Wole Soyinka
Akinwande Oluwole ‘Wole’ Soyinka (b. 1934) is a Nigerian writer, notable especially as a playwright and poet; he was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature, the first person in Africa and the diaspora to be so honoured. He went on to write plays that were produced in both countries, in theatres and on radio. He took an active role in Nigeria’s political history and its struggle for independence from Great Britain. In 1967 during the Nigerian Civil War, he was arrested by the federal government of General Yakubu Gowon and put in solitary confinement for two years. His plays include A Dance of the Forests, Madmen and Specialists, Death and the King’s Horseman and most recently Alapata Apata.
Wole Soyinka on Granta.com
Essays & Memoir | The Online Edition
Religion Against Humanity
Wole Soyinka
‘The world should not continue to acquiesce in the brutal culture of extremism that demands the impossible.’
Essays & Memoir | Issue 108
Chicago’s Great Expositor
Wole Soyinka
‘It is not a complete man now dominating the affairs of the world from a historic mansion appropriately named the White House, although a case can be made that he comes close enough.’