Wole Soyinka is a playwright, novelist, poet, and essayist born in Abeokuta, Nigeria in 1934.
Soyinka won the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature with his debut novel, The Interpreters, becoming the first-ever African laureate and has since won many other prizes such as the Academy of Achievement Golden Plate Award in 2009 and the Anisfield-Wolf book Award, Lifetime Achievement in 2012.
A prominent political activist, Soyinka was imprisoned for nearly two years during the Nigerian Civil War and was later exiled. He continues to fight against government corruption and oppression worldwide.

"The action of the play is as inevitable and eloquent as in Antigone: a clash of values and cultures so fundamental that tragedy issues: a tragedy for each individual, each tribe" Daily Telegraph

"This play, by the winner of a Nobel Prize for Literature, asks: 'On the authority of what gods' the white aliens rupture the world. It puts exciting political theatre back on the agenda. . . a masterpiece of 20th century drama" Guardian

Elesin Oba, the King's Horseman, has a single destiny. When the King dies, he must commit ritual suicide and lead his King's favourite horse and dog through the passage to the world of the ancestors. A British Colonial Officer, Pilkings, intervenes.

This edition features an interview with the author.

Commentary and notes by Jane Plastow