps, a

calf as a ritual sacrifice. In the city Igwezu has met his

brother Awuchike who has been given up by ·the parents as

dead. Failing to thrive in the city Igwezu takes a loan on

his crop from his brother and sends a swivel chair to his

parents as he had promised them one. In the meantime,

Igwezu's wife Desu has deserted him to join his brother. When

the play begins Igwezu has returned to his village to collect

the crop at a time when the rains have destroyed it. On

hearing of the return of Igwezu the Kadiye visits their house

to get a shave from Igwezu. Igwezu subjects the Kadiye to

relentless questioning about his failed promises to protect

the crops, ignoring all pleas from his father that he should

not insult the priest. The Kadiye runs away, threatening

serious consequences for Igwezu. Fearing danger to his life,

Igwezu flees the village.

The only person who remains on the stage when the play

ends is a blind beggar - a stranger to the swamp - who had

sought shelter for the night in Alu and Makuri's hut. Tha

Swamp Dwellers thus focusses on how economic pressure is

impinging upon the traditionally organised village systems,

destroying its moral, social and spiritual bases. In the

192

process the impotence of the traditional belief system :is "-

also exposed.

The play opens to "Frogs, rain and other swamp noises.

The scene is a hut on stilts, built on one of the scattered

semi-farm islands in the swamps ... The walls are marsh stakes

plaited with hemp ropes". (p. 81) The fairly large room is

a family workshop where baskets are made, guests are received

and barbering is done. Hakuri stands by the window looking

out and Alu, his equally aged wife, who is clothed in

"adire", sits on a mat and strews the basket. Alu has a

flick which she uses frequently and yells whenever a bite

has caught her unawares. In this simple and realistic scene

Soyinka introduces the theme of the play: the abject living

condition of the swamp dwellers and man's constant struggle

against nature for survival. The barber's swivel chair that

later occupies roughly the centre stage pushing Alu and

Hakuri and their rushes to the periphery# stands for a

hostile force that is threatening the poor family and the

rural society. M"akuri looking out of the window draws our

attention to the outside world - the . vast immensity of

cosmic existence and its various social manifestations that

have constantly engaged man in a battle. The scene depicting

an existential situation of a poor peasant family tnerefore

juxtaposes man and nature, the rural and the urban, the

individual and the society. In this single scene the play

begins and ends.

193

Alu a11tl Makuri are anxiously waiting for their son, ~ho

after coming from the city has gone to the fields td see

for h:in,~·;P.lf the crops destroyed by the floods. Since it is

"near dusk" and raining, Alu fears that Igwezu might be

trapped in the swamp and might lose his life as she believes

her other son Awuchike did. In the meantime Soyinka takes us

through the romantic moments of Alu and Hakuri's married life

and the politics of religion of the swamps. Alu and Hakuri

have been living in the swamp where their ancestors have also

lived. Makuri says: "The land we till and live on has been

ours from the beginning of time". (p. 93) But, they farm only

some patches of land "where a man can sow enough to keep his

family", says Makuri, because, "All the land that can take

the weight of a hoe is owned by some one in the village" and

"Fresh cultivation of land is considered irreligious against

the Serpent of the Swamp". (p. 92) Hence, the swamps do not ' cater to the growihg demands of its people - a fact which is

evidenced by the younger generation who "are no sooner born",

as Makuri says, "than they want to get out of the village as

if it carried a plague". (p. 87) Igwezu and Awuchike who have

migrated to the · city at different points of time are

representatives of this younger generation. Alu and Makuri

have somehow survived by making compromises with the Priest

of the Serpent, the Kadiye. Alu and Makuri's life thus

emerges as archetypal and reminds us on the one hand of

Wordsworth's shepherd Michael and the leech gatherer and

their struggle for survival against the industrializing 19th

194

century England and on the other of Hori in Premchand's Hindi

novel Godan (1936) who insis~ed on suffering in the vill~ge

while his son moved on to the city. Soyinka here is concerned

with religious practices that had once sustained the

community but now seem stifling because they have failed to

change with changing times.

Natural calamities like floods are not as much a

problem in the village as the static view of life imposed

the priest. Makuri has seen floods "only once or twice in

life time". (p. 97) But in the name of the Serpent,

Kadiye controls the fertile land that has the

take the "weight of a hoe". The floods have

potential

affected

whole swamp community but not the Kadiye because, as

by

my

the

to

the

the

Priest he is guaranteed prosperity through the compulsory

offerings in material terms. Now, conscioQsly or

unconsciously the Kadiye has become an inseparable part of

the superstitious world of the swamp, and an exploiter of

men forgetting his essential religious duty to create an

atmosphere for human e~pansion.

Soyinka presents the Kadiye as a "pot-bellied-pig" and

a sensualist, plunged neck-deep in worldly luxuries. When we

see him, he is "a big, yoluminous creature of about

fifty ... At least half [his] fingers are ringed" and _besides

this, he is attended by a servant whose duty is to brush the

flies off him with a. horse-tail flick". (p. 94) The Kadiye's

hypocrisy gets exposed when Makuri learns that the purpose of

his visit was not to offer prayers and sympathies to the

195

victims of the floods but to get shaved by Igwezu's tender

hands. The Kadiye's vow that he "would neither shave nor wash

until the rains ceased altogether" (p. 96) is meant to show

his concern for the flood affected people but, it fails to

bring any good to his people. The stasis and stagnation

brought about by the Kadiye prepares the ground for a change

and anticipates the advent of a rebel hero who would question

him and get justice to his people. Igwezu does just this.

Though Igwezu also went to city in search of a better

life he did not become rich: he could neither make money nor

could he ever forget his people where as Awuchike, his

brother, like Luke in Wordsworth's poem Michael got totally

corrupted by the city life and forgot his parents completely.

Igwezu's links with his family and community are indicated in

hi~ purchase of a swivel chair on borrowed money to send

home. In refusing to compromise with the city norms Igwezu

has "lost everything; my savings, even my standing as a man".

