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
space aliens slave
Under a dictatorship, a nation ceases to exist. All that remains is a fiefdom, a planet of slaves regimented by aliens from outer-space.
depression way pessimism
I found, when I left, that there were others who felt the same way. We'd meet, they'd come and seek me out, we'd talk about the future. And I found that their depression and pessimism was every bit as acute as mine.
mountain cracks aids
We do not ask the mountain's aid to crack a walnut.
writing special doe
There is not a special imposition on writers to be activists. All that does is encourage writers to write propaganda.
faces violence looks
I can look violence in the face and either reject or accept it.
people feels humans
There is something really horrific for any human being who feels he is being consumed by other people.
moving political effort
As I grew older and more mature, I've been able to move beyond the immediate response of violence to a projection of the pragmatic, political consequences of that violence. So it's an effort to attain equilibrium.
people important horizon
Writers who open up horizons for other people are performing a function every bit as important as a consciously politicized writer.
family forward hug looked talk
What I looked forward to so much was the day I would hug Abiola, but that never happened. Let us not talk about that now. Let us concentrate on the inspiration that Abiola and his family have been to us.
sure trying
I'm not sure I'm trying to communicate a message. I'm just trying to be part of the movement away from the unacceptable present.
armed despise might people power threat wake
I don't know any other way to live but to wake up every day armed with my convictions, not yielding them to the threat of danger and to the power and force of people who might despise me.
burden continue mortality reckoning scales shoulders thus
The scales of reckoning with mortality are never evenly weighted, alas, and thus it is on the shoulders of the living that the burden of justice must continue to rest.
pessimism time using
I ceased using words like optimism and pessimism a long time ago.
african aligned history religion trading
Trading and religion have always been aligned together in the history of the world, and especially on the African continent.