Death and the King's Horseman

Content Warning: This section of the study guide references ritual suicide and death by suicide.

Throughout the play, Yoruba characters accuse one another of eating “leftovers.” This slight symbolizes that an individual has no sense of honor. They are content to do with what others throw away, meaning that they have little dignity or self-respect. When Amusa goes to the market attempting to stop Elesin’s suicide, the girls that block his way call him an “eater of white left-overs” (39) and tell him he is not welcome at their mothers’ table. Amusa has abandoned his Yoruba principles and attempted to assimilate into British culture, but he remains on the lowest rung of the social ladder, shunned by both cultures.

Later, both Olunde and Iyaloja turn this insult on Elesin. Iyaloja tells the disgraced man that he has settled for fighting cats and mice “for the left-overs of the world” (68). Elesin abandoned the glory awaiting him for fulfilling his duty in favor of leftovers fit only for animals, signifying his complete loss of honor.

The Not-I bird is an important symbol of the Yoruba mentality toward death in the play. In the first act, Elesin tells