(p. 107) Hence, his wife has also deserted him in favour of

his brother. Awuchike "looked at my life, and she went to

him of her own accord ... " .(p. 107) says Igwezu. The land that

he had tilled and sown was his only solace but, the floods

destroyed the crop, completing his personal tragedy and the

sense of loss.

Igwezu is crushed by insults, humiliations and

failures. His wandering alone in the devastated fields and

his return home very late in the evening could be interpreted

196

in terms of _Qgun 's -disintegration and recreation of self iin

the transitional abyss. Naturally, Igwezu has plunged deep

into the dark world of his own miseries and has made some

new resolutions and harnessed a new energy from within.

However, only his actions can prove the true nature of the

Ogun spirit in him.

This aspect of action is highlighted when we see

Igwezu flashing the sharp shaving blade in one hand and

holding the Kadiye's chin in another, interrogate the priest

on his corrupt practices. Igwezu asks how a marriage blessed

by him could break:" the Kadiye blessed my marriage and

did he not promise a long life? Did he not promise

happiness?". (p. 109) And in anger he questions the logic of

sacrificial ritual: "If I slew all the cattle in the land and

sacrificed every measure of goodness, would it make any

difference to our lives". In a tone of finality Igwezu

rejects the Kadiye as the dangerous serpent of the swamps,

"You lie upon the land, Kadiye, and choke it in the folds of

a serpent" (p. 110). Igwezu shakes the very foundation of the

Kadiye's world. The questions Igwezu has raised reflect a new

knowledge in him and metaphorically, the light in it will

lead Alu and Hakuri into a new thinking. Igwezu thus seems to --

show the rebellious nature of Ogun. But that is not all

because the battle has begun and the war between him and the

Kadiye is not yet over.

197

An old blind beggar from the North, could be seen as a

proof of the immediate effect of Igwezu's ideas. The beggar

is a Mohammedan which is obvious from his dress: "He has a

small beard [and] the skull cap". (p. 86) He has journeyed on

foot from a place known as "Buganji the village of beggars",

in the North, in search of a place where he can find water.

The beggar's acceptance of Igwezu as his master, on one

level, is purely a material relationship as he wants to work

in his field and on another it is a token of his respect for

a rebel who has exposed the Kadiye. "You should go back to

the city" (p 110) the beggar advises Igwezu, sensing a threat

to his life. And his closing words with which the play

comes to an end " I shall be here to give account" (p.112)

hints at the continuation of Igwezu's new consciousness

through him.

The never-to-return youngmen heading to their unknown

destinies in search of living, leaving their old people to

their fate p~rallels the story of a poor Irish village family

in John Synge's play Riders ~ ~ ~. While Synge's play

opens with Haurya bemoaning the death of Michael her son,

Soyinka's play opens with Alu and Hakuri discussing the loss

of their son Awuchike in the swamp. There is a similarity on

the scenic level too: if it is the weaving wheel in Synge,

it is basket making in Soyinka - both reflecting a rural

family and their poverty stricken life. Michael and Bartley,

Haurya's two sons are victims of an economically defunct

village life that drives them away and the predatory sea that

~98

swallows them. Igwezu and Awuchike are also forced by similar

circumstances. In both the plays the vil~age youth come home

for a brief period to be immediately driven back to their

unknown destinies. The closing words of Maurya sum up not

only her fate but also of Alu and Makuri: "In the big world

the old people do be leaving things after them for the sons

and children, but in this place it is young men do be leaving

things behind for them do be old''. 3 And what is surprising,

Igwezu's last words seem to echo Maurya's apprehensions about

the old people; "Only the children and the old stay here.

Only the innocent and the dotards" (p.ll3).

Since Igwezu leaves the village to go back to .the city

it is not clear whether he can be regarded as an Ogun figure.

He accepts the advice of the Old beggar and runs for life

because he fears blood-shed. If we compare him with Soyinka's

other heroes, eg. Daodu in Kongi's Haryest who fails to kill

Kongi but refuses to leave lsma, Igwezu's action may fall

short of heroism. On the other hand Igwezu's departure may be

seen .as his total reject ion of the Kad iye and his world. In

~ Swamp Dwellers Soyinka attempts to create a hero who can

resist the stagnant spiritual imperatives of a decadent

society,_ but it is not clear if his protest can regene~ate

the society, or if it will remain at the level of an angry

outburst meant to settle a personal score. Soyinka returns to

his concern about man's relationship with the myth and

tradition of his society in a subsequent play ~ Strong

Breed to take up a different position.

199

The Strong Breed (1960)

Eman, the young protagonist in ~ Strong Breed 4

saves an unprotected child from being the vehicle of the "sin­

carrying ritual" by offering himself as a replacement. In

contrast to Igwezu, Eman is projected as a strong character

who belongs to the family of 'Strong Breed'. Moreover he has

concern for the spiritual health of society and reveals

leadership qualities. ~Strong Breed is centred around a

ritual called "sin-carrying ritual" whereby one man is made

to carry the sins of the community in a symbolic gesture. The

man is then flogged and humiliated on the streets and finally

driven into the forest. But Eman like Igwezu protests

whenever he sees injustice. Before the play has began, Eman

as a young boy has protested against the molestation of his

beloved Omae by his tutor. Disillusioned with life he

becomes "a pilgrim, seeking the shrine of secret

strength ... strange knowledge" (p. 143) for twelve years.

Failing in his search he married Omae throwing away "my new­

gained knowledge"-· but only to lose her very soon. . When the

play begins Eman has taken shelter in Jaguna's village where

he works as a teacher and a doctor . Sunma, the daughter of

the village priest, Jaguna, is Eman's helper. According to

the local tradition, on the new year's eve an idiot or a

stranger must serve as carrier of the evils of the old year.

Sunma has recognised the dangerous implications of Eman being

present in the village on this night. The priests, Jaguna and

200

Oroge, "logically" chose Ifada, a poor idiot boy, to be the

carrier. But as Sunma had feared Eman tries to protect the

terror-struck boy and argues with the priests with a view to

save Ifada. Since Eman is a stranger in the village, he

willingly offers himself as the carrier not knowing the ways

in which the ritual of sin-carrying is performed in Jaguna's

village. Eman escapes into the bushes failing to withstand

the flogging and fails to complete the purification ritual.

