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Of Africa
A member of the unique generation of African writers and intellectuals who came of age in the last days of colonialism, Wole Soyinka has witnessed the promise of independence and lived through postcolonial failure. He deeply comprehends the pressing problems of Africa, and, an irrepressible essayist and a staunch critic of the oppressive boot, he unhesitatingly speaks out. In this magnificent new work, Soyinka offers a wide-ranging inquiry into Africa's culture, religion, history, imagination, and identity. He seeks to understand how the continent's history is entwined with the histories of others, while exploring Africa's truest "its humanity, the quality and valuation of its own existence, and modes of managing its environment—both physical and intangible (which includes the spiritual)." Fully grasping the extent of Africa's most challenging issues, Soyinka nevertheless refuses defeatism. With eloquence he analyzes problems ranging from the meaning of the past to the threat of theocracy. He asks hard questions about racial attitudes, inter-ethnic and religious violence, the viability of nations whose boundaries were laid out by outsiders, African identity on the continent and among displaced Africans, and more. Soyinka's exploration of Africa relocates the continent in the reader's imagination and maps a course toward an African future of peace and affirmation.
199 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 2012
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About the author
Wole Soyinka
207 books1,238 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
Akinwande Oluwole Babatunde Soyinka, known as Wole Soyinka, is a Nigerian playwright, novelist, poet, and essayist in the English language. He was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature for his "wide cultural perspective and... poetic overtones fashioning the drama of existence", the first sub-Saharan African to be honoured in that category.
Soyinka was born into a Yoruba family in Abeokuta. In 1954, he attended Government College in Ibadan, and subsequently University College Ibadan and the University of Leeds in England. After studying in Nigeria and the UK, he worked with the Royal Court Theatre in London. He went on to write plays that were produced in both countries, in theatres and on radio. He took an active role in Nigeria's political history and its campaign for independence from British colonial rule. In 1965, he seized the Western Nigeria Broadcasting Service studio and broadcast a demand for the cancellation of the Western Nigeria Regional Elections. In 1967, during the Nigerian Civil War, he was arrested by the federal government of General Yakubu Gowon and put in solitary confinement for two years, for volunteering to be a non-government mediating actor.
Soyinka has been a strong critic of successive Nigerian (and African at large) governments, especially the country's many military dictators, as well as other political tyrannies, including the Mugabe regime in Zimbabwe. Much of his writing has been concerned with "the oppressive boot and the irrelevance of the colour of the foot that wears it". During the regime of General Sani Abacha (1993–98), Soyinka escaped from Nigeria on a motorcycle via the "NADECO Route". Abacha later proclaimed a death sentence against him "in absentia". With civilian rule restored to Nigeria in 1999, Soyinka returned to his nation.
In Nigeria, Soyinka was a Professor of Comparative literature (1975 to 1999) at the Obafemi Awolowo University, then called the University of Ifẹ̀. With civilian rule restored to Nigeria in 1999, he was made professor emeritus. While in the United States, he first taught at Cornell University as Goldwin Smith professor for African Studies and Theatre Arts from 1988 to 1991 and then at Emory University, where in 1996 he was appointed Robert W. Woodruff Professor of the Arts. Soyinka has been a Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and has served as scholar-in-residence at New York University's Institute of African American Affairs and at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California. He has also taught at the universities of Cambridge, Oxford, Harvard and Yale, and was also a Distinguished Scholar in Residence at Duke University in 2008.
In December 2017, Soyinka was awarded the Europe Theatre Prize in the "Special Prize" category, awarded to someone who has "contributed to the realization of cultural events that promote understanding and the exchange of knowledge between peoples".
Akinwande Oluwole Babatunde Soyinka, known as Wole Soyinka, is a Nigerian playwright, novelist, poet, and essayist in the English language. He was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature for his "wide cultural perspective and... poetic overtones fashioning the drama of existence", the first sub-Saharan African to be honoured in that category.
