Wole Soyinka
Wole Soyinka
Akinwande Oluwole "Wole" Babatunde Soyinkais a Nigerian playwright and poet. He was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature, the first African to be honored in that category...
NationalityNigerian
ProfessionPlaywright
Date of Birth13 July 1934
CityAbeokuta, Nigeria
CountryNigeria
certain concerns cultures experience human meet point process related simply time understanding
My understanding of the creative process is simply that all cultures and all concerns meet at a certain point, the human point in which everything is related to one another. That has been my creative experience. I never know who's influencing me at any time.
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We Nigerians must reclaim our sovereignty, our civic entitlements.
craft prizes rather
In the world of literature, I see prizes as more of a duty to the craft itself, rather than as something for the individual.
time
I like to say, 'I spend one-third of my time in Nigeria, one-third in Europe or America, and one-third on a plane.'
disposal human therefore
Before you're a writer, you're a citizen, a human being, and therefore the weapons of the citizen are at your disposal to use or not use.
time
I've done a lot of guerrilla theater in my time.
I don't have the sort of temperament that submits to Christianity or Islam.
believe money
In Africa, those who have money - businessmen and banks - do not believe in film.
best society
I'm an Afro-realist. I take what comes, and I do my best to affect what is unacceptable in society.
correction terms works
The problem with literature, with writing, is that it works sometimes in terms of correction of social ills. Other times, it just does not suffice.
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Books and all forms of writing have always been objects of terror to those who seek to suppress the truth.
air floating later literary shapes written
When I write plays, I'm already seeing the shapes on stage, of the actors and their interaction, and so on and so forth. I don't think I've ever written one play as an abstract piece, as a literary piece, floating in the air somewhere, to be flushed out later on.
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The Sudanese government has been playing games with the world, with the Africa Union, in particular, have been playing for time in order to conclude its mission of ethnic cleansing in the Sudan.
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The Nation of Islam provides an antidote in the United States to fundamentalist Islam - which is why individuals from America have to go abroad to find radical teachings.