wole soyinka
... MWF 11-11:50 April 13, 2003 WOLE SOYINKA Wole Soyinka is Africa・s most distinguished playwright. ... Soyinka was born in Abeokuta, Western Nigeria, in 1934. ... Gerald Moore describes Soyinka as a man who does not ：often talk about his work in detail, or about the deepest experiences that have fed it. ... Soyinka incorporates some of Shakespeare・s ideas in his plays. ... Soyinka signifies the concept of the forest as the dwelling place of secret forces always acting with mortal life, and the dance as the visible expression of interplay between one plane of reality and another. ... This play was the first announcement of Soyinka・s tragic imagination, his circumscribed hopes for what African independence might achieve. ... Soyinka・s work remains inseparable from his activities as a political dissident. ... Paul Brian describes Soyinka as a ：vigorous critic of contemporary literature； that has ：engaged in heated debates with other Africans who have accused him of writing in an obscure idiom that owes more to European tradition than Nigerian ones. ... Soyinka also argued against the Negritude movement, stating that ．the tiger does not boast of his tigritude・. ... Much of Soyinka・s later writings have been directed against corrupt African leaders like Bokassa and Amin whose predecessors in various African states were target of plays like Madmen and Specialists and Trials of Brother Jero. ... In 1973, Soyinka wrote a much more serious sequel to the Trials of Brother Jero, titled Jero・s Metamorphosis, which objected to the extreme measures taken by the Nigerian government against criminals. Soyinka always emphasized his African roots dubbing his early theater troupe ：Mask； to acknowledge the role of Yoruba pageantry in his work. ... According to James Gibbs, ：Soyinka sought inspiration in Yoruba theatre traditions, festivals and rituals.； Wole Soyinkas poem "Last Turning" illustrates death with imagery that refers to Yoruba traditional beliefs. ... Soyinka exalts death by connecting it to particularly important phenomena in Yoruba Belief: hills, the earth, rain and paths.