Not the kind of murderous nonsense you have these days, religious extremists and so on. The British deliberately manipulated, into a position of power, a section that was more feudal in Nigeria, because they felt they would serve their own interests. Many of his plays, including Kongis Harvest and Madmen and Specialists, are bitter satires on the dictatorships of post-colonial Africa. You were the first African to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. So he used to come to visit me at the police station where I was held and wed read his poetry together. What were the Penkelemes Years?. Wole Soyinka: The first thing is my parents realized quite early that I loved books. I grew up in an atmosphere of political contestation because Nigeria, like most colonial places, was busy trying to decolonize, to free itself from British rule. A precocious and inquisitive child, Wole prompted the adults in his life to warn one another: He will kill you with his questions.. And also, open their doors, as for instance, a number did during the struggle against Sani Abacha, the most brutal dictator Nigeria has ever known. Wole Soyinka: Combination of events. To add more books, click here . How did you see that at the time? Get out the drums and start drumming, or singing, or faint or what? Was there a particular teacher who most inspired you or challenged you? By the end of 1969, the war was virtually over. Wole Soyinka: He even came to my birthday! It was all typical student fun. In one of its oldest recorded forms, painted papyri from ancient Egypt, the natural order of things is amusingly turned on its head. Wole Soyinka: Yes, yes. Wole Soyinka: I was born in Abeokuta, Western Nigeria. My father was a school teacher, in fact was a headmaster in the primary school. Wole Soyinka: I was trying to recapture certain features. British religious, political and educational institutions co-existed with the traditional civil and religious authorities of the indigenous peoples, including Soyinkas ethnic group, the Yorb people, who predominate in Western Nigeria. Thats how I came to go to England. I didnt mind the occasional ceremonial, but to mimic British manners and so on, for me it was ridiculous. I couldnt resist any longer. In 1984, he also directed the film Blues for a Prodigal. I just read. I went straight to see my uncle in Lagos. Sadiku The chief's sly senior wife, head-wife of his harem: Ailatu Baroka's favourite, who loses her place in his affections due to her jealousy of sidi. So he came in and asked me. But then, to go after them, to declare war against them on this banal basis of unity above anything else! All Rights Reserved. So it was letting us see that we had that responsibility to ourselves, to the family. Unfortunately, in later years, mimic organizations began, which were rather nasty. People never resented all of that. What do you think will be one of the big achievements in the next quarter century? Every corner. Thats the brutal dictator I mentioned earlier. I was going to try to see things through his eyes, what that period meant for him, and also aspects of me there. Soyinka joined the English faculty at the University of Ibadan. In 1960, he founded the theater group, The 1960 Masks, and in 1964, the Orisun Theatre Company, in which he produced his own plays and performed as an actor. WebThe Lion and the Jewel is a play by Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka that was first performed in 1959 in Ibadan. Thats what happened. He married British writer Barbara Dixon in 1958; Olaide Idowu, a Nigerian librarian, in 1963; and Folake Doherty, his current wife, in 1989. And I took an interest in particular in one young man who had been brutalized by the military at a social occasion, to the extent that he had to have an amputation. Less than a month later, a new military dictator, General Sani Abacha, suspended nearly all civil liberties. Wole Soyinka: Those elections were very violent and the people resisted. Wole Soyinka: Well, it was not even Ak that I wanted to write. The number of vehicles we stopped where we found stuffed boxes, fake ballot boxes, fake police uniforms, and we were able to track them to warehouses, where all this illegal material was stopped. He practiced things like grafting. The 1970s were a productive decade for Wole Soyinka. And Gowon, I discovered, did not know anything about it. Or maybe I should say, with a sense of community diffused. Wole Soyinka: No. Im nominating me! So Im going to have that experience. My father, in particular, his circle of friends. The young Wole Soyinka enjoyed participating in Anglican services and singing in the church choir, but he also formed an early identification with Ogun, the Yorb deity associated with war, iron, roads and poetry. And they were collected from women coming in, bringing their crops to the market. And that community, as far as Im concerned, is without color, without gender, without class. My cousin was a Minister of Health under Babangida, and that was long before Abacha, because Abacha came after Babangida. Thats what your father always says to you, you know. Many things which I placed on his head and he apologized to me personally. The current marriage with Folake is Wole Soyinka third marriage. Space travel is going to be normal, quite normal. This is interesting. Oliver Twist, A Tale of Two Cities, I remember. In fact, I should have gone earlier, straight from school if my father had his way. On the other side, listening to the conversations and the disputes between my aunt and my uncle, and the British district officers, political officers, I was able to see recognize also the fact that the British government, this external authority, was also an instrument of oppression and was in fact alienated from the genuine aspirations and self-fulfillment of the overall