Based on real events that took place in Oyo, the ancient Yoruba city of Nigeria, in 1946, Nobel Prize-winner Wole Soyinka's play tells how Simon Pilkings, a well-meaning District Officer, intervenes to prevent the ritual suicide of the Yoruba chief, Elesin.
Wole Soyinka / Paperback / Published 1972
A gang of Nigerian intellectuals are trying to make something worthwhile of their lives and talents in a society where corruption and consequence, cynicism, social climbing and confirming give them alternate cause for despair and laughter. This book won the Nobel Prize in 1986.
On November 10, 1995, the Nigerian military government under General Sani Abacha executed dissident writer Ken Saro-Wiwa along with eight other activists, and the international community reacted with outrage. The response was quick, decisive, and nearly unanimous: Nigeria is an outcast in the global village. The events that led up to Saro-Wiwa's execution mark Nigeria's decline from a post-colonial success story to its current military dictatorship, and few writers have been more outspoken in decrying and lamenting this decline than Nobel Prize laureate and Nigerian exile Wole Soyinka. In this volume Soyinka, whose own Nigerian passport was confiscated in 1994, explores the history and future of Nigeria. He explains the shifting dramatis personae of Nigerian history and politics , arguing that "a glance at the mildewed tapestry of the stubbornly unfinished nation edifice" is necessary to explain where Nigeria can go next.
Wole Soyinka / Paperback / Published 1984
"Madman and Specialists" examines the way in which war exposes and clarifies human conduct; "Opera Woynosi" is adpated from Gay's "The Beggar's Opera" and is a fierce assault on totalitarianism; and four other Wole Soyinka plays are included in this volume.
This text - like "The Open Sore" - derives from the three lectures Soyinka gave at the DuBois Institute (the inaugural lectures of the Genevieve McMillan Foundation). Where "The Open Sore" offered a critique of the Nigerian military and its repression of human and civil rights, "The Burden of Memory" addresses the next logical question in a broader global context: is reconciliation between oppressor and oppressed possible?
Wole Soyinka / Paperback / Published 1994
Wole Soyinka was born in Nigeria in 1934. Educated there and at Leeds University, he worked in the British theatre before returning to West Africa in 1960. In 1986 he became the first African writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.
James Gibbs / Hardcover
Distinguished scholars analyze the plays, poetry, and prose of Wole Smoyinka, winner of the Nobel Prize for literature in 1986. Essays trace his career and place his work in the general context of African literature.
Wole Soyinka / Paperback / Published 1992
Confusion and fear permeate society where the brutality and injustice of military rule is parodied by life inside prison. "From Zia With Love" is based on events in Nigeria in the early 1980s. "A Scourge of Hyacinths", written for radio, presents variations on the same theme.
Wole Soyinka / Hardcover / Published 1994
This is a sequel to Soyinka's earlier memoirs, "Ake" and "Isara". It traces his progress from school in Ibadan, Western Nigeria; through Leeds University and writing for London's Royal Court Theatre; to time spent "down and out" in Paris before returning to Ibadan in the early days of independence.
Wole Soyinka / Paperback / Published 1995
This is a sequel to Nobel Prize-winner Wole Soyinka's previous volumes of autobiography, "Ake" and "Isara". It tells the story of Maren, Soyinka's alter ego, as he moves from schooldays in Ibadan to student days in Leeds, stints as a play reader in London, an abortive attempt to become a cafe singer in Paris, travels to other parts of the world, and finally a post as research fellow in drama back in Ibadan. Throughout all his travels he becomes increasingly antagonistic to the corrupt authorities, opposing them firstly through writing and then by direct action.
Wole Soyinka / Paperback / Published 1996
This is a sequel to Nobel Prize-winner Wole Soyinka's previous volumes of autobiography, "Ake" and "Isara". It tells the story of Maren, Soyinka's alter ego, as he moves from schooldays in Ibadan to student days in Leeds, stints as a play reader in London, an abortive attempt to become a cafe singer in Paris, travels to other parts of the world, and finally a post as research fellow in drama back in Ibadan. Throughout all his travels he becomes increasingly antagonistic to the corrupt authorities, opposing them firstly through writing and then by direct action.
Wole Soyinka / Hardcover / Published 1990
This evocation of Nigeria before and during World War II has been written by the first African to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. It is a follow-up to "Ake: The Years of Childhood".
