Wole Soyinka

A Nobel laureate offers a keen, thought-provoking analysis of Africa's current crises and points the way to cultural and political renewal A member of the unique generation of African writers and intellectuals who came of age in the last days of colonialism, Wole Soyinka has witnessed the promise of independence and lived through postcolonial failure. He deeply comprehends the pressing problems of Africa, and, an irrepressible essayist and a staunch critic of the oppressive boot, he unhesitatingly speaks out. In this magnificent new work, Soyinka offers a wide-ranging inquiry into Africa's culture, religion, history, imagination, and identity. He seeks to understand how the continent's history is entwined with the histories of others, while exploring Africa's truest assets: "its humanity, the quality and valuation of its own existence, and modes of managing its environment—both physical and intangible (which includes the spiritual)." Fully grasping the extent of Africa's most challenging issues, Soyinka nevertheless refuses defeatism. With eloquence he analyzes problems ranging from the meaning of the past to the threat of theocracy. He asks hard questions about racial attitudes, inter-ethnic and religious violence, the viability of nations whose boundaries were laid out by outsiders, African identity on the continent and among displaced Africans, and more. Soyinka's exploration of Africa relocates the continent in the reader's imagination and maps a course toward an African future of peace and affirmation.

This elegant, haunting novel takes us deep into the world of bookstore owner Boualem Yekker. He lives in a country being overtaken by the Vigilant Brothers, a radically conservative party that seeks to control every element of life according to the laws of their stringent moral theology: no work of beauty created by human hands should rival the wonders of their god. Once-treasured art and literature are now despised. Silently holding his ground, Boualem withstands the new regime, using the shop and his personal history as weapons against puritanical forces. Readers are taken into the lush depths of the bookseller's dreams, the memories of his now-empty family life, his passion for literature, then yanked back into the terror and drudgery of his daily routine by the vandalism, assaults, and death warrants that afflict him. From renowned Algerian author Tahar Djaout we inherit a brutal and startling story that reveals how far an ordinary human being will go to maintain hope.

A compelling memoir by Africa's first Nobel laureate for literature continues the story that began in his childhood autobiography Ake as Soyinka describes the adventures and mishaps of his adulthood, including his frequent exile from his homeland, his celebrated literary work, and his advocacy for political and human rights. Reprint. 20,000 first printing.

Wole Soyinka has translated in both language and spirit a great classic of ancient Greek theater. He does so with a poet's ear for the cadences and rhythms of chorus and solo verse as well as a commanding dramatic use of the central social and religious myth. In his hands The Bacchae becomes a communal feast, a tumultuous celebration of life, and a robust ritual of the human and social psyche. "The Bacchae is the rites of an extravagant banquet, a monstrous feast," Soyinka writes. "Man reaffirms his indebtedness to earth, dedicates himself to the demands of continuity, and invokes the energies of productivity. Reabsorbed within the communal psyche he provokes the resources of nature; in turn he is replenished for the cyclic rain in his fragile individual potency." The blending of two master playwrights Euripides and Soyinka makes for an unforgettable experience."

The keenly awaited new play from the Nobel prize-winner A naked satire on the rule of General Abacha in Nigeria, the play chronicles the debauched rule of General Basha Bash who takes power in a coup and exchanges his general's uniform for a robe and crown re-christening himself King Baabu. In the manner of Alfred Jarry's Ubu Roi, Soyinka develops a special childish language for his cast of characters who have names like Potipoo and General Uzi. Weaving together burlesque comedy, theatrical excess and storytelling, King Baabu has already been coined as a pet name for the despot par excellence. "We turn Guatu into kingdom, ruled by kings. Nobody complain any more. General Basha Bash is dead. Long Live King Baabu."

Based on events that took place in Oyo, an ancient Yoruba city of Nigeria, in 1946, Wole Soyinka's powerful play concerns the intertwined lives of Elesin Oba, the king's chief horseman; his son, Olunde, now studying medicine in England; and Simon Pilkings, the colonial district officer. The king has died and Elesin, his chief horseman, is expected by law and custom to commit suicide and accompany his ruler to heaven. The stage is set for a dramatic climax when Pilkings learns of the ritual and decides to intervene and Elesin's son arrives home.

"Unquestionably Africa's most versatile writer and arguably one of her finest" (New York Times Book Review) A Play of Giants is a savage satire on some of the best-known dictators of our time (including Idi Amin); it brings together a group of dictatorial African leaders at bay in an embassy in New York attempting to make decisions together. Its theatrical predecessors include: Genet's The Balcony and Brecht's Arturo Ui. From Zia with Love and A Scourge of Hyacinths; When the Military decrees that a crime carrying a prison sentence now retroactively warrants summary execution, confusion and fear permeate a society where the brutality and injustice of military rule is parodied by life inside prison - based on events in Nigeria in the early 1980s Wole Soyinka's stage play From Zia with Love and radio play A Scourge of Hyacinths, were produced in the early 90s.

The only current anthology to survey the rich variety of contemporary African drama The plays included in this volume are: Death and the King's Horseman by Wole Soyinka; Anowa by Ama Ata Aidoo; The Chattering and the Song by Femi Osofisan; The Rise and Shine of Comrade Fiasco by Andrew Whaley; Woza Albert! by Percy Mtwa, Mbongeni Ngema and Barney Simon; and The Other War by Alemseged Tesfai. Contemporary African Drama brings together some of the best writers writing from an African viewpoint today.

