Akinwande Oluwole Babatunde "Wole" Soyinka is a Nigerian playwright, novelist, poet, and essayist in the English language. He was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature for his "wide cultural perspective and... poetic overtones fashioning the drama of existence", the first sub-Saharan African to win the Prize in literature.
A secret society is an organization about which the activities, events, inner functioning, or membership are concealed. The society may or may not attempt to conceal its existence. The term usually excludes covert groups, such as intelligence agencies or guerrilla warfare insurgencies, that hide their activities and memberships but maintain a public presence.
Death and the King's Horseman is a play by Wole Soyinka based on a real incident that took place in Nigeria during the colonial era: the horseman of a Yoruba King was prevented from committing ritual suicide by the colonial authorities. In addition to the intervention of the colonial authorities, Soyinka calls the horseman's own conviction toward suicide into question, posing a problem that throws off the community's balance.
The University of Ibadan (UI) is a public research university in Ibadan, Nigeria. The university was once a college of the University of London. The college was established in 1948 as University College Ibadan, one of many colleges within the University of London. It became an independent university in 1962 and is the oldest degree-awarding institution in Nigeria. Through its graduate network, the University of Ibadan has contributed to the political, industrial, economic and cultural development of Nigeria.
The Neo Black Movement of Africa is an international confraternity. It was established in 1977 at the University of Benin in Nigeria as part of the Pan-African movement.
The National Theatre, Nigeria is the primary centre for the performing arts in Nigeria. It shares the same architectural design as the Palace of Culture and Sports in Varna, Bulgaria, and it is four times bigger. The monument is located in Iganmu, Surulere, Lagos. Its construction was completed in 1976 in preparation for the Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC) in 1977.
Organised crime in Nigeria includes activities by fraudsters, bandits, drug traffickers and racketeers, which have spread across Western Africa. Nigerian criminal gangs rose to prominence in the 1980s, owing much to the globalisation of the world's economies and the high level of lawlessness and corruption in the country.
Confraternities in Nigeria are secretive student groups within Nigerian higher education that have been involved in violence and organized crime since the 1980s. The exact death toll of confraternity activities is unclear. One estimate in 2002 was that 250 people had been killed in campus cult-related murders in the previous decade, while the Exam Ethics Project lobby group estimated that 115 students and teachers had been killed between 1993 and 2019.
Wole Oguntokun was a Nigerian playwright, dramaturge, director and was the artistic director of Theatre Planet Studios and Renegade Theatre as well as a member of the board of Theaturtle, a Canadian theatre company. He was also a theatre administrator and newspaper columnist.
Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa is a pan-African writing prize awarded biennially to the best literary work produced by an African. It was established by the Lumina Foundation in 2005 in honour of Africa's first Nobel Laureate in Literature, Wole Soyinka, who presents the prize, which is chosen by an international jury of literary figures. Administered by the Lumina Foundation, the prize has been described as "the African equivalent of the Nobel Prize".
Ber Anena born and previously published as Harriet Anena is a Ugandan writer and performer, whose writing includes poetry, nonfiction and fiction. She is the author of a collection of poems, A Nation In Labour, published in 2015, won the 2018 Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa. The Economist described her poetry performance as "an arresting evocation of love and war".
Kọ́lá Túbọ̀sún is a Nigerian linguist, writer, translator, scholar, cultural activist and film-maker. His work and influence span the fields of education, language technology, literature, journalism, and linguistics. He is the recipient of the 2016 Premio Ostana "Special Prize" for Writings in the Mother Tongue for his work in language advocacy. He writes in Yoruba and English, and is currently the Africa editor of the Best Literary Translations anthology, published by Deep Vellum.
Femi Falana, SAN is a Nigerian lawyer and human right activist. He is the father of a Nigerian rapper Folarin Falana popularly known as Falz.
Ripples Nigeria is a Nigerian online newspaper based in Lagos. It was launched in 2015. It is an independent, pro-investigation multi-media online news platform focused primarily on politics, policy and economy.
The Black Axe is an international confraternity. It formed from the Neo Black Movement of Africa (NBM) established at the University of Benin in Nigeria as part of the Pan African movement in 1977. The BBC has called the Black Axe a "mafia-style gang" with activities ranging from cybercrime, election fraud, human trafficking, illegal drug trading, and violence. In 1999, forty of its members were involved with the Obafemi Awolowo University massacre where five students were killed and eleven injured. In 2024, NBM publically dissassociated from Black Axe.
Cheta Igbokwe is a Nigerian playwright, poet, and author. His play Homecoming won the 2021 Association of Nigerian Authors' (ANA) Prize for Drama and was nominated for the 2023 Nigeria Prize for Literature.
The Man Died: Prison Notes of Wole Soyinka is a 1972 non-fiction book by Wole Soyinka that explores Soyinka's experiences in prison during the Nigerian Civil War. In 1984, a Nigerian court banned the book. In 2011, The Guardian included The Man Died on their list so of the 100 greatest non-fiction books.
King Baabu is a play by Wole Soyinka amongst his others plays including The Lion and the Jewel,A Dance of the Forests, and The Strong Breed. Wole Soyinka was the first African to win the Nobel Prize award in 1986. King Baabu is a satirical play that mirrors the rule of General Abacha in Nigeria through absurdity and humor. It follows the transformation of General Basha Bash into King Baabu, portraying his reign with a cast of characters speaking in a childish language. Through comedy and storytelling, the play critiques power, corruption, and the cult of personality, leaving a lasting impression as a poignant commentary on political absurdity.
Ebrohimie Road: A Museum of Memory is a documentary film written, produced, and directed by Kola Tubosun, and shot by Tunde Kelani, about the eponymous location at the University of Ibadan where Nigerian writer/playwright and Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka lived and worked between 1967 and 1972. It was from there that Soyinka was arrested in 1967 after visiting the breakaway Biafra that was engaged in a civil war with Nigeria, and it was there to which he returned in 1969 after his release, before leaving for a voluntary exile a few years later. The film premiered in Nigeria in July 2024 as part of activities to mark Soyinka's 90th birthday, and has continued to screen in venues in the United States, United Kingdom, and elsewhere.
