Wole Soyinka (1934- …) was born in Western Nigeria to a Yoruba family. Having already started writing poems and sketches for the drama club while at school, he went on to study in Nigeria and then the UK, where he read English Literature. In 1958, he moved to London and as a young author worked with the Royal Court Theatre. In 1960, shortly before Nigeria declared independence, he returned with a scholarship to research West African theatre. He participated actively in the cultural blossoming of his country, wrote plays for the radio, television and the theatre, and also staged A dance of the forests, in which he expressed his misgivings about Nigeria's future. His wide-ranging work as a writer, director, essayist and activist made him a public figure. He was arrested in 1965 and again in 1967 for operating as an unofficial intermediary during the civil war, and was held for about two years without trial. After his release, he resumed his post as director of the School of Drama at the University of Ibadan, but the following year he left Nigeria and travelled for almost five years in self-imposed exile. On his return, he looked for ways of making theatre an accessible vehicle for conveying political ideas through music and song. In his long career, he championed democracy and equality and was an opponent of dictatorships throughout Africa. In 1986, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, the first African to receive this honour.

As a dramatist, he is in conversation with European and American theatre and with avant-garde movements, while he also draws on elements of Yoruba culture and African folk traditions. Through satire, irony and poetry, he records the challenges of post-colonialism.

 

A short list of his plays:
The swamp dwellers, The lion and the jewel, A dance of the forests, Before the blackout, Kongi’s harvest, The Bacchae of Euripides, A play of giants, King Baabu.

 

My secret is my eternal burden - to pierce the encrustations of soul-deadening habit, and bare the mirror of original nakedness - knowing full well, it is all futility. (A dance of the forests)

 

Let World Bank tell us once and for all if it is just for rich countries and neo-colonial bastards like Hazena or if it belong to Third World countries who need loan. (A play of giants)