Jaguna and Oroge consider the incomplete ritual a

sacrilege and to avert the tragic consequences, they hunt

him down like an animal.

When the play opens a mud ho_u.s-e" which is a clinic and

in the "space in front of it, Eman, in light buba and

trousers stands at--the -window, looking out. . . Sunma appears

agitated. Outside below the window crouches Ifada [a moron].

He looks up with a shy smile from time to time, waiting for

Eman to notice hi~". (p. 115) As in !.ha Swamp Dwellers the

window becomes significant in drawing our attention to the

vast immensity of the cosmic existence with which man has to

battle constantly.--

The opening scene of ~ Stron« Breed resembles that

of !he. Swamp Dwellets where fear is. a major presence. Sunma

gripped by an unexpressed fear is pleading with Eman to

leave the village for a day, reminding us of Alu's futile

request to her husband to go and look for their son in

the earlier play. In the background the horn of a lorry is

heard and it heightens the emotional frenzy of Sunma. Soyinka

201

employs an elaborate opening scene charged with emotion and

evnkes contrasting feelings - hate and love, pity and feir.

Sunma, the daughter of Jaguna is an original

inhabitant of that village and knows what sin-carrying is for

their community : flogging and driving the carrier out into

the bushes. She does not want either Eman or Ifada to be used

as a carrier because she loves Eman and has sympathies for

Ifada. Sunma therefore is lost between Eman - a stranger in

her village and Ifada. She screams at Ifada: "Just let him go

away... I don't want him here. [Rushes to the windows) Get

away idiot ... Go away from here "(p. 116). With the same

emotional intensity Sunma begs Eman also to leave the

village: "you will have to make up your mind Eman. The lorry

leaves very shortly. (p. 115). Tender at heart, Sunma

confesses: "I am woman, and these things matter ". (p. 117)

Sunma considers the carrier ritual barbaric and cruel and

therefore she tries to persuade Eman to leave: "why do you

continue to stay where nobody wants you" (p. 120) ... "people

want you out of their way" , "Two days Eman. Only two days".

(p. 121) Inspite of all this, Sunma fails to convince Eman of

the need to go away because she does not spell out her real

fear and, Eman has his reasons to ignore her request. Inspite

of all her efforts Sunma fails to save Eman because she never

lets him know the truth about the purification ritual.

Soyinka presents the sin-carrying ritual on a symbolic

level in the play. "A g_irl comes in view, dragging an effigy

202

by a rope attached to one of its legs" (p.118) and she asks

Ifada to beat the effigy thoroughly and hang it from the

tree, presupposing, on one level, the plight and tragic end

of Eman and on another, the playwright's sceptical view of

the carrier ritual. The suggestion is that it is a play of

children - morons and idiots. He also seems to be doubting

the spiritual an~ communal significance of the ritual. At

this point of time in his career Soyinka does not seem to see

suffering as a source of knowledge and spiritual strength .

which his later play~ Baccbae n! Euripedis dramatizes.

In his argument with the village priests about the

ritual, Eman finds their position rigid and unchanging.

Through this inflexibility we see the degeneration of the

real spiritual values of the society .and feel the need for

the rebellious individual to stand up against it. Jaguna and

Oroge are an embodiment of the deteriorated spiritual order.

Soyinka depicts them as crude_and cruel. How do they take the

ritual carrier, the source of their spiritual regeneration?

They catch him as if he is an animal, and the ritual is more

a hunt th.an a spiritual event."; .. (T)wo men emerge from the

shadows. A shack is thrown over Ifada's head, the rope is

pulled tight rendering him instantly helpless''. (p. 124) They

seem to have forgotten that the message of the ritual should

be harmony and not cruelty. Moreover, on the auspicious day,

Jaguna behaves in an inhuman and sacrilegious way. He strikes

Sunma, " so hard on the face that she fa.lls to her knees".

Only a rebellious hero can regenerate a debilitated society.

203

In ~Strong Breed Eman, the protagonist raises his voice

against the system and attempts to unite the essence and the '

self - the separation of which has caused a xupture.

Soyinka has wished to make his protagonist Eman a very

strong character. The problem with Eman however is that he

fails to translate his spiritual energy into physical

strength. Like modern day intellectuals he fears physical

pain and physical assault. Eman by birth belongs to a family

of "strong breed" and from a very early stage in his life

he has been keen on harnessing the spiritual energy and

cosmic knowledge. In the play Soyinka through flash backs

informs us about Eman's past. The adolescent Eman in the

monastery says "I am becoming a man. For the first time, I

understand that I have a life to fulfill" and "A man must go

on his own, go where no one can help him, and test his

strength". ( p. 138-9) The early death of Omae, his wife, has

set Eman free, cutting off the only link he had with the

world and thereafter, he has devoted himself to spiritual

knowledge and social good. "Let me continue a stranger.

Those who have much to give fulfill themselves only in total

loneliness" (p. 125) Eman tells Sunma.

He has plunged in to community service: Eman has

cleared the bush and made a farm for Ifada, and he gives

tuition and medicine to the villagers. The Eman that ·we see

in Jaguna's village is thus a person ennobled and internally

strengthened by the experience of death, suffering and

travel. His spirit of inquiry and the protective urge in Eman

204

parallel those of the mythic hero Ogun. This heroic spirit in

him manifests in his attempt to save Ifada and argue with ~he

prie~ts to change them.

Intrigued by the arrest of Ifada by the priests Eman

comes forward to save him. He reasons with the priesti that

it is unwise to use a retarded and an unwilling boy as a

carrier. Failing to convince them, Eman insults them

indirectly by calling them a castrated lot.

Eman: Yes, But why did you pick on a helpless boy. Obviously he is not willing.

Jaguna... Ifada is god send. Does he have to be willing?

Oroge.

Eman ...

The evil of the old year is no light thing to load on any man's head.

