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His Eldest Wife, Chief (Mrs.) OLAYIDE SOYINKA
Exactly 11 years ago, Chief (Mrs.) Laide Soyinka, the eldest wife of Prof. Wole Soyinka, the first African Nobel laureate, an iconic playwright and renowned writer, almost rejected an offer to comment on the personality and social life of her husband. Her reservation, in certain quarters, was interpreted as an attempt not to be one of the critics of the world acclaimed writer and first African Nobel laureate, who as at then turned 79 years precisely on Saturday, July 13, 2013. He recently clocked 90.
As usual, the world was agog to celebrate the priceless value of this gem, who has influenced his world with his rare literary talents as a lecturer, writer, dramatist, critic among other engagements.
However, a journalist, who vowed never to miss the greatest opportunity of the scoop, stopped at nothing to explore the situation. He did not spare Soyinka’s eldest wife to escape from the 30minutes exclusive interview where she unleashed the untold stories behind the making of the world’s celebrated Kongi.
According to her (the wife), the moment she ever felt proud of her husband, was when the famous professor received the highly coveted Nobel Laureate award in Stockholm, Sweden, 1986, just when an equally famous Nigerian journalist, Dele Giwa, first Editor-In-Chief of Newswatch magazine, was bombed through the infamous letter bomb. “That was the crowning glory of his literary achievements. That was the international stamp of authority that he is the King of Literature in Africa, indeed, in the Black World,” she said.
Though some of his age mates, colleagues, friends and students would attribute the tender look of the 90-year-old literary giant to his upbringing and social fitness, Laide, in the interview, did not deny how romantic her husband was. She traced the genesis of the romance between her and Soyinka to their old days in the University College, Ibadan, UCI, where they met for the first time.
“We met at the University College, Ibadan,” she said. “I had been admitted to read Arts.” She explained that Soyinka was a contemporary of the late Health Minister, Professor Olikoye Ransome-Kuti, both of whom were years ahead of her in academia. She also related that her husband didn’t finish his Bachelors programme at UCI, since the college had not been upgraded to the level of a full-fledged university at that time.
“University College, Ibadan had facilities for intermediate and not full degree. So, Wole didn’t complete his full degree programme at Ibadan, he went over to Leeds to do that.”
Along with academic pursuits, there was a flourish of romance at the premier university, where a good number of successful Nigerians met their spouses. For instance, she said, late Professor Chinua Achebe got his heartthrob, Christiana, from the University College, Ibadan, just when Professor Wole Soyinka was wooing her. “Christy (Achebe) and I were colleagues at U.I. We both resided at Queen Elizabeth Hall. Christy was a lovely girl, very pretty girl and my good friend.
“All the people who later became important in Nigeria had attended the University College, Ibadan at that time. One of such people is Gamaliel Onasode, who read Classics, and Emeka Anyaoku. I think, he also read Classics. So, also did late (Chief) Bola Ige. At that time, it was a community where the who’s who in Nigeria today blossomed in the romance of undergraduate days. There was also Emmanuel Ifeajuna, who was eventually killed in the coup. His own girlfriend was Rose. There was this gentleman who was killed by Ogoni people, whose wife was a sister to Ken Saro-Wiwa’s wife. He was Edward Kobani. He was fondly called Eddy. They were all there. Although they were my seniors, they were my brother’s colleagues, Olu Akaraogun. So, a whole lot of notable Nigerians picked their future partners from the University College, Ibadan. So, Wole and I were also caught in this fever of romance.”
She noted that Professors Soyinka and the late Olikoye Ransome-Kuti were cousins and enjoyed some kind of intimate relationship, which rubbed off on the rapport, which their families enjoyed.
“My grandchildren would call him Uncle Koye, because of the familiarity. But, he didn’t mind, although this would not be tolerated in Yoruba culture.” Let us tell you a bit more about Professor Wole Soyinka, the internationally acclaimed literay giant.
Professor Wole Soyinka was born on 13 July 1934 at Abeokuta, near Ibadan in western Nigeria. 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. During the six years spent in England, he was a dramaturgist at the Royal Court Theatre in London 1958-1959. In 1960, he was awarded a Rockefeller bursary and returned to Nigeria to study African drama. At the same time, he taught drama and literature at various universities in Ibadan, Lagos, and Ife, where, since 1975, he has been professor of comparative literature. In 1960, he founded the theatre group, “The 1960 Masks” and in 1964, the “Orisun Theatre Company”, in which he has produced his own plays and taken part as actor. He has periodically been visiting professor at the universities of Cambridge, Sheffield, and Yale.
During the civil war in Nigeria, Soyinka appealed in an article for cease-fire. For this he was arrested in 1967, accused of conspiring with the Biafra rebels, and was held as a political prisoner for 22 months until 1969. Soyinka has published about 20 works: drama, novels and poetry. He writes in English and his literary language is marked by great scope and richness of words.
As dramatist, Soyinka has been influenced by, among others, the Irish writer, J.M. Synge, but links up with the traditional popular African theatre with its combination of dance, music, and action. He bases his writing on the mythology of his own tribe-the Yoruba-with Ogun, the god of iron and war, at the centre. He wrote his first plays during his time in London, The Swamp Dwellers and The Lion and the Jewel (a light comedy), which were performed at Ibadan in 1958 and 1959 and were published in 1963. Later, satirical comedies are The Trial of Brother Jero (performed in 1960, publ. 1963) with its sequel, Jero’s Metamorphosis (performed 1974, publ. 1973), A Dance of the Forests (performed 1960, publ.1963), Kongi’s Harvest (performed 1965, publ. 1967) and Madmen and Specialists (performed 1970, publ. 1971). Among Soyinka’s serious philosophic plays are (apart from “The Swamp Dwellers”) The Strong Breed (performed 1966, publ. 1963), The Road ( 1965) and Death and the King’s Horseman (performed 1976, publ. 1975). In The Bacchae of Euripides (1973), he has rewritten the Bacchae for the African stage and in Opera Wonyosi (performed 1977, publ. 1981), bases himself on John Gay’s Beggar’s Opera and Brecht’s The Threepenny Opera. Soyinka’s latest dramatic works are A Play of Giants (1984) and Requiem for a Futurologist (1985).
Soyinka has written two novels, The Interpreters (1965), narratively, a complicated work which has been compared to Joyce’s and Faulkner’s, in which six Nigerian intellectuals discuss and interpret their African experiences, and Season of Anomy (1973) which is based on the writer’s thoughts during his imprisonment and confronts the Orpheus and Euridice myth with the mythology of the Yoruba. Purely autobiographical are The Man Died: Prison Notes (1972) and the account of his childhood, Aké ( 1981), in which the parents’ warmth and interest in their son are prominent. Literary essays are collected in, among others, Myth, Literature and the African World (1975).
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