Akinwande Oluwole »Wole« Soyinka was born on July 13, 1934, in Abeokuta. He is one of Africa's greatest writers and the first African to be awarded the prestigious Nobel Prize in Literature. He is regarded as one of the finest poetical playwrights and has been imprisoned for his outspoken views on the Nigerian government. His plays deal with a variety of themes, ranging from comedy to tragedy and from political satire to power struggles of the indigenous people. He played an active role in Nigeria's political history and its struggle with British colonization. |
Wole was the second of six children. His father, Samuel Ayodele Soyinka, was an Anglican minister and the headmaster of St. Peter's School in Abeokuta. His mother, Grace Eniola Soyinka, owned a shop in the nearby market. As a child, Wole lived in an Anglican Christian enclave known as the Parsonage. He enjoyed participating in Anglican services and singing in the church choir, but he also formed an early identification with Ogun, the Yoruba deity associated with war, iron, roads, and poetry.
Thanks to his father, young Wole enjoyed access to books, not only the Bible and English literature, but to classical Greek tragedies such as the Medea of Euripides, which had a profound effect on his imagination. A precocious reader, he soon sensed a link between the Yoruba folklore of his neighbours and the Greek mythology underlying so much of western literature.
He moved quickly from St. Peter's Primary School to the Abeokuta Grammar School and won a scholarship to the colony's premier secondary school, the Government College in Ibadan. At this boarding school, he continued to distinguish himself in his studies, writing stories, and acting in school plays. In 1952, he graduated from Government College and began studies at University College in Ibadan. He studied English literature, Greek, and Western history. Two years later, he won a scholarship to the University of Leeds, and left Africa for the first time. In England, he joined a close-knit community of West African students. Before defending his B.A., Wole began publishing and worked as an editor for the satirical magazine The Eagle.
During the six years spent in England, he was a dramaturgist at the Royal Court Theatre in London. In 1960, he was awarded a Rockefeller bursary and returned to Nigeria to study African drama. At the same time, he taught drama and literature at various universities in Ibadan, Lagos, and Ife, where he has been professor of comparative literature since 1975. In 1960, he founded the theatre group »The 1960 Masks« and in 1964 the »Orisun Theatre Company«, in which he has produced his own plays and taken part as actor. He has periodically been visiting professor at the universities of Cambridge, Sheffield, and Yale.
In January 1966, he secretly met with the General Ojukwu and urged a peaceful resolution to avoid further bloodshed. He was accused of collaborating with the Biafrans and went into hiding. Captured by Nigerian federal troops, he was imprisoned for the rest of the war. From his prison cell he wrote a letter asserting his innocence and protesting his unlawful detention. When the letter appeared in the foreign press, he was placed in solitary confinement for 22 months. Despite being denied access to pen and paper, Wole managed to improvise writing materials and continued to smuggle his writings to the outside world.
As dramatist, he has been influenced by, among others, the Irish writer J. M. Synge, but links up with the traditional popular African theatre with its combination of dance, music, and action. He bases his writing on the mythology of his own tribe – the Yoruba – with Ogun, the god of iron and war, at the centre. Wole has written two novels, The Interpreters (1965), narratively, a complicated work in which six Nigerian intellectuals discuss and interpret their African experiences, and Season of Anomy (1973) which is based on the writer's thoughts during his imprisonment and confronts the Orpheus and Euridice myth with the mythology of the Yoruba.
In 1986, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, the first African author to be so honoured. The Swedish Academy cited the »sparkling vitality« and »moral stature« of his work and praised him as one »who in a wide cultural perspective and with poetic overtones fashions the drama of existence«.
Wole has published several works: drama, novels, and poetry. He writes in English and his literary language is marked by great scope and richness of words. He remains an uncompromising critic of corruption and oppression wherever he finds them.
Thanks to his father, young Wole enjoyed access to books, not only the Bible and English literature, but to classical Greek tragedies such as the Medea of Euripides, which had a profound effect on his imagination. A precocious reader, he soon sensed a link between the Yoruba folklore of his neighbours and the Greek mythology underlying so much of western literature.
He moved quickly from St. Peter's Primary School to the Abeokuta Grammar School and won a scholarship to the colony's premier secondary school, the Government College in Ibadan. At this boarding school, he continued to distinguish himself in his studies, writing stories, and acting in school plays. In 1952, he graduated from Government College and began studies at University College in Ibadan. He studied English literature, Greek, and Western history. Two years later, he won a scholarship to the University of Leeds, and left Africa for the first time. In England, he joined a close-knit community of West African students. Before defending his B.A., Wole began publishing and worked as an editor for the satirical magazine The Eagle.
During the six years spent in England, he was a dramaturgist at the Royal Court Theatre in London. In 1960, he was awarded a Rockefeller bursary and returned to Nigeria to study African drama. At the same time, he taught drama and literature at various universities in Ibadan, Lagos, and Ife, where he has been professor of comparative literature since 1975. In 1960, he founded the theatre group »The 1960 Masks« and in 1964 the »Orisun Theatre Company«, in which he has produced his own plays and taken part as actor. He has periodically been visiting professor at the universities of Cambridge, Sheffield, and Yale.
In January 1966, he secretly met with the General Ojukwu and urged a peaceful resolution to avoid further bloodshed. He was accused of collaborating with the Biafrans and went into hiding. Captured by Nigerian federal troops, he was imprisoned for the rest of the war. From his prison cell he wrote a letter asserting his innocence and protesting his unlawful detention. When the letter appeared in the foreign press, he was placed in solitary confinement for 22 months. Despite being denied access to pen and paper, Wole managed to improvise writing materials and continued to smuggle his writings to the outside world.
As dramatist, he has been influenced by, among others, the Irish writer J. M. Synge, but links up with the traditional popular African theatre with its combination of dance, music, and action. He bases his writing on the mythology of his own tribe – the Yoruba – with Ogun, the god of iron and war, at the centre. Wole has written two novels, The Interpreters (1965), narratively, a complicated work in which six Nigerian intellectuals discuss and interpret their African experiences, and Season of Anomy (1973) which is based on the writer's thoughts during his imprisonment and confronts the Orpheus and Euridice myth with the mythology of the Yoruba.
In 1986, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, the first African author to be so honoured. The Swedish Academy cited the »sparkling vitality« and »moral stature« of his work and praised him as one »who in a wide cultural perspective and with poetic overtones fashions the drama of existence«.
Wole has published several works: drama, novels, and poetry. He writes in English and his literary language is marked by great scope and richness of words. He remains an uncompromising critic of corruption and oppression wherever he finds them.