anonimi:


I have tried to keep up with your engaging contributions to this thread. I am fascinated by your mastery of the subject.
Kudos.
I just noticed your signature also:

Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.

Powerful message that seems to be missing for a lot of Nigerians, nay blacks.
Thanks.

Literature has always been my forte. I am flattered, to be honest. Thank you.

gare:


Reno never mention tribe in his comparison, I dont understand why the bashing of Reno, that was his own opinion, so why is Wole disturbed about Reno's Opinion, his reaction made no sense and even proved Reno right .

And why must you bring in tribal sentiment in the issue, you guys are the problems of this country, someone cannot make a fair comparison again with guys like you trying to link it to tribes

So which comparison is he making? How old was he when shoyinka won the award in 1986, is he more brilliant or intelligent than the people who gave shoyinka the award, u said some people ar the problem, the problem is people like u who will always be baised, look at a certain ethinic group rather than look at the award for the entire country

SLAP44:
In the end, Soyinka spoke so many words and ended up saying nothing in response to the issues raised.

Such an evasive character is not worthy of even the readers digest author of the week award.

You just admitted not understanding what he just said. in a nutshell, he said ..................... abeg, can someone help me out and explain to my paddy?

SLAP44:
In the end, Soyinka spoke so many words and ended up saying nothing in response to the issues raised.

Such an evasive character is not worthy of even the readers digest author of the week award.

just say u don't understand what he said, his words are to big for u

In the end, your comment does suggest you deserve hefty doses of your nairaland moniker but then I cannot fault you, I can only pity you for you and your ilk. Clearly you have eyes but cannot see, you have a brain, you read but still you cannot understand. So in the usual Nigerian fashion (or should I say bad belle fashion) you simply despise that which you cannot come to terms with. I get it, I really do.

SLAP44:
In the end, Soyinka spoke so many words and ended up saying nothing in response to the issues raised.

Such an evasive character is not worthy of even the readers digest author of the week award.

aribisala0:
Hating who?
Achebe is not a book neither is Tolstoy so correct your syntax.

It is not clear what "greatness" means but there are dozens of such lists of greatest books whether it is by The New York Times , The Guardian of London, Ikebe Super or any other compiler. Nairaland could decide to commission such a list. Perhaps we need to understand what is meant by "great" . No such compiler has the imprimatur of the Nobel Prize .

The Nobel Prize is not given for ONE BOOK . It is given for literature and for contributions that are comprehensive and extensive not for one book. This extends beyond books(novels) to poetry,plays and more recently oral composition. Clearly this eludes you as you are only interested in bragging rights and have no understanding of literature.

Bullshitt.
The Nobel rewards a particular work. Be it a patented scientific product or process or a book or an economic theory.
It is always one work at a time. The Nobel does not reward life's achievement.
That is a figment of your imagination.

Keep hating. Ignorant bigot.

Brother God bless you oh. We Nigerians love drama and stupid unnecessary comparisons to the point where it clearly makes zero sense.

In my opinion and in addition to what the person I am quoting said, Wole Soyinka's works deserved the Nobel Prize in Literature. I think why most people cannot identify with his works is because of how complex he writes.
Chinua Achebe is a legend in his own right and if I could, I would also award him the aforementioned prize. Through secondary school, I could identify better with Achebe's works than Soyinka's because atleast to me they were simpler to read and understand.

I may not be the best qualified person to give a detailed critique of both men's works but even if I were I wouldn't want to. Both men and their works are legend. Comparing them especially as it relates to the Nobel Prize, makes no sense. It will not diminish or add to their legacies. But Nigerians in our usual fashion will turn this into a ethnic bashing fiesta. I guess its another chance for us to reveal how shallow and ugly we are rather than focus on more important issues that affect us all.

StOla:
Why do people fail to learn that literature is not about Prose alone.

The 3 genres of literature are Prose(Novel), Drama(Play), and Poetry.

While Soyinka ticks the box in all, Achebe ticks only the Prose box.

While Soyinka is an acclaimed Playwright and Poet, Achebe is an acclaimed Novelist.