society. It was one of the most bitter moments, bitterest moments of my incarceration, to find the Minister of Information calling an international press conference and reading what was supposed to be my confession. Wole Soyinka Is Not Going Anywhere The Nobel laureate, whose new novel, Chronicles From the Land of the Happiest People on Earth, is his first in nearly Wole Soyinka: I would say it was that first teacher I had who admitted me into school, in quite an unorthodox manner, Mr. Olagbaju. It wasnt really corruption that led to the first coup, even though this was one of the allegations. You had to wear robes to go to dinner. Your fathers position in the community as a school headmaster, did that affect your status or position as a child in the community? He tried to arrange dinner, but I was away when Gowon was in England. After primary school, did you need to get a scholarship in order to attend grammar school? I mean, it was like a conspiracy. My very first play in England was directed at apartheid South Africa. What are they going to say next? In 1994, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) named Wole Soyinka a Goodwill Ambassador for the promotion of African culture, human rights and freedom of expression. Something has to be done.. And of course the people rose in protest. A child who appeared introspective was considered to be a possible danger to himself or herself. What did that teach you about dealing with the local authorities? So the one organization which could and did many times prevent aspects of election rigging was the Road Safety Corps. In 1996, Soyinka published The Open Sore of a Continent: A Personal Memoir of the Nigerian Crisis. And a group of us, during the holidays wed come together, go to work to earn pocket money, and sit down at the West African Union, discussing politics. And at the same time, lamenting the setbacks and taking collective remedial action. They still felt I was too young to strike out on my own. A more isolated kind of existence. This created a kind of bond. Soyinka judged Abacha to be the worst of the dictators who had imposed themselves on Nigeria since independence. You had to paint your windows, or put drapes on, make sure no light came out. So I spent most of my time just watching rehearsals, reading plays in London instead of doing my thesis in Leeds. I think it was over the radio I first heard the voice of Winston Churchill. Wole Soyinka: Ive always been rather eclectic in my reading tastes, so I cannot say that any single writer has inspired me. Leave me alone. He said, No, no, no. So I did teach some of the women to read. Just made sure they thought I was a complete model prisoner, totally resigned to being in isolation. I knew sooner or later we were going to meet. So I refused to take the exams the first year, to University College. Everybody was a child, and if you misbehaved you got just as much punishment as the other children. And Obamas ascension to power there is suddenly going to alter also certain policies, certain global policies. They first met while she was in the university of Ife, and the prof lectured there. Im a member of a certain community which is both internal, which happens to be located in the nation space called Nigeria, but that community also extends outside the Nigerian borders. In The Swamp Dwellers, for instance, I was trying to capture a sense of community which Id known in Nigeria. 1996 - 2023 American AcademyofAchievement. They were two of my favorites. My father was ready to pay, but I knew how much he was earning, and there were other children and so on. I found the traditional religions far more fascinating, because they didnt force me to go to the regular service and dress up and things like that. I sent a play to the Royal Court Theatre in London, and it was not immediately accepted for performance, but sufficient interest was generated for the artistic director to invite me over. Although Wole Soyinka has always been reticent about discussing his family life, in this volume he makes a particularly touching dedication to his stoically resigned children, and to his wife Adefolake, for enduring many years of hardship and dislocation. When I realized that war really was going to happen, I tried to and he (Christopher Okigbo) had left, like the other Igbo that fled to the East, where they were more secure. When I was born, it was still under colonial rule the whole of Nigeria, of course. What are they going to say next? I felt somebody with, quote-unquote, a high profile might have some impact on people, and get them to be a bit careful. Was it also coming through in newspapers and radio? And I saw the first-comers as being very almost as if their basic motivation was to step into the shoes of the departing colonial officers, the British colonials. Nigeria is just for me a figure of speech. And I happened, you know, by very fortunate coincidence, I learned that this was going to become a fait accompli. If you were going to school you had to have books. His program became a model of traffic safety for other states in Nigeria, but events soon brought him into conflict with the national authorities. And I picked up some of the ideas that they had, and I would ask questions. Why should I dedicate my Nobel speech to Nigeria? They were sharp enough to realize that if I was tried before a court, it would just be a platform for me to express my views about the war. What It Takes is an audio podcast produced by the American Academy of Achievement featuring intimate, revealing conversations with influential leaders in the diverse fields of endeavor: public service, science and exploration, sports, technology, business, arts and humanities, and justice. Exchange of ideas between adults just used to fascinate me for some reason. They are storing them. They used to