Merygold International :::: BLOG

God, that was 23 years ago. I still remember like it was yesterday. I do know that most
Nobel laureates never pass the shores of so many countries even though it's a world
acclaimed prize for great achievements if their works are not translated into these
languages. Wole Soyinka's books are worthy of intelligent readers' precious time. Try it out.

More still to come on this great writer. Meanwhile, a search through the web on his name
would definitely give any interested reader enough information. Cheers.

There's no good gain in
unnecessary bullying. Believe
me.

So you feel "neglected" all this
while? Then you're stepping
on your own brain. Just get it
together, or shut your face (if
you've really got one). But if
it's a mouth you've got, then
shut up. Because good things
pass you by, and you should
be crying instead of looking
for more never-do-wells to get
on your woeful train with you.
No place is represented by
just a few. Just so you know.
You can't afford something,
so you say "I don't need it" but
once you're given for free,
you jump at it. Wake up if you
are still asleep.

Wole Soyinka

The Nobel Prize in Literature 1986

Biography (As written on the Nobel website at the time)

Wole Soyinka was born on 13 July 1934 at Abeokuta, near Ibadan in western
Nigeria. After preparatory university studies in 1954 at Government College in
Ibadan, he continued at the University of Leeds, where, later, in 1973, he took
his doctorate. During the six years spent in England, he was a dramaturgist at
the Royal Court Theatre in London 1958-1959. 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, since 1975, he has been professor of comparative literature. 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.

During the civil war in Nigeria, Soyinka appealed in an article for cease-fire.
For this he was arrested in 1967, accused of conspiring with the Biafra rebels,
and was held as a political prisoner for 22 months until 1969. Soyinka has
published about 20 works: drama, novels and poetry. He writes in English and
his literary language is marked by great scope and richness of words.

As dramatist, Soyinka 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. He wrote his first plays during his time in London, The Swamp
Dwellers and The Lion and the Jewel (a light comedy), which were performed
at Ibadan in 1958 and 1959 and were published in 1963. Later, satirical
comedies are The Trial of Brother Jero (performed in 1960, publ. 1963) with its
sequel, Jero's Metamorphosis (performed 1974, publ. 1973), A Dance of the
Forests (performed 1960, publ.1963), Kongi's Harvest (performed 1965, publ.
1967) and Madmen and Specialists (performed 1970, publ. 1971). Among
Soyinka's serious philosophic plays are (apart from "The Swamp Dwellers") The
Strong Breed (performed 1966, publ. 1963), The Road ( 1965) and Death and
the King's Horseman (performed 1976, publ. 1975). In The Bacchae of
Euripides (1973), he has rewritten the Bacchae for the African stage and in
Opera Wonyosi (performed 1977, publ. 1981), bases himself on John Gay's
Beggar's Opera and Brecht's The Threepenny Opera. Soyinka's latest dramatic
works are A Play of Giants (1984) and Requiem for a Futurologist (1985).

Soyinka has written two novels, The Interpreters (1965), narratively, a
complicated work which has been compared to Joyce's and Faulkner's, 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. Purely autobiographical are The Man Died: Prison Notes (1972)
and the account of his childhood, Aké ( 1981), in which the parents' warmth
and interest in their son are prominent. Literary essays are collected in, among
others, Myth, Literature and the African World (1975).

Soyinka's poems, which show a close connection to his plays, are collected in
Idanre, and Other Poems (1967), Poems from Prison (1969), A Shuttle in the
Crypt (1972) the long poem Ogun Abibiman (1976) and Mandela's Earth and
Other Poems (1988).

From Les Prix Nobel. The Nobel Prizes 1986, Editor Wilhelm Odelberg, [Nobel
Foundation], Stockholm, 1987

This autobiography/biography was written at the time of the award and later
published in the book series Les Prix Nobel/Nobel Lectures. The information is
sometimes updated with an addendum submitted by the Laureate. To cite this
document, always state the source as shown above.

The Nobel Priz e in
Literature 1986

London is one city where you
can always feel at home, with
yourself and with others around
you. And if you ask me, I'd say
other cities are just trailing
behind. You may think you
hate it, or you love to hate it,
but you just hate the fact that
you can't stop loving it.
You say they don't know music
in Britain, but any star
internationally known would be
dying for a performance in
London. Keeping people
wondering why they all want to
be here. Honestly, London gets
things done with that flexible
flair that makes the cream of
the entertainment world want to
be in just one place and do
what they enjoy doing most,
you can't help but get jealous.