Wole Soyinka | Granta Magazine

Wole Soyinka

Akinwande Oluwole ‘Wole’ Soyinka (b. 1934) is a Nigerian writer, notable especially as a playwright and poet; he was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature, the first person in Africa and the diaspora to be so honoured. He went on to write plays that were produced in both countries, in theatres and on radio. He took an active role in Nigeria’s political history and its struggle for independence from Great Britain.  In 1967 during the Nigerian Civil War, he was arrested by the federal government of General Yakubu Gowon and put in solitary confinement for two years. His plays include A Dance of the Forests, Madmen and Specialists, Death and the King’s Horseman and most recently Alapata Apata.