BY; BASHEER LUQMAN OLAREWAJU-UNIQUE
Starting out with a life of excellence that far out runs time, Soyinka has turned out to be greatness personified, a goal-getter individual and man of uncommon wits for success. While in his Thirties he had already written some of the best African literary works including The Man died, the Lion and the Jewel , The Trials of Brother Jero, etc.
While I was in primary school, the name 'Wole Soyinka' was common to my hearing than the name of the then President of the Nigeria Senate.
I might not have been accustomed to understanding what politics is, not even sure, I knew there was a position called 'Senate President'. Most of us then, we crave to be like Wole Soyinka; a man who wrote WASSCE seven (7) times (sic).
The tale of him having sat for West African Senior School Certificate Examination about seven consecutive years before making a credit grade in English Language and later rose to become the Emeritus Professor of Comparative Literature was genuinely heart soothing and inspiring.
Try to speak good English and lace it with vocabularies, you will be nicknamed as 'Prof', 'Igi Iwe', or 'Wole Soyinka Jr'. This is just to give similarity to the authority Prof. Wole Soyinka has amassed for himself.
Several indicators were set for us by the society to be reckoned with as serious or brilliant students; young ones usually imitate him with the 'Afro hair style' - another indicator for emerging writers or scholars in our society.
Wole Soyinka's greatness was dated back to his childhood. The traits of leadership and brilliance were noticed in him from early age. His generosity is unequalled, racing through all and sundry, and cutting across all strata.
I once asked a mentor, why do we fail to be productive in Africa? His response was truthful but a bitter pill, hard to swallow. He said, 'Documentation'.
For while History may have been garnished with subtle prejudice during documentation, the present offers us with a better reality to grasp. Even with the subjectivity of diverse humans we still find objective grounds to agree. We may have arrived this place through inter-subjectivity. However, it is beyond reasonable doubt that the Man Wole Soyinka has lived a life not only worthy of emulation but also Worthy of education.
He has contributed to the realization of cultural events that promote understanding and the exchange of knowledge between peoples. Soyinka has been a strong critic of successive Nigerian governments, especially the country's many military dictators, as well as other political tyrannies, including the Mugabe regime in Zimbabwe. Much of his writing has been concerned with "the oppressive boot and the irrelevance of the colour of the foot that wears it.
As your age clicks 86 today, I share with the eulogy scribbled by Dr Kayode Fayemi (CON), Ekiti State Governor.
"Africa’s most iconic literary maestro and one of the world’s most influential citizens is 86 today. With his ageless physique, it is almost difficult to acknowledge that our own Oluwole Akinwande Soyinka, affectionately called KONGI by his numerous admirers, is 86! Even though 86 might not be a remarkable milestone, it was in 1986 that the Nobel Prize came, hence the reason for this remarkable reckoning and why it’s worthy of celebration.
Soyinka is spiritual but not religious, ideological but not bigoted; for, he could not submit his intellect to the whimsical machinations of another being. He acknowledges, as he found out through his teacher, Bonany Dombree, that all spirituality sprouts from the relationship between nature and man and that the quest to create a meaning for its inscrutable foundation gave expression to the concept of deity. Thus, Soyinka’s spirituality is in the primacy of humanity and the pursuit of universal egalitarianism; this, I think, is the basis upon which his ideas of the ideal are anchored. No wonder he remains a respectable voice for human advancement in the global arena."
Ultimately, I draw strengths from the writings of Soyinka who was held in chains for a crime he would later be declared innocent from. Chains may be symbolic; it could be financial constraint, political oppression, unhealthy relationships or even a writer’s block. Courage, like Soyinka’s, remains indispensable to weather the storm.
Happy birthday to the man of universal impact, a nonpareil soul and inspiring leader. Happy birthday Nigerian poet and writer, Wole Soyinka, the first sub-Saharan African to win the Prestigious Nobel Prize in Literature (1986).
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