Soyinka was born into a Yoruba family in Abeokuta. In 1954, he attended Government College in Ibadan, and subsequently University College Ibadan and the University of Leeds in England. After studying in Nigeria and the UK, he worked with the Royal Court Theatre in London. He went on to write plays that were produced in both countries, in theatres and on radio. He took an active role in Nigeria's political history and its campaign for independence from British colonial rule. In 1965, he seized the Western Nigeria Broadcasting Service studio and broadcast a demand for the cancellation of the Western Nigeria Regional Elections. In 1967, during the Nigerian Civil War, he was arrested by the federal government of General Yakubu Gowon and put in solitary confinement for two years, for volunteering to be a non-government mediating actor.
Soyinka has been a strong critic of successive Nigerian (and African at large) governments, especially the country's many military dictators, as well as other political tyrannies, including the Mugabe regime in Zimbabwe. Much of his writing has been concerned with "the oppressive boot and the irrelevance of the colour of the foot that wears it". During the regime of General Sani Abacha (1993–98), Soyinka escaped from Nigeria on a motorcycle via the "NADECO Route". Abacha later proclaimed a death sentence against him "in absentia". With civilian rule restored to Nigeria in 1999, Soyinka returned to his nation.
In Nigeria, Soyinka was a Professor of Comparative literature (1975 to 1999) at the Obafemi Awolowo University, then called the University of Ifẹ̀. With civilian rule restored to Nigeria in 1999, he was made professor emeritus. While in the United States, he first taught at Cornell University as Goldwin Smith professor for African Studies and Theatre Arts from 1988 to 1991 and then at Emory University, where in 1996 he was appointed Robert W. Woodruff Professor of the Arts. Soyinka has been a Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and has served as scholar-in-residence at New York University's Institute of African American Affairs and at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California. He has also taught at the universities of Cambridge, Oxford, Harvard and Yale, and was also a Distinguished Scholar in Residence at Duke University in 2008.
In December 2017, Soyinka was awarded the Europe Theatre Prize in the "Special Prize" category, awarded to someone who has "contributed to the realization of cultural events that promote understanding and the exchange of knowledge between peoples".
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
September 5, 2016
The title itself was fascinating to me. Not ‘Of Nigeria’ but ‘Of Africa’. Anybody who talks of thinking beyond political boundaries quickly gets my respect.
He thinks that national boundaries in Africa are all fiction. Of course, all national boundaries are fictional; but in Africa the situation is made obvious that it is a fiction created by outsiders:
The thing is made clearer if you were to look at political map of Africa. You would notice many national boundaries to be straight lines, as if drawn by a ruler. That is exactly what Colonial powers did in Berlin conference. There are very few other borders that are straight lines – US-Canada for example and those too are results of similar artificial divisions. However that wouldn’t be the case among civilizations as old as African (Eurasia). There are no straight lines in nature. Even US-Canadian border became more representative of nationalist divisions after American war of independence but:
This is not to say there is no diversity in Africa, just that political boundaries have nothing to do with it. According to Soyinka, those boundaries are maintained by power-holders (aristocarats) for personal advantages.
There have been efforts made by some of these ‘nations’ to come together which failed, but the reason behind same were these power-seekers. Soyinka sees no reason why they shouldn’t be continued.
Invisible religions
One very important point he makes is that African religions have still not got their rightful place in world thought (remember, I said thought). Our ignorance on the subject is easily checked, how many African religions can you name? three? Two? One?
Honestly I couldn’t name any either before reading this book but now I intend to learn more about them. Soyinka does discuss the African religious thought to some extent. Reading about different cultures frees you from illusions forced by your own culture, doesn’t it?
His account of how African slaves living all over the world saved their gods and religion despite the hostility at hands of their masters and, at times even after convertation, is also interesting.
