Black Writers: Wole Soyinka
Вставка
- Опубліковано 13 кві 2014
- Wole Soyinka reads from his book Samarkand & Other Markets I Have Known.
In 1986, Soyinka became the first African to be awarded the Nobel Prize in literature. In plays, novels, and poems, he has chronicled the political turmoil of his native Nigeria. At the same time that he has painted a vivid portrait of Nigeria under and after colonial rule, he has also addressed the wider question of the persistence of humanity in the face of cruelty, intolerance, and outrage. His writing displays the influences of both modern European writing and traditional Yoruba mythology.
Soyinka's writing spans genre and also tone, with his work ranging from satiric comedy to serious philosophy. Among his notable publications are the play Death and the King's Horseman (1975), the collection of literary essays Myth, Literature, and the African World (1975), the autobiographical Ake: The Years of Childhood (1981), and a series of Du Bois Institute lectures The Open Sore of a Continent: A Personal Narrative of the Nigerian Crisis (1997). Most recently, he has published a collection of poetry written during a period of exile from Nigeria entitled Samarkand and Other Markets I Have Known (2003).
Soyinka was born in 1934 in Abeokuta, near Ibadan in western Nigeria. His father was headmaster of the Anglican mission school in the village of AkŽ, and it was here that Soyinka received his first education. He writes of his childhood experiences in the autobiographical AkŽ (1981), in which he recounts the juxtaposition of his early Christian training and his schooling in traditional Yoruba beliefs and practices. He went on to university studies at the Government College in Ibadan and then at the University of Leeds, from which he earned a doctorate in 1973. From the 1960s on, Soyinka has taught drama and literature at universities in Ibadan, Lagos, and Ife and in a number of visiting professorships in Europe and the United States, at institutions including Cambridge and Yale. He is the Robert W. Woodruff Professor of the Arts at Emory University, in Atlanta, and has been a fellow of the W.E.B. DuBois Institute at Harvard University. In 1999, Soyinka was named the first distinguished scholar-in-residence by New York University's Africana Studies Program and the Institute of African-American Affairs.
This man is a genius, in high school we read his book the "lion and the jewel", the man died, the gods are not to blame" and so on, so much respect sir! ALAKE!!!
Prof. Wọlé Soyinka is the best amongst his peers in Africa.
Not just in Africa, Wole can go toe to toe with the likes of Yeats and at certain intervals beat them. This collection(Samarkand) together with Idanre stand tall enough not just for Africans to see, but for the rest of the world to see.
It should have been Chinua Achebe",his writing is derived from reality in Africa,not cacophony incomprehensible,heaven knows why a man whose"things fall apart piece has been translated into 50 languages,book widely used did not win the noble laurete,heaven understands
Not just in Africa, Wole can go toe to toe with the likes of Yeats and at certain intervals beat them. This collection(Samarkand) together with Idanre stand tall enough not just for Africans to see, but for the rest of the world to see.
What a man... Pure genius.
In my opinion, Ngugi Wa Thiongo deserves a Nobel Prize in literature but because of his anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist and anti-racist stance.
I totally agree far superior writer than wole/
kemo fatty I concur
+Megs Your are so wrong I must say.
@@megs8602 On the grounds of preference any writer in the world could be designated as the best. But on the grounds of technique; the expression of skill across genres...
Ngugi of course is a gifted writer, but a political message does not make art- Ngugi should not be judged as an artist on the grounds of his politics but on the grounds of his aesthetics.
Legend
Very good
Hi I'm looking for a video of a full performance of Death and The King's Horseman. Can you help me with that please? Many thanks.
A very beautiful mind reveals its contents to the chagrin of intellectuals. K'e pe baba o.
Very good