A Semiotic Analysis of Wole Soyinka’s Death and the King’s Horseman

Journal of the Linguistic Association of Nigeria Volume 14 Number 1 2011 (pp. 51-58)

A Semiotic Analysis of Wole Soyinka’s Death and the King’s Horseman

Farinde Raifu Olanrewaju, (PhD Wales, UK)
Department of English, Adeyemi College of Education, P.M.B. 520, Ondo, Ondo State, Nigeria.
E-mail: Mikh_fad75@yahoo.com Phone: 08037294926

In Soyinka, there is a personal appropriation and reinterpretation in new terms of Yoruba cosmology so that it exists in his work as an authentic mode of vision (Irele (1975). Death and the King’s Horseman also depicts this African cosmology and myth. As a matter of fact, the play stems from the Yoruba’s history and mythology. It reflects African proverbs, riddles, metaphor, myth, legends, etc. This paper investigates the language style of Soyinka in Death and the King’s Horseman from the semiotic perspective. The paper discovers among other things that words such as death, market, father, as used in the play are not just mere words used at the denotative level, but are also signs which serve as the pillar of strength in upholding the aesthetic and stylistic effects in the play.
1.0 Introduction
In Wole Soyinka’s art, the elements of traditional systems are integrated into the writer’s vision through the mediation of a highly conscious art. Irele (1975) affirms that in the case of Wole Soyinka, the relationship of his work to the communal spirit passes through a process of personal rediscovery of traditional values and the progressive approximation of the individual artistic personality to the determination of the collective consciousness.
He further states that in the works of Soyinka, we find a personal appropriation and reinterpretation in a new term of Yoruba cosmology, so that it exists in his work as an authentic mode of vision. His artistic experience represents a development of the common stock of images in a way that is not only a restatement of their significance, but also of his continuing truth for modern man. His work expresses the essence of myth as a comprehensive metaphor of life; as a reformulation of experience at the level of image and symbols so as to endow it with an intense spiritual significance.
Jeyifo (1998) supports this view when he affirms that Soyinka and Clark began what has now become the ‘heritage’ of Nigerian English language drama: bridging the gap between dramatic writing and performance styles and idioms.
He further asserts that this is their line of departure from James Ene Henshaw, the pioneer of English-language writing in Nigeria. For where Henshaw was quite content to write plays which were mostly straight-dialogue dramas without the slightest grounding in locally derived performance styles, Soyinka and Clark looked up to a variety of resources and models from our traditional performing arts: music, dance, song, ritual and ceremonial enactments, gestural conceits derived from observed modes of body and verbal communication.
In essence, Soyinka is a bilingual individual who has understood the cultures of both English and Yoruba very well. He has great understanding of both cultures which affords him the opportunity and ability to exploit such understanding appropriately for literary text creation (Adejare 1992).
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Death and the King’s Horseman also depicts African cosmology and myth. As a matter of fact, the play stems from the Yoruba’s history and mythology. It reflects African proverbs, riddles, metaphor, myth, legends etc. In this study, we are going to analyze the play from the perspective of semiotics.
2.0 Theoretical Framework
Semiotics can be defined as an all inclusive, trans-disciplinary approach of evaluating and analyzing all signifying systems by which meanings are ascribed, negotiated and transmitted within personal, social and cultural rubrics (Adedimeji 2007:145). From the detailed definition above, it can be deduced that semiotics can be equated with signs and symbols, all geared towards meaning. Signs are pervasive; they are prevalent in all spheres of life. Sebeok (1991) refers to signs as the pivotal notion of the field of Semiotics which targets communication. Communication involves the use of signs produced and perceived through the use of codes within a context.
Every sign supposes a code, and as such, capable of being coded at the level of denotation and connotation. However, literary codes are to a large extent connotatively signified. Barthes (1974:28) asserts that a literary text is a system of signs which includes lexical, syntactic, morphological, semantic, phonological systems and so on. Through these systems, the artist i.e. in this case Wole Soyinka creates his own principle on language use vis-à-vis the various types of rhetorical devices.
Therefore, the relationship between these systems generates powerful literary effects in which the signifier and the corresponding signified play their parts within the ambit of the several codes in the linguistic system. In this regard signs can convey either the literal meaning (denotation) or applied meaning (connotation) at a particular point in time (Ogunyemi, Forthcoming).
