The owners of the popular musical, ‘Fela! on Broadway’, were shocked on Tuesday night when Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka, suddenly slipped away, ignoring the elaborate birthday reception organised for him in New York.

Mr. Soyinka was at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre venue in midtown New York to see, for the first time, the highly entertaining musical woven around the life and music of his cousin, the late Afrobeat musician and activist, Fela Anikulapo Kuti.

Apparently unaware of the Nobel Laureate’s dislike for any outward celebration of his birthday, the show owners had ordered a rectangular gorgeous birthday cake, which they planned to present to the professor on stage at the end of the performance.

Food, drinks, and tables were also reserved at the next-door Serafina Hotel, where the 76-year-old writer was to be hosted to a reception.

But somehow, Mr. Soyinka got wind of the plan, and he sneaked out of the “shrine”, just as the cast was taking their bows.

Unaware that the Nobel Laureate had left the venue, the talented Sahr Ngaujah, who acted Fela, grabbed the microphone and announced to the audience,

“This is a very special night for us because we are visited today by Fela’s cousin, the great Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka. Today also happens to be his birthday.”

Ngaujah had hardly finished when two female members of the cast appeared onstage with a rectangular white-red-blue birthday cake.

The audience clapped and buzzed with expectation, hoping that the professor would move onstage to make a brief remark and cut the cake.

But Mr. Soyinka was long gone and the audience, which had a good number of Nigerians, and scores of journalists, were disappointed. A birthday song was, nonetheless, sung for him.

Honour for organisers

Okey Ndibe, a professor of Literature at Trinity College, who saw Mr. Soyinka hurrying out of the theatre and waving down a taxi, said the Nobel Laureate told him that he did not want the performance to be about him, but about Fela.

“He said he did not want to grant interviews or be celebrated,” Mr. Ndibe explained to Stephen Hendel, lead producer of the play.

“He said it is a great play, but that he would come back unannounced to watch the play again and meet the cast,” Mr. Ndibe said.

Publisher of SaharaReporters.com, a popular online news website, Omoyele Sowore, who drove Soyinka from his hotel to the play, also explained that the professor had an early flight for South Africa on Wednesday and could therefore not wait for his birthday song.

Mr. Hendel said although the professor did not wait for the reception, his presence at the “shrine” to watch the play was an enough honour for him and his team.

“We have so much respect for Professor Wole Soyinka,” he said. “For us to have one of the greatest men of the world come to see the show is a great honour for us. It is a thrill for everyone,” he said.

http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/Home/5599978-146/soyinka_evades_birthday_reception_at_fela.csp

Prof. is really so unpredictable!

A true prof.

He is a true born.Everyday honest life calls for celebration,it doesn't have be birthday,wedding or whatever.