By Henry Akubuiro
Elesin Oba: The King’s Horseman, the latest movie version of Professor Wole Soyinka’s classical drama, Death and the King’s Horseman, is now available on the screen in Nigeria and beyond. Recently, EbonyLife Cinemas, one of Nigeria’s reputable, modern cinema houses, entertained a select group of journalists with a preview of the new production at at its upscale location, Victoria Island, opposite Eko Hotels and Suites.
In the original play written by Professor Soyinka in Cambridge as a fellow at Churchill College during his political exile from Nigeria, and first staged at the University of Ife in 1975, the playwright recreated a real incident that took place in Oyo Empire, Yorubaland, Nigeria, in the 1940’s, during the colonial era and World War II, when the horseman of a Yoruba king was prevented from committing ritual suicide by the colonial authorities, who interpreted the move as barbarism.
Soyinka’s original play scrutinises the colonial intervention from a cultural perspective, irrespective of the moral high ground on the table, while also calling to question the horseman’s conviction towards the suicide, as it creates unease in the land. The play also drums the need for interaction between African and European cultures.
The movie version, directed by Biyi Bandele Thomas, who passed on recently, is a close adaptation of Death and the King’s Horseman. The one hour 36 minutes production limns local nuances, history, love and a haunting tragic essence.
The movie boasts of a star studded cast, including the popular Yoruba movie actor, Odunlade Adekola, as the Elesin Oba; Olawale Brymo, the musician, as the praise singer; Deyemi Okunlanwo as Olunde; Jide Kosoko as Sergeant Amusa.
Langley Kirkwood played the role of Resident; Fares Boulus as aide de camp; and Omowunmi Dada as Elesin Oba’s bride. Taiwo Ajai Lycett made a cameo appearance as Madam Taiwo, and Joke Silva, as well; while Drikus Voltschenck played the Prince; Mark Elderkin as Simon Pilkins and Jeany Steads as Jane Pilkins.
Like in Soyinka’s Death and the King’s Horseman, the film was inspired by true life events in the 1940s when Elesin Oba, the king’s chief horseman, deviated from the path of tradition, honour and solemnity required for the ritual of passage to join the late Oba in the realm of the ancestors.
Mesmerised by the beauty of a maiden, he decides, in the film, to take a new wife, despite the harem he already controls, when he knows he has less than a month to live on earth, even when the bride is already engaged to marry Iyaloja’s son.
Across generations, every Elesin Oba knows that, once the death of an Oba is announced, he must fulfill his oath by accompanying the dead to the great beyond. In this instance, the task becomes clearer to him when the King’s dog and special horse are slaughtered as part of the rituals following his death.
The colonial authorities, however, don’t subscribe to Elesin Oba’s self immolation under the guise of tradition. He must be saved. So he is arrested and detained. Amid the turmoil in the land, Olunde, the Elesin Oba’s son, who travelled to the UK for medical studies, suddenly returns on learning about the Oba’s death, aware that his own father would soon go.
But he is disappointed and chagrined that his father reneged, as it seems, the colonialists having intervened to save his life. He, thus, takes his own life to bring honour to his family. The tragedy is completed when the Elesin Oba, who runs the risk of producing a curse child with the new bride, also hangs himself while in custody.
The beauty of Yoruba culture is writ large in a delicately woven, bucolic setting, a reminder of the present of its vibrant, cultural past. Real whitemen play the role of colonial authorities here. The affront on traditional culture is exemplified mainly by the District Officer, Simon Pilkins, and his wife, Jane, who among other things, desecrated the Yoruba culture by wearing Egungun cult attire.
The language of the film is Yoruba with English subtitles, but it’s curious how the Elesin Oba and the Iyaloja, in particular, respond to the white men, who speak in English, in Yoruba language in this Yoruba version.
Biyi Bandele’s genuine stamp is evident in directing a near flawless movie with his choice of locale and superb cast delivery. Mo Abdu is the executive producer of the film. The film is available on Netflix.