title: Death and the King's Horseman: A Play
author:  Wole Soyinka 
description: Winner of the 1986 Nobel Prize for Literature. Based on an incident that took place in 1946, Death and the King's Horseman is Soyinka's powerful examination of the explosive tension between traditional African culture and the West.
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  > > It was still afternoon, and Jahdo was scrounging dead wood for an
  > evening’s fire, when Gidro and Baki became restless, throwing up their
  > heads, sniffing and snorting into the rising wind, finally whickering out a
  > greeting. Distantly a horse answered, then another. Jahdo leapt to his feet
  > and grabbed his grandfather’s knife, but Meer sat unmoving, hunkered down by
  > their gear. Hoof-beats sounded, riding fast, riding hard, and straight for
  > them out of the east.
  
  > > “Meer, Meer! We’ve got to run.”
  
  > > Slowly the bard raised his head and turned toward the sound.
  
  > > “You run, Jahdo. Head west and hope you find those horsemen who aided your
  > people once before. I might as well die a slave, so long as I die soon. A
  > man is nothing without a clan, and my future holds no kin to serve the gods
  > in my old age.”
  
  > > “Stop that! It’s needful you come, too.”
  
  > > The hoofbeats came louder, tack jingled and rang, men yelled, a wordless
  > high shriek of triumph