Soyinka (Soyinka), Will

genus. July 13, 1934
. Nigerian playwright, novelist and poet Akinwande Babatunde Wole Soyinka was born in Abeokuta, western Nigeria, while a colony of Great Britain, in a large family of Samuel Ayodele Soyinka, Director of Primary (English) School St.
. Peter in Abeokuta, and Grace Enioly Soyinka, the owner of the shop, women politically active and respected. Childhood C., the second of six children, passed in the comfortable environment. His family belonged to the West African Yoruba tribe.
traditionally carried away by ritual dancing and theatrical performances. Legends and customs of the Yoruba had a great influence on the W. in childhood, when he met with Western (mainly British) culture and Christianity.
At the end of primary school St.. Peter W. enters abeokutskuyu high school, which receives a number of awards for his writings. In 1946, Mr.. he was admitted to the Government College in Ibadan, in most of the time elitist secondary school in Nigeria, where the idea of Nigerian nationalism, combined with the influence of British colonialism. Four years later, after finishing college, W. moved to Lagos, worked as a clerk, writes radio plays and short stories, which are broadcast on Nigerian radio. In 1952, Mr.. he entered the University College in Ibadan (now University of Ibadan), another prestigious higher educational institutions of the colony, where he studied English literature, history, Greek language, is actively involved in the movement for the independence of Nigeria.
. In 1954, Mr.
. SH. moved to England, studying English literature at Leeds University and met with several young talented British writers. In Leeds, he is engaged in the theory of drama known scientist Mr.. Wilson Knight, who attached special importance to the theater as the ceremony, as the dialogue with the past. Under the leadership of Knight W. examines the European theater, trying to link the theatrical culture of Europe and Nigeria. Received in 1957. Bachelor of Arts degree with honors, W. remains in Leeds, working on his thesis, exploring creativity Eugene O'Neill. At the same time he wrote the first two and significant pieces, 'Living in the marshes' ( 'The Swamp Dwellers') and 'The Lion and the Pearl' ( 'The Lion and the Jewel'), devoted to the struggle of old and new in contemporary Africa.
. Several members of the troupe of London 'Royal Court tietr' read the play W
. 'The Lion and the jewel', which they liked very much. Beginner playwright dropout, moves in 1958. London, . arranged reader plays in the 'Royal Court tietr', . where he met with the main currents of modern English drama continues to write, . provides student productions 'inhabitants of the marshes', . as well as his new play 'The fiction' ( 'The Invention'), . against racism.,
. Award-Rockefeller Research Center for Dramatic Art at University College in Ibadan, W
. back in 1960. Nigeria and founded an amateur theater group 'Masks-1960'. Premiere of the best pieces W. those years 'Dance of the forest' ( 'A Dance of the Forests') held on 1 October 1960. in Lagos, Nigeria's Independence Day. 'Dance of the forest', as well as a satirical play 'Adventures brother Jerome' ( 'The Trials of Brother Jero'), set in Ibadan in the same year, they brought III. fame. The following year, playwright primarily wrote radio plays, and plays for television. In 1962. SH. becoming an English teacher at the University of Ife. At this time, he leads a lively debate with 'negrofilami'.
representatives of literary, mystical nature of motion in favor of the uniqueness of African traditions, against assimilation with European culture. SH. however, thought that it was impossible to sing only 'black' past and reject out all the gains of civilization. According to the playwright, 'negrofily' unable to solve the pressing problems of Africa, he said: 'The tiger does not shout about it - the tiger, it works'.
W stands. and against the domination of government censorship. In December 1963, Mr.. in protest against the orders of the university administration to support the Government of Western Nigeria, W. resigns. Two years later, after the elections in Western Nigeria, an unknown narrator, who turned Sh, announced on the radio that the election results fraudulent, for that some time after he was arrested, charged with the illegal radio broadcasts and imprisoned. But two months later, with the support of a large group of American and British writers - Lillian Hellman, Robert Lowell, Layonella Trilling and Penelope Dzhilliet - protested the Government of Nigeria, was released.
In 1965, Mr.. SH. is senior lecturer at the University of Lagos, and in the same year he published his first novel, 'Interpreters' ( 'The Interpreters'). The main characters of the novel, five young intellectuals who returned to Nigeria from Europe and the U.S., trying to grasp the essence of the processes that occur in society, located at the turn of. Although the novel is set in Nigeria, . the 'interpreters', . writes researcher Eldred Jones, . rises 'universal problem', . facing the young generation, . is not satisfied 'to, . that in the grand facade of them are hiding rotten structure '.,
. In August 1967, the eve of the civil war in Nigeria, W
. secretly met in Enugu with the tribal chief since Chukuemekoy Odumegvu Odzhukvu, trying unsuccessfully to persuade him not to withdraw from Nigeria. After 11 days, when W. returns to Lagos, . he was arrested on the personal orders of head of the Nigerian Government, . President Yakubu Gowon, . accused of conspiring with the rebels and at 27 months, . despite protests from prominent writers of the West, . conclude in a solitary cell measuring four to eight feet,
. Unable to meet people, as well as medical care, books and stationery, W. feared for his psyche, even for life, which, however, did not prevent him secretly writing poetry and doing sketches for plays and novels.
