I find the changing forms of his creative works interesting in spite of the unchanging content of the narratives or drama. For instance, in ‘Death and the King’s Horseman’ and other plays, we see Yoruba wisecracks, philosophy and proverbs translated into his language of communication, English. Through his works, I discovered that he has deep knowledge and understanding of his mother tongue, Yoruba. His themes have remained constant over time and many African states are still grappling with issues he has raised since the 1950s.
Soyinka’s works often address the clash of cultures, the interface between primitiveness and modernity, colonial interventions, religious bigotry, corruption, abuse of power, poor governance, poverty and the future of independent African nations. I later found out Lion and the Jewel was actually one of the simplest titles. Some of my classmates then felt he was difficult to read and assimilate. My first contact with Soyinka was in secondary school when we were made to read his play Lion and the Jewel. He joined other activists and democrats to form the National Democratic Coalition to fight for the restoration of democracy in Nigeria. Soyinka was also incarcerated for taking over the radio station of the disbanded Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation in Ibadan to announce his rejection of the 1965 Western Nigerian election results. He was jailed in 1967 for speaking out against Nigeria’s civil war over the attempted secession of Biafra from Nigeria. In 1954, he attended Government College in Ibadan, and subsequently University College Ibadan (now the University of Ibadan) and the University of Leeds in England. He had his primary education at St Peter’s Primary School in Abeokuta. His parents were Samuel Ayodele Soyinka and Grace Eniola Soyinka. Soyinka was born into a Yoruba family in Abeokuta, southwest Nigeria, on July 13, 1934. Some have also been translated into French. His works have such impact that some of them are used in schools in Nigeria and some other anglophone countries in West Africa. These accurately match the language of his complex characters to their social position and moral qualities.Īlso read: African Literature’s Unending Battle With the Language Question His best works exhibit humour and fine poetic style as well as a gift for irony and satire.
His symbolism, flashbacks and ingenious plotting contribute to a rich dramatic structure. His works reveal him as a humanist, a courageous man and a lover of justice. This was in recognition of the way he “fashions the drama of existence”. In 1986, he became the first sub-Saharan African, and is one of only five Africans, to be awarded the Nobel prize for literature. The Nigerian playwright, novelist, poet and essayist is a giant among his contemporaries. He is a teacher, an ideologue, a scholar and an iconoclast, an elder statesman, a patriot and a culturalist. Akinwande Oluwole Babatunde Soyinka, known simply as Wole Soyinka, can’t be easily described.
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