This morning i stumbled through Soyinka's profile and i was... Wow!...

It then behoves us to ask...

is it that Soyinka was such a genius?

or our self acclaimed professors are not world class?

or our educational system is so porous such that all we churn out are half-baked graduates?

or our youths(myself inclusive) does not have enough drive to challenge and make impact in the global world?

Seriusly, this calls for deep thought.

soyinka's profile

Notable
awards
Nobel Prize in Literature
1986
Academy of Achievement
Golden Plate Award

Akinwande Oluwole "Wole" Babatunde Soyinka
( Yoruba : Oluwo̩lé S̩óyinká, pronounced
"Shoyinka"; born 13 July 1934) is a Nigerian
playwright and poet. He was awarded the 1986
Nobel Prize in Literature, [2] the first African
to be honored.

Soyinka was born into a Yoruba family in
Abeokuta . After study in Nigeria and the UK, he
worked with the Royal Court Theatre in London.
He went on to write plays that were produced
in both countries, in theatres and on radio.

He
took an active role in Nigeria's political history
and its struggle for independence from Great
Britain. In 1965, he seized the Western Nigeria
Broadcasting Service studio and broadcast a
demand for the cancellation of the Western
Nigeria Regional Elections. In 1967 during the
Nigerian Civil War , he was arrested by the
federal government of General Yakubu Gowon
and put in solitary confinement for two years.
[3]
Soyinka has been a strong critic of successive
Nigerian governments, especially the country's
many military dictators, as well as other
political tyrannies, including the Mugabe regime
in Zimbabwe. Much of his writing has been
concerned with "the oppressive boot and the
irrelevance of the colour of the foot that
wears it". [4] During the regime of General Sani
Abacha (1993–98), Soyinka escaped from Nigeria
via the "NADECO Route" on a motorcycle.

Living
abroad, mainly in the United States , he was a
professor first at Cornell University and then
at Emory University in Atlanta, where in 1996
he was appointed Robert W. Woodruff Professor
of the Arts. Abacha proclaimed a death
sentence against him "in absentia".
With civilian
rule restored to Nigeria in 1999, Soyinka
returned to his nation. He has also taught at
the universities of Oxford , Harvard and Yale .
[5][6]
From 1975 to 1999, he was a Professor of
Comparative Literature at the Obafemi
Awolowo University , then called the University
of Ife. With civilian rule restored to Nigeria in
1999, he was made professor emeritus. [3]
Soyinka has been a Professor of Creative
Writing at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas .
In the fall of 2007 he was appointed Professor
in Residence at Loyola Marymount University in
Los Angeles, California , US. [3]

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wole_Soyinka