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Prof Soyinka and Dr Raphael James |
Born
July 13, 1934 in Abeokuta, Ogun State to Samuel Ayodele Soyinka, an Anglican Minister
and the headmaster of St. Peters School in Abeokuta and Grace Eniola Soyinka, a
political activist and the daughter of Rev. Canon JJ Ransome-Kuti. He attended
St. Peters Primary School in Abeokuta; Abẹokuta Grammar School; Government
College Ibadan; University College Ibadan (1952–54), he read English literature, Greek,
and Western history. In 1953–54 as a student he wrote a short radio
play for Nigerian Broadcasting Service, "Keffi's Birthday
Threat," which was aired in July 1954. As a student he also founded the
Pyrates Confraternity, an anti-corruption and justice-seeking student
organization, alongside six other students. He
left for England in 1954, joined the University
of Leeds
(1954–57).
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Prof Soyinka at CRIMMD |
He
worked as an editor for the satirical magazine ‘The Eagle’. His first
major play, The Swamp Dwellers (1958), was followed a year later by ‘The Lion
and the Jewel’, a
comedy that attracted interest from several members of London's Royal
Court Theatre.
Encouraged, Soyinka moved to London, where he worked as a play reader for the
Royal Court Theatre. During the same period, both of his plays were performed
in Ibadan. They dealt with the uneasy relationship between progress and
tradition in Nigeria.
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Prof Soyinka with Africa's youngest published author - Ebube |
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CD at a rally beside the grave of Bashorun MKO Abiola (Hafsat Abiola, Prof Wole Soyinka, Dr Joe Odumaikin and others) |
In
1957 his play ‘The Invention’ was the first of his works to be produced
at the Royal Court Theatre. At that time his only published works were poems
such as "The Immigrant" and "My Next Door Neighbour",
published in ‘Black Orpheus magazine.’ He received a Rockefeller
Research Fellowship
from University College in Ibadan, his alma mater, for research on African theatre, and he returned to
Nigeria. He produced ‘The Trials of Brother Jero’. And ‘A Dance of
The Forest’ (1960), which became the official play for Nigerian Independence Day on
October 1, 1960, he also established the "Nineteen-Sixty Masks", an
amateur acting group.
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Chief Mrs H.I.D. Awolowo with the Nobel laureate, prof Wole Soyinka |
He
worked as a lecturer at the Department of English Language at Obafemi
Awolowo University
Ile-Ifẹ in 1962. In 1963, he released the
movie, Culture in Transition and in April 1964 ‘The Interpreters’,
was published in London.
He
is the founder of Drama Association of Nigeria. He resigned as a lecturer in
1964. He was arrested by government and was released by appeals from
international community of writers. Out of prison he wrote Before the
Blackout’, ‘Kongi’s Harvest’ and ‘The Detainee’, a radio play for
the BBC in London. He was later appointed Head of Department, Department of
English Language at University
of Lagos.
In April 1965, ‘Kongi’s Harvest’ was produced at the International
Festival of Negro Art in Dakar, Senegal; ‘The Road’ was awarded the Grand Prix
and ‘The Lion and The Jewel’ was
performed at Hampstead Theatre Club in London.
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Prof Soyinka receiving his noble prize |
General
Yakubu Gowon
arrested him in 1967, during the Nigerian Civil War and kept him in solitary
confinement for two years. After his release he was appointed a professor at Cornell University, and Emory University in Atlanta, where in 1996 he was appointed a Robert W. Woodruff Professor of the Arts, he has also
taught at the universities of Oxford, Harvard and Yale.
He was a Professor of Comparative Literature at the Obafemi Awolowo University 1975-1999; Professor of
Creative Writing at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas; Professor in Residence at
Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles,
California, US.
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Wole Soyinka with a Guitar and his friend Banjo Solaru, London 1958 |
In
1984, his book ‘The Man Died’ was
banned. In 1986 he was awarded the Nobel
Prize for Literature, becoming the first African
laureate. In 1986, he received the Agip Prize for Literature. In 1988, his
collection of poems ‘Mandela's Earth, and Other Poems’ was published,
while in Nigeria another collection of essays entitled Art, Dialogue and
Outrage: Essays on Literature and Culture appeared. In 1990, the second
portion of his memoir ‘Isara: A Voyage Around Essay’ appeared. In July
1991 the BBC
African Service
transmitted his radio play ‘A Scourge of Hyacinths’, and the next year
(1992) in Sienna (Italy), his play ‘From
Zia with Love’ had its premiere. In 1993 he was awarded an honorary
doctorate from the Harvard University. In 1994, he published his autobiography:
‘Ibadan: The Penkelemes Years (A Memoir: 1946–1965)’. In 1995 his play ‘The
Beatification of Area Boy’ was published. In October 1994 he was appointed UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for
the Promotion of African culture, human rights, freedom of expression, media
and communication. He fled Nigeria in 1994, in 1996 his book ‘The Open Sore
of a Continent: A Personal Narrative of the Nigerian Crisis’ was first published.
In 1999 a new volume of poems entitled Outsiders was released. His play King
Baabu, premiered in Lagos in 2001, in 2002 a collection of his poems, ‘Samarkand
and Other Markets I Have Known’, was published. In 2006, his memoir You
Must Set Forth at Dawn was published. In 2011, the African Heritage
Research Library and Cultural Centre built a writers' enclave in his honour in
Adeyipo Village, Ibadan, Oyo State. In 2014, he visited the
CRIMMD PHOTO MUSEUM OF NIGERIAN HISTORY where he saw his photo at age 5 and he
gave us very high commendation for preserving Nigerian history through
photographs. Today, as he clocks 83, CRIMMD felicitate with him on this special
occasion with a special book reading involving 10 of his books.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY PROF!!
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