SPOTLIGHT: Professor Wole Soyinka

Accused of collaborating with the Biafrans, he went into hiding.

Captured by Nigerian federal troops, he became imprisoned.

From his prison cell, he wrote a letter asserting his innocence and protesting his unlawful detention.

When the letter appeared in the foreign press, he was placed in solitary confinement for 22 months.

Despite being denied access to pen and paper, Soyinka managed to improvise writing materials and continued to smuggle his writings to the outside world.

In 1981, he published the first of several volumes of autobiography, Aké: The Years of Childhood. 

In 1986, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, the first African author to be so honored.

Since 1994, Wole Soyinka has resided primarily in the United States and has taught at a number of American universities.

Wole Soyinka is an author we admire because he is a man who understands the power of the pen.

YOUR PEN IS POWER; USE IT WISELY.