YORUBA DANCERS Image: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/77/Ayo_Adewunmi_-_Yoruba_Dancers.jpg/800px-Ayo_Adewunmi_-_Yoruba_Dancers.jpg?20151124151735
Published in 1975, the play Death and the King’s Horseman tells the story of the obstacles that Elesin Oba—the king’s horseman—faces on the night he is supposed to commit ritual suicide to follow the recently departed king into the afterlife. Elesin struggles with his commitment to following through with the act, even as the English colonial officer Simon Pilkings also tries to prevent his death. Elesin knows that failure to fulfill his duty could lead to strife for his people, but neither he nor Pilkings are prepared for the consequences of his failure to fulfill his duty. (CliffNotes)
Death and the Kings Horseman by 
Wole Soyinka, in full Akinwande Oluwole Soyinka , (born July 13, 1934, Abeokuta, Nigeria), Nigerian playwright and political activist who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986. He sometimes wrote of modern West Africa in a satirical style, but his serious intent and his belief in the evils inherent in the exercise of power were usually evident in his work as well. (Britannica School)
Wole Soyinka on how he came to write Death and the King's Horseman The Guardian
The King’s Horseman, Nigeria’s most famous play, is now a Netflix movie: what makes it a classic? The Conversation
Wole Soyinka’s life of writing holds Nigeria up for scrutiny The Conversation
Wole Soyinka's Death and the King's Horseman Harvard Wiki
The New Theater Review Death and the King's Horseman Lincoln Center Theater
Yoruba, one of the three largest ethnic groups of Nigeria, concentrated in the southwestern part of that country. Much smaller, scattered groups live in Benin and northern Togo. The Yoruba numbered more than 20 million at the turn of the 21st century. They speak a language of the Benue-Congo branch of the Niger-Congo language family.
"Wole Soyinka, in full Akinwande Oluwole Soyinka , (born July 13, 1934, Abeokuta, Nigeria), Nigerian playwright and political activist who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986. He sometimes wrote of modern West Africa in a satirical style, but his serious intent and his belief in the evils inherent in the exercise of power were usually evident in his work as well.
A member of the Yoruba people, Soyinka attended Government College and University College in Ibadan before graduating in 1958 with a degree in English from the University of Leeds in England. Upon his return to Nigeria, he founded an acting company and wrote his first important play, A Dance of the Forests ." (Britannica)
In 1986 Nigeria’s Wole Soyinka became the first black African to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. (Britannica School High)
