Nobel Laureate notches 80
By O Bolaji
Wole Soyinka at 80. It exhilarates the soul
just thinking about the nonpareil writer and activist, Wole Soyinka, clocking 80 at the weekend. What a
remarkable man!
Happily enough the great man himself has essentially
chronicled his own extraordinary life over the decades in a series of
celebrated published literary autobiographies: in works like Ake, the years of childhood, Ibadan: the
penkelemes years, The Man Died, Isara: a voyage around essay, You must set forth at dawn etc. The world knows
Soyinka, Nigeria's first and only (literary) Nobel laureate is an incredibly
versatile writer.
Our own W.S (William Shakespeare/Wole Soyinka) has straddled
virtually every aspect of creative writing; first and foremost as a dramatist
and playwright churning out dozens of polished plays. But he is also a
novelist, poet, literary critic, essayist, translator, film-maker, among many
other things.
Soyinka has also always been a political activist
and humanist "for me justice is the first condition of humanity"
"the man dies in all who keep silent in the face of tyranny". He has
been the scourge of successive regimes who have held Nigeria to ransom. Soyinka
even spent years in gaol to reinforce his commitment to pristine humanity.
In respect of literature, Soyinka is easily one of
the greatest writers the world has ever seen. He is a one man literature
industry. He has published dozens of world class works, and dozens of literary
works have been published on him and his work. Some of the best literary
critics in the world - including USA's acclaimed Harold Bloom - have zeroed in
on his fecund works.
Countless critics would of course continue to
comment on the brilliance and "difficulty" of his published works. A
friend of mine, who studied English at one of Nigeria's premier universities
told me: "To call Wole Soyinka a genius is to indulge in ludicrous
understatement. For decades I read his novel, Season of anomy and still hardly understand it. Every page is a
masterpiece of sorts, the evocative descriptions, diction, allusions et al. You
read and re-read the pages and accept in your relative ignorance that you are
confronted with an eclectic skilled, literary master..."
Indeed, Soyinka's creative works resonate on the
reader for years on end (for ever?) He adumbrates his ideas in unforgettable
fashion even in microcosmic passages. Consider this for example (from Season of anomy) - relating to the catalytic role of women in revolutions:
"We
must acknowledge the fact - pimps, whores - are the familiar vanguard of the
army of change. When the moment arrives a woman like Iriyise becomes for the people a Chantal, a Deborah, touch and standard-bearer, super mistress of universal insurgence. To abandon such a potential weapon in any struggle is to admit to a lack of foresight. Or
imagination"
For me I have always felt that the humour and irony
integral in Soyinka's work is perhaps not appreciated enough. Examples in this wise are legion; "When you try to sneer, Lasunwon you look singularly ugly" (The Interpreters) "I
know the brother (a religious prophet) and this admission is enough for anyone with a sense of shame" (Jero's Metamorphosis).
Or from many passages
in You must set forth at dawn; where
the likes of Olusegun Obasanjo, Ibrahim Babangida, the late Arisekola Alao etc
are described in candid, yet humorous manner. From the sublime to the
ridiculous also in the same work, with the "transfiguration" of a
bottle of beer as Soyinka flees the borders!
As befits such an outstanding, world-class writer, Soyinka
has his critics, and those who laud him to the highest heavens! Unashamedly I
admit I belong to the latter category; yet I feel his "critics" have
every right to ventilate their reservations also. As a lofty literary critic
himself, Soyinka knows ‘literary criticism’ is part of the game, to put it
crudely and in elementary fashion.
Indeed as we all wish Soyinka a wonderful 80th
birthday I again recollect a colleague of mine abroad who swore at some of Soyinka's
critics and said to me: "How can anybody have the temerity to criticise
such a great great man, a man whose literary achievements are such that other
peers can only dream of emulating the same; a man who is arguably the
greatest-ever living Nigerian?" Happy Birthday, Sir!!!
Selected
bibliography
The
Swamp Dwellers (1958)
The
Lion and the Jewel (1959)
The
Trials of Brother Jero
A
Dance of the Forests (1960)
The
Strong Breed (1964)
Kongi's
Harvest (1964)
The
Road (1965)
Madmen
and Specialists (1970)
The
Bacchae of Euripides (1973)
Death
and the King's Horseman (1975)
Opera
Wonyosi (1977)
Requiem
for a Futurologist (1983)
A
Play of Giants (1984)
The
Beatification of Area Boy (1996)
King
Baabu (2001)
The
Interpreters (novel)
Season
of Anomy (1972)
The
Man Died: Prison Notes (1971)
Aké:
The Years of Childhood (1981)
Ibadan:
The Penkelemes Years: a memoir 1946-65 (1989)
Isara:
A Voyage around Essay (1990)
You
Must Set Forth at Dawn (2006)
Idanre
and other poems (1967)
A
Shuttle in the Crypt (1971)
Myth,
Literature and the African World (1976)
Mandela's
Earth and other poems (1988)
Art,
Dialogue, and Outrage: Essays on Literature and Culture (1988)
The
Credo of Being and Nothingness (1991)
The
Burden of Memory – The Muse of Forgiveness (1999)
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