Western Cultural Beliefs in Wole Soyinka’s Death and King’s Horseman

Abstract

Wole Soyinka's play Death and King's Horseman reflects the cultural conflict between the African and Western worlds. The play is based on an actual event that took place in 1946 when British colonial authorities prevented the customary ritual suicide from taking place. In Yoruba society the community is more important than the individual. It was also their tradition for the first horseman to commit suicide after the king's death. When the realization of this tradition is prevented by the white authorities, the horseman's son, who had received a European education commits suicide in place of his father. Building on Frantz Fanon's theories, my aim in this article is to challenge universal assumptions concerning right and wrong which may have different connotations for black and white culture.