Professor Wole Soyinka
Patron
Wole Soyinka, who was born in Abeokuta, Nigeria, in 1934 and is the first black African author to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, which he obtained in 1986.
After preparatory university studies at Government College Ibadan in 1954, he continued his education at the University of Leeds, where he earned a PhD in 1973. During his years in England, he became a playwright for the Royal Court Theatre in London. In 1960, he received a Rockefeller bursary and returned to Africa to study African theatre. During the same period, he taught theatre and literature in various universities in Ibadan, Lagos, and Ife, where he has been professor of comparative literature since 1975. In 1960, he founded the theatre group, The 1960 Masks, and in 1964 The Orisun Theatre Company in which he produced and acted in his own plays. Whilst an Overseas Fellow at Churchill College, Cambridge, he wrote his widely acclaimed Death and the King’s Horseman. He has been awarded the George Benson Medal of Royal Society for Literature and the UNESCO Medal for the Arts.
During the civil war in Nigeria, Soyinka appealed in an article for cease-fire. He was arrested in 1967, accused of conspiring with the Biafra rebels, and was held as a political prisoner for 22 months. Forced into exile in 1994 by the military dictatorship, he now divides his time between Nigeria and California, and lectures in universities across Europe and the USA.
Soyinka has published over twenty works: drama, novels and poetry and is influenced by the popular tradition of African theatre with its combination of dance, music and performance, as well as the popular mythology of his own tribe, the Yorubas.
Selected works:
A QUALITY OF VIOLENCE | 1959 | |
THE TRIALS OF BROTHER JERO | 1960 | |
A DANCE OF THE FORESTS | 1963 | |
THE STRONG BREED | 1963 | |
THREE PLAYS (The Swamp Dwellers, The Trials of Brother Jero, The Strong Breed) |
1963 | |
THE LION AND THE JEWEL | 1963 | |
KONGI'S HARVEST | 1965 | |
THE INTERPRETERS - Tulkit (Risto Lehmusoksa, 1980) | 1965 | |
THE ROAD | 1965 | |
IDANRAE AND OTHER POEMS | 1967 | |
THE FOREST OF A THOUSAND DAEMONS | 1968 | |
POEMS FROM PRISON | 1969 | |
MADMEN AND SPECIALISTS | 1970 | |
BEFORE THE BLACKOUT | 1971 | |
JERO'S METAMORPHOSIS | 1972 | |
A SHUTTLE IN THE CRYPT | 1972 | |
THE MAN DIED | 1972 | |
SEASON OF ANOMY, - Laittomuuden kausi (suom. Risto Lehmusoksa, 1976) |
1973 | |
CAMWOOD ON THE LEAVES | 1973 | |
COLLECTED PLAYS 1 | 1973 | |
COLLECTED PLAYS 2 | 1974 | |
DEATH AND THE KING'S HORSEMEN | 1975 | |
MYTH, LITERATURE, AND THE AfricaN WORLD | 1976 | |
OGUN ABIBIMAN | 1976 | |
AKÉ: THE YEARS OF CHILDHOOD, -Aké - lapsuusvuodet (suom. Pentti Isomursu, 1983) |
1981 | |
OPERA WONYOSI | 1981 | |
THE CRITIC AND SOCIETY | 1982 | |
A PLAY OF GIANTS | 1984 | |
SIX PLAYS | 1984 | |
REQUIEM FOR A FUTUROLOGIST | 1985 | |
THIS PAST MUST ADDRESS ITS PRESENT, (Nobel Lecture) | 1986 | |
MANDELA'S EARTH AND OTHER POEMS | 1988 | |
ART, DIALOGUE AND OUTRAGE: ESSAYS ON LITERATURE AND CULTURE, (rev. 1993) | 1988 | |
ÌSARÀ: A VOYAGE AROUND 'ESSAY', - Isara: matka "Esseen" ympäri (suomentanut Seppo Loponen, 1992) | 1989 | |
THE CREDO OF BEING AND NOTHINGNESS | 1991 | |
FROM ZIA, WITH LOVE | 1992 | |
BEYOND THE BERLIN WALL | 1993 | |
IBADAN: THE PENKELEMES YEARS | 1994 | |
THE BEATIFICATION OF AREA BOY | 1995 | |
THE OPEN SORE OF A CONTINENT: A PERSONAL NARRATIVE OF THE NIGERIAN CRISIS | 1996 | |
THE BURDEN OF MEMORY, THE MUSE OF FORGIVENESS | 1999 | |
KING BAABU | 2001 | |
YOU MUST SET FORTH AT DAWN: A MEMOIR | 2006 |