SCENE 3

BACK TO THE MARKETPLACE

 NOTE TO SELF

• Short dirge music to play:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWkc4xj3K18&ab_channel=SagaciousPedagogues

In the second half of this scene

 TASK
In chronological order, sketch the FOUR key moments of this Scene. Put an apt
quote(s) underneath your sketch (with its page number).
1. Mocking Amusa
2. Elesin emerges with that towel
3. He moves down the passage-way of people to begin his journey
4. His dance into a trance, further and further.
1pt for each part; 2pts for each quote. Bonuses for effort, neatness Total = 12
 TASK
1pt for each part; 2pts for each quote. 2pts for effort, neatness Total = 14
Other responses from the class:
1. Amusa and the girls
2. Amusa and the women / women and girls
3. Elesin’s first movement into trance
4. Praise-Singer “breaks down” at the very end.
THE WORLD OF THE YORUBA AND THE WORLD OF COLONIAL
RULERS SEEM TO EXIST SEPARATELY FROM EACH OTHER.

• The mocking of Amusa and accompanying constables (2)

• The women and girls are not just rude but also crude (sexual joking). They chase Amusa away
• Elesin arrives from the hut – his marriage bed – brandishing the blood of his virgin bride.
She’s no longer a virgin: “It is no mere virgin stain, but the last from this flesh
intermingled with the promise of future life.” (p.43)
• The scene then shifts in atmosphere from mockery – through the drum beat – to create the
TRANCE that will take Elesin to the next life: “All is prepared. Listen! (A steady drumbeat
from the distance.) Yes. It is nearly time. The King’s dog has been killed. The King’s
favourite horse is about to follow his master.” (p.43)
 ANY BUDDING ACTORS/IMPERSONATORS TO
DELIVER THE GIRLS’ MIMICRY OF THE ENGLISH?
• How would these accents sound? (p.40-41)
• Even more humiliating for Amusa is that it’s “girls” who chase them away. This doesn’t say
much for the colonial police force.
• In the girls’ mocking dialogue they pretty much get right the stereotypes of the sort of British
person who would be in the colonies:
Invitation events; being introduced & offering drinks (manners); talk of the natives; talk of the
weather; talk of golf; horse racing; the club; doing one’s best for King and country! They also
mock their typical vocabulary well: teeny-weeny, one might say.., a rather…, old chap, by golly,
splendid, kept the flag flying, ..do our best for the old country, too kind.
 AMUSA

GIRL: Then tell him to leave this market. This

is the home of our mothers. We don’t
want the eater of white left-overs at the feast
their hands have prepared. (p.42)
 YORUBA

Overall, life is life, the land is land:

Woman: Is it not the same ocean that washes this land and the
white man’s land. Tell your white man he can hide our son
away as long as he likes. When the time comes for him, the
same ocean will bring him back. (p.38)
 ELESIN OBA. READY AND UNREADY?

• See his speech on P.43 ff. He firstly speaks to his new bride who has emerged shyly and he requests that
she stay by his side until he dies: “Our marriage is not yet wholly fulfilled when the earth and passage
wed, the consummation is complete only when there are grains of earth on the eyelids of passage” ; then
he gives praises again to the LIFE of the market:
“This is where I have chosen to do my leave-taking, in this heart of life, this hive which contains the
swarm of the world in its small compass. This is where I have known love and laughter away from the
palace. Even the richest food cloys when eaten days on end; in the market nothing ever cloys.”
• He does too, acknowledge in many words and images that he’s ready – it’s his time NOW. But at the end
(p.44) he seems to want to feel the earth keenly underfoot. “.., let our feet touch together this last time,
lead me into the other market with sounds that cover my skin with down yet make my limbs strike earth
like a thoroughbred.”
 DRUMS
Pilkins’ previous: “those bloody drums” have profound and expressive meaning to the
Yoruba people. They SPEAK to the Yoruba people. Elesin hears their shift and
understands their meaning. It’s his time now:
P.43:
“Listen. (they listen to the drums.) They have begun to seek out the heart of the
King’s favourite horse. Soon it will ride in its bolt of raffia with the dog at its feet.
Together they will ride on the shoulders of the grooms through the pulse centres of
the town. They know it is here I shall wait them.”
 THE MOOD IS SOMBRE AND MEANINGFUL

Stage Direction p.44

He comes down progressively among them. They make way for him, the drummers
playing. His dance is one of solemn, regal motions, each gesture of the body is made
with a solemn finality. The Women join him, their steps a somewhat more fluid version
of his. Beneath the Praise-Singer’s exhortations the Women dirge ‘Ale le le, awo mi
lo.’
 TRANCE
• The Praise Singer seems to both create/lead – and – follow Elesin deeper and deeper
into his trance:
“I would call you back but when the elephant heads for the jungle, the tail is too small
a handhold for the hunter that would pull him back. The sun that heads for the sea
no longer heeds the prayers of the farmer. When the river begins to taste the salt of
the ocean, we no longer know what deity to call on, the river-god or Olokun*. No
arrow flies back to the string, the child does not return through the same passage that
gave it birth. Elesin Oba, can you here me at all?” (p.48) *Yoruba god (water, wealth,
prosperity..)
 PRAISE-SINGER’S HELP AND WARNING

Throughout the trance sequence, the Praise-Singer offers assistance to Elesin –

metaphorically, if he has too much ‘weight’ for this world:
“I know the wickedness of men. If there is
Weight on the loose end of your sash, such weight
As no mere man can shift; if your sash is earthed
By evil minds who mean to part us at the last . . .” (p.46 – see the whole page)