The Broadcasting Nature of Yoruba Fabric
Wole Soyinka’s play, Death and The King’s Horseman, investigates the relationship between the Yoruba and Western cultures in Africa during the Second World War. This relationship between the two cultures is acted out through Elesin, the king’s horseman, and Simon Pilkings, a district officer in Nigeria. Elesin believes that his ritual, in which he commits suicide to join his recently deceased king in the afterworld, is morally right. Whereas Pilkings, who represents the Western decorum, sees the ritual as morally impermissible and impudent toward the wellness of the community. In the play Pilkings attempts to instill his ideals into Elesin and obstruct Elesin’s ritual. Because Pilkings believes that “life should never be thrown deliberately away”, a Western truth, he scrutinizes the Yoruba people and their traditions with disdain(42). Even though Western students may disagree with Pilkings, they find him more accessible as they are familiar with the Western grounded principles through which he acts on. Contrarily, Western students favor Elesin yet are unable to fully grasp his motives because he acts on system of ideas foreign to them. To better comprehend Elesin students can study the Yoruba material culture and traditions of West Africa. For example, following the interactions between Elesin and the material fabric in the play allows for a greater understanding of the African “moral truths” of the Yoruba culture. The material used by Elesin in the play communicates his recognition of the conditions of the ritual and his own honoring of the ceremony.
Traditionally, the Yoruba people have woven their own style of fabric called aso-oke. Of aso-oke, there are three variants each shrouded in their own traditions: alari, sanyan, and etu(Labode). Alari, sanyan, and etu show brilliant colors of red, grey, and blue, respectively. Alari and sanyan were typically used in all Yoruba events while etu was donned by chiefs and elders of the Yoruba society(Olajide). This style of fabric, aso-oke, appears throughout the play and aids in the understanding of Elesin’s intentions leading up to the ritual.
Elesin’s material uniform, composed of aso-oke cloths, is vital to understanding the ritual because it reveals what he wants to remember and also how the Yoruba culture views death. While preparing for the ritual, Elesin was vexed by the women until they adorned him in alari and sanyan. Elesin wants to be honored through these materials as he passes into the afterworld. Important as it was for Elesin to be dressed up for the ritual, it was just as consequential for the women. The play indicates the importance of the womens’ clothes through Elesin’s desires. Although not explicitly stated, what the women wear for the ritual is discovered when Elesin tell his praise-singer that he wants his last breath to be “the smell of indigo on their cloth”(6). This quote discloses that similar to Elesin, the women wear aso-oke cloth, specifically the etu style, for the ritual. It also communicates that Elesin is a man of vitality. Furthermore, Elesin’s desire for honorable fabrics paints an image of how he perceives death. Elesin knows his time in the living world has expired and must journey into the afterworld. This transition to death requires Elesin to fulfill the ritual at a precise time. With full knowledge of the conditions Elesin remarks that life “end[s] when honour ends”(11), suggesting that failing to complete the ritual is a death all on its own.
The aforementioned aso-oke fabrics first appear at the beginning of the play when Elesin is in the market preparing for the ritual. As was stated above, Elesin enters the market brimming with enthusiasm, followed by his praise-singer. Upon making it clear that his “soul is eager” to be reunited with his king in the afterworld, by means of his Not-I bird tale, Elesin is commended by the women for his steadfast loyalty to his community and king. Elesin is honored by their admiration but then he becomes “bitterly offended”(11). This offense, Elesin later explains, comes from the women’s ignorance toward his appearance. To remedy Elesin’s dissatisfaction, the women dress him in alari and sanyan, the cloths of “honour” and “friendship”(12). This passage illustrates how fabric, when employed as a uniform, is seen as an indispensable instrument for the completion of Elesin’s ritual.
As can be seen in Elesin’s ritual, a uniform acts as a mechanism able to convey the status of the wearer to those around them, a process seen in both the Yoruba and Western cultures. This similarity between the two cultures is brought up by Olunde, Elesin’s son. Olunde’s work as a medical student in England acted as a medium between him and the war. He was faced with and detested the barbaric side of Western culture where the acts of sending young men to commit “mass suicide” in battles are spoken of as “strategic victories”(44). Olunde demonstrates that the view of scorn held by the Western culture toward the Yoruba culture flows both ways. In Western cultures, soldiers are sent off to war, wearing a uniform utilized only for war, and revered for their sacrifice. Similarly, in the play Elesin is clad in a uniform before giving his life to his community all of whom regard him with high esteem. Both of these applications of uniforms, for the Western soldiers to go to war and Elesin to commit ritual suicide, are seen as morally permissible by their respective cultures constructing a new method to analyze the Yoruba culture in relation to the West.
In conclusion, fabric is just one of the many avenues students can use to better grasp the rituals of the Yoruba culture and its ideologies in the play. The interactions between Elesin and fabric offer insight into what Elesin was thinking prior to the ritual as well as the commonalities between the Yoruba and Western cultures’ view of “uniforms”. Elesin was embellished in traditional aso-oke cloth for the sake of honor and tradition. He prepared for a voyage to the afterworld, reinforcing his conviction with his culture’s morality. The clothes he wore during the ritual, when seen as a uniform, also address some of the similarities between the two cultures’ use of uniforms. These resemblances serve as a stepping stone to understanding fabric in the Yoruba culture and ultimately the ideologies within the play.
Works Cited
Bonney, Grace. “Textile Connections: Aso-Oke Textiles.” Design Sponge, www.designsponge.com/2015/06/textile-connections-aso-oke-textiles.html
Labode, OJ. Aso-Oke Production and Use Among the Yoruba of Southwestern Nigeria.http://journal.unaab.edu.ng/index.php/JHSSCA/article/download/1193/1089
“Military Uniforms.” Angels Costumes. Military Uniforms., www.angels.uk.com/services-military-uniforms.php
Olajide Ajiboye, Makinde D, et al. “Aso-Oke Production and Use Among the Yoruba of Southwestern Nigeria.” The Journal of Pan African Studies, vol. 3, no. 3, Sept. 2009, pdfs.semanticscholar.org/5377/93b3e0827a06fdf863242c4adaaf804c8179.pdf
Soyinka, Wole, and Simon Gikandi. Death and the King’s Horseman. W. W. Norton, 2003