Theatre, in a variety of forms and contexts, can make, and indeed has made, positive political and social interventions in a range of developing cultures across the world. In this book a distinguished team of theatre historians and dramatists explores how theatre has a dynamic and often difficult relationship with societies and states, arguing positively that theatrical activity can make a difference. The collection begins with a foreword by Wole Soyinka and, through the volume, specially chosen plays, projects and movements are examined, embracing a variety of theatrical forms from conventional text to on-site developmental work. The communities addressed range from the national to the local, from middle-class elites to the economically dispossessed in countries such as Brazil and Argentina, Nigeria, Eritrea and South Africa, and India and the Caribbean countries.

Theatre, in a variety of forms and contexts, can make, and indeed has made, positive political and social interventions in a range of developing cultures across the world. In this book a distinguished team of theatre historians and dramatists explores how theatre has a dynamic and often difficult relationship with societies and states, arguing positively that theatrical activity can make a difference. The collection begins with a foreword by Wole Soyinka and, through the volume, specially chosen plays, projects and movements are examined, embracing a variety of theatrical forms from conventional text to on-site developmental work. The communities addressed range from the national to the local, from middle-class elites to the economically dispossessed in countries such as Brazil and Argentina, Nigeria, Eritrea and South Africa, and India and the Caribbean countries.

A set text for NEAB GCSE, NEAB A Level and NEAB A/S Level. Based on real events that took place in Oyo, the ancient Yoruba city of Nigeria, in 1946, Nobel Prize-winner Wole Soyinka's play tells how Simon Pilkings, a well-meaning District Officer, intervenes to prevent the ritual suicide of the Yoruba chief, Elesin.

On November 10, 1995, the Nigerian military government under General Sani Abacha executed dissident writer Ken Saro-Wiwa along with eight other activists, and the international community reacted with outrage. The response was quick, decisive, and nearly unanimous: Nigeria is an outcast in the global village. The events that led up to Saro-Wiwa's execution mark Nigeria's decline from a post-colonial success story to its current military dictatorship, and few writers have been more outspoken in decrying and lamenting this decline than Nobel Prize laureate and Nigerian exile Wole Soyinka. In The Open Sore of a Continent, Soyinka, whose own Nigerian passport was confiscated 1994, explores the history and future of Nigeria in a compelling jeremiad that is as intense as it is provocative, learned, and wide-ranging. He deftly explains the shifting dramatis personae of Nigerian history and politics , arguing that `a glance at the mildewed tapestry of the stubbornly unfinished nation edifice' is necessary to explain where Nigeria can go next. In the process of elucidating the Nigerian crisis, Soyinka opens readers to the broader questions of nationhood, identity, and the general state of African culture and politics at the end of the twentieth century. He examines the different ways in which a nation can be defined, and asks how these varying definitions impact the people who live under them? Soyinka concludes with a resounding call for international attention to this question: the global community must address the issue of nationhood to prevent further religious mandates and calls for ethnic purity of the sort that have turned Algeria, Rwanda, Bosnia, and Sri Lanka into killing fields.

Set in Nigeria, amid the scenes of everyday racketeering and general disquiet, the police try to clear the area of undersirables, as a traditional wedding between two illustrious and ambitious families is about to take place.'Witty, wise and uplifting, this is a beautiful play whose message steals up on you and lingers on.' Financial Times.'The play is a protest against the barbarity of greed and oppression; but it is also a celebration of people's irrepressible and indomitable spirit' Sunday Times.

"Unquestionably Africa's most versatile writer and arguably one of her finest." (New York Times Book Review) When the Military decrees that a crime carrying a prison sentence now retroactively warrants summary execution, confusion and fear permeate a society where the brutality and injustice of military rule is parodied by life inside prison. Based on events in Nigeria in the early 1980s Wole Soyinka's stage play From Zia with Love and radio play A Scourge of Hyacinths, were produced in the early 90s when the writer was exiled by Sani Abacha's notorious and unjust military regime.

The Nigerian playwrite, poet, and novelist recounts his first eleven years growing up under the influence of his parents, traditional Yoruba customs, and Christian missionaries

Written in 1971, Madmen and Specialists is one of Soyinka's most excoriating portrayals of abusers and abused in the new Nigeria ushered in by Biafra and the civil war of 1967-70. Set in the "surgery" of a doctor, the play is populated by mendicants and the "insane," all fodder for "experimentation" by a shape-shifting doctor whose experiments may be more sinister than they at first appear.

One long poem and an eclectic mix of short poems from the Nobel Prize-winning Nigerian playwright, novelist, poet, and polemical essayist Wole Soyinka. Wole Soyinka is one of Africa's outstanding writers. He is already well known in the United States as a playwright; two of his plays, The Trials of Brother Jero and Kongi's Harvest, were produced off-Broadway in New York. A number of his plays and a novel have been published but so far only a handful of his poems have appeared in anthologies and journals. This collection consists of a long poem and a number of shorter ones. Idanre, the long one, was written especially for the Commonwealth (British) Arts Festival (1965) and is a creation myth of Ogun, the Yoruba God of Iron. The other poems range from a meditation on the news of the October Massacres in Northern Nigeria (1966) to a wry lament "To My First White Hairs" and the love poem "Psalm."

Six masterful works by the Nobel Prize-winning Nigerian playwright. Death and the King's Horseman: 'A transfixing work of modern world drama' (Independent); Madmen and Specialists: 'A luminous play, examining the way in which war exposes and clarifies human conduct' (Observer); Opera Wonyosi, adapted from Gay's The Beggar's Opera: 'Swaggering and scabrous, at once a verbal spree and a fierce assault on totalitarianism' (Observer). The volume also contains The Trials of Brother Jero and Jero's Metamorphosis, classic comedies of modern Nigerian life based on the hilarious and manipulative transformations of a preacher, and Camwood on the Leaves, a haunting radio play, which evokes a divided community.