Structural Coherence of Wole Soyinka's Death and the King's Horseman, The

College Literature, Spring 2004 by McLuckie, Craig

Elesin and the Praise-Singer continue their exchanges, but Elesin's earthbound, sensory apprehension of life has been established. That characteristic promotes doubt, an individual doubt, which should appeal to Western audiences brought up on Enlightenment values of reason and skepticism. The Praise-Singer serves as a communal correction for doubt, as the promoter of conservative values within the indigenous tradition. The Praise-Singer, then, attempts to keep Elesin within communal bounds by worldly warnings:

They love to spoil you but beware. The hands of women also weaken the wary. ... In their time the world was never tilted from its groove, it shall not be in yours. . . . There is only one home to the life of a river mussel; there is only one home to the life of a tortoise; there is only one shell to the soul of man; there is only one -world to the spirit of our race. If that -world leaves its course and smashes on the boulders of the great void, whose world will give us shelter? (Soyinka 1975, 10, 11)

The successful maintenance of this rite is tied to the health and well-being of the community as a whole. The repetition of "The Gods have said No" (Soyinka 1975, 10, 11) by way of response appears to show Elesin "in tune" with the ritual process and its cosmic significance, but what underlies that appearance is an absence of self: the lack of personal reference in his responses-"The Gods have said No." Even when Elesin enunciates that the rite "shall not fend] in mine," the personal is drawn from tradition or continuity of response: "It did not in the time of my forebears,it shall not in mine" (11). The communal, the ritual, feeds his inclusion of self, but does not take into account the separation of an individual's personality and unique, individuating characteristics, like doubt. Communal rituals and long-established customs seem to be there to remove doubt. For this reason, Elesin's next speech emphasizes a shift, wherein the figurative language and call-response format is imbued with new content: "Nor will the Not-I bird be much longer without his rest" (11).The Praise-Singer stops "in his lyric stride" and questions Elesin, thus physically and aurally announcing the import of this moment to the audience (11). Ritual, in the form of unthinking repetition, is "stopped in its tracks" and an inquiry begins. The audience is invited to consider the symbiotic relation between individual and group along with the attendant need for difference (change, beginnings) to be accounted for.

The Praise-Singer, conscious of his role in the community, maintains traditional language and form to draw forth an explanation: "Praise-Singer (smiling): Elesin's riddles are not merely the nut in the kernel that breaks human teeth, he also buries the kernel in hot embers and dares a man's fingers to draw it out" (Soyinka 1975,11).While he smiles, suggesting an enjoyment of the riddle, there is also a promotion of his respect for Elesin's intelligence in the extended poetic image of meaning's home. It is significant that he calls attention to a breach in the protocol of this ritual in positive ("smiling") and self-depreciating fashion because it fosters his relationship to Elesin, and also establishes grounds for the continuance of the ritual. Again, Elesin's individuality is emphasized: "his voice change[es] dexterously to mimic his characters. he performs like a born raconteur, infecting his retinue with his humor and energy" (11). And, within his chanting of the Not-Ibird's story, Elesin recounts communal fears of death: the farmer, the hunter, the courtesan, the pupil, the kinsman, and the courier all deny death (11-13).