Following a real series of events set in Oyo, Nigeria of 1943 during the World War II, Elesin Oba The King’s Horseman is based on Wole Soyinka’s play Death and the King’s Horseman in English. The same was translated to a screenplay in Yoruba, voicing the native tongue, by the late Biyi Bandele.
Starring Odunlade Adekola, Shaffy Bello, Deyemi Okanlawon, Omowunmi Dada and more, the film is all about the titular personality destined to lay down his life after the King’s death. After a month of his demise, a ceremony is to be hosted with plans of Elesin’s sacrifice as per the customs of their culture. However, colonial forces leading with their ‘burden’ of ‘saving the less civilized’ ruin the plans of his own consent along with his personal sexual escapades postponing the event.
Netflix describes the film as:
IN THIS CAPTIVATING DRAMA, A HORSEMAN FACES TRAGIC CONSEQUENCES WHEN BRITISH FORCES PREVENT HIS RITUAL SACRIFICE.
-Elesin Oba: The King’s Horseman Ending Explained Contains Spoilers-
Once the wedding ceremony with his new bride is over and the consummation is celebrated as a holy event by the community’s women, Elesin gets ready for the sacrificial ritual. Meanwhile, his son, Olunde reaches out to Jane, the district officer’s wife to let his father successfully complete the ritual. The district officer himself accompanies his guards and locks up Elesin before the ritual is initiated, thinking he’s saved him. Long opposing exchanges follow thereafter between Elesin and the district officer as well as Elesin and Iyaloja, discussing the basis of the ritual and how Elesin has failed to enact his duty.
Elesin Oba The King’s Horseman Ending Explained
The British district officer incarcerates Elesin Oba. Upon visiting him in the prison situated in the open fields of the Yoruba land, the officer strikes a conversation with him. However, the latter looks at the colonial usurper with distaste for having disrupted their ritual of ensuring a safe and peaceful passage for the king to the afterlife which required him to sacrifice himself and lay down beside the king. While Elesin speaks to the officer in his native Yoruba tongue, the officer speaks to him in English, yet it seems that both of them understand the each other’s language enough to make out what they’re saying.
Elesin finally recognizes his son’s native disposition despite his foreign outer choice of clothing. He rebukes the officer for having pulled Olunde, his son to a land alien to his upbringing, away from his culture. On the other hand, the officer tries to keep up a consoling front, thinking that he has saved Elesin from attempting suicide, resulting from his inability to understand his culture. Elesin though declaring that he needs no such consolation, curses him and his future generations for keeping him from fulfilling his destiny.
Also Read: Elesin Oba: The King’s Horseman Review: Keeping the Inspiration and Roots Alive and Authentic
After a much heated exchange between the two, Iyaloja visits Elesin with a message from Olunde. As ashamed as he feels, he’s ready to take it all and tells the officer that there’s no need to bar her from meeting him. Restricting her from crossing the line to reach closer to Elesin, the officer leaves the two alone with the guards. Iyaloja calls him out and reprimands him for not having acted along the lines of the words he preached. Both of them express their respective intense vehemence against the happenings of the night.
Soon, a procession of the Yoruba clan follows with women singing on a solemn note and carrying a dead body. Iyaloja hints at a tragedy having befallen the old man and moves a step closer. The guards ring the alarm and the officer rushes back to lock the gate of the prison. Seeing this, Iyaloja directs her sharp words at the officer, questioning the the legitimacy of their ruler and how their people acted to repay his honor.
She and Elesin’s former praise singer start mocking him for his fickle words and for having backed out of his duty. He catches the hint and asks them to reveal the dead man’s face, only for it to be his own son, Olunde, who chose to carry out the ritual in place of his father.
Seeing this and listening to all the hard-hitting verbal attacks of his people, he’s overtaken by grief and hangs himself in the prison. The British officer and his guards struggle to unlock the gate as quickly as possible but Elesin had already done what he’d been meaning to do. The tragic ending is not just for him to bear alone, it affects his son and his newly wed bride as well along with the entire community. Instead of the one sacrifice that was initially being celebrated by everyone, in the end, there lay two dead bodies, that of the father and his son, a tragedy shattering their entire community.
Iyaloja puts up a brave face and guides her people to forget about both the dead and the living and to only pay attention to the unborn, hinting at the possible future child of Elesin and his new bride, now a widow.
Elesin Oba The King’s Horseman is now streaming on Netflix.