Summary

Scene 2

Preparing for a ball, Colonial District Officer Simon Pilkings is dancing in costume with his wife Jane at his bungalow, when a Native Administration Policeman named Amusa interrupts them. Amusa is startled by the costumes and knocks over a flowerpot. Pilkings and his wife unmask themselves and ask when is going on. Amusa will not speak to them while they are clothed in the costumes of dead cult members.

Pilkings instructs Amusa to write down his report on a pad rather than speak it out loud, and he and Jane then leave to finish getting ready for the ball. Pilkings then reads the note. Amusa describes the pending ritual suicide of a chief, Elesin Oba, due to local customs, even though it is a criminal offense to the British. Amusa awaits further instructions. Pilkings decides to call for Joseph, a local Christian servant...