Down memory lane with Wole Soyinka

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

Nobel Prize ·Follow

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“My understanding of the creative process is simply that all cultures and all concerns meet at a certain point, the human point in which everything is related to one another. That has been my creative experience. I never know who’s influencing me at any time.” 

Playwright and political activist Wole Soyinka has been characterised as one of the finest poetical playwrights to have written in English.

His works are rooted in his native Nigeria and the Yoruba culture, with its legends, tales, and traditions. His writing also includes influences from Western traditions—from classical tragedies to modernist drama. His literary language is marked by great scope and richness of words. 

Learn more about Wole Soyinka and his literature in our interview with him:  https://www.nobelprize.org/.../1986/soyinka/interview/

Some revealing comments at the original posting :   Nobel Prize 

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

Wonderful anecdote by   Ann M. Altman

One of my favorite Nobel stories, told to me by the wife of another laureate…. The dress code for the Nobel Banquet is either white tie and tails or national dress. She was sitting next to Soyinka’s son and, during the meal, her napkin started to slip onto the floor. She grabbed it and wiped her mouth…. Only to find that she had grabbed his agbada (long white shirt) and smeared it with lipstick.