Natural tradition and customs dictate that Alafin and Eleshin Oba, the king’s horseman, should have been buried next to each other.
In 1946, as the ceremony commemorating the Aláafins’ death was about to take place, a British officer went out and arrested Eleshin Oba, throwing him into jail since, as per British law, attempting suicide is a crime.
The son of the Eleshin Oba, who was trading in Ghana at the time and was a native of the Gold Coast, hurried back to bury his father. upon discovering he was still alive. The abomination so appalled him that he instantly took his own life. Pierre Verger first studied and recounted the historical incident in the 1960s.
The drama “Death and the King’s Horseman” by Wole Soyinka explored the circumstances surrounding his death.
