Playwright, Nobel Laureate and Chess player Soyinka Attains 75: HAPPY BIRTHDAY PROF

Playwright and Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, would on Monday (7/13/2009) attain the ripe age of 75. He was born on July 13, 1934.

He was educated at St. Peter's School, Ake, Abeokuta; Abeokuta Grammar School, Abeokuta between 1944 and 1945 before he went to Government College, Ibadan from 1946 to 1950 where he rounded off his post primary education. He attended the University College, Ibadan from 1952 to 1954 and the University of Leeds, UK (1954 to 1957) obtaining a degree in English literature thereafter.

He worked briefly at the Royal Court Theatre in London as a play reader and later as a dramaturgic receiving Rockfeller Bursary before returning home to study African drama. In 1960 he founded the theatre group, The 1960 Masks and in 1964 the Orisun Theatre Company from which he produced his own plays and took part in acting. While home he taught at the Universities of Lagos, Ibadan and Ife.

Soyinka, through his plays, projects traditional Nigerian themes and stories. He has being recognised as a dramatic poet and skilled dramatic craftsman. His plays deal with a great diversity of themes - from the farce of The Trials of Brother Jero, to the romanticism of The Lion and the Jewel, to the tragedy of The Strong Breed. He is also concerned with universal problems, as his plays examine town life, a retrograde countryside, and the ambitions of the "new" Nigerians.

His ability to juxtapose the past and the present was reflected in his play A Dance in the Forest in which selfishness, dishonesty and lust was personified as elements in all societies past and present. Through drama, poetry, essays, and autobiographies, Soyinka has documented not only the struggles of his homeland of Nigeria but of the African continent as a whole.

His works earned him the prestigious Nobel Prize in Literature in 1986.Besides obtaining a doctoral degree from the University of Leeds, UK in 1973, he can boast of numerous honorary doctoral degrees, which include: honorary doctoral degree from the University of Yale in 1980; Morehouse College in 1988; doctor of letters from the University of Toronto in 1992; Addis Ababa University in 2003 and doctor of humane letters from Princeton in 2005 to mention a few.
Culled from the Saturday Independent,a Nigerian national newspaper of 11 July 2009.

Thanks to Mr. Bola Dada - a former Secretary of the Nigeria Chess Federation, for sending this article to us.

2005 PRINCETON UNIVERSITY COMMENCEMENT AND HONORARY DEGREE AWARD

ITALY 2007: AT THE FESTIVALATURA WITH THE FORMER WORLD CHESS CHAMPION, BORIS SPASSKY AND OTHER WRITERS. SPASSKY MADE A SURPRISING REVELATION TO SOYINKA THAT HE IS IN FACT RELATED TO A FAMOUS NIGERIAN POLITICIAN (NAME WITHHELD).


2007 , HOUSTON, TEXAS: GOVERNMENT COLLEGE IBADAN REUNION AND AWARD

BELOW: HOUSTON MAYOR BILL WHITE

HE DECLARED SEPTEMBER 15, 2007

AS GOVERNMENT COLLEGE IBADAN DAY

IN THE CITY OF HOUSTON.

CLICK IMAGE TO READ THE OFFICIAL DECLARATION BELOW.

AT THE GOVERNMENT COLLEGE DINNER AND AWARD NIGHT

Old boys singing the house song

Soyinka and Chief Gboyega Delano

Soyinka and Kunle Elegbede

Soyinka and Prof Jide Bademosi and Mr. Banwo Smith
ARRIVING FOR THE GOVERNMENT COLLEGE TRADITIONAL CRICKET MATCH

Bowling in action by Dr Olubowale.

A young gal (an Old boys wife), Prof Mrs Olopade with Soyinka and other Old boys at the cricket pitch.

Left to right: An Old boy ? Dr Adedeji, Prof Oguntimehin, Prof Olopade and Dr Sangowawa

Left to right: Dr Alade, Dr Otegbeye and Ademola Tade

SOYINKA ON ODIONS 1998 CHESS OLYMPIAD GOLD MEDAL ISSUE

Nobel Laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka is currently looking into the Odions gold medal problem. He has been in touch with the Minister of Sports, Gimba and Caifas on this issue already. To quote Prof Soyinka, "Odion won his gold medal and he should have it".
Details will be made available as soon as we have more information on this.

Meanwhile, here is an interesting story on Soyinka that is not known to many chess players:

In his younger days, Wole Soyinka used to play chess very well. He was also a chess enthusiast who followed keenly the Fischer-Spassky match of 1972. Incidentally, in September of 2007, at an International festival in Mantua, Soyinka was in Italy with Boris Spassky and others for the 2007 Festivalettaratura.

Spassky who was playing chess with a number of writers at the Festivalatura wanted Soyinka to sit to have a game of chess with him but Soyinka declined. He said he did not want to be one of ‘Spassky’s sacrificial lamb’. Soyinka later said “ I didn’t think I would last even one microsecond against him after a deliberate lay-off (from chess) of nearly 35 years! ".

"
Soyinka and Spassky formed a good friendship in Italy.

See the U tube video of Spasskys Simulteneous chess in Mantau on the left.
More on this interesting story to come at a later date.

To those interested, here are some info on Wole Soyinka below.

http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/Elberg/Soyinka/soyinka-con0.html

http://prelectur.stanford.edu/lecturers/soyinka/

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,901060626-1205325,00.html