Soyinka won the Nobel for the dual reason of Drama and Poetry, and this much reason was stated in his award justification, as the reason for all other awardees are stated.




So why are people comparing an apple to an orange when the award for best fruit was given to an orange on the basis that for that years consideration, the sweetest orange was the decider?

SLAP44:
In the end, Soyinka spoke so many words and ended up saying nothing in response to the issues raised.

Such an evasive character is not worthy of even the readers digest author of the week award.

olodo
And what have you achieved in your entire life

honestly speaking , I grew up reading chinua Achebe Cyprian ekwensi and wole Soyinka' s books , loved every bit 'em but mostly Achebe' s book somehow I felt he was able to communicate not just words but emotions kudos to this three great men of the literature world,thank you for making the childhood of an introvert so much fun.

SarkinYarki:
over 116 people have won the Nobel prize for literature including Bob Dylan the country musician !!!! so Wole Soyinka should stop disturbing like he is the first and last person to win it ..Its not a that much of a big deal jare

Who has ever won something much less worthy in your entire state, tribe, lga, and family?

AudiA4:

So which comparison is he making? How old was he when shoyinka won the award in 1986, is he more brilliant or intelligent than the people who gave shoyinka the award, u said some people ar the problem, the problem is people like u who will always be baised, look at a certain ethinic group rather than look at the award for the entire country

It's shows how childish and tribal baised the mumu called Reno OMOKRI,or may be (Rhinoceros )be him name sef,see small mumu boy comparing two great literature icons, this guy no just get respect

That youc comments bold above, what has tribal biased got to do with Renos comment or comparison , if you are rooting for Wole do so without insulting others or making this a tribal issue , You are the one trying to play the ethnic card here, Reno made is comparison which he was entitled to my only concern with you was trying to bring in the Yoruba vs the Ibo, which was not Reno idea, its guys like you that will not allow this country to grow, moreover Reno is not Ibo so what is the issue with your brain.

Osagyefo98:
Sincerely speaking, soyinka didn't write anything.

All his 55 pages book is nothing but trash.

lol
So say an illiterate who doesn't even have a bsc....

genabc:


I've read their works, they are great orators and a big blessing to Africa literature. However, Achebe's work is meant for the commoners, an average reader who doesn't av in-dept knowledge of literary appreciation while Prof. Soyinka work is for the elite, you have to go to a great length to decipher it, and that's the beauty of literature. Mind u, Literature comprises of poetry, drama and prose.

How many of his work have you read?

Keffi's Birthday Treat (1954)
The Invention (1957)
The Swamp Dwellers (1958)
A Quality of Violence (1959)[71]
The Lion and the Jewel (1959)
The Trials of Brother Jero
A Dance of the Forests (1960)
My Father's Burden (1960)
The Strong Breed (1964)
Before the Blackout (1964)
Kongi's Harvest (1964)
The Road (1965)
Madmen and Specialists (1970)
The Bacchae of Euripides (1973)
Camwood on the Leaves (1973)
Jero's Metamorphosis (1973)
Death and the King's Horseman (1975)
Opera Wonyosi (1977)
Requiem for a Futurologist (1983)
Sixty-Six (short piece) (1984)[72]
A Play of Giants (1984)
Childe Internationale (1987)[73][74]
From Zia with Love (1992)
The Detainee (radio play)
A Scourge of Hyacinths (radio play)
The Beatification of Area Boy (1996)
Document of Identity (radio play, 1999)
King Baabu (2001)
Etiki Revu Wetin
Alapata Apata (2011)

Novels

The Interpreters (1964)
Season of Anomy (1972)

Short stories

A Tale of Two (1958)
Egbe's Sworn Enemy (1960)
Madame Etienne's Establishment (1960)

Memoirs

The Man Died: Prison Notes (1971)
Aké: The Years of Childhood (1981)
Ibadan: The Penkelemes Years: a memoir 1946-65 (1989)
Isara: A Voyage around Essay (1990)
You Must Set Forth at Dawn (2006)