Ogunyemi (Forthcoming) defines denotation as the literal definitional or common sense meaning of a sign and connotation as the socio-cultural and personal associations either of ideological, psychological or emotional perception of a sign. This means that connotation and culture are interwoven and one must interpret it in relation to the culture specific of the context. In this regard, connotative signs are more open to interpretation than denotative signs. For a sign to be denotatively signified, it must appear in the first order of signification with the appropriate signified; within the ambit of relevant codes and conversely, if a sign is connotatively signified, it will feature in the second order of signification in a similar way. However, its signifier now becomes the decorative sign because it is derived from the signifier and the signified of the first order of signification. That is, it attaches an additional signified (Ogunyemi, Forthcoming).
So in Semiotics, denotation and connotation can be seen as literary terms used in describing the relationship between the signifier and the signified. This makes possible an analytic distinction between the two types of significations.
3.0 A brief synopsis of Soyinka’s Death and the king’s Horseman
Soyinka’s Death and the king’s Horseman is a ritualistic tragedy. This is a play that concerns itself with the universe of a people, the Yoruba world, a metaphysical world of the living. Yoruba’s attitude to life can be described as abundant zest for living in
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the form of enjoyment of honour, pleasure, power, women and in fact all the good things of life (Olagoke 1986:88).
This Yoruba world-view also epitomizes this vigorous vitality by Elesin, its vehicle who is the central character in the play. He has a privilege of marrying any woman he likes (by virtue of his powerful status as Elesin-Oba) and that is why even at the dying moments of the funeral ceremony, he decides to marry the lady who has already been betrothed to Iyaloja’s son.
The climax of the play is centred on an important ritual, an honourable suicide for the late king by Elesin-Oba. Elesin-Oba is fully aware of the demands and seriousness of his communal mission. He is being constantly reminded of this by Iyaloja and the praise-singer.
As a result of being lustful, Elesin chooses the market place, his roost, the scene of his earlier sex exploits as his stand for the funeral rites. With exuberant pride and arrogance, he relates his sex exploits with gusto and climaxes it with taking a new bride already betrothed to another man.
The traditionally solemn funeral dirge is mixed with the frantic drumming of the marriage ceremony. The pomp and pageantry last longer than usual and eventually disturb the peace of the district officer, who also has an important ceremony on his hands that night- the reception of the British royal personage, which demands tight security and utmost peace. He therefore, sends Sergeant Amusa to stop the ceremony and when the party resisted, Elesin is arrested, handcuffed and locked away in a room. In the words of Olagoke (1986) that is the whole Yoruba universe locked up in a room.
It is Olunde his son who restores his family’s honour by dying in place of his father to complete the rituals thus showing that his father’s failure is a flaw which needs to be corrected. In anguish and deepest sorrow, Elesin committed suicide when he realizes the futility of his escapades.
4.0 The Analysis
The following is an analysis of Death and the king’s Horseman from the perspectives of semiotics. Semiotics is chosen as the model of analysis because it is readily adaptable to the lexical projection of the play. The analysis will examine the occurrences of lexical items such as death, father, and market and relate its meaning to the overall message of the play
4.1 Father
Father is a very prominent lexical item that is used several times in the play. Literarily, the word is capable of being denotative signified which means it can appear in the first order of signification. In that regard it would ordinarily have referred to the relationship that exists between Elesin and olunde. This is because olunde is the son while Elesin is the father. But in the context of the play which it appears, it is connotative signified and as such, appear in the second order of signification. The signifier Father and its respective signified at the connotative levels of interpretation. This leads us to the appropriated signified which will be attached through what exactly becomes the context of situation. For example, in this context, the sign father is a signifier and the signified is the superordinate position of Elesin-Oba in the play.
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In the play, Elesin-Oba is placed on the highest pedestal and he can do whatever he likes. Elesin in the play is a man of enormous vitality. That is, he is having abundant zest for living in form of enjoyment of honour, pleasure, power, women and in fact, all the good things of life.
