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Wole Soyinka, 71, was the first African to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, in 1986. The author of some 20 plays, seven novels and several collections of poetry, he has also been an outspoken critic of Nigerian despots since the 1960s and mediated between indigenous people and oil companies in the Niger Delta. His latest work, a memoir, is titled You Must Set Forth at Dawn. Last week, he met Time's Andrew Purvis and Regine Wosnitza in Berlin.
Why did you decide to write a new memoir and what have you learned from it? That is a good question. Certainly I did not want to write this memoir in the way it turned out. But that is the problem with writers. I learned never to write your biography beyond the age of innocence and that is about 11.
Nigeria returned to democracy seven years ago. How is it doing? I would say it has done very well because civil society has become strengthened during this process. Civil society was really in disarray under the military regime ... I lauded the creation of [two] anticorruption bodies which have made tremendous strides. There is progress in public finances. Accountability has improved.
Yet you're very critical of the current Nigerian President, Olusegun Obasanjo. Why? In his second term, he proved not to have lost his militaristic, antipeople attitudes, so we had to take him on.
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Violence is increasing in the oil-rich Niger Delta. How would you fix the problem? The situation in the Niger Delta is not Darfur, the Congo. It certainly is not Iraq. I am convinced that had there been sincerity on the part of the government this whole situation would have been resolved. But it is not too late. I think the chances are good for a resolution even within a year.
You've been a government critic most of your life. Why not run for office? [Laughs.] Politics, I believe, is a full-time occupation. [Former Czech President] Vaclav Havel had to make that decision, [which] took him in a particular direction. My decision has taken me in the opposite direction. Let them do all the dirty work!
Nigeria is an incredibly rich country, sitting on a lot of oil, and yet it has lived through a succession of dictators. All kinds of hyenas want to get their teeth into that rotten meat. There is no getting away from that. It's a licorice that these power children really cannot stop themselves licking. I am convinced that Nigeria would have been a more highly developed country without the oil. I wished we'd never smelled the fumes of petroleum.
You spoke today to teenagers in Berlin about the wisdom of your grandfather, who told you never to run from a fight. Is there a reason why you chose to speak on this topic in Europe today? It is a parable. Definitely I had in mind what is happening in Sudan: the failure to curb the aggression and the racist attitudes of the Sudanese government and the actions of the African Union on one level and the United Nations on another.
So this has shown the weaknesses of the A.U.? I remember one statement to the United Nations: "It's a family affair, and we will take care of it within the African family." What is the family about? I'm afraid I have very little patience for this pious, traditional way of doing things. In traditional societies you do not accept this level of aggression.
Islamic fundamentalism is spreading in Africa. Is that a problem that we can do anything about? It's a universal problem. The answer is partly education and partly the enforcement of laws of secular societies that do not privilege any one religion against another. We lost an opportunity in Nigeria when within a secular constitution encroachments were made, blatantly, openly, by [advocates of Islamic law]. Obasanjo fell down flat on this. He was very ill-advised.
The World Cup is playing right now here in Berlin. Are you going to a match? Most certainly not. I like my peace and quiet whenever I can grab it.
- ANDREW PURVIS and REVINE WOSNITZA
- The prolific author and playwright talks about his new memoir and the political situation in Nigeria