Wole Soyinka Quotes

Nigerian writer (born 1934)

Akinwande Oluwole Soyinka (born 13 July 1934) is a Nigerian playwright, poet, novelist, essayist and pro-democracy activist. In 1986 he became the first African winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.

From: Wikiquote (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Native Name: Akínwándé Olúwọlé Babátúndé Ṣóyíinká

Alternative Names: Akinwande Oluwole Soyinka • Akinwande Oluwole "Wole" Soyinka

From Wikidata (CC0)

Aroni has taken control. That is when the guilty become afraid.

These rites of the dead. I do not know why you take them on,"

This whole family business sickens me. Let everybody lead their own lives,"

The world is big, but the dead are bigger

When you see a man hurrying, he has got a load on his back. Do you think I live emptily that I will take another's cause for pay or mercy?

Will you take my case?

I see we’ve got another of the good old days. Obaneji [on the contrary].

The accumulated heritage—that is what we are celebrating. Mali. Chaka. Songhai. Glory. Empires.

Lakunle, last seen, having freed himself of Sadiku, clearing a space for the young girl.

Moreover, I will admit, / It solves the problem of her bride-price too. / A man must live or fall by his true / Principles. That, I had sworn, / Never to pay.

I do not hate progress, only its nature / Which makes all roofs and faces look the same.

To husband his wives surely ought to be / A man's first duties—at all times.

No! I do not envy him! / Just one woman for me!

Sadiku, I am young and brimming; he is spent. / I am the twinkle of a jewel / But he is the hind-quarters of a lion!

My Ruth, my Rachel, Esther, Bathsheba / Thou sum of fabled perfections / From Genesis to Revelations