Poetry collections

Telephone Conversation (1963) (appeared in Modern Poetry in Africa)
Idanre and other poems (1967)
A Big Airplane Crashed Into The Earth (original title Poems from Prison) (1969)
A Shuttle in the Crypt (1971)
Ogun Abibiman (1976)
Mandela's Earth and other poems (1988)
Early Poems (1997)
Samarkand and Other Markets I Have Known (2002)

Essays

Towards a True Theater (1962)
Culture in Transition (1963)
Neo-Tarzanism: The Poetics of Pseudo-Transition
A Voice That Would Not Be Silenced
Art, Dialogue, and Outrage: Essays on Literature and Culture (1988)
From Drama and the African World View (1976)
Myth, Literature, and the African World (1976)[75]
The Blackman and the Veil (1990)[76]
The Credo of Being and Nothingness (1991)
The Burden of Memory – The Muse of Forgiveness (1999)
A Climate of Fear (the BBC Reith Lectures 2004, audio and transcripts)
New Imperialism (2009)[77]
Of Africa (2012)[78][79]

Movies

Kongi's Harvest
Culture in Transition
Blues for a Prodigal

God bless you heart! I don't know how I missed your post. Listing his works this way is so refreshing! I read the emboldened some ten years ago. I still remember the poetry collection of 'Telephone Conversation'. That anthology is a masterpiece! Studied it in my second year as an undergrad and I recall how buzzed Ajose lecture Theatre was the day we read and performed it.

I just might copy out the listed works and go in search of the ones I haven't studied/read. Thank you.

genabc:


I've read their works, they are great orators and a big blessing to Africa literature. However, Achebe's work is meant for the commoners, an average reader who doesn't av in-dept knowledge of literary appreciation while Prof. Soyinka work is for the elite, you have to go to a great length to decipher it, and that's the beauty of literature. Mind u, Literature comprises of poetry, drama and prose.

How many of his work have you read?

Keffi's Birthday Treat (1954)
The Invention (1957)
The Swamp Dwellers (1958)
A Quality of Violence (1959)[71]
The Lion and the Jewel (1959)
The Trials of Brother Jero
A Dance of the Forests (1960)
My Father's Burden (1960)
The Strong Breed (1964)
Before the Blackout (1964)
Kongi's Harvest (1964)
The Road (1965)
Madmen and Specialists (1970)
The Bacchae of Euripides (1973)
Camwood on the Leaves (1973)
Jero's Metamorphosis (1973)
Death and the King's Horseman (1975)
Opera Wonyosi (1977)
Requiem for a Futurologist (1983)
Sixty-Six (short piece) (1984)[72]
A Play of Giants (1984)
Childe Internationale (1987)[73][74]
From Zia with Love (1992)
The Detainee (radio play)
A Scourge of Hyacinths (radio play)
The Beatification of Area Boy (1996)
Document of Identity (radio play, 1999)
King Baabu (2001)
Etiki Revu Wetin
Alapata Apata (2011)

Novels

The Interpreters (1964)
Season of Anomy (1972)

Short stories

A Tale of Two (1958)
Egbe's Sworn Enemy (1960)
Madame Etienne's Establishment (1960)

Memoirs

The Man Died: Prison Notes (1971)
Aké: The Years of Childhood (1981)
Ibadan: The Penkelemes Years: a memoir 1946-65 (1989)
Isara: A Voyage around Essay (1990)
You Must Set Forth at Dawn (2006)

Poetry collections

Telephone Conversation (1963) (appeared in Modern Poetry in Africa)
Idanre and other poems (1967)
A Big Airplane Crashed Into The Earth (original title Poems from Prison) (1969)
A Shuttle in the Crypt (1971)
Ogun Abibiman (1976)
Mandela's Earth and other poems (1988)
Early Poems (1997)
Samarkand and Other Markets I Have Known (2002)