A village which cannot produce its carrier contains no men. ( p. 128-9).

own

Jaguna and the priests who have been organising the

purification ritu•l for a long-time now are not willing to

change. It becomes inevitable that Eman should offer

himself as the "carrier'' in the place of Ifada. At this point

of time Eman does not understand the implications of the

purification ritual in the village. In his own village the

carrier is not driven out of the village, not beaten in the

street and not humiliated, and he thinks the situation is the

same here.

When we see Eman "crouching against the wall. tense

with apprehension" (p. 131) torn and bleeding. we learn that

Eman has replaced Ifada and has also escaped from the ritual.

205

After offering himself as the carrier he has found out that

it involves flogging and humiliation in the village streets.

Oroge·s words : "I think he is the kind who.would let himself

be beaten from night till dawn and not utter a sound . . . let

himself be stoned until he dropped dead" (p. 132) give us a

high expectation of Eman's physical tolerance. But

afterwards his escape gives us an impression that inspite of

being

This

such a strong character, Eman lacks consistency.

raises doubts about whether he has the Ogun spirit in

him. Eman shows a "inherited sense of responsibility to the

community and his tendency to flee when confronted with

testing situations"' as James Gibbs rightly observes. 5 It

seems Soyinka has sacrificed the integrity and consistency of

his Ogun hero for the dramatic needs. It looks as if Eman

dies a tragic death more because of the inherent flaws in his

character than the cruelty of the villagers.

Eman has sav'ed Ifada but he has failed to complete the

purification ritual and an incomplete ritual does not bring

about the necessary regeneration. The traditional

believe that an incomplete ritual is inauspicious

societies

and it

enta1ls far reaching negative consequences. In this sense

Eman has put the villagers in a tight corner, forcing them to

hunt him down. Jaguna feels "There is too much contamin~tion

about already" (p. 135) and hence the priests decide to kill

Eman to avert dangerous consequences. Jaguna's boasting

words,"when [he] sets traps, even elephants pay

their trunk downwards and the one leg up in the

206

homage

sky1 • (p.

144) forecast the fate awaiting Eman. And it comes true when,

"There is sound of twigs breaking, of a sudden trembling •in I

the branches" (p. 145) indicating the entrapment of Eman in

the forest. Even without showing the actual death death on

stage Soyinka conveys the tragic ending of Eman's life

through various dramatic devices. The description of the

villagers as "subdued and guilty" and the stage direction

"the effigy ... hanging from the sheaves" all speak of Eman's

death.

Eman is killed in a death trap and may be to some

extent a victim 6f his own short comings. But there is a

sudden twist at the end. The playwright supposes that Eman's

death has enlightened the village people. Oroge who has seen

Eman's dead body h~nging from a tree has found a rare sight.

His words, "It was no common sight " (p. 145) points to the

spiritual awakening in the villagers. Though Eman dies in

tragic circumstances Soyinka sees it as a positive

affirmation of the self-sacrifice, likening him to Christ.

A comparison of Eman with other Qgun heroes in

Soyinka's plays will tell us about the shortcomings in Eman.

The purification ritual involving public flogging appears in

~ Bacchae ~ Euripedis too, where Tiresias, the Greek blind-

seer-turned-YorUba-philosopher bas offered himself as a

voluntary flagellant in order to cleanse the rot of the old

year in Thebes. Though Tiresias complains of the beating by

the slaves, he does not run away from the ritual because he

207

has understood the the need for individual suffering for the

communal good. In his later plays the Ogun heroes of

Soyinka show a strong determination of will and suffer for I

the collective benefit. Though Ogun is a mythic character and

Gandhi a historical figure they have been leaders of people.

Gandhi in South Africa, as Atten Borough movingly depicts in

his film Gandhi had burnt the book of constitution preaching

apartheid, neglecting his own hands that were breaking under

the police attack. Eman bows out of the purification ritual.

Eman is thus only part an Ogun hero: he has saved the child

and kindled a fire in the encrusted souls of the villagers

but his death is far from being noble. T..h.e. Strong Breed is

therefore another attempt at perfecting the Ogun hero - an

ideal which seems to be fully realised in the character of

Olunde, in the play Death and~ King's Horseman.

Death and the King.·s Horseman (1975)

Death and thh King·s HorsemanS ( hereafter Horseman)

is based on a historical incident that happened on 4th

January 1945 in the Oyo state of Nigeria. The king's

horseman Olukun Esin Jinadu was making a ritual sacrifice of

his own self to accompany his deceased king on his eternal

journey. When Esin Jinadu was stopped in this act, arrested

and detained by the colonial district officer his son Murana

completed the ritual of self-sacrifice in his father's

place. 7 Soyinka has taken just the bare bones of this episode

and constructed a poetic and a complex play around it. He has

208

made a lot of changes in matters of detail, sequence and

characterisation and introduced several new elements: "The

action has been set bac-k two or three years to while the w-ar

was still on for minor reasons of dramaturgy " (p.144) and a

visit by the Prince of Wales to Nigeria has also been

integrated into the play. Soyinka's words " minor reasons of

dramaturgy should not be treated lightly because the

changes he has made have changed the historical setting into

an imaginary situation. Though the play is about the death of

a King's horseman and his son, Soyinka has not named his play

either as "The Death of king's Horseman" or "The Deaths of

the king's horseman and his son" which would have been closer

' ~" M+4 "" k~ to the original episode. Instead, he calls his playAHorseman.

Separating death from the horseman's episode, Soyinka gives

"death" an independent status, thus in various ways widening

the scope of the play.

The Horseman is in five acts and the action covers the

last quarter of a day: it begins in the evening and ends at

night. Soyinka wants the play to be staged non-stop with no

"interval". The play is knitted around two community rituals:

Elesin Oba's self-sacrifice and the English colonial

community's fancy-dress ball which is graced by the Prince of

Wales. Pilkings, the District Officer reacts with shock and

seriousness to the Elesin·s Yoruba ritual and orders his

Muslim police sergeant to arrest the person so that when the

Prince is in town its peace is not disturbed. In the ensuing

tussle between the district administration and the local

2oe

community Elesin Oba is arrested and detained. On hearing

about the fate of his father, Olunde sacrifices himself and

his dead body is p~es~nted befor~ his father who aiso

strangles himself to death. Soyinka juxtaposes the values of

the Colonial British community with that of the Yoruba

community. In the prefatori note he informs us that the

clash in the play is not cultural,between the alien and the ' indigenous but "metaphysical, contained in the human vehicle

which is Elesin and the universe of Yoruba mind the world of

the living, the dead and the unborn" and the "colonial factor

is an accident, a catalystic incident merely'". (p. 44-5) But

it is the text and not the author's Prefatory Note that

' contains the clue to the dramatic meaning.