. Coming to freedom as a result of a general amnesty in October 1969 that followed the victory of the government forces over the separatist Biafra, W
. became director of the School of Drama at the University of Ibadan, which has its own staging of the play 'The Harvest of the Congo' ( 'Kongi's Harvest', 1964), musical comedy, ridiculed African despotism, which he in 1970. remade for the cinema, and played in this movie, the main role. Shortly before the film's release country W. goes to Europe, . where lectures, . probation in Cambridge, . at Churchill College, and wrote three major pieces: 'Metamorphoses Jerome' ( 'Jero's Metamorphosis'), . 'Bacchae' ( 'The Bacchae'), . explanation of the tragedy by Euripides, . and 'Death and the king's horseman' ( 'Death and the King's Horseman'),
. His prison memoirs 'A man is dead' ( 'The Man Died') were published in London and New York in 1972. In 1975. SH. accepted the offer to become editor of solid African journal 'New developments' ( 'Transition') and moved to the capital of Ghana, Accra.
After a coup and overthrow President Gowon, in July 1975, W. returned to Nigeria, a year is once again becoming an English professor at the University of Ife, carries staging 'Death and the king's horseman', and then in 1977. - His new play 'Opera Vonosi' ( 'Opera Wonyosi'), written explanation of Brechtian 'Threepenny Opera'. In this work, as well as several one-act plays, for performances in parks and other public places, W. ridicules a false prosperity of Nigeria due to oil boom. In the play, John Blair and Norman Fenton 'Biko under investigation' (1979), . which launched the South African fighter for the rights of black people by Steve Biko, . killed by police during the investigation, . Sh, . director and leading man, . not only exposed the racism in South Africa, . but the injustice and brutality in Nigeria.,
. During this period, W
. actively involved in university life, in government (with particular interest the playwright busy safety on the roads), supports the policy National Party. Although W. considered himself a socialist, the party he did not join and constantly argued with the 'leftist' critics, who could not forgive him for pro-European views. At the same time, W. advocates sharply criticized (1979 ... 1983) and often expressed open disagreement with the successor of Shagari, Mohammad Buhari, who seized power in late 1983. In 1984. Nigeria's Supreme Court banned the staging of 'A man died'.
Despite differences with the Government, W. still does a lot for the Nigerian theater. In 1979. Chicago is directed by the playwright 'Death and the king's horseman', and in 1981. West goes autobiography W. 'Ake: The Years of Childhood' ( 'Ake: The Years of Childhood'). In 1986. SH. first writer in Africa received the Nobel Prize for Literature 'for the creation of the theater a huge cultural perspectives and poetry'.
. Presenting winner, . Lara Yyullensten, . Member of the Swedish Academy, . noted, . that 'in his plays are widely and skillfully used a variety of theatrical techniques, . and above all traditional African: ritual dance, . masks and mime, . rhythm and music, . recitation, . reception theater in the theater ',
. 'Theater Sh - continued Yyullensten - is rooted in African culture and African world, but it is extremely educated playwright ... Myths, traditions and rituals for him - not fancy dresses'. His Nobel lecture W. dedicated to Nelson Mandela, the South African fighter against apartheid.
Along with the dramatic works and prose W. published several collections of poetry, of which the most famous 'Poems from Prison' ( 'Poems From Prison', 1969) and updated and expanded edition of this book entitled 'The Gate vault' ( 'A Shuttle in the Crypt', 1972). Lyrics W. writes in the language of the Yoruba tribe, and plays, and prose written by them exclusively in English, as it speaks Sh, 'in Nigeria, there are several major languages, English and binds them together. "
Works W. highly valued in the critical literature of Africa and the West. According to Paul shares, 'the best play W. - Is the transition from life to death, from the human to the divine through the medium of dance ... and music '. From the perspective of the Nigerian researcher Oyina Ogunby, 'the most obvious in the plays of W. - This is his humanism ', his compassion for' the people who ... immersed in the awkward dance of change '. According to the American biographer W. Henry Louis Getsa Jr., 'in his plays is complicated aesthetic tuned combination of European dramatic tradition, and equally rich dramatic tradition of the Yoruba tribe ...'.
W. married and has a son and three daughters.