As to what is to be learnt from African religions, his arguments: they guide rather than dictate, they are tolerant, they stay limited to human relation with divine without telling you how to dress or marry etc. There are no world religions from Africa and, well, that shows how good they are. Most of world religions have spread only by use of political power. Much of political tension in Africa is child of expansionist tendencies of Islam and Christianity - two foreign religions.
He distinguishes, for example, between ‘Islam’ and ‘political Islam’; and has a problem only with later. African religions have nothing to do with politics. Of course you can call them primitive, which religion isn’t?
History, not yet
Unlike German Holocaust and American Nuclear bombings; there were no apologies for slave trade. It was nice to find a Nobel laureate who can criticize west for her colonalizing attitudes. Some westerner power-heads though did come close to doing what may look like apology (if you don’t look at it carefully) but the other buyers, who had dealt in slave trade centuries before west started and continued long after, did nothing of sort. Yes, we are talking of Arab world, who seems almost proud of their past.
Not to say Africa itself was innocent for its misfortunes. In fact, outsiders almost always depended on African natives to make and sell slaves to them. Soyinka points out that two of most powerful African families of present times are successors of slave traders. Not only that, they have build museums to make a display of their role in slave trade.
Some quotes on still existing places where slaves were kept Africa.
Invisible People
One criticism of history is that is a thing of past. It has no effect on present. Of course it makes conscience easy. The word ‘Holocaust’ always takes you back to Nazi Germany, right? There is an emphasis on uniqueness of Nazi genocide (Because it makes USA look like hero?) refusing to use the same word for (to take an example) similar Soviet tendencies (‘Red Holocaust’).
UN kept refusing to call 1994 Rwandian killings ‘genocide’ (leave alone Holocaust). I can give everything to know Orwell’s reaction to such clever use of words.
And so, we now will move to a third word – ‘Ethnic Cleansings’ which is the word that can be safely used for the ‘war in Darfur’ where non-Arab are being killed since 2003.
Soyinka points out how these killings are not considered newsworthy for West and are rarely reported. Why? I don’t know; the only guess I have comes from Heath Ldeger playing as joker –it is a part of plan. As far as westerners are concerned, a few killings in Africa are to be expected. Of course, they are willing to report ‘North-East’ but only because West is directly invested there.
It is somewhat sad book to read. Will this ever change? 'Never Again' has, ironically, become a ceremonial phrase for UN:
Einstein once said: “we will hope that future historians will explain the morbid symptoms of present-day society as the childhood ailments of an aspiring humanity, due entirely to the excessive speed at which civilization was advancing.” Soyinka too is hoping for a better future.
“The rise of extreme nationalism, often developing into outright xenophobia, barely disguised under legislative formalisms that never name their real goal - exclusion – is a symptom of the increase, not decrease, of the we-or-they mentality that appears to be sweeping across the globe."
He thinks that national boundaries in Africa are all fiction. Of course, all national boundaries are fictional; but in Africa the situation is made obvious that it is a fiction created by outsiders:
“Boundaries imply exclusion, and it is undeniable that this tainted seed of guaranteed future conflicts on the continent was sown at the infamous Berlin Conference of 1884.”
The thing is made clearer if you were to look at political map of Africa. You would notice many national boundaries to be straight lines, as if drawn by a ruler. That is exactly what Colonial powers did in Berlin conference. There are very few other borders that are straight lines – US-Canada for example and those too are results of similar artificial divisions. However that wouldn’t be the case among civilizations as old as African (Eurasia). There are no straight lines in nature. Even US-Canadian border became more representative of nationalist divisions after American war of independence but:
“Africa remains the monumental fiction of European creativity. Every so-called nation on that continent is a mere fiction perpetrated in the cause of external interests by imperial powers, a fiction that both colonial rule and post-independence exertions have struggled and failed—in the main—to turn into an enduring, cohering reality.”
This is not to say there is no diversity in Africa, just that political boundaries have nothing to do with it. According to Soyinka, those boundaries are maintained by power-holders (aristocarats) for personal advantages.
