Death and the King's Horseman

The next act moves to Simon Pilkings’s veranda. Pilkings, the district officer, is dancing a tango with his wife, Jane. Both are wearing egungun costumes used by Yoruba men in a ceremony that honors the dead. Amusa, a “Native Administration” police officer, sees them dancing. He is first surprised, then alarmed, and knocks over a flowerpot. Pilkings and his wife stop dancing at the sound, and they spot Amusa. He has come to tell the district officer something important but is so disturbed by the way Pilkings and his wife are dressed that he can only stammer at them. Pilkings doesn’t understand what is wrong, but Jane realizes that Amusa is upset by their costumes. They both remove their masks, and Pilkings reminds Amusa that he is a Muslim now; he no longer believes in “mumbo-jumbo” like Yoruba cults of death.

Amusa, however, remains visibly unsettled. He tells Pilkings and Jane that the clothes are “not for human being” (24) and refuses to speak to them while they wear them. He insists that he has come with news of death and cannot speak to someone wearing the “uniform of death.” Jane recognizes that Amusa is “dead earnest,” but Pilkings loses patience. He tells Amusa to write down what he needs to say and leaves the room with Jane. Amusa writes his report in a notebook and exits as the sound of drums in the distance grows louder. 

Pilkings returns, reads the note, and then shouts for his wife. Amusa has written that Elesin Oba will “commit death” and asks for further instruction. Pilkings assumes that Elesin means to commit a ritual murder and decides to send his officers to arrest him. He is disappointed that these traditional practices keep cropping up, even when he thinks he’s “stamped it all out” (26). He wants to get the matter over with quickly because he and his wife will attend a ball where they hope to win a prize for their costumes. Pilkings calls his servant, Joseph, to go to the police station with instructions. Joseph enters, forgetting to knock, and Pilkings asks him what is happening in town. Joseph promptly answers that the King is being buried and Elesin will die by suicide to accompany him to the afterlife.

Pilkings is annoyed because he butted heads with Elesin in the past. He sent Elesin’s son, Olunde, to study medicine in England against his father’s wishes. As the eldest son, Olunde should have stayed to carry on his father’s role as the king’s horseman. Joseph leaves to clean the kitchen, but Pilkings calls him back to ask what the incessant drumming signifies. Joseph isn’t sure. Pilkings grumbles that the “holy water nonsense” made Joseph forget his own customs. However, the boy is actually confused because it sounds like both wedding and funeral drums.

When Joseph leaves again, Jane scolds her husband for making light of holy water in front of the boy, worried he will quit. She tells her husband that she will make dinner; they will skip the ball so he can focus on dealing with the crisis with Elesin. Pilkings calls Joseph back yet again and sends him off with a note for Amusa. At the last minute, he apologizes to Joseph, telling him that holy water isn’t nonsense. Finally, Pilkings tells Jane to put her costume back on. He insists they still attend the ball, revealing that the Prince is visiting and will also be there.

Back in the market, Amusa and two constables face off against a group of women. They are trying to stop Elesin’s suicide on Pilkings’s orders, but the women block their way and “tease them mercilessly” for carrying out the colonial government’s agenda. They accuse Amusa of being a “white man’s eunuch” and tell him he is not welcome in their market.

Iyaloja and Elesin’s bride join the women, and Amusa explains that he has come to arrest Elesin. He asks Iyaloja to call off the teasing women, but two girls push their way to the front. They steal the police officers’ hats and batons and begin imitating English accents, play-acting at being proper Englishmen. When they call out for Amusa, and he jumps to attention, they fall over in laughter. 

Angry, Amusa tries to threaten the girls, but they accuse him of eating “white left-overs.” They make as if to take the men’s trousers, forcing Amusa and his constables to admit defeat. As the men leave, the rest of the women celebrate the girls for imitating Englishmen so accurately and being their “defenders” and “champions.”

Elesin emerges carrying the sheets soiled from consummating his marriage. He is ready to begin the ritual after leaving his final mark on the world. The king’s dog and horse have both been killed and now it is Elesin’s turn to join his master. He asks his wife to stay by his side, saying that their marriage will be complete when he is gone and she sprinkles earth over his closed eyes. He tells the assembled women that he wants to die in the market, a place he refers to as the “heart of life.” Elesin enters a trance, chanting back and forth with the Praise-Singer. The women join in the dance, and Elesin’s trance deepens, his movements getting heavier as he becomes more absorbed in the ritual.