Elesin Oba: The Tragic Effect of British Imperialism on African Societies and Culture || by Kehinde Ayanboade

If the British colonial masters had done no other thing, the use of compelling force and overriding effect on the political, economic and cultural activities of African societies during their colonial days is enough an under-discussed case to examine, treat and discuss in roundtable cultural reviews and public traditional discussions.

With every African society is a fixed set of cultures, norms and traditions believed to be practiced by the descendants in conformity with their parents and forefather's way of life. With the use of trans - generational instruments like oral traditions, folklores, drums, moonlight tales, rituals, festivals, storytelling and physical performance, people who belong to a society are able to learn the ethics in the culture they found themselves in.

However, The British rulership did not only disrupt the political organization and economic activities of the African colony but also brought about some forms of disorientation, invasion, cultural alienation and interrupted some of the cultural practices that didn't go down well with the western (culture) way of life.

The movie, Elesin Oba translated "The King's Horseman" is a 2022 Nollywood movie directed by the late multi-talented, Biyi Bandele released on the 28th of September, 2022 with a mixture of African and foreign characters as cast. 

Elesin Oba is a theatrical adaptation of the book titled "Death and the Horseman" by Nobel Laureate prize winner, Prof. Wole Soyinka  which mimed it inspiration from the wish to revisit the effect of colonial rule on African societies with focus on the Yoruba culture and traditions during the British colonial era. The movie takes the colouration of actual life events in the old Oyo empire of Yoruba where the combination of fate, dramatis distraction and British overriding effect derailed the success of a very important cultural rite.

Yoruba Belief on Elesin Oba

In Yoruba land, it is believed that when a king dies, there is an important generational rite to be performed which necessitates a major figure known as the "Elesin Oba" otherwise regarded as the "Abobaku" to sacrifice himself to serve the ruler in the afterlife. 

The inability to perform this rite is believed to however result in the dire consequence of which the deceased be left wandering and might bring ill and misfortune on his people. It is believed in the Yoruba cultural system that after death, there is an afterlife. For a late monarch, the Elesin Oba will serve as a companion, and a torchbearer for the late king in the afterlife.

The Elesin Oba or Abobaku in Yoruba Land is a well decorated chief, while the king is alive, the Abobaku is allowed to enjoy a pool of luxury and wealth. He enjoys many privileges and the right to do many things but when the king passes on, it is an automatic death note to the King Horseman to sacrifice himself without a stipulated period of time.

Elesin Oba: The Plot

The movie began in the setting of which the king had just been announced dead, and the rite to which the horseman must join him commences. The King's Dog had just been killed. and Abobaku must submit to his death during this period. Elesin Oba, acted by the lusty Odunlade Adekola played the role of a man distracted by fate to perform his rite.

Odunlade Adekola in this movie enjoying the luxury derailed the expected rite with the sexual pleasure to get married to a virgin which he believed to serve as a send forth, a request reluctantly accepted by the Iyalode which delayed the rite before the British magistrate arrested him and forestall the process. The Elesin Oba's son, Olunde who saw the arrest and failure to perform the expected rite as a 'shame' to his lineage later submitted himself to the sacrifice in place of his father. Elesin Oba upon seeing the dead body of Olunde laying down committed suicide by hanging. 

A Lot of movie critics had dropped their comments on the plot and settings of the movie but this article will visit the position of the British masters on the failure of this rite and their general contribution to the extinction of African cultural practices.

The British in the movie portrayed a mental picture of disrespect to African culture, it can be seen on the first quarter of the movie that the British Resident Commissioner, Pilkings and his wife Jane were cluelessly and comically roaming around their house in the sacred egungun regalia which was seized during the arrest of a native traditionalist. The messenger, Sergeant Amusa (acted by Jide Kosoko) warned them about the cultural disrespect which they refused to heed.

In another case, Pilkings sees suicide no matter the form where it is potrayed as a local and bad idea and decided to forestall the process by saving Elesin's life, not minding whose oars is gores.

African Culture: The Declining Effect

Generally, it can be agreed that the coming of the global west to African soil contributed to the declining effect on African customs and traditional values. 

Aside from overriding the cultural practices,the European's way of life has affected negatively the way Africans behave, through the use of disorientation tools, their mode of dressing, their style of relation and what they believe to be their values has changed. The introduction of industrialization and urbanization forced men to leave their villages to find work which resulted in breaking the strong family ties in African homes.

Ferdinand Tonnes in one of his books on social theories identified the concept of Gemeinschaft and the Gesellschaft system (the old (communal) and new (associational) society). The Gemeinschaft system which replicates the old African society believes strongly in the spirit of togetherness, communalism and peaceful coexistence. This system is built on the fact that "What affects one affects all '', All for one and one for all. People have simple and direct face to face relations with each other, while the other contrasting system believes in the new capitalist system and rational will, where "All Man for Himself". This system is typified by modern, cosmopolitan societies with a huge desire for self interest and maximizing of economic and political profit not minded who is affected.

The coming of the Europeans had also affected the thrive of locally made craftsmanship and products. African society has a pool of ideas that worked locally and boosted their economy before the global west made use of their effect to sway away the relevance of these vocations and made people patronize foreign made products. The effect of British colonialism on religion can also not be underestimated.

Late Mr. Biyi Bandele's storytelling prowess in combination with nice and modern camera angle and positioning made the movie a top notch of the movies released in the year 2022. His past movies which includes "Half of a Yellow Sun" with Chiwetel Ejiofor and Thandiwe Newton was an adaptation of the Chimamanda Adichie novel back in 2013 is superb and of course, this theatrical adaptation of Wole Soyinka's "Death and the King Horseman" novel is not a bad production.