I've spent the last two hours reading the very very very voluminous latest work of Africa's first Nobel Prize winner Wole Soyinka. A new memoir called 'You must set forth at dawn'. This book is one of the biggest books I have ever seen in my life. He must have spent months writing it...on a second thought, knowing his intellectual capabilities, it probably would have taken him a few weeks. This book is so big that the thought of reading from start to finish was scary for me lol. I saw it with a friend and borrowed it. I was only able to read some pages in some chapters.
For those who are Soyinka loyalists like myself, I'd like to share some of the things He talked about in his memoir.
The book covers his incarceration, his death sentence in absentia meted out by the late tyrant, Sani Abacha in 1997. He also talked about his many exiles from Nigeria and his political involvements.
In the opening chapter, Soyinka talked about a particular close friend he called Femi Johnson whose corpse he was flying back to Nigeria for burial, having exhumed him from a graveyard in Wiesbade. Femi was obviously someone very close to his heart as he portrayed their friendship in a passionate manner.
Other chapters of this memoir touch on history in other parts of Africa. For instance, not too many people know that Soyinka brokered a cease-fire between the Inkatha Freedom Party Chieftain, Mangosuthu Buthelezi and the African National congress of of Nelson Mandela in 1991, at a time when factional violence threatened to disrupt South Africa's future.
It was also in this memoir that I discovered that Fela Anikulapo-Kuti is Soyinka's cousin, describing the final hour before Fela's death. Soyinka obviously held Fela in high esteem.
Another chapter talked about when he imported a frozen wildcat to Italy for a barbecue to cheer up cast members of one his plays. The way he described that part was hilarious.
In one chapter he talked about how after receiving his Nobel Prize in 1986, he dried up creatively for a while and how he subsequently got out of it.
The book covers the history of Nigeria, some parts of Africa, pictures of maps outlining the division of Nigeria's borders and pictures of himself as he metamorphosed from a young man with a dream to the intellectual legend that he is now.
Soyinka ended the memoir with his return to Nigeria by saying 'I have returned to the place I never should have left'. You guys need to at least go through this book. You will understand the politics and history of Nigeria better.
Maybe one day I'll read the whole book from start to finish, take it chapter by chapter. I had to force myself to drop it some minutes ago. That's how powerful the book is.
This is not Soyinka's first memoir, he released Ake many years ago, but I've not been privileged to read that piece.
Soyinka's career as a writer and poet has been full. His writing, though most fiction, has depth and quality. He has written novels, plays, poetry, critical essays, memoir of his early life and another book dedicated to his father.
My favourite Soyinka works
Abiku
Telephone Conversation
The Trials Of Brother Jero
The Lion and the Jewel
Kongi's Harvest
