Death and The King's Horseman

Death and the King's Horseman is a play by Wole Soyinka based on a real incident that took place in Nigeria during British colonial rule: the ritual suicide of the horseman of an important chief was prevented by the intervention of the colonial authorities. In addition to the British intervention, Soyinka calls the horseman's own conviction toward suicide into question, posing a problem that throws off the community's balance.

Read more about Death And The King's Horseman:  Plot, Yoruba Perception of The World Around Them, Themes and Motifs, Performances, Reviews

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