Winner of the 1986 Nobel Prize for Literature
Wole Soyinka is perhaps Africa’s most versatile and eclectic intellectual: playwright, poet, novelist, literary and social critic, he has authored over 40 works. His plays—the core of Soyinka’s creative work—range from satirical political commentary in such works as Kongi’s Harvest, Madmen and Specialists and the Brother Jero plays, to the tragic cadences of Death and the King’s Horseman and The Strong Breed. In them he draws upon Yoruba myth and ceremonies, incantatory poetry, dance and music to connect the historical with the metaphysical, the timeless realm which unites the living, the dead, and the unborn. The problems of Africa, particularly the failures of authoritarian politicians and military dictators, have concerned Soyinka throughout his career. In two novels he examines the responsibilities of public intell ectuals of his generamy rape diary part 8 my rape diary the final part my rape fantasy hard rape gang rape my rape rape porn sexual torture anal rape free rape rape erotic stories rape women rape sex porntion: The Interpreters and Season of Anomy. He was imprisoned in 1967-69 for allegedly conspiring to aid the attempted secession of Biafra from Nigeria. The Man Died recounts this experience, as does some of his poetry, including the important volume A Shuttle in the Crypt. In recent years Soyinka has been very active in the pro-democracy movement in Nigeria; his 1996 work Open Sore of a Continent provides a trenchant commentary on crises in leadership. Coeditor of Black Orpheus, author of the seminal Myth, Literature, and the African World, professor of English and drama at the University of Ibadan, Soyinka is Robert W. Wo*YAHOO* *GEOCITIES* *IPL* *GOOGLE*odruff Professor of the Arts at Emory University.