The play opens with Elesin Oba entering the market

place in the evening followed by his drummers and singers.

"He is a man of enormous vitality, speaks, dances and sings"

and "Performs like a born raconteur, inflicting his retinue

with his humour and energy". (p. 149) Elesin Oba has come

mentally prepared to. perform the ritual of self-sacrifice: "I

go to keep my friend and master company". (p. 153) But the

Praise-singer wants Elesin to unite his disintegrating

society whose men have been dispersed, whose racial spirit

has been taken away and which has been deprived of its

spiritual comfort.

Praise -Singer: ... the white slavers came and went, they took away the heart of our race, they bore away the mind and muscle of our race ... the city fell and our people struggled through ·mountain and forest to find a new home (p. 148).

210

... there is only one shell to the soul of man; there is only one world to the spi~it of our race. If that world leayes its course and smashes on boulders of the great void, whose world will give us shelter? (p. 149).

The Praise-singer is not calling upon Elesin to

accompany the dead king, which going by the historical

context would have been more appropriate. Instead the

Praise-singer is pleading with Elesin for consolidating,

strengthening and saving the heart and soul of his community

through his self-sacrifice. The social situation described by

the Praise-singer in the images of "soul of man", "spirit of

our.race" and in the words "If that world leaves its course

and smashes on boulders of the great void" f~lly agree with a

tragic situation in the Yoruba concept: "the separation of

the essence from the self" and the disintegration of the

divine from the human that pushes an individual or a society

to the verge of ~estruction. Elesin Oba has been requested to

avert this tragedy by entering the "transitional abyss" so

that he energises himself and in turn, arrests the

disintegration ~f his society.

The Praise-singer's fears about the disintegration of

the society seem to be embodied in the persons enjoying the

fancy-dress ball, organised in honour of the Prince of Wales

by the colonial English community. They are more- powerful

than the Yoruba community and they impose their cultural

codes on others while they jealously guard their own, as the

following episodes illustrate. When-Amusa the police Sergeant

211

who reveres the Ogun refuses to share some information about

his culture with the En.lishman Pilkings. Pilkings tries

flattery and pretends not to "disturb delicate sensibilities

of Amusa, because he does not want a serious situation to go

out of his hands and troubles created when the Prince is in

town: come on Amusa, you don't beli~ve in all that ... I

thought you were a good Mosle1n". (p. 165) Once the job is

done Pi lkings warns Amusa: "And lets have no more

superstitions from you Amusa or I will throw you in the guard

room for a month and feed you pork". (p. 18) In a similar

incident Joseph - a recent Christian convert and a cook in

Pilkings· house is forced to interpret the meaning of a

particular style of drum beating, even when he is reluctant.

to do so. Enraged at his hesitation Pilkings scolds him:

"Its only two months since your conversion. Don't tell me all

the holy water nonsense also wiped out your tribal memory".

(p. 170) But Pilkings immediately realises his "unchristian

language" and confesses that he "just wanted to apologise to

him " ( p. 172) because he fears the Reverend would send a

"letter of complaint to the Resident" about his misbehaviour

towards the parishioners. Through these episodes Soyinka

shows us that the colonial English community is not

individualistic but communalistic. The church and the Prince

the spiritual and the temporal powers - are the two major

forces fostering the communal bond.

Amusa and Joseph are two examples of a disintegrating

community under an alien force that has eventually pitted the

212

indigenous people one against the other. While Amuse. reveres

the Ogun mask he considers the ritual sacrifice "a criminal

offense" indicating a division within him. Perhaps he hopes

to earn that reward, or a label, which most colonial

servants aspired for- "the most obedient servant of the

British empire~ when he reports to the district officer

about Elesin's ritual of self - sacrifice. Joseph is even

worse, he declares quite surprisingly Ogun "has no power on

Christians as if his cultural roots got cut the day he became

a Christian. Against this background of a disintegrating

community Praise-singer's pleading for the restoration of

the spirit of the race gains a significance. Soyinka is not

saying that whenever a feudal lord dies all his most loving

and dear ones should die to strengthen the spiritual bond of

the society. Instead, Soyinka seems to feel that communal

ceremonies have the potential of uniting people· and self-

sacrifice is a symbolic part of it.

The colonial administration is aware that the rituals

strengthen communal bond among people and the British empire

can rest and grow only when the the social structure of the

colonised is destroyed. The stopping of Elesin's self

sacrifice is thus directly linked to the well being of the

Empire. The Resident's apprehensions about the Yoruba ritual

highlight it.

Resident. If we allow these little things past us where would the empire be Tell me that. Where would we all (p.188)

213

slip eh? be?

Go and tell him [the Prince] there is a riot just two miles from him? This is supposed to be a serene colony of His Maje-sty, Pilking-s? (p. 189_)

If the rituals are little things how do they come in

the way 6f the empire or why should the empire worry about

little things ? or Why does Pilkings stop the ritual when he

really wants to get rid of the people who create trouble in

his administration? "And as for that [Elesin Oba] believe me,

its good riddance "(p. 171). And what precisely is the duty

that obliges him to stop the self-sacrifice?

Pilkings: If they want to throw themselves off the top of a cliff or poison themselves for the sake of some ba~baric custom what's that to me? If it were ritual murder or something like that I'd be duty bound to do something? (p. 171).

Nobody knows what Pilkings "duty" is that calls him to

stop Elesin. Soyinka does not answer this, he leaves these

questions hanging~ expecting the readers to guess it. However

the inherent contradictions in Pilkings and the Resident tell

us that communal ceremonies are powerful uniting forces ·and

stopping them is ~ssential for the colonial administration to

divide and weaken the colonised societies.

