Soyinka's life and work – in pictures
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WS: a life in full
Bankole Olayebi
2004
Bookcraft, Ibadan, Nigeria
269 pages
Reviewed by Richard Bartlett
Nigerians, at home and in the diaspora, are finding a myriad ways to say ‘Happy birthday’ to one of their most famous citizens in his 70th year, the writer who was awarded the 1986 Nobel prize for literature. So far in 2004 there have been two conferences devoted to the man and his work in London, he has appeared to a packed Royal Albert Hall and this is apart from the readings, performances and other events being held in Nigeria. However, one of the more lasting tributes to Wole Soyinka this year is a coffee-table book of photos and personal tributes – WS: a life in full.
It is a fitting tribute because it is so personal. It achieves this because it is not so much about Wole the literary genius, but more Wole the man, the father, the political activist, the traffic warden, the actor, the ambassador, the hunter, the pyrate.
What also adds to the value of this book as tribute is that it has not been undertaken by a multinational publishing company. It is a Nigerian project, published by Bookcraft, of Ibadan, and sponsored in part by ChevronTexaco, which has large operations in Nigeria, and a portion of sales revenue is going towards fighting the spread of HIV/Aids in the country. While a Nigerian project, it is also international with the African Books Collective, based in Oxford, UK, helping to make "it possible for this book to see the light of day", as Bankole Olayebi writes in his foreword.
While Olayebi allows Soyinka to present snippets of the people in his life, as well as his thoughts, through brief extracts from his works, this is a book that does not attempt to re-tell Soyinka’s life history through words. Instead we see Soyinka as a serious-looking schoolboy, solemn choirboy, university student in Ibadan and Leeds and then as father. We are introduced to his parents S.A. (or Essay) and Wild Christian, as well as his siblings and his children and grandchildren.
The first essay in tribute to Soyinka the man (as opposed to creative genius or political activist) is written by his son Olaokun, who unfolds the process through which he came to see and understand his father as playwright and not just the dad who bought his son a bicycle that looked marvellous but just didn’t keep up.
The range of photos, newspaper clippings, posters and film stills is of such range and variety
that one does not tire of seeing Soyinka in his various guises – smiling with Sani Abacha, or at a wedding in London, performing with guitar or surrounded by the cast of King Baabu 40 years later.
"By laying out his life in a series of moments we see Soyinka far beyond the writer always in such control of his tools"
This Nigerian project has resulted in an art book that does justice to the words that inspired it. While many of us have come to admire and respect Soyinka for his many plays, volumes of poetry, and his prose writing, this volume adds a different perspective to his work. However engaging his work is, it is not always easy to read, albeit endlessly rewarding, so by laying out his life in a series of moments – guarded, unguarded, posed, poised, proud, humble, relaxed, vociferous, undecided, joyful – we see Soyinka far beyond the writer always in such control of his tools. This is Soyinka as the world sees him, as Nigeria sees him, and it is Soyinka as he has taken on the world. It is easy to fall in awe of the silvery hirsuteness of the master wordsmith, but it is far more pleasing, and rewarding, to have savoured his work and now to get a chance to see it almost unfolding with each turning page, such that works cease to be individual books, isolated words, and even though the books are no more than individual titles, they are placed in context, made real, words unbooked, theatre made life.
This personal note is made more powerful through the other essays and quotes which transform this book from sterile tribute into an embrace. Apart from his son, other contributions come from A. Abiola Irele, scholar of African literature and a contemporary of Soyinka, former colleagues Martin Banham and Ulli Beier, and African literature scholars Okey Ndibe and Niyi Osundare. All of these contributions relate personal memories of when they first met Soyinka, of how he saved Christmas, of how he inspired students on the other side of the world. Soyinka also speaks for himself, almost introducing himself to us, telling us why not all writers have to write ‘engaged’ literature, of exhilarating moments, or the role of actors as architects. And on the final page the open-handed, palm-up answer to the rhetorical question "Where would I be without Literature?".
Beyond the personal there are shorter contributions, and quotes, which recognise Soyinka’s place in the world – writers such as Ben Okri, Gerald Moore, Femi Osofisan and Nadine Gordimer. To quote Osundare: "Soyinka is to Africa’s literature what Mandela is to its politics." If proof were needed, this book is it.
Richard Bartlett is editor of the African Review of Books
PS: Note to the editors of WS – José Saramago is not from Mexico.
