By Aremu Lukman Umor
Elesin Oba takes us back to the Old Oyo empire in presentation. It sheds more light to how the colonial masters condemned and desecrated some of our traditions.
The movie is about an Elesin Oba (The King’s Horseman) who is supposed to accompany the late king to the other side of life according to tradition.
On the day he will say his goodbye to the earth and begins his journey of no return, he’s expected to roam the market on a fanfare and enjoy his choice of things including human(s).
It’s on this historical day he comes across a cherubic and pretty damsel who is the Iyaloja’s son’s fiancée. Iyaloja is the female head of the market.
He ogles her and asks Iyaloja to make him and the lady’s wedding possible. He says he wants to leave a seed behind. Iyaloja talks to all the parties involved including her son; and they all agree that he weds her.
While the wedding ceremony is going on, Amusa hurries to inform the District Officer (white man) who runs some of the affairs of the village for the benefit of his people.
There, Amusa runs into the white man and his wife’s private life. They’re dancing romantically to a love song in masquerade’s clothing. He’s shocked to see them in the attire.
And while he struggles to enlighten them with his incoherent English that the attire is not meant for uninitiated person; Ogberi, they ask him to pen down his report and leave.
When he leaves, the white man picks up the report and reads it out to his wife. “A chief is about to kill himself…” He calls his guards and asks them to go and prevent him from taking his life. This is how the King’s Horseman finds himself in the gulag!
All the efforts of his people to secure his bail so that he’ll perform the ritual rites don’t yield. And the king can’t be buried without his Horseman’s lifeless body beside his. If the Horseman is unable to journey with him on that night, spell will fall on his family and the entire village.
For such not to happen, his bright son Olunde who has just returned from the United Kingdom upon hearing that the King is late and his father is to be buried with him according to the tradition, sacrifices his life to avert the curse.
When the news gets to the King’s Horseman of his son’s decision; he hangs himself!
Elesin Oba is an adaptation of Professor Wole Soyinka’s ‘Death and the King’s Horseman’. The movie pictures the old Oyo empire expectedly. The diction and costumes are wonderfully presented.
Shola Shobowale would have done well as the Iyaloja because of her enthralling actions. But she can’t speak the Oyo Yoruba fluently. We saw that in Aníkúlápó. Therefore, I prefer the Iyaloja to her.
On the King’s Horseman. Inasmuch as I prefer Ibrahim Chatta, Odunlade Adekola didn’t disappoint me. He gave his best.
Singer Brymo who is Olohun Iyo (praise singer) in the movie also did well. It was his debut and he acted as if he had been in the industry for decades.
I rate Elesin Oba 8/10