get excited over issues, and so somehow I was allowed to eavesdrop, unlike the other children. Now its nothing, but at that time to leave school at 16-and-a-half was a big deal. On March 12, Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka played host to Louis Odion, the senior technical assistant on media to President Muhammadu Buhari, who turned 50 on March 25. Nigerian author and Nobel prize winner Prof Wole Soyinka was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2014. Youre still very critical of events in Nigeria. Those who made the Igbo feel they were not part of the full entity. Wole Soyinka: That was another watershed loss for the democratic struggle of Nigeria, which was allowed just to trickle away. After graduation at age 16 from the Government College, Soyinka deferred immediate admission to university life and moved to the colonial capital, Lagos, to work in an uncles pharmacy for two years before entering university. Wole Soyinka: Oh yes. I started to try and recover my mathematical formulae by trial and error, and created problems for myself which I solved. He and his circle of friends. And then, suddenly, he died on me. Home life was a very disciplined one. But Im having the nearest to it. I arrived, and the rumors had gotten very, very strong. She added that fascist is a very strong word that can be used for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) but not for Datti and the Obidients. You had to study the natives and see how you could fit yourself into it. Can you talk about the early years of independence and writing the play A Dance of the Forest? Wole Soyinka: Oh, the Wild Christian? Oh yes, she was wild as a Christian! And so when I was approached my son was involved in this particular film, by the way, and suggested it I accepted immediately. During the elections, the roads, naturally, have to be free for elections to be rigged. So that kind of insurgency is still going on at this moment. Somehow they disappeared for some time. And so we were reunited for the last time. You sat examinations. And even she was still too young to go to school by herself, so one of the older child relations used to take her to school. Chimanda is a tribal Peter OBI supporter and her candidate failed. Veteran singer and social activist, Charles Oputa, aka Charly Boy has criticized Nobel laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka for his comments criticising supporters of Peter Obis presidential campaign after making a statement denouncing Labour Party vice presidential candidate Datti Baba-Ahmed. You experienced also the racial discrimination, which was still very strong at the time, even though the British are very hypocritical about it. Soyinkas mother, Grace Eniola Soyinka, was a devout Anglican; in his memoirs, Wole Soyinka calls his mother Wild Christian. His father, Samuel Ayodele Soyinka, was headmaster of the parsonage primary school, St. Peters. WebDeath and the King's Horseman study guide contains a biography of Wole Soyinka, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and You were still living in London when you wrote your first well-known plays, The Swamp Dwellers and The Lion and the Jewel. I recognize communities as being close to me. But then you gradually began to form your own community, which meant that during the holidays you went to work in places like Hull, Liverpool, London. Get the hottest stories from the largest news site in Nigeria. You know, even when you unless you take it to the stage and youre doing an open reading. And so what they did was just start altering the results. That sense of responsibility with which I grew up, it was just not there. Finally the premier of the region decided to just forget the whole thing and announce his victory on radio. Soyinkas friend, the poet Christopher Okigbo, joined the Biafran forces and was killed in action. It was also an act of defiance. For me, religion was just another aspect, an aspect of the totality of ones existence. Its been this contest over resources. It was mostly for other people, not for myself. Days after your incarceration, your friend Christopher Okigbo was killed in the civil war. Infact woke Soyinka told tinubu and This escapade caused his arrest and detention for two months, but international publicity led to his acquittal. Massacres of Igbo living in the North sent more than a million refugees fleeing south, and many Igbo began to call for secession from Nigeria. That is easily answered. It wasnt large, it was an eclectic kind of program, but they were sufficiently varied to be of permanent interest to a young child. The Ibadan-Ife road, I named it Slaughter Slab. There was no day I would drive on that road when I didnt come across a fresh accident. Well, first of all, people in the country were not taking HIV-AIDS seriously. So occasionally, after the really hermetic isolation of a couple of months, I was able to start formulating links with the outside world. It had to do with a sense of injustice, of a political lie which had been implanted by the British before they departed. Infusing the myth of As Wole Soyinka suggests, the climate of fear that has enveloped the Since moving to the United States, he has written another play, King Baabu, a volume of verse, Samarkand and Other Markets I Have Known, and his latest book of memoirs, You Must Set Forth at Dawn (2006). In 1986, he became the first African to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature. Wole Soyinka: A grassroots movement, yes, a very effective one. Wole Soyinka: First of all, the letter was published before I went to the East. Meanwhile, Soyinka continued his criticism of the military dictatorship in Nigeria. She would however go on to marry her love and they have been together ever since. I wanted to be a journalist, a newspaper correspondent. Wole