The value that family tradition should be passed to the next male in blood line shows a significant position of men in the society and also justify the society
as a patriarchal society. Like other patriarchal societies, the lives of women in the society are concerning.
Yoruba culture plays a very important role in shaping the mind of its people and how they act. The myth about the other life, curses, legends are believed to be
true and have impact on the livings. The culture also embodies the idea of women subordination. Women become less active in the society because of many
restriction of rights that is held on by the society. Furthermore, the subordination towards women could be in a position to oppress them. Elesin in the play becomes
the capable character in representing the issue. Elesin who is introduced in the play as the horseman of the king plays a
role as the representative of the culture. As holding the second most important position in Yoruba society, Elesin is known as the “man of honour”. The title
according to the play is derived from his past achievements with the previous king. His achievements strengthen the honor and respect of the people to him.
Besides the title, Elesin is also believed to have more ability and knowledge about the culture. His position as the right hand of the king also appoints him naturally
as the implementer of the cultural rituals. His action is believed to bear a direct relation to the culture. That makes people trust him about the decisions he made.
As someone who preserves the continuity of the culture, is the second in line to the monarch, and plays a crucial part in the cultural rituals, Elesin is necessary to
be seen as the culture itself.
Yoruba people highly respect the culture. The subordination seems to be something natural to be embraced and practiced in everyday life. The examples of
the subordination of women in Yoruba culture are such as the inferior position, the restriction of rights like right to make own decision, little access to resources,
etc. Some women might voluntarily accept the “subordinate status in
exchange of protection and privilege, a condition which characterizes so much of the historical experience of women”. However in many cases like in
the play, the mal e character uses this privileges to fulfil their “evil intent” toward
the submissive Learner 1989:234-235. Aristotle
said “the courage of man is shown in commanding of a woman in obeying” Learner1989:8-11.
There are various examples in the play that shows how the trust that Yoruba women gives to the males is not used properly. The first and obvious
example is polygamy. Yoruba Society does agree in polygamy. Men can have many wives for many reasonable reasons. One of the reasons mentioned above is
to have protection. However in the play, the idea of women seeking for protection and other needs does not appear.
ELESIN. … I deserve a bed of honour… WOMEN. But she is betrothed to your own son Iyaloja. Tell
him. Soyinka 1986: 21
ELESIN. … oh little mother, I have taken countless women in my life …
Soyinka, 1986: 65 PRAISE-
SINGER. … Because the man approaches a brand new bride he forgets the long faithful mother of his
children. Soyinka, 1986: 9
As stated above, the bride is not in a state where she needs any needs from Elesin. She is betrothed to Iyaloja’s son which means that she lives a proper live.
However the culture believes that the man who is going to face death especially a king’s horseman’s wish is a must to be fulfilled otherwise there is something bad
is going to happen. As culture’s role in the Yoruba’s lives is very crucial, there is nothing they can do than let it happen for a good reason, hopefully.
Despite of putting women in a lower position, Yoruba culture shows its complexity in placing women in hierarchy. Iyaloja’s position as “mother of
multitude” which is equalized to Elesin’s position as “father of multitude” shows that the culture in fact also empowers women. It shows that the culture in the very
first place tries to protect both men and women however sometimes in the implementation men tends to overpower and use the chance to overcome women.
D. Theoretical Framework
There are three theories used in this discussion which will be used as the foundation to answer the questions mentioned in the problem formulation.
The first theory, the theory of character, is used to identify Elesin and Yoruba female character in the play. The women here are categorized to three
parts. The first is to analyze Iyaloja, the second is to analyze the bride and the last is to analyze the general women. From the characterization of the characters we
can understand how the characters are and what position they are in the society. The second theory, the theory of Feminism, will be used to show the
understanding on how the female characters react to the oppresion they face based
on their position in the society and knowledge of culture. The theory also can be used to identify the women situation at that tim
e. Iyaloja’s reaction as the ‘mother of market’ will show us how the surroundings force women to bow under the
male domination while the bride and the women of the market reaction towards the opression supported by the culture is also analyzed in this research.
The third theory, the theory of Patriarchy, is actually the extension of the second theory. By using this theory, the male character will be analyzed so that
the reasons behind his action in oppressing the women could be dissected even further.
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CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY
A. Object of Study
Death and The King’s Horseman was written by Soyinka in 1975 based on
an event happened in 1946. It consists of five scenes tell a story about Elesin who was in the process of doing a suicide ritual in order to accompany the king who
had just died. The ritual required Elesin to die to be the partner of the king to find the utopian world. At the same time, a british colonizer named Simon Pilkings
tried to stop Elesin to do suicide. He then had Elesin jailed as an action to prevent Elesin to kill himself. Elesin’s son who had just come back from England saw that
his father had already failed to do his duty to join the king in death decided to kill himself as the offer to replace his father position.
In some specific parts of the drama, the author points out a lady named Iyaloja as the ‘mother of market’. ‘Mother of market’ here means more like the
one who lead the women in that place. Even though being pu t as a ‘leader’,
Iyaloja has no power to go against the power of man in this drama represented by Elesin.
Before facing his death, Elesin proposes his willingnes to have a night with a girl to be his bride. After the bridal night, he said he will be ready fo the
riual. This play also shows us about the live of women in Nigeria at the moment the british arrive to take over the land.
The play itself has been performed many times by notable theatres in Chicago in 1976 and at Lincoln Center, New York, in 1987. The play is believed
to be a great sample for people outside of Africa to study Nigerian society.
B. Approach of the Study
To find the answer of the problem formulations and to conduct the discussion, the researcher decides to use feminism approach. It is the feminist
approach because basicaly, this discussion focuses on the life of the women in Yoruba in facing the oppression given by men and struggling to voice their
thoughts and right to choose.
C. Method of the Study
In conducting this discussion, the researcher used a library research. There were two sources used to find the information about the topic. First is the primary
resource which is the play itself why the second is the secondary sources which are books, journals and internet sources.
These are the steps the writer used to reach the end of discussion. Firstly, the researcher chose the work used to analyze in this case Wole
Soyinka’s Death and The King’s Horseman. Secondly, the researcher applied close reading to find the important parts
that will be analyzed later. The researcher found out that the life of the woman at the moment in Yoruba society was having a depression caused by the opression
given to the men in this case portrayed by the male characters.
Thirdly, the researcher looked for some books that define the theories that could be used to define the life of women. There were some books found that
talks about the women struggling to find their justice in the patriarchal societies. The researcher also found jurnals that describes the society of Yoruba at that time.
Fourthly, the theories that had been found were applied to analyze the problems that had been firstly formed in the problem formulation. The researcher
used the theory of Characterization to analyze the characteristics of the women of the market, the bride, Iyaloja and Elesin. It then moved forward to use the theory
of Feminism and Patriarchal to understand the background and reasons behinds the oppression felt by both the oppressed and the oppressor. Lastly, using the
background of the story emphasized by the custom of Yoruba that is kept repeated throughout the story, the writer then could finally see how the society actually see
the women of Yoruba. Lastly, after analyzing the story, the researcher then could make a
conclusion.
