Happy birthday Sir!!!! Born 13 07 1934.
by Ayoade Davidson Ojeniyi FCA 13 07 2024.
WS is an Ijegba man: mum = Egba, dad = Isara Remo !!! He transferred from University College Ibadan(now UI) to Leeds to complete his first degree!!!
Prof Wole Soyinka has no PhD or Masters bc most of the would be assessors used his works for their own Theses. Those that did not use his works declined to assess him bc he once criticized literally the works of one of them and the Prof accepted his criticism and immediately made corrections. So, nobody to assess him. He has 2:1 in Leeds and became a Prof from it.
WS was an activist and was detained by Gowon during the Civil War for holding meetings with Ojukwu the Biafran leader. He also tried to save his fellow writer Gen Mamman Vatsa during the IBB days. He tried to save the life of another writer Ken Saro Wiwa during the Abacha years. He confronted the Nigerian junta and established an effective Radio called Radio Kudirat. Eventually, Gen AbdulSalam Abubakar wanted to hand over to WS through democratic means but WS declined saying that he has no temperament for such leadership. Together with NADECO leaders such as PBAT, the military junta was chased out of Nigeria. In order to compensate the South West for the loss of MKO Abiola the man who won June 12 1993 election but was detained wherein he died, SW was allowed to present 2 candidates in 1999: Chief Olu False and Gen Olusegun Obasanjo and Obasanjo won. The rest is History.
WS can speak Yoruba, English and French languages fluently. He can chant Ijala Ere Ode. He is a good hunter.
His best friends were Femi Johnson and Bola Ige.
He always exchanged hard letters with Jagun Jagun Olusegun Ajasegun Obasanjo PhD. By the way OBJ was older than WS during their youthful years but WS is now older but OBJ has explained the reason in his book My Watch that he, OBJ settled with his current birthday having used 3 birthdays earlier in life.
WS technically formed the current Road Safety. He also formed Pyrates Confrantanity. The Pyrates have nothing to do with the current "killer clubs" secret cults in the Universities.
WS has highly educated children of which the two most populars are Dr Olaokun Soyinka and Moremi Onijala.
PBAT just named the National Theatre after WS, he earlier named N20 Road after him in Abuja.
Bobaseye Akinyemi Olusegun Fasakin writes:
Works of WS:
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Plays:
Keffi's Birthday Treat (1954)
The Invention (1957)
The Swamp Dwellers (1958)
A Quality of Violence (1959)
The Lion and the Jewel (1959)
The Trials of Brother Jero (1960)
A Dance of the Forests (1960)
My Father's Burden (1960)
The Strong Breed (1964)
Before the Blackout (1964)
Kongi's Harvest (1964)
The Road (1965)
Madmen and Specialists (1970)
The Bacchae of Euripides (1973)
Camwood on the Leaves (1973)
Jero's Metamorphosis (1973)
Death and the King's Horseman (1975)
Opera Wonyosi (1977)
Requiem for a Futurologist (1983)
A Play of Giants (1984)
Childe Internationale (1987)
From Zia with Love (1992)
The Detainee (radio play)
A Scourge of Hyacinths (radio play)
The Beatification of Area Boy (1996)
Document of Identity (radio play, 1999)
King Baabu (2001)
Etiki Revu Wetin
Alapata Apata (2011)
"Thus Spake Orunmila" (in Sixty-Six Books (2011)
Novels :
The Interpreters (1965)
Season of Anomy (1973)
Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth (Bookcraft, Nigeria; Bloomsbury, UK; Pantheon, US, 2021)
Short stories:
A Tale of Two (1958)
Egbe's Sworn Enemy (1960)
Madame Etienne's Establishment (1960)
Memoirs :
The Man Died: Prison Notes (1972)
Aké: The Years of Childhood (1981)
Ibadan: The Penkelemes Years: a memoir 1945–1965 (1989)
Ìsarà : A Voyage around Essay (1989)
You Must Set Forth at Dawn (2006)
Poetry collections:
Telephone Conversation (1963) (appeared in Modern Poetry in Africa)
Idanre and other poems (1967)
A Big Airplane Crashed into The Earth (original title Poems from Prison) (1969)
A Shuttle in the Crypt (1971)
Ogun Abibiman (1976)
Mandela's Earth and other poems (1988)
Early Poems (1997)
Samarkand and Other Markets I Have Known (2002)
Essays :
"Towards a True Theater" (1962)
Culture in Transition (1963)
Neo-Tarzanism: The Poetics of Pseudo-Transition
A Voice That Would Not Be Silenced
Art, Dialogue, and Outrage: Essays on Literature and Culture (1988)
From Drama and the African World View (1976)
Myth, Literature, and the African World (1976)
The Blackman and the Veil (1990)
The Credo of Being and Nothingness (1991)
The Burden of Memory – The Muse of Forgiveness (1999)
A Climate of Fear (the BBC Reith Lectures 2004, audio and transcripts)
New Imperialism (2009)
Of Africa (2012)
Beyond Aesthetics: Use, Abuse, and Dissonance in African Art Traditions (2019)
Films :
Kongi's Harvest
Culture in Transition
Blues for a Prodigal
Translations :
The Forest of a Thousand Daemons: A Hunter’s Saga (1968; a translation of D. O. Fagunwa's Ã’gbójú Ọdẹ nÃnú Igbó Irúnmalẹ̀)
In the Forest of Olodumare (2010; a translation of D. O. Fagunwa's Igbo Olodumare).
In summary:
Wole Soyinka is a Nigerian playwright, novelist, poet and essayist born on July 13, 1934, in Abeokuta, Nigeria .
Studied at Government College and University College in Ibadan before graduating in English from the University of Leeds in England with 2:1.
Received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986.
Wrote several plays, including “A Dance of the Forests” (1960), “The Lion and the Jewel” (1959), and “Death and the King’s Horseman” (1975).
Wrote novels like “The Interpreters” (1965) and “Season of Anomy” (1973)
Was a political activist who fought for Nigerian democracy and was imprisoned for 22 months during the Nigerian Civil War.
Taught Literature and Drama at various Nigerian universities and abroad and headed theatre groups.
Received several awards, including the Benson Medal, Academy of Achievement Golden Plate Award, Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Lifetime Achievement, and Europe Theatre Prize – Special Prize.
Refused to stay under Trump Presidency in the USA and angrily returned home to IjeGba.
WE, IN THE YORUBALAND RESEARCH GROUP WISH BABA WS A HAPPY BIRTHDAY AND MAY GOD CONTINUE TO PROTECT AND GIVE HIM GOOD HEALTH HAVING SURVIVED A CANCER ATTACK.
Best regards Sir. We respect you so much Sir. You're next to Pa Obafemi Awolowo SAN in Yorubaland.
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