Character Analysis
Simon Pilkings is a local District Officer in Nigeria. Apparently part of his job is maintaining (British) law and order, which means interfering with Elesin's plan to commit ritual suicide.
God Save the Queen, Er, the King's Horseman
Part of the reason Simon is so gung-ho to prevent Elesin's suicide is that the British prince has come to visit. All the local British folks are trying to put their best foot forward, which means not having a "pagan" ritual going on while Mr. Princey Pants is roaming about.
Culture Shock
Simon seems like he means well enough, but he's kind of a bull in a china shop when it comes to navigating cultural differences and conflict. First off, there's the whole not understanding/wanting to stop Elesin's suicide. Without stopping to consider the significance of the ritual—and what preventing it might mean for the Yoruba—Simon throws all his effort into trying to keep it from going off. You know, so his people won't get mad or be uncomfortable. Stay classy, Simon.
He also seems to be talented at combining cultural misunderstanding and stereotypes with blasphemy against his own beliefs and traditions. For example, when he's trying to find out of the drumming in the distance is related to Elesin's ritual, he gets impatient with his servant's inability to give him a simple answer, and ends up shocking the man with his irreverence:
"What do you mean you don't know? It's only two years since your conversion. Don't tell me all that nonsense also wiped out your tribal memory." (2.109)
Can we say stay classy again? We're going to: Stay classy, Simon. Joseph is highly offended by Simon's blasphemy—he majorly dumps of Joseph's religious beliefs—but after Jane intervenes and explains to Simon why what he said was so objectionable, he ends up apologizing. So… we guess being able to admit he is wrong = a point in Simon's favor? It seems like more of a half-point, if you ask us.
With Friends Like These…
There's no doubt that Simon has good intentions, but his total inability, and general unwillingness, to understand the indigenous culture of the place he's living has created other problems along the way—and in fact, as with the ritual suicide, Elesin is involved.
Partway through the play, we learn that Simon was instrumental in helping Olunde, Elesin's eldest son, get into medical school in England. Simon certainly thought he was doing a good thing, but it caused a huge brouhaha with Elesin, who disowned his son for leaving their community to practice Western medicine in England.
The eldest son has very specific duties in Yoruba culture, so it's no wonder Elesin was peeved—importantly, though, Simon had zero awareness of any of that, and instead was just focused on giving Olunde the best opportunities possible… according to his own, British-based understanding of what that looks like.