The Burden of Memory - The Muse of Forgiveness - Softcover

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

WOLE SOYINKA was born on 13 July, 1934 in Abeokuta, Western Nigeria. His father was headmaster of an Anglican primary school, and his mother, whom he nicknamed 'Wild Christian', was a shop owner and trader. He studied at the University of Ibadan from 1952-1954 and then in Leeds University where he read English Literature. In 1960, he returned to Nigeria to research West African drama. Back home, he wrote and directed dramatic sketches critical of the government. Four years later, Soyinka ran foul of the government. After being accused of holding up a radio station to prevent the broadcasting of false election results, he was arrested. In 1967, at the beginning of the Nigerian Civil War, he was accused of helping rebels in the breakaway republic of Biafra buy jet fighters. Soyinka was arrested but never formally charged and spent most of the next twenty-seven months in solitary confinement. Author of over thirty titles in all genres, Soyinka has been a consistently courageous voice for human rights worldwide, and a force in national politics. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986, the first African to be so honoured. Between 1993 and 1998 Wole Soyinka was again forced into exile as a result of his opposition to a military dictatorship and its brutalities. Soyinka lectures extensively in universities in Europe and the USA, and divides his time between Nigeria and California in the US.