Gender in “Death and the King’s Horseman” by Wole Soyinka

            Wole Soyinka wrote this play in 1975 but it is based on events that occurred in 1946 in the city of Yoruba, Nigeria. Before I read this play, I researched the author, Wole Soyinka. One thing I found very interesting about him that others may not know if they didn’t look him up was that he was arrested in 1967 for writing an article to appeal for a cease-fire during the Nigerian civil war. Soyinka was held for 22 months as a political prisoner, accused of conspiring with the rebels. After being released, Soyinka still followed through with his passion for writing and sharing his knowledge with others. Soyinka was a professor for years after his wrongful imprisonment and is still alive today at an impressive age of eighty-seven.

            Throughout his many plays, poems, and books, I had the pleasure of reading “Death and the King’s Horseman” and I must say, I really enjoyed it. The play is not very long but I felt like it was a perfect length being on seventy-seven pages including the glossary.

A huge role that was played during this play was the obvious role of death and sacrifice but another role that I will always pay attention to in everything is gender and how it sways characters’ opinions and choices. Soyinka’s portrayal of women throughout the play is negative but only if you are looking for it. The gender roles were often looked over and instead mortality, sacrifice, bravery, and courage were focused on. There were subtle – and not so subtle – hints throughout the play that shows exactly where women stood in society and how men viewed them, even women of higher standing. I was planning on going in chronological order of when misogynistic comments were made but I feel like I should start with the one that enraged me the most. On page sixty-six, Jane enters the conversation and Elesin is dumbfounded at the fact she even opened her mouth. Elesin says, “That is my wife sitting down there. You notice how still and silent she sits? My business is with your husband.”. According to Elesin, wives should be seen and not heard, they should sit there and look pretty and leave the men to do the “real” work. The first thing Jane said when she entered the conversation was her defending her husband and immediately, Elesin is confused why there is noise coming out of her mouth.

Elesin is one of the main characters that talks down on women and their standing throughout the play. Towards the end of the play in scene five, on page sixty-five where Elesin blames his new bride for being too attached to living. Elesin looks at his new bride and says, “My young bride, did you hear the ghostly one? You sit and sob in your silent heart but say nothing to all this. 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. But blame is a strange peace offering for a man to bring a world he has deeply wronged and to its innocent dwellers. Oh, little mother, I have taken countless women in my life but you were more than a desire of the flesh. I needed you as the abyss across which my body must be drawn, I filled it with earth and dropped my seed in it at the moment of preparedness for my crossing. You were the final gift of the living to their emissary to the land of the ancestors, and perhaps your warmth and youth brought new insights of this world to me and turned my feet leaden on this side of the abyss. For I confess to you, daughter, my weakness came not merely from the abomination of the white man who came violently into my fading presence, there was also a weight of longing on my earth-held limbs. I would have shaken it off, already my foot had begun to lift but then, the white ghost entered and all was defiled.”. Elesin was very quick to blame his new bride even though he was the one who insisted that she marry him. Notice how I only say “new bride” and not her name? Soyinka does not dignify Elesin’s bride with a name, she is simply “Bride” like that is her only purpose to serve. Elesin’s bride is one of the lowest female characters in this play. Jane has some power but only to an extent, she can talk freely with her husband about their affairs but as soon as he puts her down and tells her to shut up, that is where her power ends.

             While I was researching gender within this play, I started to look at the details of the story. I learned so much about the culture and the way of life. I thought it was really interesting to learn that in Yoruba, Nigeria, that women and men play a pretty similar role in society. They are pretty evenly matched so for Elesin to be talking on women so disrespectfully, it makes me think maybe it is not reflecting on the culture but his as a human being. Overall, I really enjoyed reading this play and learning so much about Soyinka and the culture he comes from. I am continuing to read about the Yoruba culture and its values so maybe I should take some ancient European history class?

Citations

Soyinka, Wole. Death and the King’s Horseman. W. W. Norton and Company, 1975.

Wole Soyinka – Biographical. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach AB 2021. Mon. 13 Dec 2021.

Death and the King’s Horseman Gender. Shmoop University, 2021,

www.shmoop.com/study-guides/literature/death-and-the-kings-horseman/themes/gender.

Death and the King’s Horseman Gender. Shmoop University, 2021