Wole Soyinka
Wole Soyinka is a Nigerian Playwright and poet whose works tend to be influenced by the deep rooted folklore and traditions of Nigeria most commonly on yoruba traditions. He also uses his plays to talk about the ways to critique oppressive systems of government from imperial britain to african dictators such as Mugambe.
"The oppressive boot and the irrelevance of the colour of the foot that wears it"
Soyinka was very open in criticism about the moral injustice against the oppressed and even when in england , studying at leeds university he wrote multiple columns for the eagle a satirical magazine on academic life a black man, criticising many of his university peers.
What I get from Soyinka is that through his life he knew that he was a lot better of than most nigerians and began to use the luxury of being a highly educated Nigerian man to begin to criticise at first, the racism and bigotry that was rooted deep within western imperialistic culture and attitudes before realising that the way Nigerian and african governments and dictatorships oppressed their people in a similar way to the colonialistic empire that once ran it and he began to criticise the way things were in africa as well. There is an obvious growth in Soyinka's theology that is mimicked within his work. He began to look more toward the oppressiveness of a regime rather than just the colour of those who ran it. A point which I agree with is that the oppressor can be any colour.
Plays such as The Lion And the Jewel dealt with Nigeria's uneasy relationship between its progression and it's traditions. As someone who has a Nigerian family I can concur that this sort of inner conflicts between progression and tradition still go on especially when it comes to the contrast of western ideals of progression and nigerian views of tradition and progression.
During the build up to civil-war in nigerian Soyinka became much more involved in politics from an activist standpoint and bean meeting up with the opposition, discussing political views and the future of nigeria. He was then imprisoned by the federal government in which he began a series of poems criticising the nigerian government.
His life has been a constant criticism of government's, social stigmatism, religious extremism and questioning how Nigeria deals with progression and modernisation that tends to contrast with Traditions.
Summary Of What I Found Out About Wole Soyinka
- His works reflect what was the constant conflict within Nigeria on both a cultural and political level
- He was very aware of the need to understand that not everything was black and white in the ever evolving clashing of modernisation and tradition and that a lot of the strife is due of miscommunication and arrogance on the ideal of both sides.
- There is difference a between racial and political oppression and both need to be called out since both cause the oppression of the minority.
- Best works: The Lion and The Jewel, Death and The King's Horseman, Poems From Prison
