Death and the King’s Horseman
E836781
Death and the King’s Horseman is a renowned tragic play by Wole Soyinka that dramatizes the clash between Yoruba ritual obligations and British colonial authority in Nigeria.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Death and the King’s Horseman canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T10034181 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Death and the King’s Horseman Context triple: [Wole Soyinka, notableWork, Death and the King’s Horseman]
-
A.
Arrow of God
Arrow of God is a classic novel by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe that explores the clash between traditional Igbo society and British colonial rule through the story of a powerful village priest.
-
B.
The Emperor Jones
The Emperor Jones is a 1920 expressionist play by Eugene O'Neill that follows the psychological and moral unraveling of a corrupt Black emperor fleeing a Caribbean island revolt.
-
C.
The Big Man
The Big Man was the towering, charismatic saxophonist Clarence Clemons, best known for his powerful performances with Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band.
-
D.
Weep Not, Child
Weep Not, Child is a landmark Kenyan novel by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o that explores the impact of British colonialism and the Mau Mau uprising on a young boy and his community.
-
E.
No Longer at Ease
No Longer at Ease is a novel by Chinua Achebe that explores the moral and cultural conflicts faced by a young Nigerian civil servant in the late colonial era.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Death and the King’s Horseman Target entity description: Death and the King’s Horseman is a renowned tragic play by Wole Soyinka that dramatizes the clash between Yoruba ritual obligations and British colonial authority in Nigeria.
-
A.
Arrow of God
Arrow of God is a classic novel by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe that explores the clash between traditional Igbo society and British colonial rule through the story of a powerful village priest.
-
B.
The Emperor Jones
The Emperor Jones is a 1920 expressionist play by Eugene O'Neill that follows the psychological and moral unraveling of a corrupt Black emperor fleeing a Caribbean island revolt.
-
C.
The Big Man
The Big Man was the towering, charismatic saxophonist Clarence Clemons, best known for his powerful performances with Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band.
-
D.
Weep Not, Child
Weep Not, Child is a landmark Kenyan novel by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o that explores the impact of British colonialism and the Mau Mau uprising on a young boy and his community.
-
E.
No Longer at Ease
No Longer at Ease is a novel by Chinua Achebe that explores the moral and cultural conflicts faced by a young Nigerian civil servant in the late colonial era.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
drama
ⓘ
play ⓘ tragedy ⓘ |
| author | Wole Soyinka NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| basedOn | historical incident in Oyo in 1946 ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin | Nigeria NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| culturalContext |
British colonial rule in Nigeria
ⓘ
Yoruba cosmology ⓘ |
| genre |
postcolonial drama
ⓘ
tragic drama ⓘ |
| hasAdaptation |
radio adaptations
ⓘ
stage productions worldwide ⓘ television adaptations ⓘ |
| hasCharacter |
Amusa
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Elesin Oba NERFINISHED ⓘ Iyaloja NERFINISHED ⓘ Jane Pilkings NERFINISHED ⓘ Olunde NERFINISHED ⓘ Simon Pilkings NERFINISHED ⓘ The Praise-Singer NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| literaryAwardContext | contributed to Wole Soyinka’s international reputation ⓘ |
| literaryMovement | postcolonial literature ⓘ |
| mainCharacter |
Elesin Oba
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Iyaloja NERFINISHED ⓘ Jane Pilkings NERFINISHED ⓘ Olunde NERFINISHED ⓘ Simon Pilkings NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| notableFor |
complex portrayal of colonial encounter
ⓘ
exploration of Yoruba ritual suicide ⓘ use of Yoruba music and dance ⓘ |
| originalLanguage | English ⓘ |
| publisher | Methuen NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| relatedWork |
A Dance of the Forests
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Kongi’s Harvest NERFINISHED ⓘ The Lion and the Jewel NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| setting |
Nigeria
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Oyo NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| structure | five-act play ⓘ |
| theme |
clash between Yoruba tradition and British colonial authority
ⓘ
colonial power and resistance ⓘ cultural misunderstanding ⓘ duty and sacrifice ⓘ honor and shame ⓘ ritual and responsibility ⓘ |
| timePeriod | 1940s ⓘ |
| yearFirstPerformed | 1975 ⓘ |
| yearFirstPublished | 1975 ⓘ |
| yearWritten | 1975 ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Death and the King’s Horseman Description of subject: Death and the King’s Horseman is a renowned tragic play by Wole Soyinka that dramatizes the clash between Yoruba ritual obligations and British colonial authority in Nigeria.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.