This collection of the most significant and illuminating critical essays about the works of Wole Soyinka over the past three decades is evidence of the international esteem he has achieved. This Nobel Prize winner from Nigeria is arguably Africa’s greatest living writer. His novels and plays are appreciated throughout the world. His works have attracted the attention of such acclaimed authors and critics as Wilson Harris, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Kwame Anthony Appiah, as well as such leading academicians as Philip Brockbank, Joachim Fieback, Abiola Irele, Femi Osofisan, and Niyi Osundare.
Gathered here in this remarkable collection, the essays simultaneously showcase Soyinka’s postcolonial politics and his literary aestheticism. They reveal the irony that the downtrodden peoples whom Soyinka champions are those who cannot read his stirring books or see his compelling dramas. Biodun Jeyifo was Soyinka’s student, junior colleague, and even, Jeyifo says, his “adversary in the ferocio