What is Olunde's character in death and the king's horseman?

Answer 1

Olunde is the son of Elesin, horseman to the King. Elesin has lead a good life, beloved of his people but neglects to fulfil his duty to the Yoruban people by comitting ritual suicice after his King's death. Olunde has been sent abroad by the Pilkings (English colonisers) to become a doctor. Previously to the play Elesin has disowned his son. However, as Olunde points out disowning is not the same in Yoruban culture, Olunde will always be a part of Yoruban life, he will always be part of the rituals and traditions, it is his birthright and his duty. He is therefore shamed when he arrives home to bury his father and discovers that he has not fulfilled his end of the bargain. So Olunde sacrifices himself to prevent dishonour upon his family and to restore the world order. Olunde seems to represent the fluid movement of Yoruban culture. Soyinka does not present this culture as static, lost in time, a culture that does not develop (Olunde recieives a telegram about the impending death of his father from someone in the village, this shocks the Pilkings who didn't think the 'savages' could do such things!) instead Soyinka shows that Yoruban life changes according to the time, but that this does not effect their world view. Olunde has to kill himself to ensure that the passage between the Ancestors and the Living stays open but also to ensure that the colonisers do not win in their attemots to quell Yoruban rituals and interpretations of life. The whole text becomes a struggle for meaning, which Olunde ironically wins in death. Western literary theory would have us believe that once the text is consumed by the market place, the author is dead and the meaning can be toyed with by any reader. However in Yoruban culture the meaning of the ritual text is solidifed by the death of the author/auteur.