Wole Soyinka

About Wole Soyinka

He wrote A Dance of the Forests and the poetry collection The Ballad of the Landlord, and was the first African to earn the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Akinwande Oluwole Babatunde Soyinka, known as Wole Soyinka, is an English-language playwright, novelist, poet and essayist. He was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize for Literature, being the first Sub-Saharan African to be honored in this category. Soyinka was born into a Yoruba family in Abeokuta. In 1954, he attended Ibadan Government College, then Ibadan College and University College Leeds in England. After studying in Nigeria and the UK, he worked with the Royal Court Theater in London. He continued to write plays produced in both countries, theaters and radio stations. He played an active role in the political history of Nigeria and the fight for independence from Great Britain. In 1965, he took over the studio of the West Nigeria Broadcasting Service and issued a request to cancel the regional elections in western Nigeria.

Subject	Comparative literature
Occupation	Author, poet, playwright
Nationality	Nigerian
Period	1957–present
Genre	Drama, novel, poetry
Relatives	Ransome-Kuti family
Education	Abeokuta Grammar School, University of Leeds
Born	Akínwándé Olúwolé Babátúndé Sóyíinká, July 13, 1934, Abeokuta, Nigeria Protectorate (now Ogun State, Nigeria)
Notable awards	Nobel Prize in Literature, 1986, Benson Medal from Royal Society of Literature, 1990, Academy of Achievement Golden Plate Award, 2009, Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, Lifetime Achievement, 2012

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Trivia

He was imprisoned for 22 months during a civil war in Nigeria and wrote a significant amount of material criticizing the Nigerian government during that time.

Wole Soyinka before fame

While in Abokuta Grammar School, he earned several prizes for his writing, and from 1952 to 1954, he attended University College in Ibadan.

Achievement of Wole Soyinka

During a civil conflict in Nigeria, he was imprisoned for 22 months and published a substantial amount of literature attacking the Nigerian government during that period.

Salary 2020

Not known

Net Worth 2020

Undisclosed

Wole Soyinka family life

Samuel, his father, was an Anglican minister. He has five children with Folake Doherty-Soyinka, whom he married in 1989.

Associations of Wole Soyinka

In his Nobel acceptance speech in 1986, he dedicated his prize to South African freedom hero Nelson Mandela.

Wole Soyinka Height, Weight & Physique Measurements

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