Soyinka has used his time in lockdown to write his first novel in almost 50 years. It was very fascinating. What is going to come next? Prize motivation: who in You went to dinner, high dinner, high tea. Complete debasement of the confraternity idea. A precocious reader, he soon sensed a link between the Yorb folklore of his neighbors and the Greek mythology underlying so much of western literature. Residence at the time of the award: Nigeria. But somehow, as a child, I also insisted on my own space. After the election on March 28, 2015, he said that Nigerians must show a Nelson Mandelalike ability to forgive president-elect Muhammadu Buharis past as an iron-fisted military ruler, according to Bloomberg.com. Did you like school? Wole Soyinka: The international community can only play a peripheral role. Im tired. Oh, he said, but arent you going to wait and hear the news? I said, What news? He said, Well, its going to be announced by such-and-such a time. I said, Fine, Im going to sleep. But the phone didnt allow me to sleep. The person who won was a remarkable character, remarkable character. In the late 60s, his opposition to a repressive regime in his own country led to his imprisonment in solitary confinement for nearly two years, an experience he reflects on in the memoir The Man Died and the verse collection A Shuttle in the Crypt. Wole Soyinka: Yes. It was a banquet which was thrown by the governor of my state, and also another governor, on my 70th birthday. Do you think that you were different from other kids? So I dont have any kind of a what you might call, basic patriotism. Soyinka is also a political activist, and during the civil war in Nigeria he appealed in an article for a cease-fire. In 1986, he became the first African to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature. In 1984, Soyinka released an album of his own music entitled I Love My Country, with an assembly of musicians he called The Unlimited Liability Company. His next book of verse was called Mandelas Earth and Other Poems. Where did the title come from? I think hes intelligent enough to give to the African continent just a proportionate share of the attention which is commensurate with the condition of the world. And so we saw I was able to experience the divide between the peasantry, the ordinary people, and the traditional rulers. So my most brilliant colleagues, one at least that I can think of immediately brilliant medical doctor surgeon, became a paraplegic as a result of spinal injury he sustained on that road. And then I got a telegram one day which said, The man died. Unfortunately, that grassroots movement has not yet reached a point where it can actually battle for its voice, which was where it all began in the West. When we visited my grandfather in Isara, for instance, wed go to the farms, and I really developed a very close affinity to anything to do with nature. Because power is an element in itself which one should never underestimate. I would take the injured to the hospital or take them to the morgue. If you take the sort of micro-community in my household when I was a child, for instance, we had people from all parts of the country. Groups came to London, Lancaster House, meeting to discuss with the British Home Office, which it was called at the time. He needs no further introduction. Sometimes, you know, some of these countries behave as if you need to bring your death certificate by extrajudicial execution before youre admitted as a political refugee. It reeks of plain hypocrisy and obvious stupidity that rather than focusing on the more dangerous issues of electoral fraud, thuggery, ethnic attacks, and other serious offenses, Soyinka chose to pick on a group who were mainly responding to the shambolic exercise. At the end of your primary school, you sat examinations to certain schools where scholarships were available. But generally a theme preoccupies me and I write a play around it. It was an expression, actually, by one of the politicians who was a great populist, by the way, a very fascinating character, but representative of the corruption of the politicians of that particular time. I read catalogues. And at the end of the program, he said, Oh, the Nobel something has just been announced and its a Nigerian writer, Wole Soyinka. You know, so the man and he said, They didnt announce it! I said, Announce what? He said, The Nobel Prize, they didnt Oh, I said, they did, they did. He said, Who? Because I really had ingrained in me this egalitarian principle and the sense of service. And occasionally, when a light plane flew overhead, we learned to associate that with the war effort. So my attention became diverted towards Nigeria. I had no problem carrying out duties. We want to talk for a moment about the election of June 12, 1993. National politics, continental politics. Was it written for Nigerias independence celebration? And sometimes I would go far to find that space, which we were not supposed to do. Hed agreed he would give me his papers, which hed saved, and so on. News ), Opera News is a free to use platform and the views and opinions expressed herein are solely those of the author and do not represent, reflect or express the views of Opera News. In action I arrived, and during the elections, the ordinary people, not for myself I. Another aspect, an aspect of the Forest, religion was just another aspect, an of. In newspapers and radio, was a headmaster in the country were not taking HIV-AIDS seriously rather.... Met while she was in England was directed at apartheid South Africa military dictator, General Abacha... Another aspect, an aspect of the women to read apartheid South Africa scholarships available. Us see that we had that responsibility to ourselves, to go after them, declare! 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