He has the privilege of marrying any woman he likes and that is why even at the dying moments of the funeral ceremony he decides to marry the lady who has already been betrothed to Iyaloja’s son. He commandeers any clothes to wear and any food to eat. To buttress his position as the father of all, the women of the market indicated to Elesin that the town, the very land was his. That means that he can do whatever he likes. In that exalted position of Elesin, he is like the king himself who has to be obeyed in every of his whims and caprices.
Let us take a few extracts from the play to buttress what we are saying:
(i) Correct us like a kind father (p. 154)
Here, Elesin is being referred to as the father of all the race in that play. He is being elevated to the exalted position of father of all just like the ancestors.
(ii) Tonight, our husband and father will prove himself greater than the law of the strangers (p. 154)
Also, here the same referent is as above. Elesin is still their husband, father and even everything. The market women are hoping that he would have committed suicide before the white man can intervene or intrude.
(iii) It does not bear thinking. If we offend you now, we have mortified the gods. We offend heaven itself. Father of us all, tell us where we went astray.
In the above extract, the enormity of the offence that is inherent in offending Elesin in his role as the father of them all is vividly portrayed here. To offend Elesin and all what he stands for is like offending the heaven itself as Iyaloja puts it here.
From the above examples, we will discover that Elesin occupies a high position in the society and he is the one that must be obeyed. He must not be refused anything and he must not be angry with them. That is why Iyaloja asserts that offending Elesin is like offending the heaven itself. He is their superordinate father who towers above them like a colossus. That is why even Iyaloja dares not refuse him a lady that has already been betrothed to her own son. Whether she likes it or not she must not refuse him.
4.2 Death
Death is another lexical item that is used in the play with significant meaning. The sign Death can also be denotative signified, but it is connotative signified in the context in which it appears. Ordinarily and denotatively, death means the demise of a human being. But in the play it is used connotative signified to mean the continuity of a race. It is like the rebirth of a generation. Elesin must die to accompany the late king for the continuity of Yorubas race. The entire Yoruba race depends on the death of
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Elesin, and only his blood can sustain the race; if he fails, that is if he chooses to live, everything is out of place and hardly can any other blood retrieve the cultural calamity (Olagoke 1986). The praise singer buttresses this when he says:
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:
In that extract, the praise-singer is talking about the calamity that will befall the Yoruba race if Elesin refuses to die and which Elesin replies that it did not happen in the time of his forebears, and it shall not happen in his own time. This implies that all the events in the entire play depend on the death of Elesin for the continuity of Yoruba race. For example, in the play:
(1) He who must, must voyage forth
The world will not roll backwards
It is he who must, with one great
Gesture over take the world. (p. 156)
In the extract above, the praise-singer is talking about the imminent death of Elesin and also the calamity that will befall their world if he fails to do so.
The Yoruba race believes very much in using euphemism to recall bad and unpleasant events. That is why the praise-singer did not actually mention death but portrays it with some other expressions.
(2) And we know you’ll leave it so (p. 156)
Here, the woman are also sounding a piece of warning to Elesin that it is by his death that he can leave the world as good as orderly as he met it.
(3) ….. Tell him you say! You wish that I burden him with knowledge that will sour his wish and lay regrets on the last moments of his mind. You pray to him who is your intercessor to the world-don’t set this world adrift in your own time, would you rather it was my hand whose sacrilege wrenched it loose? (p. 161)
Also here, Iyaloja is talking about the impending death of Elesin and because of that, she does not want to refuse his last and dying wishes. Also she knows how enormous the offence she would have committed would be if she had refused him.
(4)… You who now bestride the hidden gulf and pause to draw the right foot across and into the resting home of the great forebears, it is good that your loins be drained into the earth we know, that your last strength be ploughed back into the womb that gave you being (p. 161).
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In the extract above, Iyaloja is also talking about Elesin’s death. Here, Iyaloja is saying that it is because of this death that she is allowing Elesin to marry the woman already betrothed to her son.
(5) … The fruit of such a union is rare. It will be neither of this world nor of the next. Nor of the one behind us. As if the timelessness of the ancestor world and the unborn have joined spirits to wring an issue of the elusive being of passage… (p. 162).
Iyaloja is here also talking about the death of Elesin. She is referring posthumously to the child that will come from such a reunion which she refers to as an elusive being of passage.
