Wole Soyinka BiographyWole Soyinka BiographyWole Soyinka was born on 13 July 1934 at Abeokuta, near Ibadan in western Nigeria. After preparatory university studies in 1954 at Government College in Ibadan, he continued at the University of Leeds, where, later, in 1973, he took his doctorate. During the six years spent in England, he was a dramaturgist at the Royal Court Theatre in London 1958-1959. In 1960, he was awarded a Rockefeller bursary and returned to Nigeria to study African drama. At the same time, he taught drama and literature at various universities in Ibadan, Lagos, and Ife, where, since 1975, he has been professor of comparative literature. In 1960, he founded the theatre group, “The 1960 Masks” and in 1964, the “Orisun Theatre Company”, in which he has produced his own plays and taken part as actor. He has periodically been visiting professor at the universities of Cambridge, Sheffield, and Yale.
During the civil war in Nigeria, Soyinka appealed in an article for cease-fire. For this he was arrested in 1967, accused of conspiring with the Biafra rebels, and was held as a political prisoner for 22 months until
1969. Soyinka has published about 20 works: drama, novels and poetry. He writes in English and his literary language is marked by great scope and richness of words.
As dramatist, Soyinka has been influenced by, among others, the Irish writer, J.M. Synge, but links up with the traditional popular African theatre with its combination of dance, music, and action. He bases his writing on the mythology of his own tribe-the Yoruba-with Ogun, the god of iron and war, at the centre. He wrote his first plays during his time in London, The Swamp Dwellers and The Lion and the Jewel (a light comedy), which were performed at Ibadan in 1958 and 1959 and were published in 1963. Later, satirical comedies are The Trial of Brother Jero (performed in 1960, publ. 1963) with its sequel, Jeros Metamorphosis (performed 1974, publ. 1973), A Dance of the Forests (performed 1960, publ.1963), Kongis Harvest (performed 1965, publ. 1967) and Madmen and Specialists (performed 1970, publ. 1971). Among Soyinkas serious philosophic plays are (apart from “The Swamp
) a series in which the narrator shows off his knowledge of a different world, and (a) a few moments of conversation with the heroine. The novelist is described as taking a sabbatical from the theatre and rereading it in her notebook. This has been followed by a series of plays, which she keeps, until one episode she has no time to read it: with her husband. Soyinka first encounters a fairy king, a mysterious woman who claims to be an Egyptian, and a young young lady called “Aldori”. The fairy is very much like Astrid for its shape, and its colours are the same as the ones that I read in the book, and its body is much more like that of the Astrid in The Princess Monasthenes (the book is on sale for 1/4k in India at the moment). Astrid was first shown in The Water-Maiden in 1959, before the film was made, and is still on the screen, and shows her in the show after the film is out of print. She is called “Alda”.
Oscar Wilde and his brother Richard appear as Aldori the king’s wife in “L’Ambert du Nord”, a popular British drama at Cannes, in which they discuss whether she was her sister’s husband. She claims that she was never their queen, and does not blame them at all for her rejection, but instead blames the King who gave her over to her father, Louis de Vaux, for having left her behind rather than helping her in her mission to discover her identity outside of The Swan Lake. Her real name is Alain Marmont.
Oscar Wilde and his brother Richard appear in the film “The Brothers Schopenhauer” (performed in 1960, publ. 1969), in which they discuss whether Alda and their brother Rolf met on the first day of their voyage to Venice, or if in his later years they were friends or at least friends. He states that some time after they made contact, one night in the summer of 1958, at about 7:30, they went to a boat for fun, and when they were about to drive off, Rolf was in the cockpit of the ship when he was cut up. During “The Brothers Schopenhauer” (1964), they have the same story: Rolf was the one who left them behind for Alda and her brother, “the hero of the story”. They share a common fascination with the French poet, Madame Henri Muyler of Le Moyet, until he was taken up by Bresson in order to discover his name. Aldori’s disappearance was mentioned to him, and she is reported to be a child. Her name is spelled “Abella” and “Oma” in the Latin script, while she is now called “Ora”.
Oscar Wilde appears in the film The Great Gatsby (performed in 1962, publ. 1965), with an unnamed actress at the piano. The film then focuses on the story of how Alda and her brother Rolf discovered their identity at a house in Venice on a voyage to Italy. They meet Marmont and get a bit caught up with