Hurray: Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka dazzles at 83
Nobel Laureate Professor Wole Soyinka is 83 today. He was born on July 13, 1934. Soyinka christened, Akinwande Oluwole Babatunde was born into a Yoruba family, he is a descendant of Remo family of Isara- Remo in Ogun state Nigeria.
Soyinka was born as the second of six children, in the city of Abeokuta, Nigeria at a time when the British colonization was already rooted in the affairs of British West African colonies.
Soyinka was an Anglican in his formative years. He grew up in a community where indigenous Yoruba religious tradition was highly celebrated, full with a religious atmosphere with different beliefs and several cultural influences.
He was raised in a religious family, attending church services and singing in the choir from an early age. However, things changed along the way, when Soyinka later became an atheist.
Professor Wole Soyinka is from a Literate family. His father, Samuel Ayodele Soyinka (whom he called S.A. or “Essay”), was an Anglican minister and the headmaster of St. Peters School in Abẹokuta. Soyinka’s mother, Grace Eniola Soyinka, on the other hand, is a political activist, she led a political movement within the Women’s community in Abeokuta. Eniola Soyinka whom he dubbed as the “Wild Christian”, also owned a shop in the nearby market.
Professor Wole Soyinka is a celebrated Africa, Nigerian playwright, and poet. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1986 and fortunately, the first African to be honoured in that category.
After studying in Nigeria and the UK, he worked with the Royal Court Theatre in London. He went on to write plays that were produced in both countries, on the radio, and in theatres.
He took an active role in Nigeria’s political history and its struggle for independence from Great Britain. To this end, many and most especially history has associated his political activism to a trait he picked from his mother, Eniola Soyinka. In 1965, he seized the Western Nigeria Broadcasting Service studio and broadcast a demand for the cancellation of the Western Nigeria Regional Elections.
In Nigeria, Soyinka was a Professor of Comparative Literature from (1975 to 1999) at the Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife. With civilian rule restored to Nigeria in 1999, he was made professor emeritus.
He first taught at Cornell University and then at Emory University where in 1996 he was appointed Robert W. Woodruff Professor of the Arts. Soyinka has been a Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas and has served as scholar-in-residence at NYU’s Institute of African-American Affairs and at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California, United States.
The Professor Emeritus is a highly celebrated man in the academic and an activist who strongly took after his mother in a way.
Today the 13th of July which marks, the time his foot touched the earth, we all at dailyfamily.ng celebrate one of Nigeria’s most respected statesman in Africa and the academia.
To Professor Wole Soyinka, we wish you many happy returns and great years ahead.
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