With a society that embraces labels and stereotypes it is often hard to categorize an entire nation of people. Yet the British colonies were so apt to regard the African people as savage and barbaric that they looked upon them with a superior ignorant complex. They did not understand their culture and regarded their beliefs and customs as magical and sacrilegious. This regard did not stem from a hostile origin; they just did not understand what they didn’t know. The truth of the matter is that they had no wish to understand or comprehend worlds and ways outside their realm. In the play Death and the King’s Horseman, by Wole Soyinka, two characters embody the average viewpoint of the British towards the African people of Nigeria in 1946. Jane and Simon Pilkings allow for the reader to look through British eyes and somewhat understand their viewpoints toward the natives and their customs
The reader is introduced to these two characters in Act two of the play. They are dancing around their verandah dressed in an African ancestral masquerade called an egungun. This costume holds great importance to the African people and is regarded with respect. The fact that Jane and Simon are parading around their house dancing in this dres
During this conversation Jane has comments of her own that further pushes her into this little box. She sums up her own opinion of the custom that Elesin must fulfill to Olunde. “How cleverly you try to put it, it is still a barbaric custom. It is even worse – it’s feudal! The King dies and a chieftain must be buried with him. How feudalistic can you get! ”(53) She will never understand this tradition and is so hell bent that she is right that the British way is correct.
Jane and Pilkings, while they are not bad people, are ignorant to other people. Oblivious would not be a suitable word to describe them; they choose not to understand, they choose not to accept. They look upon these people as godless and savage and that they are in need of their guidance. They expect the Africans to welcome them with open arms almost as if to thank them for bringing them to the salvation that the British regard as saving. Simon tries everything within his power to stop Elesin from committing suicide, it’s not so much that he cares about Elesin but that if he allowed Elesin to continue with this tradition there would be no order among the Africans. Olunde said it perfectly; they have no respect for what they do not understand. I add on an extra saying that more adequately describes them in my opinion; they do not wish to understand either.
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