Professor Wole Soyinka
Nigerians and many people who are fans and lovers of Professor Wole Soyinka around the world have taken out time to celebrate the Playwright as he clocks 86 on Monday, July 13, 2020.
Taken to the social media platforms, many people who are lovers of his craft described him as a leader, mentor and hero who has been able to contribute his quota to the society through his books and in other areas.
Everyevery.ng deemed it necessary to intimate you about facts about Wole Soyinka who was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature.
1.The Ogun state born playwright attended Government College in Ibadan, University College Ibadan and later proceeded to the University of Leeds in England.
2. Soyinka, who has written plays that were produced in countries, in theatres and on the radio played an active role in Nigeria’s struggle for independence from Great Britain.
3. He was arrested by the General Yakubu Gowon-led federal government and put in solitary confinement for two years during the Nigerian Civil War in 1967.
4. Professor Soyinka, who has been a strong critic of successive Nigerian governments, especially the country’s many military dictators escaped from Nigeria on a motorcycle during the regime of General Sani Abacha between 1993 and 1998.
5. Soyinka was a Professor of Comparative literature at the Obafemi Awolowo University, formerly known as the University of Ife and was later made professor emeritus in 1999.
6. While in the United States, he taught at Cornell University later at Emory University and has been a Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Nevada, he also taught at the universities of Oxford, Harvard and Yale.
7. In December 2017, he was awarded the Europe Theatre Prize in the Special Prize category awarded to someone who has contributed to the realization of cultural events that promote understanding and the exchange of knowledge between peoples.
8. Soyinka became the first African laureate after he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986.
You will recall that Soyinka’s play titled Death and the King’s Horseman was considered as one of the two works to be adapted into a film after the owner of Ebony Life Tv, Mo Abudu bagged a partnership deal with an American media streaming service, Netflix.
Netflix announced that it will partner Mo to create new content from the west African nation.
Reacting to the partnership deal, Soyinka expressed delight over how Mo Abudu has been thriving in the male-dominated filmmaking scene.