Wole Soyinka was born on 13 July 1934 in Abeokuta, Ogun State Nigeria. He was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature, the first sub-Saharan African to be honoured in that category. Here are other things to know about; Biography, Age, Net worth, Wife, and Children.
Who is Wole Soyinka?
Wole Soyinka was born on 13 July 1934 in Abeokuta, Ogun State. He was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature, the first sub-Saharan African to be honoured in that category.
Full name: Akinwande Oluwole Babatunde Soyinka
Date of birth: 13 July 1934
Place of birth: Abeokuta Ogun State
Age: 87
Wife: Folake Doherty-Soyinka (m. 1989)
Nationality: Nigeria
Children: Olaokun, Iyetade Apampa, Moremi Soyinka-Onijala, Peyibomi Soyinka-Airewele, and Makin
State of origin: Ogun State
Occupation: Author, poet, playwright
Parents: Mr. Samuel Ayodele & Mrs. Grace Eniola Soyinka.
Education: St. Peter’s Primary School in Abeokuta, Abeokuta Grammar School, Government College Ibadan, University of Ibadan, and University of Leeds
Net worth: $115 Million
Social media: [email protected]https://twitter.com/WSoyinkaCentre
Awards: Nobel Prize in Literature, Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Lifetime Achievement
Some of his awards and achievements are;
- Honorary doctorate, Harvard University
- 2002: Honorary fellowship, SOAS
- 2005: Honorary doctorate degree, Princeton University
- 2017: “Special Prize” of the Europe Theatre Prize
- 2018: University of Ibadan renamed its arts theater to Wole Soyinka Theatre.
- 2018: Honorary Doctorate Degree of Letters, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB)
Some of his books are;
- The Lion and the Jewel
- Ake: The Years of Childhood
- You must set forth at dawn: A memoir
- The Interpreters
- The burden of memory: The Muse
- Season of Anomy
- A dance of the forest
- Madmen and Specialist
- Isara: A voyage around essay.
While at university, Soyinka and six others founded the Pyrates Confraternity, an anti-corruption and justice-seeking student organisation, the first confraternity in Nigeria.
After becoming Chair of Drama at the University of Ibadan, Soyinka became more politically active.
PFollowing the military coup of January 1966, he secretly and unofficially met with the military governor Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu in the Southeastern town of Enugu (August 1967), to try to avert civil war. As a result, he had to go into hiding.
He was imprisoned for 22 months as civil war ensued between the Federal Government of Nigeria and the Biafrans.
Though refused materials such as books, pens, and paper, he still wrote a significant body of poems and notes criticising the Nigerian government while in prison.