(6) The living must eat and drink. When the moment comes, don’t turn the food to rodent’s droppings in the mouth. Don’t let them taste the ashes of the world when they step out at down to breathe the morning dew (p. 162)
Iyaloja also warns Elesin here that all the land and everything in it is his now to enjoy but when the time of his death comes, he must not falter. She also talks about the calamity that will befall their race if Elesin refuses to die.
(7) No one knows when the ants desert their home; they leave the mound intact. The swallow is never seen to pack holes in its nest when it is time to move with the season.. There are always throngs of humanity behind the leave-taker. The rain should not come through the roof for them, the wind must not blow through the walls at night (p. 162).
Here, Iyaloja is piling up words and expressions to remind Elesin of his death that night which he must never refuse.
(8) You wish to travel light. Well the earth is yours. But be sure that the seed you leave in it attracts no curse (p. 162).
Also here, Iyaloja is warning Elesin that he must die so that there will be continuity of life.
4.3 Market
Market is another sign that is highly significant and prominent in the play. Market is a signifier that has its own signified. It is capable of being denotative or connotative signified, in that regard, it can emerge in the first order of signification with literal or ordinary meanings. For example, market is usually a large open space set apart from buying or selling. In Yorubaland, it is always in the heart of the city very close to Oba’s palace. But in the context of the play, it is functioning under the second order of signification, making use of the signifier and the signified for the connotative significations. In the light of this, market, a signifier, has the signified enjoyment, fun, merriment, pleasure and women. Elesin being a man of enormous vitality, lustful and voluptuous relishes and revels in market place. That is why Elesin chooses the market
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place, his roost, the scene of his earlier sex adventures as his spot for his demise to the land of the great beyond.
Let us take the following examples:
(i) … This market is my roost. When I come among the women, I am chicken with a hundred mothers. I become a monarch whose palace is built with tenderness and beauty. (P.148).
Elesin here is talking about enjoyment. He knows that Market connotes enjoyment to him, especially of women, since women dominate the market. Women stand for beauty and tenderness and Elesin is particularly a lusty character who enjoys them to the fullest.
(ii) …. The market is the long-suffering home of my spirit and the women are packing up to go… (p. 147).
Here, Elesin is talking about the market as a second home to him. Since he is nymphomaniac, he loves the market like a home because it is full of women where he can have his fill of them. Elesin hints about his impending death here.
(iii) Tell me friends, am I still earthed in that beloved market of my youth? (p. 157)
Elesin wonders whether he still alive in his beloved market or dead. This statement implies that Elesin does not want to depart from his beloved market.
(iv) And that radiance which so suddenly lit up this market I could boast I knew so well? (p. 159)
As it is the custom for Elesin to enjoy himself with market women, here, he sees a beautiful lady in the market which eventually prevents him from committing the ritualistic suicide and spells doom for him.
(v) Iyaloja, mother of multitudes in the teeming market of the world (p. 161)
Here the praise-singer’s utterance clearly shows the connotative meaning of the market. Teeming market of the world refers to the market full of bevy of ladies and women which represents enjoyment, pleasure and merriment.
In the above analysis, we have seen how market represents enjoyment, fun, pleasure and merriment. Elesin, also being a lustful character relishes in it. Because market signified enjoyment Elesin recalls his earlier exploits with gusto and exuberance. Customarily for him, he sees the most beautiful girl who has already been betrothed to Iyaloja’s son and he decides to marry her since he knows that he can not be denied anything in his exalted position as Elesin. Iyaloja consents but warns Elesin of his duty as Elesin so as not to leave behind an elusive being of passage.
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5.0 Conclusion
From the analysis above, we have seen that Wole Soyinka’s Death and the king’s Horseman is a creation of great power and beauty, to use the words of the West Indian playwright, Derek Walcott. Equally inspiring is the insight gained from the analysis through semiotic perspective. We have been able to see how the major words in the play such as Death, Father and Market have been used as signs and signifiers which signified the major events and episodes in the play and in this regard, the essence of the play. It is hoped that this analysis will serve as insight that will illuminate more study of Wole Soyinka’s major works which hitherto have been labelled as obscure, difficult and ambiguous.
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