Thinkers Timeline

Wole Soyinka is a Nigerian playwright, poet, novelist, essayist, and political activist. In 1986 he became the first African writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. He has been one of the most important African intellectual voices of the past 60 years. He has produced major work in many forms while also engaging directly in Nigerian and African political struggles. He was born in 1934 in Abeokuta, in what is now southwestern Nigeria. He is now in his nineties. His full name is Akinwande Oluwole Babatunde Soyinka. He comes from the Yoruba people, one of the major ethnic groups of Nigeria. Yoruba culture, religion, mythology, and theatrical traditions have shaped his work throughout his career. His father was a school headmaster. His mother, whom he called Wild Christian in his memoirs, was a shopkeeper and Christian activist. He grew up in a household that mixed Christian Anglican faith with Yoruba traditions. He studied at University College Ibadan in Nigeria, then at the University of Leeds in England. He worked at the Royal Court Theatre in London in the late 1950s. In 1960, the year Nigeria gained independence from Britain, he returned home. He helped found Nigerian theatre as a serious modern art form. He has written more than 30 plays, several novels, multiple poetry collections, and many essays. His political activism has been constant. During the Biafran civil war of 1967-1970, he tried to mediate between the warring sides and was imprisoned by the Nigerian military government for two years, much of it in solitary confinement. He has continued challenging Nigerian governments, especially military dictatorships. He has lived in exile for periods of his life, often under death threats. He has held academic positions at universities in Nigeria, Britain, and the United States. He continues writing and speaking publicly today.