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Wole Soyinka's writings are like the palm kernel: difficult to penetrate but once inside it is all sweetness; however, even when the reading seem simple, the meaning is far hidden within a hard epicarp. The Nobelist is always on a different plane with his works and do not make things easy for the reader. The fun is for the reader to discover his or her own understanding or interpretation, just like any work of art. Yet, it is difficult for one to say 'Eureka' when it comes to Soyinka's works and I definitely am far from shouting famous Greek phrase. His Madmen and Specialists  still keeps me thinking, more than a year later.  Kongi's Harvest  (EPP Book Services, FP: 1965; 90) is no different. It is a complete Soyinka in words and spirit. Interspersed with humour, as most plays are, the story portrays the clash between traditional rule, represented by the Oba Danlola, and the modern system of governance, represented by Kongi. The dramatist extraordinaire, as u...

[A] King does not become a menial just because he puts down his crown to eat. [2] A shilling's vegetable must appease a halfpenny spice. [2] The nude shanks of a king is not a sight for children - it will blind them. [4] It was our fathers who said, not I - a crown is a burden when the king visits his favourite's chambers. When the king's wrapper falls off in audience, wise men know he wants to be left alone. [5] It is a mindless clown who dispenses thanks as a fowl scatters meal not caring where it falls. [5] Only a foolish child lets a father prostrate to him. [6] We lift the King's umbrella higher than men but it never pushes the sun in the face. [8] The ostrich also sports plumes but I've yet to see that wise bird leave the ground. [48] When the dog hides a bone does he not throw up sand? [48] Age has shrunk the tortoise and the shell is full of air pockets. [55] When a squirrel seeks sanctuary up the iroko tree the hunte...

Title: Madmen and Specialists Author: Wole Soyinka Genre: Play/Political Publisher: University Press PLC Pages: 77 Year of First Publication: 1971 Country: Nigeria Read for the Africa Reading Challenge Wole Soyinka's play Madmen and Specialists  have made me think twice about this genre. This is the first book I can boldly say 'it went over my head. I never got it.' Perhaps it was the mentality I carried into the book: I went into the book knowing that Soyinka's plays have deeper meanings other than its superficial mirth he creates with verve, which burdened me so that after three days of labouring through a 77-page book, finally turning over the last page, I still could not put the various issues together to create one coherent idea. This play, which was written when the author was in prison during Nigeria's Civil War, is sad and gloom, unlike The Lion and the Jewel .  The story opens with a quartet of mendicants: Aafa, an arrogant, sarcast...

Continuation from last weeks quotes cum proverbs. [W]hen the elephant heads for the jungle, the tail is too small a handhold for the hunter that would pull him back. The sun that heads for the sea no longer heeds the prayers of the farmer. When the river begins to taste the salt of the ocean, we no longer know what deity to call on, the river-god or Olokun. No arrow flies back to the string, the child does not return through the same passage that gave it birth. A dog does not outrun the hand that feeds it meat. A horse that throws its rider slows down to a stop. The river is never so hight that the eyes of a fish are covered.  The night is not so dark that the albino fails to find his way. It is the death of war that kills the valiant, death of water is how the swimmer goes, it is the death of markets that kills the trader and death of indecision takes the idle away. The trade of the cutlass blunts its edge and the beautiful die the death of bea...

Title: Death and the King's Horseman Author: Wole Soyinka Genre: Play/Tragedy Publishers: Spectrum Books Limited Pages: 77 Year of First Publication: 1975 Country: Nigeria For   Amy's Nigeria Independence Day Reading/Reviewing Project and for the Top 100 Books Reading Challenge . Death and the King's Horseman is one of Soyinka's best known plays. Voted as one of Africa's Best Books of the Twentieth Century, it has been more admired than it has been performed , according to a 2009 Guardian article. This play, according to the Author's Note, 'is based on real events which took place in Oyo, ancient Yoruba city of Nigeria, in 1946', though certain changes have been made in 'matters of detail, sequence and ... characterisation [and the setting taking back] two or three years... for minor reasons of dramaturgy.' An important note, before present readers make the same mistake, sounded by the author was that this work should not be...

Again, like Ola Rotimi's The gods are not to blame , these quotes are more of proverbs than they are of quotes. Proverbs and riddles are traditional ways of speaking in most African countries and a good speaker is one who is able to communicate using the appropriate proverbs to carry out his message. In most cases, an adept speaker would use only proverbs and the listener is expected to grasp the meaning, just like a mathematician would use mathematical symbols to communicate to other mathematicians. In fact, in Ghana, the very word for a gathering, where chiefs or other traditional elders or where something important is about to take place is translated as 'proverb market', (in Twi,  b'adwam or B ε Dwam ). The following proverbs are not exhaustive: Because the man approaches a brand-new bride he forgets the long long faithful mother of his children. When the horse sniffs the stable does he not strain at the bridle? [W]hen the wind blows cold from behind, t...

