Wole Soyinka
Akinwande Oluwole Soyinka was born July 13, 1934 in Abeokuta, Nigeria. His mother was a Christian convert and his father was the scholarly headmaster at a Christian Primary School. In the year 1952, Wole began his study for his bachelor's degree at the University College of Ibadan. Two years later, Soyinka moved to the United Kingdom to continue his studies at the University of Leeds. At this university Wole later received his bachelor's degree in the subject of English. As a writer, Soyinka's works are mostly meant to be seen as comical and satirical, but are about a more tragic take on human life. Soyinka's works are mostly playwrights, and also consist of poetry, essays and novels. In 1967, the military imprisoned him for 27 months due to his highly outspoken criticism and later forced him into exile. During those 5 years, he traveled all across the world to produce plays that publicly outed and attacked the governments throughout all of Africa. In 1994, Soyinka went into a self-imposed exile, due to the word he had heard that a democratically elected government was to have assumed power. After this relatively politically calm period, Soyinka once again came back to his regular political activism and began leading a group called "Citizens Forum." Lots of his writings caused him much personal suffering because of his highly critical works and his belief that his words must be backed up by his actions. One example of him proving these beliefs is when he was arrested and tear-gassed in May of 2004 while he and his group the "Citizens Forum" were protesting in an attempt to amend the constitution in order for Wole to have the ability to run for a third term.
Awards and Major Works
- in 1986 Soyinka was the first black African to be awarded a Nobel Peace Prize and was considered to be one of the best African writers of the modern era
- in 1960 he was awarded the Rockefeller Research Award while attending the University College of Ibadan
- The novel he wrote in while he was imprisoned called The Man Died, and it was published shortly after he was released.
- The Lion and The Jewel and The Swamp Dweller were both some of his playwrights that were performed by students in Ibadan.
- Some of his works after prison came across with an angrier tone, like the play Madmen, Death and the King's Horseman and Specialists. These were said to be the most brutal social criticism he had ever published.
- In 1970, Soyinka created a theater arts department program at the University of Ibadan and a theater arts company.
Source Analysis
Shankar, Shobana. "Wole Soyinka." World History: The Modern Era, ABC-CLIO, 2021, worldhistory.abc-clio.com/Search/Display/315861. Accessed 18 Feb. 2021
This source was very useful, as it gave me much information about the awards Soyinka had received. As well as the awards, this gave lots of information about his younger life and facts about his childhood and schooling experiences. It also is a very reliable and helpful source as it was taken from ABC Cleo World History Database, under the topic of Wole Soyinka. Compared to the other two sources, this one had much more useful information on Soyinka in his younger years, which was very useful. This source was the shortest of the three, but it also gave the best information of the three sources.
“Wole Soyinka." International Dictionary of Theatre, vol. 2, Gale, 1993. Gale In Context: Biography, link.gale.com/apps/doc/K1644000406/BIC?
This source was very useful as it gave further of information about the life of Soyinka, and it also gave lots of examples of many of his different types of major works. The source had a very useful list that stated all of his works, including his stage works, collections, screenplays, television plays, radio plays, fiction, verse, memoirs/letters, and others. It was also a very reliable source as it came from the World History in Context Database. Compared to the other two, this was the longest of the three and most useful for finding his many types major works.
"Wole Soyinka." Encyclopedia of World Biography Online, Gale, 1998. Gale In Context: World History, link.gale.com/apps/doc/K1631006178/WHIC?u=tel_k_webb&sid=WHIC&xid=8a530595. Accessed 18 Feb. 2021
This source was also very helpful, similar to the second source, it gave me lots of examples of his major works and even more information about Soyinka's life. Compared to the first source, which contained information about Soyinka's early life, this source had more facts about his later life. This source was very similar to source B in the information it gave, but both had some important information that the other did not. As well as source B, this source was very reliable as it came from the History in Context Database. In relation to the other two, this source was between the others when comparing length.
Images
Vanguard. “50 Years after Civil War: Never Again Speech by Professor Wole Soyinka.” Vanguard News, 14 Jan. 2020, www.vanguardngr.com/2020/01/50-years-after-civil-war-never-again-speech-by-professor-wole-soyinka/.
“Wole Soyinka (Playwright).” OnThisDay.com, 1 Oct. 1960, www.onthisday.com/people/wole-soyinka.