Items

• Winning struggle to reestablish African culture alongside the economic revolution

  "Although economic considerations now outweigh most others in the minds of most African people and their leaders in their quest for national images, there is in Nigeria, as in many other African countries, a growing cultural awareness in the face of the political turmoil that plagues most of the continent....Haunted by the knowledge that these ancient kingdoms [of Africa] had well-developed cultural and political organizations of their own, today's African countries are at the crossroads...The dilemma of most African countries is to find that way forward which involves a marriage between economics, culture and politics..."
• Playwright in Search of a Role

  Wole Soyinka has had a knack of getting into political deep water. That is why the writer, who in 1986 became the first African to win the Nobel prize for literature, has spent long periods of his life in exile. Now, at 68, he is in the gradual process of moving back to his home country, fired up with the idea of becoming more active in Nigerian politics...
• Outspoken Man of Letters

  ...Poet, dramatist, novelist, and journalist [Soyinka] personifies Nigeria's fascination with politics and the population's irrepressible urge to speak out on any and every issue... Mr. Soyinka's frankness - some would say arrogance - has landed him in trouble in the past and he was detained by the federal government for two years in 1967 when he tried his hand at resolving civil war and visited secessionist Biafra... Nigeria's Nobel prize winner, one of his compatriots told me, is part of a group of people who act as the conscience of the nation...
• How is it that things haven't fallen apart

  Wole Soyinka, a Nigerian academic and Nobel Prize-winning author, spoke of belonging to a "wasted generation". Every country has its "lost generation". Some were stolen away by war, some by economic downturns, some by ruthless dictatorship. Nigeria's is perhaps the only one stolen away by too much power and money and leisure and privilege... Hope has to come from the ordinary people. Today, the most outstanding leaders are emerging not from the ranks of the ruling class, but from among ordinary people who have despaired of the government and have decided to create their own path... And yet the irony is that democracy will ultimately work in favour of the ordinary Nigerian and against the politicians who pretend to be true democrats. The genius of democracy is that it is a self-perfecting system. The laws the politicians are now enacting as if in jest, under the assumption that they apply only to the common man and not to them, these same laws are what would work against them the day one good leader decides to enforce them. Then a new era for Nigeria would begin."
• Ghana Sackings

  Full Text: "Ghana Sackings. Accra (AFP) - In a Ghana Cabinet reshuffle, two ministers were dismissed, Mr Johnny Hansen (Labour and Social Welfare) and Mr [sic] Ama Ata Aidoo (Education). They are replaced, respectively, by Mr Ato Austin (formerly Information) and Mr U. C. Dadson."
• Behind the lines

  This article covers the two-day "crammed and curious" conference called The Politics of Exile, organized by the Third World Foundation and South magazine at the Institute for Contemporary Arts. "The real politicians had stayed away, offering a wide variety of excuses: they didn't feel like entering this kind of forum, it was too potentially compromising, they'd have to have the authority of a central committee... Instead, it was the writers and intellectuals who jostled for space in the programme to talk about the Latin American, African, Middle-Eastern, and South Asian experiences. So the politics were filtered through very self-conscious lenses." Of African poets, Sage writes, "As someone else pointed out, exiles must always be distiguished from refugees, they don't have the collective innocence of victims... Educated and articulate exiles, said the banished South African poet Dennis Brutus (famed as the inspirer of the sporting boycott), form a new wandering tribe -- the Bintu. They've been to conferences on the nature of exile just about everywhere, even Oklahoma."
• African Adventurer: The life of a Nigerian maverick makes for a challenging read

  Politically engage young writers are supposed to mellow when they grow old. With experience and recognition, you somehow expect them to become more settled in their chosen craft, less fired-up, more removed from the fray. But not Wole Soyinka. Twenty years after winning the Nobel Prize for literature, the first African to do so, he has pitched himself back into the seething politics of Nigeria, "the place I never should have left". [David White reviews Wole Soyinka's autobiographical work.]
• A passionate voice crying out against corruption

  "Rex Collings reflects on the political influence wielded in the writings of Wole Soyinka." This critical article analyzes Soyinka's growth as a writer and the ways in which his politics have changed over time, as mirrored in his work.
• A life in pictures: Wole Soyinka

  The Nigerian Nobel laureate, author, politial activist, and unflinching campaigner against the "oppressive boot" [A collection of photos and captions featuring Wole Soyinka.]
• Left with nowhere to go: the radicals who lost their chic

  "Lesley White wondered where the Trendy Left will go (Style, last week).
• Soldier-Poets and Others

  "Though politics were in the poetry of the original "Lyrical Ballads," the poetry was not in the politics."
• The slow march of left and right

  "Hope left South Africa for Britain when he was 31, since then he has established a reputation as a poet, children's author and novelist."
• Congo Leader Forms Cabinet

  "M. Patrice Lumumba, African nationalist leader in the Belgian Congo said in Leopoldville last night that he had forrmed a colaition cabinet."
• Katanga Leader Calls for 'Congo United States'

  "To this pathetic Smokescreen of verbiage a military spokesman added the naive hope that the Belgian troops now in Katanga would be allowed to paint their helmets blue and remain as part of the United Nations forces."
• Col. Mobutu Breaks with U. N

  "Leopoldville Saturday, Colonrl Mobutu, Congo Army Commander announced today that he had broken of relationship with the United Nations in Leopoldville, and would goto New York on Tuesday."
• Moscow Blows Hot and Cold on Co-existence

  "The ringing anti-American tone of the new communist manifesto has posed a basic dilemma for Soviet diplomatic policy."
• Russian Envoys Are Back in Congo

  "The Charges the Affairs of Russia, Poland, and Czech Republic presented their credentials to the Congolsese foreign ministry."
• 17 Die in Clash over Gizenga

  "Mr. Genzenga self-appointed political heir of the late Patrice Lumumba has refused to leave his "stronghold" of Stanleyville in the Orientale province, and play his part in the Central Government."
• Gizenga Must now Face the Music

  "Mr. Gizenga self styled-heir of the former Congo Premier Mr. Patrice Lumumba, arrived ar Leopoldville today, after four months' absence to face charges from the parliament of beginning his own movement of secession against the authority of the Central Government."
• The Student 'Run' to Moscow

  "Foriegn students at Moscow's Frienship University, later renamed in honour of Congo nationalist leader, Patrice Lumumba."
• Even Gagarin Can't Save Youth Festival

  "Some African delegates from the Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow are dissapointed because they have only been given only five roubles spending money --with the rouble a non convertible curency."
• Lumumba Conundrum

  "What a conunudrum Lumamaba is!"
• War is over in Katanga—but a new crisis starts

  "The Central Government with the backing of Dr. Nkrumah is bringing strong pressure to bear on the UN to place him on trial for waging war on the world body, as well as for his alleged complicity in the murder of Patrice Lumumba."
• 'Saviour' Tshombe may help himself to power

  "Followers of the late Patrice Lumumba have started another rising in Stanleyville to the north."
• The Sick Mind of China

  "Halfway through the play the murder of Patrice Lumumba was announced."