Seven Things You Didn’t Know About The Literary Icon, Wole Soyinka

Akinwande Oluwole Babatunde Soyinka, popularly known as Wole Soyinka, is a name which needs no introduction. Whether you are a millennial belonging to the new school dispensation, or an oldie from the old school era, the name will reverberate with the same degree of intensity, and more so for all the right reasons. Having accomplished just about everything one can accomplish in the field of Literary Arts, Eko Hot Blog takes a close look at seven things to know about this living legend who has inspired so many.

(1) Birth: Wole Soyinka was born on the 13th  of July, 1934 in Abeokuta, nokw Ogun State, Nigeria.

(2) Childhood: Even though he was born to Christian parents and sang in the choir as a young boy, Soyinka later rejected his Christian upbringing for a more atheistic inclination, promoting the Yoruba god of iron, Ogun, in many of his works.

(3) Alma Mata: His Alma Mata includes University College, Ibadan and University of Leeds.  He would later return to Nigeria to teach in several universities in Western Nigeria before he was awarded professor of Comparative Literature in 1975.

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(4) Social Criticism: Wole Soyinka has been a fierce critic of successive Nigerian governments. He has been actively involved in advocacy and social criticism in the face of several authoritarian governments. Beginning from 1960 in event of Nigeria’s independence, Soyinka wrote “A dance of the Forests” as an instructive piece warning the nascent indigenous government of the need to take caution and avoid repeating mistakes of the past. Nigeria’s self rule, largely smeared by spells of military dictatorship, would however be fraught with pervasive corruption, which prompted  further criticism from Soyinka; an act which would put him in the cross-chairs of the then Yakubu Gowon led government.

(5) Arrest: During the Nigerian Civil War, Soyinka was arrested for purportedly being in league with the Biafran rebels; consequently, he was detained for a period of 22 months as a prisoner of war.

(6) Nobel Prize Award: In 1986, Wole Soyinka was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, notably for his ingenious exhibition of literary proficiency in his works, ‘A Dance of the Forests’ and ‘Death and the King’s Horseman’, two plays where he made subtle commentaries about Nigeria’s embryonic self rule in the former and promoted the rich cultural heritage of the Yoruba people in the latter. He remains the first Sub-Saharan African to be awarded the honour.

(7) Longevity and Eclecticism: Wole Soyinka’s writing career spans over half a century. From his breakthrough days of ‘The Lion and the Jewel’ in the mid 1950s till date, Soyinka remains a force to be reckoned with, writing across the three genres of Literature and leaving a lasting legacy which will be of immense benefit and significance to future generations.