On occasion of its 76th Foundation Day Anniversary, the University of Ibadan has decided to establish the Wole Soyinka Institute in honour of one of its illustrious alumni, the Nobel laureate, Oluwole Akinwande Babatunde Soyinka, the poet, dramatist, essayist, human and civil rightS activist, famously called the Global Humanist.
The announcement of the university’s council decision was made by the Vice Chancellor, Professor Kayode Oyebode Adebowale, on Tuesday, November 19 after the Special Command of Soyinka’s latest play: “CANTICLES: A Pyre Foretold,” at the decades-old Wole Soyinka Theatre (formerly Arts Theatre).
The 50-man cast play was directed by Tunde Awosanmi (Phd), former Head of Department of Theatre Arts, had earlier been premiered on November 17 as the year’s Convocation Play.
According to the VC, the institute is designed to “serve the global community in research, performance, teaching and exchange endeavours on Soyinka’s, life, works and ideas related to him.” He said Soyinka being an alumnus of the university, the establishing the Institute in his honour is his “Alma Mater’s way of celebrating and immortalising him.
“For our institution, the Wole Soyinka Institute shall function as a window of seeing the world through new prisms. The institute shall be a platform for renegotiating global status for our nation, the African continent and the entire black humanity. It shall midwife global discourses that are as fierce and at the same time are as humanising as the politics, ideology, philosophy and ideas of the legend, Wole Soyinka. Through the gravitation of the minds and psyche of young thinkers and researchers across races, the institute shall be Africa’s major contribution to the intellectual understanding of the human race into centuries to come.”
The VC praised the prowess of Soyinka as a creative thinker, philosopher and fighter for the civil and human rights of individuals as well as the collective.
Tracing Soyinka’s footprints in the university community and linking same to his global accomplishments, including being the very first African Nobel laureate, the VC, said though Soyinka has been widely celebrated across the globe since he turned 90 in July 13, the University of Ibadan “insists on having its own celebration of Professor Wole Soyinka’s attainment of the nonagenarian decade.
“He means so much to our university. He is not just one of our institution’s most visible products, he has brought the highest recognition to the University of Ibadan and gave her an exceptional place on the global map of academic and creative reckoning. The announcement of Professor Wole Soyinka in 1986 by the Nobel Foundation as the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, and as the first African to have won the award, topped the numerous honours which he has brought to his Alma Mater.”
Professor Soyinka, who was also conferred with the PINK International Award at the event by the Veronica Isioma Joei-led La Veronica Magazine, thanked the Vice Chancellor and the university community for the recognition, restating his enduring commitment to the cause of humanity. He also praised the presentation of his play by the students of the university, reiterating that he was not surprised at the quality performance as the University of Ibadan is known for “quality productions and outputs.”
…The PINK International Award
Titled ‘Life time Achievement Award for Literary Excellence and Social Impact’, the PINK Award was presented by Dr Joe Odumakin, Dr Joe Odumakin, president of WOMEN ARISE for CHANGE and promoter of the Pink International Award, supported by the initiator Dr Veronica Okei and the Vice Chancellor of the University of Ibadan, Professor Kayode Adebowale.
In her remarks, Princess (Dr) Veronica Okei said her organisation decided to confer its 11th anniversary and 6th Annual Award on Soyinka because he represents the core values for which the magazine and awards were set up: “A symbol of excellence, a source of inspiration, and a testament to what can be achieved when passion, dedication and talent come together.”
In presenting the award to Soyinka, Dr Odumakin traced the Nobel laureate’s “over 60-decades of activism even at great sacrifices and grave personal risks.” She said Soyinka’s personality and career in writing and activism, epitomise core values of revolution — Resistance, Resilience and sheer commitment to the protection of the rights of the individual in the society, as well as the survival of our collective humanity.”
…CANTICLES for a Pyre Foretold
CANTICLES… was written by Soyinka while serving as a Scholar and Teacher of Performing Arts at the New York University, Abu Dhabi. The play had also been performed by the students of the school as directed by the head of the department of Performing Arts at the school, Professor Joanna Settle, who had visited Nigeria in July to conduct research into te world of Soyinka’s dramaturgy.
In his authorial preface to the play, which is heavily critical of religious extremism and bigotry, especially as witnessed in Nigeria in recent years, says, “CANTICLES is a narrative of the logical end of such toleration, where it becomes unremarkable to kill, instigate killing, bless the act and beatify the killers, then jet off to Paris, Dubai or Singapore with your family for a vacation, confident in the workings of this superstitious claim on solidarity… however, it is not an indictment of just one national instance of a serial, moral dereliction. It is a question thrown at the human claim to rational existence, and a “fundamentalist” pact of solidarity with the sanctity of every human life.”
