Avenali Lectures

Wole Soyinka, Avenali Chair in the Humanities 2008-2009

"Rights and Relativity: The Interplay of Cultures"
Monday, February 1, 2010
7:30 pm | Wheeler Auditorium

Follow-up panel discussion with Wole Soyinka
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
4:00 pm | Maude Fife Room, 315 Wheeler Hall

All events are free and open to the public.

Playwright and dramatist, poet and essayist, Wole Soyinka has been an outspoken critic of many Nigerian military dictators, of Nigeria’s increasingly divided ethnic and religious groups, and of political tyrannies worldwide. This activism has often exposed him to great personal risk. At the beginning of the Nigerian Civil War in 1967, Mr. Soyinka was accused of helping the breakaway of Biafra buy jet fighters and was jailed without trial for twenty-seven months, mostly in solitary confinement. His experiences in prison are recounted in his book The Man Died: Prison Notes of Wole Soyinka and in a collection of poems entitled Poems from Prison. Mr. Soyinka has also lived in exile at three points in his life, most notably during the government of General Sani Abacha (1993-1998), which pronounced a death sentence on him "in absentia."

These personal and national hardships have been at the heart of the works of enlightened art for which Wole Soyinka has become world famous. He has published over thirty books, including a sequence of remarkable plays, novels, poetry, polemical writings, critical essays, a classic memoir of his early life ("Aké," 1982) and a memoir devoted to his father. In 1986, the Swedish Academy commended his works for depicting ‘‘the drama of existence,'' and Soyinka became the first African to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature.

A consistently courageous voice for human rights worldwide, Soyinka is also involved in numerous international artistic and human rights organizations, including the United Nations Commission on Human Rights and the International Parliament of Writers. In 1994, he was named UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for the promotion of African culture, human rights, freedom of expression, media and communication.

Links:

Websites:
Profile on the Nobel Prize website

Lectures and Interviews:
Soyinka's Nobel Lecture

At the Nigerian Liberty Forum in London

Speaking with the BBC World Book Club

Speaking on Nigeria's Future

BBC Reith Lectures: "Climate of Fear"