Resisting the Legacy of Colonialism: A Study of Wole Soyinka’s Death and the King’s Horseman
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Abstract
Colonial rule educated the natives; however, they turned that same education subtly against the empire itself. The formerly colonized world gained independence, but English education running through the veins of thinkers from the formerly colonized world did not let them rest. They embarked on the impossible project of decolonization by retrieving their past, available only through English mediation and records maintained by colonial scholars. Wole Soyinka used theatre as a powerful postcolonial medium for linguistic and cultural resistance against colonial legacies. With distinct styles and techniques, Wole Soyinka incorporates elements of national history and cultural traditions into his dramas to support the postcolonial project. This paper analyzes Wole Soyinka's Death and the King’s Horseman. Soyinka makes their irony visible by placing colonial celebrations in stark contrast with native rituals. The colonial celebrations of tango dance and the fancy dress ball, which appear in consecutive acts after the rituals, are shown as superficial and senseless compared with the marketplace rituals. Soyinka experiments with the English language by using a wide spectrum of linguistic varieties like English, Yoruba, and non-standard English, capturing the diversity of Nigeria in terms of languages using methods like code-mixing, code-switching, and even mimicry. Soyinka has also increasingly used indigenous art forms and music in his plays. This becomes his attempt to validate ongoing oral traditions and dismantle the conventions of Western representation.
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References
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