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Full Text of the UI Vice Chancellor’s speech
(Being text of a speech by the Vice Chancellor, University of Ibadan, at the Special Guest Command of Canticles For A Pyre Foretold for Professor Wole Soyinka, on Tuesday, November, 19, 2024, at e Arts Theatre, University of Ibadan)
ON behalf of the entire staff and students of the University of Ibadan, I welcome Professor Wole Soyinka to the Wole Soyinka Theatre. This venue hosting today’s special performance was named The Arts Theatre at inception in 1955 when it was completed and commissioned for use. It occupies a strategic position in the history of theatre structures in Africa for being the first academic theatre building on the continent. On the recommendation of the Department of Theatre Arts and the approval of the University of Ibadan Senate, it was renamed Wole Soyinka Theatre in 2018. This means that the first theatre in Africa came to bear the name of an artist and intellectual who had progressed to become a foremost theatre practitioner and playwright known across the globe sixty-two years later. It is, therefore, historic that we are gathered in the Wole Soyinka Theatre today to join the international academic community to witness the premiere of yet another creative product of Professor Wole Soyinka.
Professor Soyinka turned 90 earlier on 13th July this year and the whole world was agog with festivities across all continents. Why would the University of Ibadan insist on having its own celebration of Professor Wole Soyinka’s attainment of the nonagenarian decade? He means so much to our University. He is not just one of our institution’s most visible products, he has brought the highest recognition to the University of Ibadan and gave her an exceptional place on the global map of academic and creative reckoning. The announcement of Professor Wole Soyinka in 1986 by the Nobel Foundation as the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, and as the first African to have won the award, topped the numerous honours which he has brought to his Alma Mater.
Professor Soyinka had his inter-B. A here at the then University College, Ibadan, spending two sessions before going to resume at the University of Leeds, United Kingdom, to pursue a degree in English since the course was not yet available on the academic menu of UCI then. Upon his return to Nigeria in 1960, armed with a Rockefeller Foundation grant to conduct research into African indigenous performance idioms, he chose the University of Ibadan as his institutional base. He later became a teaching staff of UI emerging as the first African Head of the School of Drama and later Department of Theatre Arts.
When Professor Biodun Jeyifo testified that “Ibadan was Soyinka’s creative kiln”, he meant the University of Ibadan, particularly. The University of Ibadan is tied to certain historical phases of Professor Soyinka. He was an academic staff of our university, residing at his iconic apartment on Ehrohime Road, when he was arrested by the military government of General Yakubu Gowon in 1967 for activities related to the Nigerian civil war. He returned to the University upon his release before his resignation later. Two of his plays, The Swamp Dwellers and The Lion and the Jewel, had been performed at the Arts Theatre in late 1959 and early 1960 before he returned to Nigeria from studies abroad. The Arts Theatre, University of Ibadan, has been instrumental to the performance of all plays ever written by Professor Soyinka.
A few weeks back, a delegation from our university paid a visit to Professor Soyinka at his Autonomous Republic of Ijegba in Abeokuta. And, as if he knew the mission of the group, after conducting them round his house, Professor Soyinka invited the University of Ibadan to come on board as an institutional partner in the management of his residence. This offer corresponded with the subject of the delegation’s mission which was principally to inform him and seek his permission about our plan to mark his 90th birthday anniversary in a unique way by immortalising him. While we are most grateful for that invitation, we are also using this occasion to inform him that we are ready for the responsibility of partnering with the Wole Soyinka Foundation in the administration of the residence at Ijegba. We are ready to set the process in motion and shall commence discussion on the modalities with the appropriate quarters.
However, beyond that, we also have the plan to celebrate this literary and human rights icon in the appropriate manner by establishing a permanent monument of intellect and knowledge in his honour in our institution. The name, Wole Soyinka, is synonymous with the University of Ibadan. Our University has, therefore, resolved to establish the Wole Soyinka Institute. The institute shall serve the global community in research, performance, teaching and exchange endeavours on Soyinka’s, life, works and ideas related to him. This is Professor Soyinka’s Alma Mater’s way of celebrating and immortalising him.
For our institution, the Wole Soyinka Institute shall function as a window of seeing the world through new prisms. The institute shall be a platform for renegotiating global status for our nation, the African continent and the entire black humanity. It shall midwife global discourses that are as fierce and at the same time are as humanising as the politics, ideology, philosophy and ideas of the legend, Wole Soyinka. Through the gravitation of the minds and psyche of young thinkers and researchers across races, the institute shall be Africa’s major contribution to the intellectual understanding of the human race into centuries to come.