On his way towards the market place where Elesin

intended to perform the self-sacrifice, he is suddenly --

possessed by a desire for women and a longing to live the

last few moments of his life in grandeur and splendour. "when

I come among women ... I have become a monarch, ... the smell of

214

their flesh, their sweat .. this is the last air I wish to

breath ··. (p. 148) Perhaps, because it is the last day of \

his life these mundane wishes haunt Elesin Oba. When he comes

across a beautiful bride in the market place, Elesin Oba

desires her. His description of the bride shows the intensity

of his longing for women.

Elesin: Not even Ogun with the finest hoe he ever/ Forged at the anvil could have shaped/ That rise of buttocks, not though he had./ The richest earth between his fingers./ Her wrappers was no disguise./ For thighs whose ripples shamed the river's! Coils around the hills of the IIesi-Her eyes/ Were new laid eggs glowing in the dark. ( p. 159) -

The women know that they are bound by communal norms,

religious and moral codes to fulfill the wishes of Elesin Oba

on his last day. The women clothe Elesin in the finest

clothes sold in the market and treat as one above them

because Elesin is making a transition from the human world to

the divine and ancestral. It is therefore a sacrilege to

disrespect Elesin. Iyaloja who represents the Yoruba

community puts this Yo~uba world view this way:

Iyaloja: Only the curses of the departed to be feared. The claims of one whose fort is on the threshold of their abode surpasses even the claims of blood. It is impiety even to plaoe hindrances in their ways. (p. 181)

In a celebrated communal ceremony, a bride is given to

the Oba which is a rare event in modern literature. Iyaloja

describes this as a meeting of the three worlds of the Yoruba

metaphysics the living, the dead and the unborn, the

harmonious co-existence of which protects the living.

215

Iyaloja. The fruit of such a union is rare. It will be neither of this world nor of the next. Nor of the one behind us. As if the timelessness of the ancestor world and the unborn have joined spir;its to wring an issue of the elusive being of passage Elesin. (p. 162)

Having his desires fulfilled, Elesin starts dancing; he

has got into a "trance" and the ''transitional abyss", "a dark

world-will" where the self usurps the cosmic energy. In this

communal act the ritual participants also gain spiritual

energy and while suffering with the ritual protagonist - they

share the experience of the renewal of the self. Elesin Oba,

like Kotanu in Iha ~. gives us an account of the

"transitional abyss".

Elesin: (his voice drowsy)

I have freed myself of earth and now It's getting dark. Strange voices guide my feet. [Elesin Dances on, completely in a

does his

trance ... Elesin's dance not lose its elasticity but gestures become,if possible, even more weighty".] (p. 186)

At this stage, when Elesin is about to complete his

self...,.sacrifice, he is arrested by the district

administration. We come to know of this only when Elesin is

seen in the next scene with his hands" cased in thick iron"

and "imprisoned". His failure is partly a result of his

delay due to indulgence in the sensual pleasures. Thus, the

administration's anti-Yoruba ritual stance coupled with

Elesin's delay obstructs the self-sacrifice leaving the

schism the severance of the essence from the self

216

unbridged. A ritual ceremony not completed incurs wrath of

the spirits, a Yoruba belief as we have seen in ~ Strong

Breed. The play thus anticipates disas~rous consequen~es.

Olunde, the eldest son of Elesin Oba was abroad in England

doing medicine, and after learning about the death of the

king he has returned to his town in the same ship as the

Prince of Wales. Like all the other Ogun heroes in Soyinka"s

world Olunde is also exposed to different cultures, people

and has travelled widely. In this he parallels Daodu in

Koogi"s Harvest, Diooysos in~ Baccbae ~ Euripedis and

also Igwezu and Eman in ~ Swamp Dwellers and ~ Strong

Breed respectively. He is a fine young mao dressed in a

sober western suit.

No sooner Olunde lands up in his city than be goes to

meet Pilkings, the District Officer, as he wants to stop him

from disrupting the sacrifice ritual. Although Olunde is a

son of the king's horseman and he is obligated to Pilkings

for arranging his education abroad, he does not have servile

manners. When he finds Jane using the Ogun mask for fancy

dress, an irritated Olunde protests: "And this is the good

cause for which you desecrate an ancestral mask". (p. 191)

Through this Soyinka here shows us that Olunde at heart is

very sensitive about his culture and he also focuses on his

keen analytical mind as we see in his conversation with Jane:

Jane .... The ship had to be blown up because it had become dangerous to the other ships, population would have died ... The captain blew himself up with it. Deliberately .. .

Olunde. yes ... I quite believe it. I met men like that

217

in England . Jane .... Such morbid news. Stale too. Olunde. I don't find it morbid at all. I find it rather

Jane. Olunde. Jane.

inspiring. It is an affirmative commentary on life. What is? That captain's self-sacrifice. ~onsense, life should nev~r be thrown deliberately away. ( p. 192-3)

As the Second World War is still on and Olunde has come

from England, a country engaged in the war Jane, probably to

while away the time, draws Olunde's attention to the

Captain's sacrifice of life (which must be a real incident).

Olunde having worked in hospitals in England has not only

known such incidents but has also seen men who have performed

such great feats 1 of bravery. Therefore, for Olunde, the

Captains episode, "is an affirmative commentary on life".

Soyinka draws our attention to a mighty force - war - that

transforms death into sacrifices and integrates the concept

of martyrdom into the play providing a context in which

Olunde's self sacrifice later has to be understood. In this

conversation, Olunde is perceptive and understanding whereas

Mrs. Pilkings comes off as an intolerant person. The h~roic

sacrifice of captain's life for her is a "morbid news. Stale

too". She fails to understand the significance of the

captain's self-sacrifice for his nation. She reduces the

heroic death of the captain to the Jevel of social diversion:

"the occassional bit of excitement". Soyinka is not

projecting Jane as a representative of English sensibility

and culture here. He has made this clear in the prefatory

note that the "colonial factor is accident,, a catalystic

218

incident merely". (p.144) Jane is not a highly individualised

character but an average English house-wife whose knowledge

of life is limited and narrow.

