What happens when two cultures collide? In the time of imperialism, this question was answered may times. Colonization is the action or process of settling among and establishing control over the indigenous people of an area. Colonization is undertaken by a strong power overtaking a weaken nation for economic gain. Colonizers can grow an empire and increase their power in the world. Because of this power dynamic, the lesser nation often become suppressed and exploited. The dominant culture can then spin the web of history how they want. The perspectives of colonized people are often lost. Wole Soyinka, in his play Death and the King’s Horseman, shows an African community ruled by the presence of European colonists. The events of this play take place in the midst of an important ritual in which the King’s horseman must commit suicide to accompany the King’s spirit into the afterlife. Differences between the Africans and the Europeans are exposed. Death and the King’s Horseman serves as a look into the reality of colonization. It reveals the relationship between colonizer and colonized and how colonizer’s prejudices toward natives lead to a suppression of their culture.
Colonizing forces often face prejudices towards native cultures, leading to an undermining in the validity of their way of life. In Death and the King’s Horseman, the Pilkings reveal in many instances, their biases towards the native culture they live among. Throughout the text, they carefully manipulate wording to undercut the authority of the natives. Thus, they are able to put them down while raising up the esteem of the white man. The audience is introduced to the character of the Pilkings when Sergeant Amusa comes bearing news of the ritual suicide that will be taking place. He is shocked to find them dressed to go to a ball in a costume sacred to the native people. In a loaded conversation with Amusa about the controversial costume, the Pilkings use language to undermine the disgust Amusa feels for the disrespect wearing the costume shows.
Jane: I think you shocked his big pagan heart, bless him.
Pilking: Nonsense, He’ a Moslem. Come on Amusa, you don’t believe in all that nonsense, do you? I thought you were a good Moslem.
(Soyinka 24)
Here, Pilking undermines Amusa by saying her can’t be a “good Moslem” and believe in the superstitions of his people. He also calls this superstition “nonsense.” Pilkings goes on to poke fun at Amusa again.
Pilkings: Oh Amusa, what a letdown you are. I swear by you at the club you know—thank God for Amusa, he doesn’t believe in any mumbo-jumbo. And now look at you.
(Soyinka 24)
Here Pilking treats Amusa as if he is no longer the same person he knew before. That his worth was in not believing in the “mumbo-jumbo.” Now that he expresses fear towards the disrespect the Pilkings are showing, he is a “letdown” a no longer the man that Pilkings used to rely on. This belief is very real to the Africans, however, Pilkings feels that Amusa has invalidated his own credibility by believing in the danger of the costumes. Pilkings expects him to be better than the other natives and not feed into the inconveniencing superstitions. Thus showing the Pilkings greater attitude toward the natives: their culture is unbelievable and inferior. In this conversation, the Pilkings reveal how they feel toward the beliefs of the natives and their attitude toward people who believe is them.
As the story progresses, the attitudes of the whites towards the natives is continually established. Olunde, the son of the King’s Horseman, comes back from England when he heard that his father was going to die. When conversing with him, the hypocrisy of the white attitude is revealed. Once the Pilings caught wind that a ritual suicide was about to take place, they decided they had to stop the barbaric act. Olunde is quick to tell them it would be a waste of time to try and stop the tradition and points out the hypocrisy the white act upon.
Jane: … However cleverly you tried to put it, it is still a barbaric custom. It is even worse- it’s feudal! The king dies and the chieftain must be buried with him. How feudalistic can you get!
Olunde (waves his hand towards the background. The PRINCE is dancing past again- to a different step- and all the guests are bowing and curtseying as he passes): And this? Even in the midst of a devastating war, look at that. What name would you give to that?
Jane: Therapy, British style. The preservation of sanity in the midst of chaos.
Olunde: Others would call it decadence.
(Soyinka 53)
Here the difference between what is deemed ‘civil’ in the two cultures is revealed. There is a big disparity between the beliefs of the two. The Pilkings, however, are willing to try to change the culture of the natives while the natives are content with going along Olunde is quick to pick up on the hypocrisy in the way Jane is talking to him. Jane sees ritual suicide as being “barbaric” and something that needs to be changed in the name of civility. Olunde, however, points out that hosting a large ball and holding an extravagant competition (in which two people are dressed in sacred garments of the native) is decedent. The whites have their for of barbarism in throwing a party while soldiers die in their war. Jane sees the ritual suicide as an insult to the value of human life. But Olunde sees the disregard for the lives lost in war and having a party while they die, as the same. Because both cultures live and celebrate life differently, they have different views on the practices of others. Jane critiquing the native’s way of treating life while her culture parties in war reveals the hypocrisy of the white, colonizing race.
By the end of the play, the audience can see the aftermath of the colonialists medaling in the lives of the natives. Here it becomes apparent where the whites feel their role is in the native society. They actively try to police the actions of the natives and take away their ability carry out on of their sacred rituals. All throughout the text thus far the Pilkings revealed how their feelings of superiority towards the natives. They saw the ritual suicide as “barbaric” and something that needed to be stopped for the sake of maintaining order and civility in the world. The Africans, lacking the power or desire to fight back against the colonial powers were ultimately suppressed. After being imprisoned, Elesin reveals how he feels towards Pilking about how he recruited his son to be a doctor.
Elesin: I no longer blame you. You stole from me my first-born, sent him to your country so you could turn him into something in your own image. Did you plan it all beforehand? There are moments when it seems part of a larger plan. He who must follow my footsteps is taken from me, sent across the ocean. Then, in my turn, I am stopped from fulfilling my destiny. Did you think it all out before, this plan to push our world from its course and sever the cord that links us to the great origin.
(Soyinka 62-63)
Elesin feels betrayed. He feels that Pilking took his son away to turn him into something he wanted him to be. Elesin feels that he missed out on time with his sone because he was stripped away from him. This shows how the power of the colonizers allow them to do whatever they want with the natives. Here they try to assimilate the son of a high-ranking man by sending him to England for schooling. This took him away from his culture and the chance to grow up among his own people. However, this will ultimately benefit the colonizers, as turning them into white-cultured Africans will make them easier to police as they will act like Europeans citizens. This also helps perpetuate the “correct” way of living and over time will wipe out the native’s way of life. Iyaloja is quick to see this attitude of the white man and comment on it. She cuts to the core of this practice.
Iyaloja: No child, it is what you brought to be, you who play with strangers’ lives, who even usurp the vestments our dead, yet believe that the stain of death will not cling to you. The gods demanded only the old expired plantain, but you cut down the sap-laden shoot to feed your pride…
(Soyinka 76)
Here she points out how the white men act as though they can do whatever they want without repercussions. She claims that all they do is to feed their pride. This is the quintessential example of the colonizer/colonized relationship. The colonizer uses the colonized however they wish simply because they have the power to do so and they believe that there are changes that must be enacted. As seen in this play with the death of Olunde, the colonized is unable to do anything to fight the white man without catastrophe.
Throughout Soyinka’s Death and the King’s Horseman, the relationship between the colonizers and colonized is highlight. The Pilkings reveal the typical colonial attitude. They use the land and people to their advantage and try to change them to suit their needs. Here, the Pilkings meddled in a sacred ritual simply because they thought it unfit and had the power to do something against it. Readings like this are important because they give a voice to the suppressed nation. Often the colonizer uses their power to repress the stories of the natives, so these types of colonial blunders are often lost in the colonizer’s history. A story like this shows the reality of colonization and ensures the true history of suppressed nation are not lost forever.
Works Cited
Soyinka, Wole. Death And the King’s Horseman. London :Eyre Methuen, 1975.
Sprockets and Springes 