The GIS community was given a glimpse of pre-colonial Nigeria and its rich Yoruba culture in the GIS student production of ‘Death and the King’s Horseman’. It was truly an eye-opening and expansive experience which those who performed in it gave to the audience to educate us on how the traditional ritual of joining ancestors posed conflict between the locals and the British in those days.
This is another production given by GIS to our community with our long-standing tradition of plays and musicals, from Annie, the first-ever musical to debut and kick start the tradition, with many more recognised plays and musicals to follow, such as Sarafina, The Prince of Egypt, Les Miserables and many more, leading up to this current play. To give a brief summary, Death and the King’s Horseman is a drama written by Wole Soyinka based on a true incident that occurred in Nigeria during the colonial era: the colonial authorities prevented a Yoruba King’s horseman from executing ceremonial suicide. In addition to the colonial authorities’ interference, Soyinka brings into question the horseman’s own conviction toward suicide, providing an issue that throws the community’s equilibrium off.
The hours of dedication the students, teachers, and external helpers put into this production was definitely not the easiest challenge to be taken up, especially with the obvious factor that the play is a historic one and the students not being around during that era. This meant students and teachers working together to recreate an era in which they had never lived, paying close attention to historical and traditional Nigerian and British details in pre-colonial Nigeria, from finding props, costumes, and other items not commonly seen in Ghanaian cultures, such as the horse’s tail prominently worn by Nigerian chiefs, to ball gowns and hand-making masquerade masks. The intense rehearsals the student actors had from September 2021 up till the day of the play was immeasurable, to say the least and has given them all a glimpse of the world of drama to those aspiring to take it on in the future, or those who simply wanted to dabble in it for the experience.
The students have definitely grown from their time in the play into individuals who know the importance of teamwork, hard work, connecting to their African roots and so many more valuable lessons they wouldn’t get from anywhere else. All the determined work they had put into this play posed an even greater reward to them, as the outcome was one far beyond our expectations and left them with the experience of a lifetime one won’t forget so shortly. It has been imprinted in their minds and will surely be able to talk about it more in the new environments they enter with the good and greater memories in store. We would like to express our heartfelt gratitude on behalf of the GIS community to the actors, crew, and staff who collaborated to make this performance a huge success!