Olunde does not want Pilkings to stop his father from

the self-sacrifice. He believes what his father is doing is

an honourable act and has a metaphysical significance for the

Yoruba community.,Here Olunde is reflecting on the relevance

of self-sacrifice which considers the captain's heroic death

to be not very different from Elesin's. The only difference

is that one is secular and the other religious but both are

essential for the well being of a society. Olunde does not

see death as the eqd of life but a beginning of yet another

kind of existence. Olunde's continued debate with Jane throws '

light on these essential secrets of life.

Olunde.

Jane.

Olunde.

Jane ....

Olunde.

Mrs. Pilkings, I came here to bury my father. As I heard the news I booked ~Y passage home ... But do you think your father is entitled to whatever protection is available to him? How can I make you understand? He baa protection. No one can undertake what he does tonight without the deepest protection the mind can conceive. What can you offer him in place of honour and veneration of his people? What would you think of your Prince if he refused to accept the risk of losing his life on this voyage? This ... showing the flag tour of colonial possessions. However cleverly you try to put it, it is still a barbaric custom, it is even worse -its feudal! '

(waves his hand towards the background The Prince is dancing ... ) And this? Even in the midst of a devastating war ... [I] would call it decadence... Is that worse than mass suicide? Mrs. Pilkings, what do you call what those young me~~sent to do by their generals

219

in this war? (p 194-5).

Here it should not be taken that Soyinka is justifying

the human sacrifice against man slaughter in the wats.

He draws our· attention to the other possibilities of death

and his complete faith in the moral and spiritual value of

self-sacrifice. This is also a dtamatic hint that Olunde

would perform such an act if it fell on his shoulders.

Olunde's ideal world gets shattered when after

believing his father to have completed the ritual, he sees

his father alive. Olunde refuses to recognise him because he

expected his father to be strong and not let down people who

vested their fait~ in him. He considers that his father's

failure would "jeopardise the welfare of my people" (p. 198)

ELESIN, in hand cuffs, comes after pounding in the direction of Olunde, ... Olunde stares above his head into the distance. For several moments they hold the same position ... he moves for the first time since he heard [his father's] voice, ... and walks slowly down the wa'y his father had run. ( p. 202-3)

When the market women "intoning the dirge 'Ale le 'le'

and swaying from ~:tide to side" carry the dead body of Olunde

rolled up in the mat and open it in front of Elesin we learn

that Olunde has performed the self-sacrifice in his father's

place. Unlike his predecessors in the earlier plays - Igwezu

and Eman - Olunde did not run away from crisis, but like

Ogun, confronted the real enemy and restored the honour and

dignity of his people. Is Olunde's act a human sacrifice? Has

220

he blindly accepted the Yoruba custom of human sacrifice?

These are the questions which need to be answered to

understand the nature of his death.

The arrest and detention of his father and the

disruption of the ritual are to Olunde outrageous. The

British cultural hegemony over the Yorubas not acceptable to

Olunde because he considers them to be cannibalistic: in the

war, they are "wiping out their so-called civilization ... and

reverting to primitivism"' (p. 195) and elsewhere in one of

their African colonies, they are dancing in a fancy-dress

ball regardless of their own kith and kin dying in the war.

Olunde thus finds the English community as a whole morally

and spiritually impoverished. Against this background Olunde

finds a role for himself of saving the honour and dignity of

his people. In this act Olunde par-allels the sacrif-ice of the

English Captain who blew himself up to save his people in the

war. Olunde's death therefore cannot be treated as a human

sacrifice because the conflict between the Yoruba community

and the colonial administration has taken the dimension of a

war. Soyinka thus succeeds in reinterpreting Olunde's death

to highlight the·heroic spirit of Ogun in him.

The specific atnbience of the Yoruba culture is

evoked through language. Soyinka has used proverbs, like

"what tryst is this the cockerel goes to keep with such haste

that he must leave his trail behind? (p. 147) which puts a

question in a riddle and, "Because the nan approaches a brand

new bride he forgets the long faithful mother of his

.221

children" (p. 147) which, predicts the future. of Elesin Oba.

The song of "Not-! bird" sung by Elesin Oba narrates his

fearlessness of death and yet on another level it represeruts

ordinary man's fear of death providing a backg~ound to the

ritual of self-sacrifice. The metaphor of "plantain", "the

pith of it" and the new shoot which recurs so intermittently

in Iyaloja and Elesin's conversation helps Soyinka to explain

the co-existence 'Of all the three worlds in one - the dead,

the living and the unborn. Transforming the Yoruba metaphors,

idioms and the mythic imagination into English Soyinka makes

his play resonate with the Yoruba sensibility on several

levels.

The intermittent contrast between the Yoruba and the

colonial English community and their rituals enables Soyinka

to comment on the universality of self-sacrifice which is

performed in various forms and disguises. The Yorubas

recognise Elesin Oba as their spiritual leader whereas for

the colonial English community the Prince is that leader;

while Elesin Oba performs the sacrifice ritual, the Prince

risks his life while crossing the "Nazi-infested seas for

the sake of his-· community; the market women guard the

nuptial of Elesin Oba and the district administration

provides protection to the Prince participating in the fancy­

dress ball; Oba has a bride of his choice while the Resident

dances with women of his choice; while the captain- blows

himself up Olunde immolates himself.

222

James Booth, in his critical essay "Self-sacrifice and

human sacrifice in Soyinka's Horseman" says "the

playwright's search for a vivid and dramatic metaphor for the

universe of the Yoruba mind" has led him to confuse an

irreducibly primitive human sacrifice with an authentically

African sacrifice of self " 8 . Analysing the play "at the risk

of reductionism" Booth ignores to consider the colonial

forces that had enslaved the Yorubas in their land and

conclude that the self sacrifice is a barbaric act and the

civilization preached by the colonial community is sane and

sacred. However, Soyinka is mythicising his immediate past in

the true sense of the term myth - sacralising a heroic act. A

creative exercise of' the kind is not unique to Soyinka. T .S.

