I was shocked to win the Nobel: Wole Soyinka

Shivangi Singh & Nabila Habib

Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka, the first African to have received the honour, on Friday told the Jaipur Literature Festival that he was shocked to win the coveted prize. Although speculations were rife about him winning the prize but the announcement came as a shock. The normally composed writer got animated at the mention of the topic and decided to ‘entertain’ the audience with the story of his Nobel Prize. “I was on my way to Nigeria, and was stopping at Paris when the first burst of rumour happened. I alighted in Nigeria amidst the news. One of my cousins, asked me about it. I said, ‘I want to go to sleep’. This wretched cousin, I will call him a traitor, let in a Swedish journalist. The journalist said, ‘My newspaper has asked me to be with you when the announcement takes place.’ And when the announcements were made I couldn’t absorb it,” he said. In an exclusive statement to Spicezee.com, the writer talked about the parallels between Indian Writing in English and African literature. He talked about a drama, Touch of Pride, which was very similar theatrically to Nigerian theatrical techniques in terms of background musical score. He also added that in case of prose, the depiction of life is very similar. He drew parallels between Indian deities and African Gods, stating that there is humanization of deities in Africa and they are a mixture of destructiveness and creation. Gods in the two nations are much closer to humanity than many other cultures and religion, he added. Further talking about India, the author said that there are a lot of similarities between the countries socially and culturally. ‘Indians are closer to Earth. Advance in technology and modernity has not taken the Indians away from earth,’ he said. The writer, who calls himself ‘originally a story-teller,’ disclosed his journey. He said, “As a child I was a voracious reader, I was fascinated with the written word.” Soon the fondness for reading developed into a craze for writing and according to the author he now has, “literature for breakfast, lunch and supper.” Talking about literary voices in Nigeria, the author said, “Literature in Nigeria is political. I would like to say that some writing suffered due to overwhelming sense of responsibility to write politically. Especially, our women writers are amateurs in terms of quality and sensitive observation of Human Rights.” Clearing a misunderstanding about a previous statement of his that he was so disgusted with Nigerian political environment that he had to leave it, he said, “I was not so much as disgusted as forced to leave Nigeria. The hostilities were so rampant that I had to leave till I was ready. Afterwards, the Nobel Prize both protected me and made me vulnerable” “In those times Nigerian writers suffered due to an overwhelming sense of responsibility to write political literature. Today, especially the young and women Nigerian writers are matchless in quality and their observations are sensitive. They have a greater consciousness of literature in their own right. Political writing continues but there is more attention to art for art’s sake.” Earlier, during the reading session of ‘The Road’, the writer revealed his will to live when imprisoned by eneral Sani Abacha. “Abacha was remarkable, a sadist, who was surrounded by sadists. When I was sent to confinement, I was deprived of writing material. Then I went back to my school days and used to scribble mathematical formulae on the ground. It nearly drove me crazy as mathematics has such an engaging aesthetics. Later, I managed to muggle some books. I created a sort of interior life for myself but remembered not to go too far with that.” Drawing cheer from the crowd, Soyinka also observed that the only solution to improve life in Nigeria is by clearing the road between Nigeria and India. Not convinced by the idea of racial profiling- he comes from the same country as that of failed US plane bomber Abdulmutallab- Soyinka believes isolating people on basis of regions is not an intelligent idea. "This Nigerian was not really a Nigerian in the sense that he was not indoctrinated in Nigeria. He was born and grew up there but he was studying in the UK, where he got radicalised, he said, adding "if you want to profile, profile all those who carry a British passport," he said. Soyinka won the Literature Nobel in 1986. His major works include his memoirs in a Nigerian prison where he was incarcerated for 22 months for his political activities. His works include plays like "Death and the King`s Horseman", and a memoir all "The Man Died: Prison Notes".