by Wole Soyinka

Wole Soyinka, one of the best-known playwrights in the English-speaking world, was born in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria, in 1934. He attended St. Peter’s School in Abeokuta, where his literary-minded father was the headmaster. At the prestigious Government College, a high school in Ibadan, Soyinka nurtured his literary interests by participating in the school’s artistic and cultural activities and by reading extensively in the school’s library. After high school Soyinka studied English at the University of Ibadan, and drama and theater at Leeds University in England. He went on to write and produce more than 20 plays, several films, two novels, three volumes of autobiography, and one prison memoir, among other works. Soyinka received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1986. His literary works and real-life political engagements show a consistent commitment to...