Why did Pilkins stop Elesin from killing himself?

The play focuses around the duty of Elesin, the King’s Horseman, to commit suicide in the wake of the King’s death the month before. It is the duty of British Colonial District Officer Simon Pilkings to stop him. Cheered and egged on by his friends and fellow Yoruba tribesmen and women, Elesin knows it is his duty to die, so that he can guide the King in the afterlife. Pilkings and the British consider the act barbaric and illegal They consider all life sacred, so they aim to stop him.