WOLE SOYINKA: Politics, Poetics and Postcolonialism

Chronology

 BornJuly, at Abeokuta, western Nigeria, the second
child of Samuel Ayodele and Grace Eniola Soyinka.
– Attends Abeokuta Grammar School.
– Attends Government College, elite high school where he
begins writing and wins prizes for his poems.
– On graduating from high school works in Lagos as an
inventory clerk at a government pharmaceutical store.
Has stories read on national radio.
– Attends University College, Ibadan.
– Five-year sojourn in the UK. Attends the University of
Leeds, obtaining the BA English Honours degree in.
Begins writing two plays,The Swamp DwellersandThe
Lion and the Jewel. Works for some time as playreader at
The Royal Court Theatre in London. Indirects the
Nigeria Drama Group inThe Swamp Dwellersand has an
evening of his work comprising poems, songs and a play,
The Inventionperformed at The Royal Court.
 March, independence of Ghana, inaugurating the post-
colonial era in black Africa.
 Returns to Nigeria, on eve of the country’s indepen-
dence from Britain. Given a two-year Rockefeller re-
search grant to study drama in West Africa.
 October, independence. Soyinka completesCamwood
on the Leaves, a radio play, andThe Trials of Brother Jero,
a stage play. Forms a theatre group, TheMasks,
and producesA Dance of the Forestswhich raises questions
about the country’s future for Nigeria’s independence
celebrations.
 Appointed a lecturer in English at the University of
Ife but resigns in protest when the authorities of the

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