“Colonalism have made this the consistent policy of governance; Actualize power, then fictionalize the people."
There have been efforts made by some of these ‘nations’ to come together which failed, but the reason behind same were these power-seekers. Soyinka sees no reason why they shouldn’t be continued.
Invisible religions
One very important point he makes is that African religions have still not got their rightful place in world thought (remember, I said thought). Our ignorance on the subject is easily checked, how many African religions can you name? three? Two? One?
Honestly I couldn’t name any either before reading this book but now I intend to learn more about them. Soyinka does discuss the African religious thought to some extent. Reading about different cultures frees you from illusions forced by your own culture, doesn’t it?
“The darkness that was so readily attributed to the ‘Dark Continent’ may yet prove to be nothing but willful; cataract in the eyes of the beholder."
His account of how African slaves living all over the world saved their gods and religion despite the hostility at hands of their masters and, at times even after convertation, is also interesting.
As to what is to be learnt from African religions, his arguments: they guide rather than dictate, they are tolerant, they stay limited to human relation with divine without telling you how to dress or marry etc. There are no world religions from Africa and, well, that shows how good they are. Most of world religions have spread only by use of political power. Much of political tension in Africa is child of expansionist tendencies of Islam and Christianity - two foreign religions.
“In what forms did that continent express its spirituality before the advent of Islam and Christianity? The answer is easiest grasped in the negative—and that answer is: not in any violent or conscriptive form.”
He distinguishes, for example, between ‘Islam’ and ‘political Islam’; and has a problem only with later. African religions have nothing to do with politics. Of course you can call them primitive, which religion isn’t?
History, not yet
Unlike German Holocaust and American Nuclear bombings; there were no apologies for slave trade. It was nice to find a Nobel laureate who can criticize west for her colonalizing attitudes. Some westerner power-heads though did come close to doing what may look like apology (if you don’t look at it carefully) but the other buyers, who had dealt in slave trade centuries before west started and continued long after, did nothing of sort. Yes, we are talking of Arab world, who seems almost proud of their past.
Not to say Africa itself was innocent for its misfortunes. In fact, outsiders almost always depended on African natives to make and sell slaves to them. Soyinka points out that two of most powerful African families of present times are successors of slave traders. Not only that, they have build museums to make a display of their role in slave trade.
Some quotes on still existing places where slaves were kept Africa.
Invisible People
One criticism of history is that is a thing of past. It has no effect on present. Of course it makes conscience easy. The word ‘Holocaust’ always takes you back to Nazi Germany, right? There is an emphasis on uniqueness of Nazi genocide (Because it makes USA look like hero?) refusing to use the same word for (to take an example) similar Soviet tendencies (‘Red Holocaust’).
UN kept refusing to call 1994 Rwandian killings ‘genocide’ (leave alone Holocaust). I can give everything to know Orwell’s reaction to such clever use of words.
And so, we now will move to a third word – ‘Ethnic Cleansings’ which is the word that can be safely used for the ‘war in Darfur’ where non-Arab are being killed since 2003.
Soyinka points out how these killings are not considered newsworthy for West and are rarely reported. Why? I don’t know; the only guess I have comes from Heath Ldeger playing as joker –it is a part of plan. As far as westerners are concerned, a few killings in Africa are to be expected. Of course, they are willing to report ‘North-East’ but only because West is directly invested there.
It is somewhat sad book to read. Will this ever change? 'Never Again' has, ironically, become a ceremonial phrase for UN:
Einstein once said: “we will hope that future historians will explain the morbid symptoms of present-day society as the childhood ailments of an aspiring humanity, due entirely to the excessive speed at which civilization was advancing.” Soyinka too is hoping for a better future.
