Akinwande Oluwole Babatunde Soyinka, known as Wole Soyinka, is a Nigerian playwright, novelist, poet, and essayist in the English language. He was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature, for "in a wide cultural perspective and with poetic overtones fashioning the drama of existence", the first sub-Saharan African to be honoured in that category. Soyinka was born into a Yoruba family in Abeokuta. In 1954, he attended Government College in Ibadan, and subsequently University College Ibadan and the University of Leeds in England. After studying in Nigeria and the UK, he worked with the Royal Court Theatre in London. 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 campaign for independence from British colonial rule. In 1965, he seized the Western Nigeria Broadcasting Service studio and broadcast a demand for the cancellation of the Western Nigeria Regional Elections. 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, for volunteering to be a non-government mediating actor.
Nigerian literature may be roughly defined as the literary writing by citizens of the nation of Nigeria for Nigerian readers, addressing Nigerian issues. This encompasses writers in a number of languages, including not only English but Igbo, Urhobo, Yoruba, and in the northern part of the county Hausa and Nupe. More broadly, it includes British Nigerians, Nigerian Americans and other members of the African diaspora.
The Caine Prize for African Writing is an annual literary award for the best original short story by an African writer, whether in Africa or elsewhere, published in the English language. The £10,000 prize was founded in the United Kingdom in 2000, and was named in memory of Sir Michael Harris Caine, former Chairman of Booker Group plc. Because of the Caine Prize's connection to the Booker Prize, the award is sometimes called the "African Booker". The prize is known as the AKO Caine Prize for African Writing. The Chair of the Board is Ellah Wakatama.
The University of Lagos, popularly known as UNILAG, is a public research university located in Lagos, Nigeria and was founded in 1962. UNILAG is one of the first generation universities in Nigeria and is ranked among the top universities in the world in major education publications. The university presently has three campuses in the mainland of Lagos. Whereas two of its campuses are located at Yaba, it's college of medicine is located at Idi-Araba, Surulere. Its main campus is largely surrounded by the Lagos lagoon and has 802 acres of land. The University of Lagos currently admits over 9,000 undergraduate students annually and enrolls over 57,000 students.
Sefi Atta is a Nigerian-American novelist, short-story writer, playwright and screenwriter. Her books have been translated into many languages, radio plays have been broadcast by the BBC, and her stage plays have been performed internationally. Awards she has received include the 2006 Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa and the 2009 Noma Award for Publishing in Africa.
Amatoritsero Ede is a Nigerian-Canadian poet. He had written under the name "Godwin Ede" but he stopped bearing his Christian first name as a way to protest the xenophobia and racism he noted in Germany, a "Christian" country, and to an extent, to protest Western colonialism in general. Ede has lived in Canada since 2002, sponsored as a writer-in-exile by PEN Canada. He was a Hindu Monk with the Hare Krishna Movement, and has worked as a Book Editor with a major Nigerian trade publisher, Spectrum Books.
Tanure Ojaide is a Nigerian poet and academic. As a writer, he is noted for his unique stylistic vision and for his intense criticism of imperialism, religion, and other issues. He is regarded as a socio-political and an ecocentric poet. He won the 2018 Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa with his collection Songs of Myself: A Quartet (2017).
Kachifo Limited is an independent publishing house based in Lagos, Nigeria. It was founded in 2004 by Muhtar Bakare. Its imprints include Farafina Books, Farafina Educational, and Prestige Books. From 2004 to 2009, it published the influential Farafina Magazine.
Onyeka Nwelue is a Nigerian filmmaker, publisher, talk-show host, author, academic visitor and founder of the James Currey Society, at the African Studies Centre, University of Oxford and a Visiting Scholar to the Centre of African Studies in the University of Cambridge. He is the Dean of the School of Cinematographic Studies at Université Queensland in Haiti.
Lekan Balogun is a Nigerian dramatist and theatre director. His plays include Moremi Ajaasoro, performed as the Western zone's entry for the Festival of Nigerian Plays ; Olofin Ajaye and The Mote in the Eye, NANTAP International Theatre Day, 2008 and 2009/20th Anniversary Play projects; The Rejected Stone, an African retelling of the popular fable Cinderella, Alaafin Kanran, Farewell and Dirty Circle for Royal Court Theatre, London, excerpt performed at the Sloane Square, Jerwood Theatre, London, in 2009 with sponsorship from the British Council, Nigeria & GENESIS Foundation, UK; The Ghost Catcher; Goodbye Yesterday; Our Tomorrow Today; Ijebu 1832; For Heroes and Scoundrels, among others. He wrote and directed a play about Zulu folklore (Izibongo) and history in 2008 with the title Shaka, the Zulu legend.
The Port Harcourt Book Festival is an annual literary event in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria, organised by the Rainbow Book Club and endorsed by the Rivers State Government since 2008. The Garden City Literary Festival, which is currently known as the Port Harcourt Book Festival was founded by Governor Amaechi of Rivers State, Hundreds of literary fans flock to the Garden City every year for this six-day event, which includes a book fair, writers' workshops, and a variety of other activities. In the past the Festival has been attended by recognized authors and has hosted a number of celebrities.
Sifiso Mzobe is a South African author.
Chief Wale OgunyemiListen, OFR was a Nigerian veteran seasoned dramatist, film actor, prolific playwright, and Yoruba language scholar
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".
The Aké Arts and Book Festival is a literary and artistic event held annually in Nigeria. It was founded in 2013 by Lola Shoneyin, a Nigerian writer and poet, in Abeokuta. It features new and established writers from across the world, and its primary focus has been to promote, develop, and celebrate the creativity of African writers, poets, and artists. The Aké Arts and Book Festival has been described as the African continent's biggest annual gathering of literary writers, editors, critics, and readers. The festival has an official website and a dedicated magazine, known as the Aké Review.
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.
Adedapo Abayomi Adelugba was a Nigerian academic, theatre critic and playwright who spent a considerable part of his academic career at University of Ibadan where he was a director of the university's theatre troupe. Adelugba was also the director of Nigeria's drama entry to the Second World Festival of Arts and Culture.
Ivor Agyeman-Duah is a Ghanaian academic, economist, writer, editor and film director. He has worked in Ghana's diplomatic service and has served as an advisor on development policy.
The 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to the Tanzanian-born British novelist Abdulrazak Gurnah who the Swedish Academy members praised "for his uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism and the fate of the refugee in the gulf between cultures and continents." The winner was announced on October 7, 2021, by Mats Malm, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy.
The 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to the Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka "who in a wide cultural perspective and with poetic overtones fashions the drama of existence." He is the first African recipient of the prize.