Elesin Oba: The Kings Horseman Netflix Movie: All you need to know
Here is all you need to know about Elesin Oba The Kings Horseman Netflix Movie.
Elesin Oba The Kings Horseman Netflix Movie
“I have to report, that one prominent chief- namely “The Elesin Oba”, is to commit death tonight as a result of Native custom”
Set in Oyo in the 1940s, Elesin Oba The King’s Horseman will thrill Netflix viewers…
Background of Elesin Oba Movie
Elesin Oba The kings Horseman Movie builds upon the true story on which Soyinka based the play, to focus on the character of Elesin, the King’s Horseman of the title.
According to some Yoruba traditions, the death of the king must be followed by the ritual suicide of the king’s horseman as well as the king’s dog and horse, because the horseman’s spirit is essential to helping the King’s spirit ascend to the afterlife.
Otherwise, the king’s spirit will wander the earth and bring harm to his people.
The first half of the play documents the process of this ritual, with the potent, life-loving figure Elesin living out his final day in celebration before the ritual process begins. At the last minute, the local colonial administrator, Simon Pilkings, intervenes, the suicide being viewed as illegal and unnecessary by the colonial authorities.
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About Elesin Oba The kings Horseman Netflix Movie
Elesin Oba the Kings Horseman Netflix movie revolves around a prominent tradition in the Yoruba Land where the Elesin Oba has to die alongside the king so as to accompany him to heaven.
Elesin Oba The kings Horseman Netflix movie is set during the colonial era of the Nigeria; when the whites came to colonize Nigeria.
In Elesin Oba, the colonizers couldn’t make sense of the tradition as they couldn’t comprehend any possible reason why someone had to die with the king.
However, Tradition must be carried out and respected and Elesin Oba The Kings Horseman Netflix Movie revolves around this old but currently non-existent Yoruba Tradition.
Elesin Oba The Kings Horseman movie is an adaptation of Wole Soyinka’s book of the same name “Death and the Kings Horseman” and it is directed and written by Biyi Bandele
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Storyline
In a certain village, The king died and as tradition dictates, Elesin Oba: The Kings Horseman, must die with him for safe passage to the land of the dead.
Elesin Oba Netflix Movie sees a tradition that has been upheld by hundreds of years challenged by the morality of the colonizers.
They claim that since the king is dead, it is a criminal offence to kill another person just so he can accompany the King.
In Elesin Oba Netflix Movie, the basis of the Colonizers argument is that nobody needs anyone to accompany each other to the land of the dead and that death does not work that way.
Regardless , Elesin Oba The kings Horseman Movie challenges the logic behind this tradition and sees the Kings Horseman himself angered by the White man’s insistence to stop him from killing himself and accompanying himself.
It is believed that if he doesn’t, the gods would be angered and things would go wrong for the villagers.
Elesin Oba The kings Horseman Netflix movie further progresses when the Kings Horseman (Character played by Odunlade Adekola), sends for his son Olunde (Character played by Deyemi Okanlawon) who has come to bury his father who wants to kill himself because tradition demands it.
The Kings Horseman’s son does not want his father (Character played by Odunlade Adekola) to die.
Meanwhile, he is at a dilemma because his education was sponsored by the White Man (Simon Pilkings) who now believes that his level of education should have afforded him enough intellectual deductive reasoning to know that such barbaric tradition offends morality.
The kings Horseman Netflix movie offers a trajectory into the life of Elesin Oba (Character played by Odunlade Adekola) who let his intelligent son go to The White Man’s land to get educated.
Meanwhile he must fulfil his sacred duty of dying for his king. He is distracted by sexual allure of a woman, and then there’s the White man
But will the White men let him? And won’t all hell break lose because his journey is a tortuous one?
Release Date
Elesin Oba The kings Horseman movie starts showing on Netflix on Friday, November 4, 2022. Click here to watch on Netflix
Cast of Elesin Oba Netflix Movie
Elesin Oba The kings Horseman Netflix Movie has an ensemble cast of Odunlade Adekola, Shaffy Bello, Omawumi Dada, Deyemi Okanlawon, Brymo, Jide Kosoko and Joke Silva.
Meet the full cast of Elesin Oba here
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About Death and the Kings Horseman Play by Wole Soyinka
Death and the King’s Horseman is a play by Wole Soyinka based on a real incident that took place in Nigeria during the colonial era: the horseman of a Yoruba King was prevented from committing ritual suicide by the colonial authorities.
In addition to the intervention of the colonial authorities, Soyinka calls the horseman’s own conviction toward suicide into question, posing a problem that throws off the community’s balance.
Soyinka wrote the play in Cambridge, where he was a fellow at Churchill College during his political exile from Nigeria.
He has also written a preface to the play, explaining what he sees as the greatest misconceptions in understanding it. In particular, he says that the play should not be considered as “clash of cultures.”
Rather, the play demonstrates the need for interaction between African and European cultures, as per Soyinka’s post-Biafra cultural philosophy
In the play, the result for the community is catastrophic, as the breaking of the ritual means the disruption of the cosmic order of the universe and thus the well-being and future of the collectivity is in doubt. The community blames Elesin as much as Pilkings, accusing him of being too attached to the earth to fulfil his spiritual obligations.
Events lead to tragedy when Elesin’s son, Olunde, who has returned to Nigeria from studying medicine in Europe, takes on the responsibility of his father and commits ritual suicide in his place so as to restore the honour of his family and the order of the universe.
Consequently, Elesin kills himself, condemning his soul to a degraded existence in the next world. In addition, the dialogue of the native suggests that this may have been insufficient and that the world is now “adrift in the void”.
Another Nigerian playwright, Duro Ladipo, had already written a play in the Yoruba language based on this incident, called Oba waja (“The King is Dead”).