Africa's first Nobelist, Akinwande Oluwole Soyinka - commonly referred to as Wole Soyinka, is celebrating his 77th birthday today. According to Cassava Republic, a list of literary events have been planned to celebrate this great personality. In Abuja, the Arojah Royal Theatre will be hosting a series of readings from Soyinka's plays and poems, as well as talks around the theme "My Favourite Wole Soyinka Book". [courtesy: Cassava Republic ] Over here at ImageNations - and this is something we would be looking out for, henceforth - I bring you links to Soyinka's books that have been reviewed here: The first is his memoir You Must Set Forth at Dawn  reviewed on August 25, 2010. The next is his play The Lion and the Jewel  reviewed on November 22, 2010. I also treat you to Soyinka's famous poem Telephone Conversation , wherein he treats racism with humour and sarcasm.             Telephone Conversation         ...

  Title: The Lion and the Jewel Author: Wole Soyinka Genre: Play Publishers: Oxford University Press Pages: 64 Year of Publication: 1963 Country: Nigeria Comedic. In the Lion and the Jewel, Wole Soyinka tells a funny story - almost in style of the cunning Ananse folklores told in Ghana - involving four 'main' characters. Sidi is the Jewel: the village's belle whose beauty has been captured by a photographer and published in a magazine. As a result she sees herself as above anyone in the village including Bale Baroka, the Lion of Ilunjinle. Bale Baroka, is the Lion of Ilunjinle and its chief. He has several wives and is courting the love of Sidi, the village's Belle (the Jewel). Lakunle is a young (of twenty three years) bombastic teacher in the village who is bent on bestowing Western culture onto the people of Ilunjinle. In the meantime his priority is to stop the payment of dowry. When in school he wears an old threadbare un-ironed English coat with tie...

Profile Blogging is going to be difficult for this season. I don't know the end of the season but its beginning I know of. Work is piling up in a certain geometric progression I cannot explain. Less of the excuses. We continue with what was started last week concerning the profiling of the Laureates of African Literature. Today we profile Wole Soyinka , full name Akinwande Oluwole Soyinka. Soyinka, born on 13th July 1934, is a Nigerian Writer, Poet and Playwright. 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. Soyinka has played an active role in Nigeria's political history. In 1965, he made a broadcast demanding the cancellation of the rigged Western Nigeria Regional Elections following his seizure of the Western Nigeria Broadcasting Service studio. He was arrested, arraigned but freed on a technicality. In 1967, during the Nigerian Civil War, he w...

Title: You Must Set Forth at Dawn Author: Wole Soyinka Genre: Memoir Publisher: Ayebia and Bookcraft Pages: 578 Year of First Publication: 2006 (this edition 2009) I have read Professor Ali Mazrui's article 'Dr Jekyll and Mr. Soyinka' when he addressed some concerns Wole Soyinka had raised about him and his own misgivings. (Thank God that when two academicians clash in opinions and misgivings only shrapnel of knowledge is emitted). I would use Professor Mazrui's title to refer to this man of multiple personalities. My reading of Wole Soyinka's  You Must Set Forth at Dawn , written in the first person as most memoirs are,  presented to me a man of multiple personalities and had he not penned these words, I would have added the 'disorder', yet there is no point of divergence between psychosis and genius. Soyinka is political dramatist who does not dramatise his political involvement but politicise his dramas. His political life,...

Last Friday I happen to pass by the Accra Mall, and the Silverbirds store attracted me. The books pulled me and without looking left or right I entered the store. In the store, I headed directly towards the African Fiction section and I was glad to see new books from established writers such as Atukwei Okai (Lorgoligi Logarithms and Oath of the Fontomfrom), Wole Soyinka and many others filling the spaces in the shelves. Whilst searching for nothing in particular I came across two books which I couldn't prevent myself from buying. There are books whose price tag, no matter how absurd they seem, cannot, in no way whatsoever, prevent the book-addict from buying. One such book was Chimamanda's The Thing Around Your Neck, though I think it was more out of pure passion to collect this author's works than the quality of the book, as I have not at that point in time read any synopsis of it. So in my search for nothing I came across Uwem Akpan's Say You're One of Th...