Wole Soyinka - Part Two

Here is one writer who vehemently believed in a democratic future for his country. Wole Soyinka is from a country which witnessed nine military coups from 1966 to 1993 coupled with violent clashes between Christians and Muslims. A writer who used his words (the only weapon he had) to influence the public mind. He wrote even knowing very well that little can be done to change the condition of his country. He says, ‘Futility stared in the face, but inaction was far more intolerable’. 

He was always reminded about his mother’s aphorism ‘The trying is all’. In his memoir which is titled as “You Must Set Forth at Dawn,” Soyinka recounts tales from his life and his journey as a writer. 

The book is dedicated “To all my stoically resigned children. And to my wife, Adefolake, who, during the season of a deadly dictatorship, demoted me from the designation of Visiting Professor to that of Visiting Spouse ..." The memoir presents WS as a political activist and how he was deeply involved in the politics of Nigeria. WS also was ‘creatively restless’ and he had the pains of a retired author who is also a Nobel Prize winner. After his return from the US, he had spent lots of time at his home in Abeokuta which is an only one-hour drive from Lagos. WS talks about his prison memoir titled as ‘The Man Died’ was not so popular with the regime and it unofficially banned from circulation. 

In the chapter titled as ‘For those who Went Before’ - WS talks about the death of his friend Femi Johnson. He died in Wiesbaden in Germany. His body was brought to Nigeria and WS was accompanying the coffin. WS didn’t want to leave Femi’s body in Germany ‘in that foreign land like a stray without ties of family and friends. He describes the burial - ‘I came back down to earth only when he was himself within the earth of his choice, earth that he had made his own, Ibadan’. WS records his thoughts about life in exile - he was a ‘restless’ exile from the year 1994.