SOY-INK: The Pen of a Ready Writer

The Nobel Prize for Literature for 1986 went to an African- the first ebony-bodied the world over to be so honoured- playwright who is both a poet and a novelist of equal inimitable magnitude. In a world brimming with writers heavily gifted with several sensational genre, to think that an African writer barely in his fifties will clinch the title is unutterably mind boggling.

This July this writer has spent nine decades on this side of the divide. Longevity is for the most part God’s gift, though man by choice of a healthy lifestyle can contribute to his length of days. This literary icon has been in the limelight for decades on end and has remained relevant for, up until recently (2021), he presented to the literary world yet another classic, Chronicles from Land of the Happiest People on Earth.

Born Akinwande Oluwole Babatunde Soyinka, he attended Government College Ibadan in 1954, having graduated with an upper second-class degree, from where he would proceed to the University of Leeds in England. Between 1975 and 1999, Kongi was Professor of Comparative Literature at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife.

While in prison he produced a novel, The Man Died, which became a classic among several others plays: The Jero Plays, The Lion and the Jewel, Kongi’s Harvest, Death and the King’s Horseman, A Play of Giants. These are but few of the poet’s penmanship. It is usually understandable to find a poet who is not a very good novelist or playwright. Wole Soyinka combines in genius artistry the tripartite artist: playwright-poet-novelist.

The Wole Soyinka Annual Lecture Series was founded in 1994 and is “ dedicated to honouring one of Nigeria’s and Africa’s most outstanding and enduring literary icons: Professor Wole Soyinka.” In 2017, he received the Special Prize of the Europe Theatre Prize, in Rome.
A recipient of many prestigious awards, it can be safely argued that the Nobel Prize for Literature remains the most coveted.