FEATURE ARTICLE

Monday, July 13, 2020
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Arizona, USA
WOLE SOYINKA: OUR INTELLECTUAL GIANT AT 86!

Prof. Wole Soyinka

rofessor Wole Soyinka was born on July 13, 1934 (age 86 years), Abeokuta, Nigeria. Professor Akinwande Oluwole Babatunde Soyinka, known as Wole Soyinka, is a Nigerian playwright, poet, essayist, teacher, humanist, and human rights activist. He was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature, the first sub-Saharan African to be honored in that category of Literature.

Soyinka was born into a Yoruba family in the rustic village of Abeokuta. Today, we are pouring libations at the doorstep of our literary giant in a sobering way----in a wasteland. We're also craving for more knowledge and wisdom from the bank of his monumental literary talent. Let's cling glasses of wine together to celebrate our own fecund Kongi.

WS: OUR OWN KONGI

A giant in the forest
Of a thousand midget eggheads.
Harrumphed professor
With a great voice and erudition.
A literary pundit mesmerizing
The mind of insatiable zealots.

Kongi, a humid and
terrestrial intellectual
Property to voyagers of the muse.
The conscience of the nation
Grinding in a confused enclave
and wasteland.

In vain their hate cast.
Ramshackle at their feeble-feet
To see you saunter,
To your Octo berth.
An octogenarian with unmatched
Intellectual acuity.

As you fete on your day,
We pour libations at the entrance
Of your museum of Art.
Your enemy and zealots are feasting
With you in absentia, and
In your existential museum of wisdom.

Kongi harvest,
Cling and toast your glass of wine
In an unending fecundity
With your kindred hominids.
And to the admiration of your
Adversaries and admirers.

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