Wole Soyinka, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature and one of the foremost living African writers, here analyzes the interconnecting worlds of myth, ritual and literature in Africa. The ways in which the African world perceives itself as a cultural entity, and the differences between its essential unity of experience and literary form and the sense of division pervading Western literature, are just some of the issues addressed. The centrality of ritual gives drama a prominent place in Soyinka's discussion, but he deals also with contemporary poetry and fiction. Above all, the insights in this book serve to highlight the importance of African criticism in addition to the literary and cultural achievements which are the subject of its analysis.
Wole Soyinka / Paperback / Published 1995
Set in Nigeria, amid the scenes of everyday racketeering and general disquiet, the police try to clear the area of undesirables, as a traditional wedding between two illustrious and ambitious families is about to take place. This play is by Nobel Prize-winner Wole Soyinka.
This is an exploration into the history and future of Nigeria. In the process of elucidating the Nigerian crisis, the author opens readers to the broader questions of nationhood, identity, and the general state of African culture and politics at the end of the 20th century. He examines the different ways in which a nation can be defined, and asks how these varying definitions impact the people who live under them. The book concludes with a call for the global community to address the issue of nationhood to prevent further religious mandates and calls for ethnic purity of the sort that have turned Algeria, Rwanda, Bosnia and Sri Lanka into killing fields.
Richard Boon, et al / Hardcover / Published 1998
A team of theatre historians and dramatists explore how theatre has a dynamic and often difficult relationship with societies and states, arguing positively that theatrical activity can make a difference. Throughout the volume selected plays, projects and movements are examined, embracing a variety of theatrical forms from conventional text to on-site developmental work. The communities addressed range from the national to the local, from middle-class elites to the economically dispossessed in countries such as Brazil, Argentina, Nigeria, Eritrea, South Africa, India and the Caribbean countries.
From the author of the 1991 Booker Prize winner, "The Famished Road", comes a novel which carries the reader to an enchanted island. It is set in a time and place of fairytales, but is evocative of African consciousness.
This is the story of Omovo, an office worker and artist, who lives with his father and step-mother. In the communal world of the compound, Omovo has both friends and enemies, but most importantly there is Ifeyinwa, a beautiful married woman whom he loves with a passion.
This novel, winner of the 1991 Booker Prize, is set in a poor people's compound during the Nigerian civil war, and reflects the changes in Africa since 1960. It tells how a young boy's failure to subdue his spiritual powers has disturbing consequences for him and his parents.
Azaro is a spirit child, who made a pact before his birth with his spirit companions that he would die at the first opportunity and rejoin them. However, Azaro broke the pact and his spirit companions sent five spirits to reclaim him. Now two more have come, and are the most dangerous of all.
Benedict Allen, et al / Paperback / Published 1997
Celebrities set out on expeditions in this book, travelling on trains old and new - from the space-age glamour of Eurostar to the old Patagonian express with its steam engine and wooden slat seats. Occasionally, they stop to explore the surrounding country and talk to local people.
Ben Okri / Paperback / Published 1998
The ten pieces in this collection range from the personal to the analytical, including a meditation on the role of the poet, a study of Picasso's "Minotaur", a paean to human freedom in honour of Salman Rushdie, and an appraisal of fellow-Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe.
Ben Okri / Hardcover / Published 1995
From the author of the 1991 Booker Prize winner, "The Famished Road", comes a novel which carries the reader to an enchanted island. It is set in a time and place of fairytales, but is evocative of African consciousness.
Ben Okri / Hardcover / Published 1993
This volume contains two short prose pieces focusing on two of Okri's central themes - the power of words and the role of the writer and storyteller in a changing world. This book makes the message more direct, to go beyond words to a higher spirituality, to contemplation and revelation.
Ben Okri / Hardcover / Published 1996
This is the story of Omovo, an office worker and artist, who lives with his father and step-mother. In the communal world of the compound, Omovo has both friends and enemies, but most importantly there is Ifeyinwa, a beautiful married woman whom he loves with a passion.
Ben Okri / Hardcover / Published 1999
This epic poem is intended as a celebration of humanity's achievements at the end of this millennium, and a rallying cry for the next. Strongly political, the poem touches on issues of racism, intolerance, and environmental destruction, amongst others.
Ben Okri / Hardcover / Published 1993
Sequel to "The Famished Road", winner of the Booker Prize in 1991, this book continues the story of Azaro, the spirit child. The author also won the "Paris Review" Aga Khan prize for fiction.