Essays

Towards a True Theater (1962)
Culture in Transition (1963)
Neo-Tarzanism: The Poetics of Pseudo-Transition
A Voice That Would Not Be Silenced
Art, Dialogue, and Outrage: Essays on Literature and Culture (1988)
From Drama and the African World View (1976)
Myth, Literature, and the African World (1976)[75]
The Blackman and the Veil (1990)[76]
The Credo of Being and Nothingness (1991)
The Burden of Memory – The Muse of Forgiveness (1999)
A Climate of Fear (the BBC Reith Lectures 2004, audio and transcripts)
New Imperialism (2009)[77]
Of Africa (2012)[78][79]

Movies

Kongi's Harvest
Culture in Transition
Blues for a Prodigal

Though,both of them were very good,only Soyinka had a masterpiece.
Only the best in the world had masterpieces.Soyinka was too classically a wordsmith,one of the best in the world.
Da Vinci Code,who was the best seller in the world,did not win the Nobel Prize,why?
If the Nobel Prize is to be awarded million of times,Soyinka will still win it before Achebe is considered.
Prof Soyinka is an all rounder.....prose,essays,novels etc.
Achebe never had a masterpiece but Soyinka does.
Qualities of a Masterpiece:

Artistry. sense of beauty.

Suggestiveness. emotions and imagination.

Intellectual Value. realize fundamental truths about life.

Permanence. endures through the ages.

Universality. appeal to a great number of people.

Style. author's unique way of expressing his or her thoughts.

Spiritual Value. motivate and inspire.

This is from Harvard University:

SarkinYarki:
over 116 people have won the Nobel prize for literature including Bob Dylan the country musician !!!! so Wole Soyinka should stop disturbing like he is the first and last person to win it ..Its not a that much of a big deal jare

Bob's music is much more of folk even though he sings country too.

maestroferddi:
All these turanci you are writing here do not add up.

Don't tell me you are this naive or uncircumspect....

Achebe never had the Nobel for Literature conferred on him for one main reason: His acclaimed stance against the white establishment in their attempt to depict black Africa as an inferior race. He was renowned for challenging long-held views that African literature is not pristine and that African writers had little literary merit.

Achebe dared the supremacists. He hinted severally that he didn't need the prize to underline his standing as one of the best men of letters of all time.

In. terms of depth, technical and cultural significance, reach and universality, Soyinka knows there was no time he could have held a candle to Achebe.

Where are Soyinka's Things Fall Apart, No Longer At Ease and Arrows of God?

How many Nigerians have heard of Jero Plays, Kongi Harvest and The King's Horseman (hope I got that title correctly)?

Achebe is undisputably one of the greatest literary minds ever to come out of Africa.

You don't have your magnus opus translated to over five dozen languages for nothing....resa ipso loquitor...

in terms of popularity,Achebes books were more popular especially Things fall apart, which could be understood normal everyday parlance.

But Soyinka is worshiped literally in the academic circle ,because his works were so deep and the use of words so cunning, that it will take one with vast academic prowess to decipher the true meaning of his works, there by making him unpopular in the local arena.

take for instance, Opera Wonyosi, I will advice u read that play if u haven't, cos that was the play we used as our final year production of the department of theatre and performing arts of ABU Zaria. Actualizing his works on stage,is the biggest factor, it took us weeks,some casts it took almost two moat to internalize their role and interpret it on stage. I was one of the major characters, Captain Mack the knife,but in the end it was worth it.

my verdict both are good, both u could relate much easier with Achebe than Soyinka. even Ola Rotimis works can be easily understood and can easily be translated on stage or film as the case may be. But if u want to challenge ur literally abilities ,choose Soyinkas works

OSUigboKiller:

olodo
And what have you achieved in your entire life

mynd44 lalasticlala seun obinoscopy
another one

SLAP44:
In the end, Soyinka spoke so many words and ended up saying nothing in response to the issues raised.

Such an evasive character is not worthy of even the readers digest author of the week award.

...ITS ONLY FOR THE WISE AND SINCE I CHECKED THERE ARE VERY FEW IN THE LAND OF THE DEAD SUN AKA ALA POTOPOTO.

StOla:
Why do people fail to learn that literature is not about Prose alone.

The 3 genres of literature are Prose(Novel), Drama(Play), and Poetry.

