in full Akinwande Oluwole Soyinka
born July 13, 1934, Abeokuta, Nigeria
Nigerian playwright.
After studying in Leeds, Eng., he returned to Nigeria to edit literary journals, teach drama and literature at the university level, and found two theatre companies. His plays, written in English and drawing on West African folk traditions, often focus on the tensions between tradition and progress. Symbolism, flashback, and ingenious plotting contribute to a rich dramatic structure. His serious plays reveal his disillusionment with African authoritarian leadership and with Nigerian society as a whole. His works include A Dance of the Forests (1960), The Lion and the Jewel (1963), Death and the King's Horseman (1975), and From Zia, with Love (1992). He has written several volumes of poetry; his best-known novel is The Interpreters (1965). A champion of Nigerian democracy, he was repeatedly jailed and exiled. In 1986 he became the first black African to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Wole Soyinka.
Vernon L. Smith