Wole Soyinka

1998 Sanford S. Elberg Lecturer
April 16, 4:00 p.m., Lipman Room
(8th Floor Barrows Hall, UC Berkeley campus)

Wole Soyinka is the 1986 Nobel Laureate in Literature. Born in Abeokuta, Nigeria, in 1934, Soyinka studied first at the University College of Ibadan, then at Leeds University in England, where he received his Ph.D. in 1973.

Soyinka's literary career began in the experimental theater of the 1950s in England. In 1960 he was commissioned by the Nigerian government to write a play celebrating Nigerian independence. His play, A Dance of the Forests, has been called "a lyrical blend of Western experimentalism and African folk tradition, reflecting a highly original approach to drama." (Professor Paul Brians, Washington State Unversity Department of English) Early plays include The Lion and the Jewel (1963), The Trials of Brother Jero (1964), and Madmen and Specialists (1970). Other well-known works include his memoir, Ake: The Years of Childhood (1981); novels, including The Interpreters (1965), which was written in English; collections of poems, including Mandela's Earth and Other Poems (1988), and works of analysis and commentary such as Myth, Literature, and the African World (1976) and The Open Sores of a Continent: A Personal Narrative of the Nigerian Continent (1996).

Soyinka is an outspoken critic of the Nigerian dictator General Sani Abacha, and now lives in exile in the United States. His two years in solitary confinement (1967 - 1969), punishment for supporting Biafran secession, were described in his 1972 memoir, The Man Died: Prison Notes of Wole Soyinka.

The Nobel committee characterized his work as follows:

He has his roots in the Yoruba people's myths, rites, and cultural patterns, which in turn have historical links to the Mediterranean region. Through his education in his native land and in Europe he has also acquired deep familiarity with Western culture. His collection of essays, "Myth, Literature, and the African World" make for clarifying and enriching reading.

(quoted by the Boston Globe, 1986)

In addition to his own writings, Soyinka has adapted a number of classic plays to suit the African context, including Euripedes' The Bacchae, Brecht's Threepenny Opera, and Genet's The Blacks. While some Africans have accused Soyinka of following European traditions more closely than Nigerian ones, he has argued that "the Tiger does not boast of his tigritude," a reference to the Négritude movement. (Paul Brians) In an interview entitled "Why I Am a Secular Humanist," Soyinka says, "I take most of my metaphors from the Yoruba worldview." (Free Inquiry, 17:4)

See the interview with Dr. Soyinka.

To the Sanford S. Elberg Lectures page.

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