57 Facts About Wole Soyinka

FRSL, known as Wole Soyinka, is a Nigerian playwright, novelist, poet, and essayist in the English language.

Wole Soyinka was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature, for "in a wide cultural perspective and with poetic overtones fashioning the drama of existence", the first sub-Saharan African to be honoured in that category.

Wole Soyinka went on to write plays that were produced in both countries, in theatres and on radio.

Wole Soyinka took an active role in Nigeria's political history and its campaign for independence from British colonial rule.

In Nigeria, Wole Soyinka was a Professor of Comparative literature at the Obafemi Awolowo University, then called the University of Ife.

Wole Soyinka has been a Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and has served as scholar-in-residence at NYU's Institute of African American Affairs and at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California.

Wole Soyinka has taught at the universities of Cambridge, Oxford, Harvard and Yale.

Wole Soyinka was a Distinguished Scholar in Residence at Duke University in 2008.

In December 2017, Wole Soyinka was awarded the Europe Theatre Prize in the "Special Prize" category awarded to someone who has "contributed to the realization of cultural events that promote understanding and the exchange of knowledge between peoples".

Wole Soyinka's siblings were Atinuke "Tinu" Aina Soyinka, Femi Soyinka, Yeside Soyinka, Omofolabo "Folabo" Ajayi-Soyinka and Kayode Soyinka.

Wole Soyinka was a political activist within the women's movement in the local community.

Wole Soyinka was raised in a religious family, attending church services and singing in the choir from an early age; however, Soyinka himself became an atheist later in life.

Wole Soyinka writes extensively about his childhood in his memoir Ake: The Years of Childhood.

Wole Soyinka's mother was one of the most prominent members of the influential Ransome-Kuti family: she was the granddaughter of Rev Canon JJ Ransome-Kuti as the only daughter of his first daughter Anne Lape Iyabode Ransome-Kuti, and was therefore a niece to Olusegun Azariah Ransome-Kuti, Oludotun Ransome-Kuti and niece in-law to Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti.

In 1940, after attending St Peter's Primary School in Abeokuta, Wole Soyinka went to Abeokuta Grammar School, where he won several prizes for literary composition.

Later in 1954, Wole Soyinka relocated to England, where he continued his studies in English literature, under the supervision of his mentor Wilson Knight at the University of Leeds.

Wole Soyinka intended to write new works combining European theatrical traditions with those of his Yoruba cultural heritage.

Encouraged, Wole Soyinka moved to London, where he worked as a play reader for the Royal Court Theatre.

Wole Soyinka received a Rockefeller Research Fellowship from University College in Ibadan, his alma mater, for research on African theatre, and he returned to Nigeria.

Wole Soyinka produced his new satire, The Trials of Brother Jero in the dining hall at Mellanby Hall of University College Ibadan, in April 1960.

Also in 1960, Wole Soyinka established the "Nineteen-Sixty Masks", an amateur acting ensemble to which he devoted considerable time over the next few years.

Wole Soyinka wrote the first full-length play produced on Nigerian television.

Wole Soyinka published works satirising the "Emergency" in the Western Region of Nigeria, as his Yoruba homeland was increasingly occupied and controlled by the federal government.

Wole Soyinka began teaching with the Department of English Language at Obafemi Awolowo University in Ife.

Wole Soyinka discussed current affairs with "negrophiles," and on several occasions openly condemned government censorship.

Wole Soyinka was released after a few months of confinement, as a result of protests by the international community of writers.

Wole Soyinka wrote The Detainee, a radio play for the BBC in London.

Wole Soyinka was imprisoned for 22 months as civil war ensued between the Federal government of Nigeria and the Biafrans.

Wole Soyinka published a collection of his poetry, Idanre and Other Poems, which was inspired by his visit to the sanctuary of the Yoruba deity Ogun, whom he regards as his "companion" deity, kindred spirit, and protector.

Wole Soyinka wrote The Bacchae of Euripides, a reworking of the Pentheus myth.

Wole Soyinka soon published in London a book of poetry, Poems from Prison.

Wole Soyinka travelled to Paris to take the lead role as Patrice Lumumba, the murdered first Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo, in the production of his Murderous Angels.

Wole Soyinka was awarded an Honoris Causa doctorate by the University of Leeds in 1973.

From 1973 to 1975, Wole Soyinka spent time on scientific studies.

In 1975 Wole Soyinka was promoted to the position of editor for Transition, a magazine based in the Ghanaian capital of Accra, where he moved for some time.

Wole Soyinka used his columns in Transition to criticise the "negrophiles" and military regimes.

Wole Soyinka protested against the military junta of Idi Amin in Uganda.

Wole Soyinka delivered a series of guest lectures at the Institute of African Studies at the University of Ghana in Legon.

In 1981 Wole Soyinka published his autobiographical work Ake: The Years of Childhood, which won a 1983 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award.

Wole Soyinka criticized the corruption in the government of the democratically elected President Shehu Shagari.

When he was replaced by the army general Muhammadu Buhari, Wole Soyinka was often at odds with the military.

Wole Soyinka was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986, becoming the first African laureate.

Wole Soyinka was described as one "who in a wide cultural perspective and with poetic overtones fashions the drama of existence".

Reed Way Dasenbrock writes that the award of the Nobel Prize in Literature to Wole Soyinka is "likely to prove quite controversial and thoroughly deserved".

Wole Soyinka's speech was an outspoken criticism of apartheid and the politics of racial segregation imposed on the majority by the National South African government.

In 1993 Wole Soyinka was awarded an honorary doctorate from Harvard University.

In November 1994, Wole Soyinka fled from Nigeria through the border with Benin and then to the United States.

Wole Soyinka became the organization's second president from 1997 to 2000.

In 1999 a new volume of poems by Wole Soyinka, entitled Outsiders, was released.

Wole Soyinka supported the freedom of worship but warned against the consequence of the illogic of allowing religions to preach apocalyptic violence.

Wole Soyinka served as scholar-in-residence at NYU's Institute of African American Affairs.

Wole Soyinka opposes allowing Fulani herdsmen the ability to graze their cattle on open land in southern, Christian-dominated Nigeria and believes these herdsmen should be declared terrorists to enable the restriction of their movements.

Wole Soyinka has eight children from his three marriages and two other daughters.

Wole Soyinka has commented on his close friendships with Toni Morrison and Henry Louis Gates Jr.

On Sunday, 20 November 2022; during a public presentation of his two-volume collection of essays, Wole Soyinka said in relation to religion:.

Wole Soyinka is currently the consultant for the Lagos Black Heritage Festival, with the Lagos State deeming him as the only person who could bring out the aims and objectives of the Festival to the people.

Wole Soyinka was appointed a patron of Humanists UK in 2020.