Based on true events in Nigeria’s Oyo of 1943, Elesin Oba: the King’s Horseman is a tale set in the backdrop of World War II. Inspired by Wole Soyinka’s play titled Death and the King’s Horseman, the film was adapted onto the screen all thanks to Biyi Bandele’s screenplay starring Odunlade Adekola, Shaffy Bello, Deyemi Okanlawon, Omowunmi Dada and more.

Running for a duration of 96 minutes, the film centers around the life of the King’s horseman and Chief, who must perform the ritual sacrifice and follow his King to the afterlife to preserve his community’s harmony. However, his initially putting it off to satiate his sexual appetite, and the following intervention of the British force’s comprehension of the same as ‘barbaric’, overturns the maintained balance in the Yoruba Community.

Netflix describes the film as:

In this captivating drama, a horseman faces tragic consequences when British forces prevent his ritual sacrifice.

-Elesin Oba: The King’s Horseman Review Does Not Contain Spoilers-

The beauty of the film begins with its screenplay being penned in the native mother tongue of the Yoruba community. Soyinka himself was a Nigerian writing in English, but one’s thought process is always ruled by their mother tongue which now finally finds its voice in the film adaptation. The onset itself takes us back to Yoruba origins telling their story in their voice, foregrounding the basis of a good and diverse representation.

Soyinka was keen on destabilizing the critical analysis of his play as a “clash of cultures” because that would essentially correspond to the idea that both cultures were on the same plane, which wasn’t the case. The film brings in the representatives of both cultures, while also presenting a middle ground in negotiating the terms between the two in Olunde’s character.

A constant emphasis is drawn on the term “The White Man’s Burden” coined by Rudyard Kipling as its portrayal is overturned in the storyline so presented. The savior complex harbored by the British is all about setting the ‘savages’ free from the constraints of their ‘lesser’ culture and its customs. However, what this film and Soyinka’s original play strive to achieve is a representation of a community that barely got a chance to voice itself upon its agency being usurped by the colonial forces. The most important takeaway is that if something stands far from one’s understanding, it doesn’t automatically become synonymous with being lesser than a counterpart deemed superior to it.

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The British officer and his wife put on what are customarily the clothes of the dead as per the Yoruba culture but their seeming glittery visage is mistaken by the colonial forces as an embellishment or ‘costume’. They lack the basic knowledge and context of the Yoruba culture and don’t even show any intentions of learning about it, rather they choose to paint a picture of their own sense of calm and peace in the midst of a warring state of affairs by holding a grand ball that is to be graced by the Prince, who despite being the absolute symbol of western power, must stay aloof from the ground reality of those his Empire is supposedly ‘ruling over’.

Choices of costumes put on by either community are a symbol of their distinct identities, yet even therein, markers of progress or the lack thereof are presumed, drawing out a hierarchy between them. The western dress of a suit and tie is accepted as sophisticated but the clothes sported by the African community, though closer to their humble origins are once again deemed starkly different, thus inferior by the former.

Bandele’s screenplay returns victorious in yet another visual as well as auditory success as it retains Soyinka’s vision and focus on music highlighting the identity of the Yoruba mind. Bridging the gap between the “world of the living, the dead and the unborn”, the universality of their music founds the basis of the African identity. Moreover, music also acts as an aiding means of overall storytelling and narrating various events through their life – weddings, death, birth, and more.

Elesin Oba The King’s Horseman: Final Thoughts

While watching the movie, we as viewers must turn away from reducing the dialectics of politics to a mere ‘clash’ as mentioned before. Instead, we should take into count how each of these cultures has been ingrained in its counterparts. Neither of them should be declared a victor or a victim because each of them has its own share of shortcomings as well as aspects that need to be respected.

The Yoruba community is predominantly envisioned as matriarchal with women taking the lead and charging against the ones who seek to attack their culture. However, at the same time, despite their empowering stance, we can’t turn a blind eye to how young girls in the same community are made into silent bearers of the adults’ discretion, whether the decision is mindful or not.

A grand focus is paid to the notion of one’s duty – to one’s role, to one’s profession, to one’s family and community. Elesin puts off his duty to his King by giving in to his sexual desires, thus eventually overturning someone else’s life as well as his own into a tragedy. While the image of his suicide is viewed as a matter of celebration by both his community and himself, the colonial powers deem it as a crime being committed.

The storyline and the characters so presented are lined up to convey a simple yet hard-to-accept message about both communities coming together to understand their respective perspectives. Violence only arises when the two fail to communicate and the dialectics of the Us Vs Them is ignited. Therefore, it isn’t necessarily the culture and customs that need to be held accountable but the actions of the individuals who are the markers and carriers of the same.

Elesin Oba The King’s Horseman is now streaming on Netflix.

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