Wole Soyinka: Our Lion And Our Jewel By Bayo Oluwasanmi
In 1965, he seized the Western Nigeria Broadcasting Service (WNBS) studio and broadcast a demand for the cancellation of the Western Nigeria regional elections. In 1967 during the Nigerian Civil War, he was arrested by the federal government of General Yakubu Gowon and put in solitary confinement for two years. During the regime of General Sani Abacha (1993-98), W.S. escaped from Nigeria via the “NADECO Route” on a motorbike. Abacha proclaimed a death sentence against him in absentia. Eightieth birthday is a special occasion and ideal opportunity to tell Wole Soyinka the first African to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, how much he means to us. When people think of Wole Soyinka, it’s probably as the author of the powerful autobiographical work, The Man Died (1971), a collection of notes from prison. But more than that, W.S. as fondly known in literary circles, is identified around the world as the recusant specialist who refused to submit to madmen that run and ruin Nigeria ...