Soyinka, Wole (1934– )

Nigerian author and dramatist who founded a national theatre in Nigeria. His plays explore Yoruba myth, ritual, and culture, and later challenged his country's government. He was the first African to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, in 1986. He published a memoir, You Must Set Forth at Dawn, in 2006.

His plays include Swamp Dwellers (1958), The Lion and the Jewel (1959), and A Dance of the Forests (1960), written as a tragic vision of Nigerian independence. Tragic inevitability is the theme of Madmen and Specialists (1970) and of Death and the King's Horseman (1976), but he has also written sharp satires, from The Jero Plays (1960 and 1973) to the indictment of African dictatorship in A Play of Giants (1984). His plays have also been produced in London, England, and New York City. A volume of poetry, From Zia with Love, appeared in 1992.

Soyinka was born in Western Nigeria. He was initially educated in an Anglican Mission, but his parents also involved him in their Yoruba traditions. After attending grammar school, Soyinka went to a government college and then to university, during which time Nigeria became independent from Britain. Soyinka travelled to England in 1954 to pursue his theatrical ambitions. He returned to Nigeria in 1960 and much of his dramatic work challenged the country's leaders. This, combined with overt political activity, led to his arrests in 1965 and 1967 (which led to two years in detention). Soyinka was among the four opposition figures who fled Nigeria in 1995 to Europe and the USA. In his absence, he was charged with treason and sentenced to death by the Nigerian government in 1997 over a spate of bomb blasts in the country.