ANALYSING SUICIDE IN SOYINKA’S DEATH AND THE KING’S HORSEMAN
4.6. Between institutionalized suicide and personal suicide: Death and the king’s horseman in perspective
The multi-dimensional classification of suicide is vast and varied. However, within the limits of a cultural history angle, the classification of Retterstøl,
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(1998) in his article; Suicide in a cultural history perspective is germane. In his article, he distinguishes between two forms of suicide, the social or institutionalized suicide and that of the personal or individual suicide. These forms of suicide seem to have a close appropriation and are represented in Soyinka’s Death and the king’s horseman.
The institutionalized suicide applies to the self-destruction of an individual, which is usually demanded of him by society due to the individual’s role in a group. Interestingly, this form of suicide is generally recognised in many cultures around the world. Usually, the institutionalized form of suicide is geared towards serving a communal purpose. In such a case, a particular individual is associated with the responsibility of self-destruction knowing that he is doing it for the good of his community. The reception attached to this form of suicide by a culture is one of respect, honour and even of being privileged.
In traditional Yoruba culture, the institutionalized suicide is necessary because it is meant to unify the cosmic totality of the Yoruba universe. Soyinka, in his play, Death and the king’s horseman represents this element of institutionalized suicide as basic and fundamental to the entire universe of the Yoruba mind.
Elesin serves as the ‘sacrificial lamb’ that will, without hesitation kill himself to see the king through the journey of eternal transition. Elesin, right from his ascending the throne as the king’s horseman is in-tune with the customs and tradition of his people. He also knows the benefits and sacrifice that his position offers hence his willingness to carry on. When the moment for his ritual suicide approaches, he says
Elesin: My rein is loosened. I am master of my fate. When the hour comes watch me dance along the narrowing path Glazed by the soles of my great precursors. My soul is eager. I shall not turn aside (Soyinka, 1975, p.14).
Elesin expresses clearly the end of his existence on earth and his position as the horseman. What he waits for is the fate that was his destiny. However, he seems not to be deterred because he is aware of the significance of his suicide and what it will do for his people. In a following statement Elesin reveals
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Elesin…I go to keep my friend and master company. Who says the mouth does not believe in ‘No, I have chewed all that before?’ I say I have. The world is not a constant honey-pot. Where there was plenty I gorged myself. My master’s hands and mine have always dipped together and, home or sacred east, the bowl was beaten bronze, the meats so succulent our teeth accused us of neglect. (Soyinka, 1975, p.14).
The culture makes it clear that, because the horseman of the king will also have to commit ritual suicide immediately following the death of the king, the horseman therefore enjoys everything that the king enjoys. Elesin makes it clear in his statement that he is “going to keep his friend and master company” (p.14).
One thing of note is that, when an individual who has been willed, chosen or elected by his people to engage in the act of suicide fails, the community will experience disaster or suffer consequences. Elesin, the horseman to the king fails to commit the ritual suicide due to the intervention of Simon Pilkings.
Because the suicide of Elesin was institutionalized for a purpose, his failure to carry it out meant that the institution in this case -culture that he represents would suffer. Because his suicide is meant to connect with the spirit of the late Oba whom he will escort in the spiritual realm to enable the Oba, transform into a deity or ancestor and commune with the living. Elesin’s failure was therefore meant to break this cord and distort the interaction between the living and the dead that has always been part of the Yoruba belief system and practice.
