HOME RECENT POLITICS BLOGS ... RSS MOTHER JONES BY E-MAIL Running to Stand Still Interview: Wole Soyinka, master of disguise Wole Soyinka
By Dave Gilson July/August 2006 Issue TOOLS E-mail article
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South Carolina's Lasting Impact What's Next for (Bill) Clinton and the Anti-Obama Attack Machine? Obama Wins South Carolina; Plus, Bill's Jesse Jackson Comparison Exit Polls in South Carolina Point to Importance of Economy, Dirty Politics ... Dumps on Giuliani in McCain Endorsement I am a glutton for tranquility, says Wole Soyinka. The 72-year-old Nigerian writer claims he would like nothing more than to retreat to his childhood home and spend his days in seclusion. But peace and quiet have long eluded Soyinka, who spent decades in the thick of the fight to restore democracy to Nigeria, eventually going into exile in 1994 during the reign of General Sani Abacha. In his new memoir, You Must Set Forth at Dawn, he recounts the paradox of being both a private artist and a compulsive activist, a split that is embodied in the Yoruba god Ogun, whom Soyinka invokes as his protective deity. He could be such a peaceful person, he explains, yet he could go to war at a pinch. This creative tension has inspired a prodigious career: hundreds of poems, more than 20 plays, two novels, dozens of essays, and an earlier memoir, Aké: The Years of Childhood. In 1986, he became the first African to receive the Nobel Prize in literature. Taking a moment from a busy American book tour, Soyinka sat down to talk over lunch, insisting on a plate of plain pasta, which he then sprinkled liberally with red pepper flakes. | |
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