The African Worldview in Soyinka's Death and the King's Knight In his play Death and the King's Knight, Wole Soyinka uses certain literary forms and devices to mix Yoruba culture and a predominantly European dramatic form to create a work easily understood by audiences, but which allows for the introduction of foreign influence. These devices include the use of a song-like quality in dialogue and story telling, the use of personification and metaphor to give an exotic quality to the work, and the use of certain elements to provide the reader with sense of the mystical traditions that are Africa. These Yoruban elements are best explained by the character Jane with "You talk! Your people with your long-winded, roundabout way of making conversation" (1171), and by the character Pilkings with "What's he saying now? Christ! Must your people always talk for puzzles?" (1176). The use of the rhythm and quality of a song in the dialogue and story telling is used by Soyinka to transport the reader to another place. In the following passage, the...