The very act of betrayal of Elesin broke the tradition that existed for hundreds of generations. The same act of Elesin is one that repeated itself in the contemporary Yoruba society of Ife. Although in this case there was no interference from anybody to stop the assistant of the king of Ife to commit the ritual suicide, he decided on his own to run away after the death of the king. In October of 2015, the Ooni of Ife died and his assistant was expected to commit suicide as tradition demands to escort him to the other world, on the day of the ritual, the king’s assistant disappeared and was nowhere to be found. After a thorough search, it was revealed by his family that the Ooni’s assistant indicated
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that he will not commit the ritual suicide and he is ready to return all the benefits he enjoyed when the Ooni was alive so that he could live. Although the tradition of the Yoruba people does not give any choice or option for whoever will carry out the ritual suicide, it is obvious that not everyone is ready to die at the time the conditions avail themselves for such deaths. The point of emphasis here is not necessarily based on the idea of whether or not a particular individual commits a ritual suicide that he is meant to, the point is that the cultural understanding of suicide especially in Yoruba culture is based on the cultural standard and what the people accept to be part of their cultural institution. If in any case the appointed individual like Elesin ended up performing the ritual suicide, then it will be accepted. Any other member who commits suicide outside the socially accepted system will be ignored and not treated with respect.
The second aspect of suicide as distinguished by Retterstøl (1998) is the individual or personal suicide. This form of suicide is based entirely on the personal decision of an individual and not based on any social or cultural standard. The suicide is purely because of frustration, disappointment, betrayal, shame, loss of honour etc. It becomes very complicated but obvious that the suicide of Elesin was a personal suicide. His suicide was a way of sympathizing with the death of his son who he understood committed suicide in his place. On another level, no matter the extreme mode and method of Elesin’s suicide, he still represents the ‘sacrificial lamb’ and the only recognized person whose death will be of significance for the Yoruba universe. For Olunde, his suicide is personal because of the disappointment of his father’s inability to fulfil the cultural demand of his race. Having been faced with such disappointment and especially becoming a laughing stock in the community, Olunde decides to kill himself in his father’s place as the eldest son.
Both the institutionalized and personal suicide feature in Soyinka’s Death and the king’s horseman at different levels. For the institutionalized suicide, it represents the custom and tradition of the Yoruba people. While the individual suicide is witnessed in the death of Elesin and Olunde.
122 4.7. Conclusion/Summary of chapter
Soyinka’s Death and the king’s horseman has, since its publication in 1975, prompted considerable debate, divergent views and much critical reflection.
This is because the play represents a cultural text that goes a long way to establish the cultural worldview of the Yoruba tradition. The play engages in a
‘threnodic essence’ of cultural metaphysics –transition. Quite interestingly too, the play attempts to feature not only the events that took place in Oyo in 1946, but it also attempts to reflect the conditions of World War 11 that ravaged and destroyed a large share of humanity.
This chapter therefore, appreciates the literary creation of Soyinka and attempts to pay critical attention to an understanding of the play and how the phenomenon of suicide informs this understanding. The chapter sets out at the start to delve into the actual narrative history that occurred in Oyo Empire in about 1946 and how the event inspired the creative vision of Soyinka to write Death and the king’s horseman. Furthermore, the chapter draws from the knowledge of history to provide the synopsis of Soyinka’s play by showing how his creative vision gave birth to the play. The chapter proceeded to explain the drama and theatre vision of Soyinka concentrating on those factors that are intricate and integral to his creative world.
The chapter also reviewed the various debates and critical reflection on Death and the king’s horseman as enunciated by various critics. It looked at the issues of metaphysics of sacrifice, author’s commentary, performance analysis, tradition versus culture and how they help in deconstructing meanings in the play. These critical reviews were able to set a firm background for my analysis of the phenomenon of suicide and how it enables a fuller understanding of the play. My analysis began from the standpoint of; ritual, cultural politics and the question of suicide. This segment provided an understanding of ritual and how it plays out in the suicide of Elesin. The cultural politics involved in the act of suicide by the élite class was studied. The section reveals how social structure determines the role of the act of Elesin’s suicide and the reception of such suicide in traditional Yoruba culture. The evidence of Marxist literary theory justifies the investigation. The chapter also looks at the concepts of
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institutionalized suicide and personal suicide and how they function in the play.
The chapter also looks at how the proverbs in the play serve to clarify the crisis in the play and how this prompts the suicidal acts in the play.
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