₦airaland Forum

InvertedHammer: Have you ever listened to Wole Soyinka's interviews.
I was mesmerized by how Sowore was able to answer questions directly in the last encounter that had Okupe, Soyinka and Sowore in attendance

Soyinka is just a less comical and less dramatic version of Patrick Obahiagbon.
Problem with Soyinka is that he is too rigid and tries too hard to impress with crammed up vocabularies which distort the message in the context he uses them.

Which is why his works are not as widely read. But peoole here feel that the more difficult your prose is the better the book. Some of the best books are the most simple in nature.

JK Rowing's will be classics for years to come and she didn't have to hit you over the head with a dictionary to do it. She told a story simple.

Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, and etc are still remembered for their stories despite being dead, because the stories are worth rereading and passing on to the next generation.

Ola Johnson: Wole Soyinka left Chinua Achebe as far back as 1986. They are not mates. Even after winning the Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka still writes. There is hardly any two years he does publish a book apart from numerous essays. His book, Harmattan On An African Spring, was launched recently.

Who are you trying to convince? If all you are saying makes you happy, good for you.

Its like you have this need to prove to me what you are saying is true and I should take your word.

Ola Johnson: Wole Soyinka is far ahead Chinua Achebe. While Chinua Achebe is known only in writing fictions, Wole Soyinka is, in addition to being known as a poet and a dramatist, also known for activism, essay writing, the MC at independence day ceremony on 01/10/1960, the founder FRSC, the winner of drama entries for independence in 1960 etc. It is only the educated class that read literature that know Chinua Achebe. But in addition to being known as a writer, Wole Soyinka is also known even by illiterates as an activist, a critic, etc. My uncle in the village without education knows Wole Soyinka.

Whatever makes you happy dear

Some folks really are uneducated. People think that the more difficult a book is to read the better it is lmao.

Really who are the functioning illiterates and what backwards school allowed them to leave their 4 walls with a degree in hand

Afam4eva: I'm surprising that you said this. Whatever happened to your Africanism.

It was and always was complete bs

Ola Johnson: You're indeed educated for saying a 1971 movie was produced with a nokia phone.

Who cares lol. Is anyone checking for that film or know it exists?

Ironically the film Soyinka is well known for is based on Things Fall Apart.

Its come full circle for the guy

babyosisi: An interesting sentence there is and I quote



We should be ashamed that the book is not in any Nigerian language including Igbo
That is a big shame

No need to be in any Nigerian language. This thread shows that Nigerians don't treasure or have an appreciation of what they have so why waste good ink and paper

BluIvy: Hahaha! Funny indeed! People are getting exposed. Hahaha

You too lol you asked what languages Things Fall Apart was in and was too lazy to use simple google

Ola Johnson: Certain things need to be repeated to carry low thinking pupils like you in the class along. I don't know why it is difficult, more than 24 hours after this interview was posted, for you to understand.

You said all that to say nothing at all

Ola Johnson: I'm sure Chimanda Adichie won't say the Booker Int'l Prize is political like she did say on the Nobel Laureate. I pity this girl who lies like Chinua Achebe, only that does this by saying 'my uncle said.'

Are you deranged? You've said this before have you already forgotten?

Ok next time she will say your uncle said

babyosisi: It Is hard to find a high school or college student in the USA who hasn't read or will not read Things fall apart as a required text
I strongly believe the estimated figure of over 10 million copies is highly under calculated

I read it in AP English in HS and again in College.

Its the go to book in the US.

Ola Johnson: Do think it was produced by your brothers in Alaba market? It is 15 years older than Things Fall Apart.

Still a backyard production dear.

Made with a nokia phone I bet lmao

Ola Johnson: Sorry! Wole Soyinka's Kongi Harvest was adapted for the movies in 1971.

We are talking about real movies not backyard productions.

shymexx: The worst piece of literature and the most over-hyped book of all times - "50 shades of grey" - is also about to be transformed into a big budget movie with A-list actors.

And your point? If the ip is interesting they will make a movie from it.

Only to be the first Nigerian writer to have their book turned into a big budget film

Who is losing

Maybe a trigger finger on the ban button is what this place needs

Jesus see all these epics being typed up all for the right to be jacka.s.ses

emeseilari: Okay lets say a Chinese or an Indian author's literary work sold 20 million copies in Asia, does that make them fathers of literature. This is part what Prof meant when he warned against trivialising literature.

If that is the case then why are you guys trying to trivialize the nobel prize for literature then.

all4naija: While your dead sweats it out in hell without any mouth to defend himself. Seriously, Achebe is not a good writer to me. He writes with a mind of tyrant. If Chinua Achebe is the father of African literature it means there is something very wrong with Africans. That means the father has not laid down a good legacy to point as ground shaking for the future generation.

How does one write like a tyrant. English has suffered a death by a thousand cuts with some of you.

Afam4eva: That was my concern too. It may not have been borne out of jealousy but i think he shouldn't have been the one to say it because a lot of people will misconstrue his statement.

Exactly, it comes off very negative even if he didn't mean it that way. Maybe a video interview would have been best because print tends to lend itself to the reader's interpretation.


I didn't particularly like this interview because it seemed Soyinka was doing his best to not be straightforward at times. Maybe he was trying to choose his words carefully but too much beating around the bush for my liking.

sweetcheecks: This should be in the jokes section. How many people take photos with Mandela? This does not under play their connection but proves shiitt!

And by the way he is no father of African liberation but a father to a Nation, period!

Sure it doesn't. Not only does Mandela take photos with the non-entity Achebe he also releases statements on that same nobody...

ROSSIKE: Kindly explain. I've no clue what you're talking about.

Is Achebe's works any less African because he wrote in English?

Forget the "father blah blah" title can you honestly say that Achebe is not an important figure in African literature? Of course there were writers before Achebe and there will be many more after, but for whatever reason people gravitated to Achebe's novel. It helped that it was written in English but it was not that alone that made it the classic it is today.

ROSSIKE: I really wish ethnic spear chucker moro.ns like you will just leave this thread. I bet you're not even a literary minded fellow. (Tell us how many literature works you've read) Your only interest here is ethnic. You're pathetic actually.

My friend are you any better? You have a narrow and short sighted view of what constitutes as being "African".

sweetcheecks: Do you know how many people get statements issued from Mandela's desk? Its not him personally that responded according to mentioned article. Their PR does all the statements on his behalf. Are you really this dummmb or you are pretending to.

Ok dear so Achebe was in those photos with a fake Mandela? Please stop displaying your ignorance.

Even after the fall of apartheid you folks seem worse off than before.