Wole Soyinka: A Man of Substance
Profile by Uma Anyar
“Wole Soyinka, with a wide cultural perspective and with poetic overtones, fashions the drama of existence”- Nobel Prize committee.
In 1986, Nigerian author, academic and political activist Wole Soyinka became the first African to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature. The Nobel Prize committee called him one of the finest poetical playwrights to have ever written in English, but his literary pursuits have never been separable from his political convictions and his work presents a seamless blend of poetics and politics. Soyinka dedicated his Nobel acceptance speech to the imprisoned freedom fighter Nelson Mandela and this gives a further indication of the compassion, humanitarianism and commitment to human rights and freedom of expression that have shaped his life and work.
Born in 1934, Soyinka was the son of a Christian minister, but he also grew up deeply immersed in his family’s traditional Yoruba culture, the gods and spirits of which feature heavily in his work. This has also marked him as a cultural translator par excellence.
In the 1950s, Soyinka studied English literature in the UK where he became involved in the Royal Court Theatre as a play reader. He also started writing his own plays during this period and he has since covered a remarkable dramatic range from satirical comedy, to serious philosophical works. In addition, he has adapted such works as Euripides’ The Bacchae and Brecht’s The Three Penny Opera for the African stage giving them a new relevance to an African political context.
Wole Soyinka’s political activism has frequently put him at great personal risk. In 1967, during the Nigerian Civil War, he was arrested and placed in solitary confinement for 22 months for attempting to broker a peace treaty between Nigerian and Biafran forces. During his incarceration he wrote poems on tissue paper. These were later published in a collection titled Poems from Prison. International attention and political pressures helped free Soyinka from imprisonment. The Man Died: Prison Notes, published in 1972, is an auto- biographical account of his prison experiences.
Following his release, Soyinka’s work continued to be shaped by his concern with “the oppressive boot and the irrelevance of the color of the foot that wears it.” He has been an implacable critic of a succession of Nigerian Military regimes, and those of other parts of the world including that of Mugabe in Zimbabwe.
In 1997 Soyinka was charged with treason by the government of General Sani Abacha and was forced to flee. While in exile he worked tirelessly, meeting with European parliaments and various leaders to impose sanctions against the violent and oppressive Abacha dictatorship. These efforts, as well as his involvement in setting up Radio Kudirat, a pirate station used to broadcast information about the atrocities of the regime, are widely regarded as being instrumental to the eventual return of Nigeria to civil democratic government.
Soyinka began teaching Comparative Literature at the University of Ife in 1975 and in his later years served as a visiting professor at universities in the US and the UK including Cambridge and Yale. His own literary work is exemplary of the rich syntheses possible when cultures meet. He writes in English and acknowledges the influence of Irish playwright, J.M. Synge among others, but derives many of his dramas from Yoruba mythology.
His other work similarly traverses and transcends cultural borders. His first novel The Interpreters (1965) uses a complicated narrative structure stylistically reminiscent of Faulkner and Joyce to allow six Nigerian intellectuals to talk about and interpret their African experiences. Season of Anomy (1973) combines his prison thoughts with a dialogue between the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice and traditional Yoruba mythology. In Myth, Literature and the African World (1975), Soyinka explores the genesis of mysticism in African theatre and in the process, compares and contrasts European and African cultures and their stories.
Soyinka has forged his art and his activism in the crucible of Nigerian political turmoil but he has been sustained and honed by his parents’ love. Traditional and international education has focused his unique ‘global citizen’ perspective. He is more then a gifted writer. As a man, he is that remarkable combination of talent, bravery and moral values that enrich and inspire his fellow human beings the world over.
We at The Ubud Writers and Readers Festival are honoured to have Professor Wole Soyinka as a guest and a headline speaker during our 2009 Festival, October 7-11.
ubudwritersfestival.com
