A Dance of the Forests is one of the most recognized of Wole Soyinka's plays. The play "was presented at the Nigerian Independence celebrations in 1960, it ... denigrated the glorious African past and warned Nigerians and all Africans that their energies henceforth should be spent trying to avoid repeating the mistakes that have already been made." At the time of its release, it was an iconoclastic work that angered many of the elite in Soyinka's native Nigeria. Politicians were particularly incensed at his prescient portrayal of post-colonial Nigerian politics as aimless and corrupt. Despite the deluge of criticism, the play remains an influential work. In it, Soyinka espouses a unique vision for a new Africa, one that is able to forge a new identity free from the influence of European imperialism.
Ogun State is a state in southwestern Nigeria. Created in 1976, it borders Lagos State to the south, Oyo and Osun states to the north, Ondo to the east and the Republic of Benin to the west. Abeokuta is the capital and largest city in the state. The state's nickname is "Gateway to Nigeria". It was created in February 1976 from the former Western State. The 2006 census recorded a total population of 3,751,140 residents.
Death and the King's Horseman is a play by Wole Soyinka based on a real incident that took place in Nigeria during British colonial rule: the horseman of a Yoruba King was prevented from committing ritual suicide by the colonial authorities. In addition to the British intervention, Soyinka calls the horseman's own conviction toward suicide into question, posing a problem that throws off the community's balance.
Elechi Amadi was a former member of the Nigerian Armed Forces. He was an author of plays and novels that are generally about African village life, customs, beliefs, and religious practices prior to contact with the Western world. Amadi is best regarded for his 1966 debut novel, The Concubine, which has been called "an outstanding work of pure fiction".
Yoruba literature is the spoken and written literature of the Yoruba people, one of the largest ethno-linguistic groups in Nigeria and in the rest of Africa. The Yorùbá language is spoken in Nigeria, Benin, and Togo, as well as in dispersed Yoruba communities throughout the world.
Femi Euba is a Nigerian actor, writer and dramatist, who has published numerous works of drama, theory and fiction. As a theatre practitioner his work encompasses acting, playwriting and directing. Among the topics of his plays is Yoruba culture.
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".
Kongi's Harvest is a 1970 Nigerian film directed by Ossie Davis, from a screenplay by Wole Soyinka adapted from his 1965 play by the same name. Soyinka also starred in the leading role as the dictator of an African nation.
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.
Chief Wale Ogunyemi, OFR was a Nigerian veteran seasoned dramatist, film actor, prolific playwright and Yoruba language scholar
Harriet Anena is a Ugandan author, poet, and journalist. She is the author of a collection of poems, A Nation In Labour, published in 2015. Anena worked with the Daily Monitor newspaper as a reporter, sub-editor, and deputy chief sub-editor from 2009 to September 2014. Her journalistic articles have been published in the Daily Monitor, New Vision, and The Observer. She has also taught specialised writing at the Islamic University in Uganda.
Olaokun Soyinka is a Nigerian medical doctor and former Ogun State Commissioner for health.
Tunji Oyelana is a multi-award-winning Nigerian musician, actor, folk singer, composer and once a lecturer at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. Tunji Oyelana is of the Yoruba ethnic group and is a native of Nigeria. Most of Tunji Oyelana's songs are in Yoruba. In the early 1980s, he teamed up with Nigeria's first and only winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Wole Soyinka, to record a musical album that satirized the corruption of the Nigerian political elite. He was the musician for Stéphane Breton's 1994 film Un dieu au bord de la route. Oyelana is credited with having sold the most albums by a Nigerian High Life musicians. In 2012 he released A Nigerian Retrospective 1966-79, an album from Soundway Records. Apart from Fela Kuti and King Sunny Ade, Oyelana is regarded as one of the most played Yoruba musician. He and Soyinka composed I Love My Country and, in 1996, were both charged with treason and forced into exile by Sani Abacha while touring internationally with Soyinka's play The Beatification of Area Boy. Oyelana, the leader of The Benders currently lives in the United Kingdom.
The National Association of Seadogs, popularly known as Pyrates Confraternity is a confraternity organization in Nigeria that is nominally University-based. The group was founded in 1952 by the "Magnificent Seven" to support for human rights and social justice in Nigeria.
Margaret Busby OBE, Hon. FRSL is a Ghanaian-born publisher, editor, writer and broadcaster, resident in the UK. She was Britain’s youngest and first black woman book publisher when in the 1960s she co-founded with Clive Allison (1944–2011) the London-based publishing house Allison and Busby. She is a recipient of the Benson Medal.
The Aké Arts and Book Festival is an annual literary, cultural and arts event that takes place in Abeokuta, Nigeria. It was founded in 2013 by the Nigerian writer Lola Shoneyin. Although it has featured new and established writers from across the world, its focus has been to promote, develop and celebrate creativity on the African continent in diverse genres. The fifth edition, which was held from 14 November to 18 November 2017, had the theme "This F-Word".
Grace Eniola Soyinka was a Nigerian shopkeeper, activist and member of the Ransome-Kuti family.