Eliot has also done it in his play "Murder in. ~ Cathedral"

(1935) which dramatizes the Christian ideal of self-

sacrifice. When the Bishop of Canterbury Thomas Becket is

returning from his exile, Canterbury women (the chorus)warn

him to return to France as death awaits him in the

Cathedral:"you come bringing death into Canterbury". 9 Becket

preferred staying in the cathedral welcoming those who are

jealous of the power of the Church to kill him.

What is essential in understanding Soyinka is that he

is a postcolonial subject striving to reconstruct the

distorted image of his culture, history and tradition. He

draws a bit from myths and history, a little from r~ligion

and rituals while restoring the perspective from which to

understand his civilization.

223

III

In the three plays discussed in this chapter

opens out a discursive domain where faith and culture

for space with iogic and economics. In his domain

Soyinka

jostle

gods do

not exist but the human beings who lived in the past, those

living in the present or those who may live in future, ie.,

the ancestors, the living and the unborn acquire sacred

status. Here the stress is more on the present because of

its vital position providing a continuity between the past

and the future. The dramatic heroes of Soyinka are therefore

situated in the present and they, first, realise their

essence and then s~t out to stem the rot in various

of contemporary

individuals because

life. Society

their struggle

requires such

guarantees the

inner

spheres

strong

smooth

contiriuation of lif~. Igwezri; So~irika'~ fir~t ever dramatic

hero in l:.M Swamp Dwellers is a victim the economic pressure

for change; he resists this pressure but fails to carry out

the collective responsibility for transforming his community.

The urge for change in Igwezu is not a result of a strongly

felt need for a spiritual reawakening of his society but

anger at a personal loss. His protest against the Priest

does not carry a greater significance at the level of the

community, but remains a short sighted diatribe against the

exploitative nature of the old customs. In ~Swamp Dwellers

Soyinka begins to look at the religious complexities of

Yoruba life as rich dramatic potential, but he does not go

very far in the direction of creating an Ogun hero.

224

In his search for a more dramatic and symbolic African;

religious ceremony Soyinka comes up with the purificatory

ritual of flogging as community cleansing in ~ Strong

Breed, but he does not find a dramatic hero who could

carry this off with suitable ideological conviction. Eman in

~ Strong Breed does not have a firm faith in the concept of

self- sacrifice. He may be sharing Soyinka's view that

suffering and ~logging in 'sin-carrying' ritual is only

symbolic and not actual. Therefore Eman ; walks out of the

ritual iTreligiously. For Eman suffering involves mind and

not flesh. Ina Stroni Breed is flawed by the presence of a

dramatic hero who ~s half-hearted in his commitment.

It is not clear what factors in Soyinka's further

development as a playwright make him use the ritual concept

of self-sacrifice in a positive manner. Christianity stresses

the element of suffering and martyrdom but Soyinka"s early

plays do not show any trace of this element despite the

fact that his birth and upbringing was in Christianity. The

Ogun myth, Soyinka's other dominant preoccupation, is the

story of a hunter god and its primordial association does not

have anything to parallel the refined human experience:

suffering. Soyinka underwent a deep introspection in jail

for nearly two years at the end of the sixties and it is

crucial that Horsemen, which in very categorical terms --

reaffirms Soyinka"s faith in self-sacrifice, came soon after

Soyinka's release from prison. We can say here by inference,

that Soyinka understood the essence of self-sacrifice, the

225

sacrifice of the flesh from his own suffering. The myth of

Ogun, the ritual traditions of his over culture ~ave of

course, consolidated and reinforced his own basic

understanding.

This early realization that the ultimate of all

sacrifices is life itself seems to have enabled Soyinka to

appreciate the concepts contained in the Yoruba rituals and

his historical heroes. Horseman thus opens a new phase in

Soyinka's work, combining the dramatic with the ritualistic.

What was, hitherto metaphorical the relevance of

purification ritual becomes real in this play not only

carrying an intense dramatic impact, but also conveying a

certain acceptance on Soyinka"s part of the cultural validity

of such a ritual. Soyinka valorizes the efficacy

ritual of self-sacrifice and its strength to unite

and resist alien encr6achment. This need not sound

of tne

people

totally

mystic. Fasting which Gandhi resorted to whenever his ideal

of an united and ~~rong secular India was at stake, is but a

slow death. Gandhi did not invent this but had learnt it from

his religious background. The myth of sage Dadheechi could

be cited here as another apt example of self-sacrifice. When

the gods approached Dadheechi for his back-bone he graciously

volunteered. These examples from our own culture may help us

to understand the ritual of self-sacrifice of the Yoruba

world. However, Soyinka's understanding of the ritual ~ay be

much more complex from the philosophical as well as dramatic

point of view.

226

Mapping

trodden by

out the vast immensity of

his forebears, imbuing their

the cosmic world

experience with

vita-lity, a-nd preserving them is essential for Soyinka at· a

time when his people are losing faith in thei~ pas~ heritage.

Soyinka therefore dramatizes the myths, rituals and religious

customs time and again in his plays to explore their

relevance to the contemporary African society and to use them

as symbols to understand the general human predicament.

227

Notes

l •

1 James Gibbs,~ Soyinka, Mac-Millan, London, 1986,p.117.

2 Wole Soyinka, Collected Plays ~. Great Britain, OUP, 1973; rpt. 1984. All references to this text.

3 James Synge, Plays, London, George Allen and Cenwick Ltd., 1933; rpt. 1988, p. 44.

4 Wole Soyinka, Collected Plays ~. All references to this text.

5 James Gibbs, ~ Soyinka, p.73.

6 Wole Soyinka, Six Plays, London, Methuen, 1984. All references to this text.

7 James Gibbs, ~ Soyinka, p. 118.

8 ·James Booth, "Self S-a-crifice and Human Sacrifice in Soyinka's Death a.nd. King's Horseman," .RAL., Vol. 19, Spring 1986, pp. 529-549.

9 T.S. Eliot, Murder~ th4 Cathedral, London, Faber, 1935; rpt. 1971, p. 19.

228