While Soyinka ticks the box in all, Achebe ticks only the Prose box.

While Soyinka is an acclaimed Playwright and Poet, Achebe is an acclaimed Novelist.

Soyinka won the Nobel for the dual reason of Drama and Poetry, and this much reason was stated in his award justification, as the reason for all other awardees are stated.
So why are people comparing an apple to an orange when the award for best fruit was given to an orange on the basis that for that years consideration, the sweetest orange was the decider?

Thank you

SarkinYarki:
over 116 people have won the Nobel prize for literature including Bob Dylan the country musician !!!! so Wole Soyinka should stop disturbing like he is the first and last person to win it ..Its not a that much of a big deal jare

has any of your tribe won it?

Osagyefo98:
Sincerely speaking, soyinka didn't write anything.

All his 55 pages book is nothing but trash.

dumb ass. It is not about quantity but quality. Be sensible at times.

BuhariAdvocate:
This useless Rino trying to foment trouble again.its an embarrassment to compare prof soyinka with that half baked achebe .

Afonja will want to rant abt this issue, thank God Reno is not an IBO man but he has made his point.

Bridget95:
'things fall apart' have been ringing in the head of many worldwide including wole as a masterpiece of Chinue Achebe.Tell me one of wole's works that rings a bell?

This uninformed stool is always jumping from thread to thread with a baying ignorance of subjects beyond her comprehension, you think its Big Brother they are doing at the Nobel Foundation in Sweden, giving awards for popularity, George R.R martin and J.K Rowlings would have won a Nobel since they are clearly more famous, you should learn to listen and read more than talking out of your äss everytime. Talk less abeg.

Always yapping like a 5 year old upandan...I wish I had the time or the crayons to explain to you why Soyinka was overwhelmingly more deserving, it'd be a daunting task but i'm worried you still might not get it. Too dumb and too slow.

midolian:
Bob's music is more of folk, though he sings country too.

True

RemiTinubu:
mynd4,4 lalasticIala seun obinosc0py
another one

Lol

cc: jobless f00l, senseless troll and a m0ronic tribalistic hypocrite.

kunmiiii:


This uninformed stool is always jumping from thread to thread with a baying ignorance of subjects beyond her comprehension, you think its Big Brother they are doing at the Nobel Foundation in Sweden, giving awards for popularity, George R.R martin and J.K Rowlings would have won a Nobel since they are clearly more famous, you should learn to listen and read more than talking out of your äss everytime. Talk less abeg.

Always yapping like a 5 year old upandan...I wish I had the time or the crayons to explain to you why Soyinka was clearly more deserving, it'd be a daunting task but i'm worried you still might not get it. Too dumb and too slow.

you pointless write up is as empty as wole's work and also portrays you as the UNINFORMED one it also points to the one who is a nonentity. Go and read the points outlined by Reno why it was not given to Achebe.Every literature student can tell how illuminating the works of Achebe is in the literary world.

SLAP44:
In the end, Soyinka spoke so many words and ended up saying nothing in response to the issues raised.

Such an evasive character is not worthy of even the readers digest author of the week award.

To correct u, Soyinka didn't speak, he typed.
Then again, maybe you didn't understand Soyinka's words, but some of us did. That in simple term Achebe doesn't deserved to be drawn into this kinda vain debate.

SarkinYarki:


Any Igbo writer will win one soon , just watch sir

Why do ibos envy prof Wole Soyinka despite achebe did not b4 he died. I still don't know where this ibo tribe originated from. Kai if u are leading u go dey jealous, if u no lead u go dey jealous. If u are rich u go dey jealous the poor tribe and if u are poor u go dey jealous the rich tribe. Nah wao

What else can one say....................

SLAP44:
In the end, Soyinka spoke so many words and ended up saying nothing in response to the issues raised.

Such an evasive character is not worthy of even the readers digest author of the week award.

Igbo Spotted.

He said a simple word which is beyond YOUR INTELLECT, YOUR BRAIN cannot just comprehend it.

fergie001:

Baba check wetin you write biko....

leave them, nah envy go kill them.