February 17, 2013
Nigerian playwright Wole Soyinka brings some classic post-colonial literary and cultural criticism to bear on global society today. The book is a nod toward and an extension of the 'third way' deconstruction of binary power of his intellectual contemporaries when Soyinka first began writing in the 1960s. These thinkers are cited generously throughout so this may be a good entry point to "postcolonial theory," though you should understand basic trajectories of African history since Liberation.
Writing today on absolutist religion versus secular, capitalist consolidations of power ("secular despotisms" and lately the War on Terror) as oppositional forces fighting it out on African soil, Soyinka challenges:
For writers and advocates of cultural rights whose constituencies lie outside the main rivaling and dogmatic binary entities, each such eruption [of violence] merely provides us the opportunity to insert that missing text, the potentially corrective text of the missing (invisible) cultures. There is a need to depolarize these combatants, to remind the protagonists of the religiocultural wars that the world does not spin on the vertical or horizontal axis of their oppositional views. There are other worldviews, other structures of cultural usage that robustly manifest their viability. ... As volunteer spokesman, confessedly biased against the imposition of absolutes, I continue to stress the arbitrating authority of these alternative worlds and the failure of embattled cultures to profit from their attributes-- most especially nonhegemonic virtue-- articulated in myth and scripture as vibrantly as in living practice. (p. 190-1)
Soyinka presents for consideration his Yoruba heritage and its religious practices and texts, which spread across the Caribbean and the Americas and exist there today in the absence of coercive proselytizing-- and in spite of forced conversions of enslaved peoples to Christianity. Ifa, the canon, and Orisa, God, are offered as an example of alternative, tolerant, and anti-hegemonic cultural totalities: "African religion did not aspire to conquer the world" (p. 25). Soyinka invites readers to sit deeply with that simple idea. "That essence may ensure that, indifferent to the indifference of the world, Africa profoundly matters to her own-- and for reasons that are not only laudable by universally applicable." Anti-hegemonic claims to universalism. It's powerful.
Almost as an aside, Soyinka offers a different lens into the Sahelian crisis today. He attacks the religious claims of the absolutist, impositional Salafi Islam of Sudan, Somalia, Northern Mali, and Soyinka's own Northern Nigeria. Soyinka posits the Muslim-on-Muslim nature of much of the crisis as evidence instead of colonialism--cultural hegemony plus conquest of land, minerals, human bodies-- and racism-- light-skinned, Arab-aligned peoples attacking multiple foundations of existence of darker skinned African people. The power dynamics across the Sahel are complex and localized, but I appreciated this perspective and its basic assumption that we must question motives, deconstruct. In historical longform, I think this is best illustrated by Segu.
Writing today on absolutist religion versus secular, capitalist consolidations of power ("secular despotisms" and lately the War on Terror) as oppositional forces fighting it out on African soil, Soyinka challenges:
For writers and advocates of cultural rights whose constituencies lie outside the main rivaling and dogmatic binary entities, each such eruption [of violence] merely provides us the opportunity to insert that missing text, the potentially corrective text of the missing (invisible) cultures. There is a need to depolarize these combatants, to remind the protagonists of the religiocultural wars that the world does not spin on the vertical or horizontal axis of their oppositional views. There are other worldviews, other structures of cultural usage that robustly manifest their viability. ... As volunteer spokesman, confessedly biased against the imposition of absolutes, I continue to stress the arbitrating authority of these alternative worlds and the failure of embattled cultures to profit from their attributes-- most especially nonhegemonic virtue-- articulated in myth and scripture as vibrantly as in living practice. (p. 190-1)
Soyinka presents for consideration his Yoruba heritage and its religious practices and texts, which spread across the Caribbean and the Americas and exist there today in the absence of coercive proselytizing-- and in spite of forced conversions of enslaved peoples to Christianity. Ifa, the canon, and Orisa, God, are offered as an example of alternative, tolerant, and anti-hegemonic cultural totalities: "African religion did not aspire to conquer the world" (p. 25). Soyinka invites readers to sit deeply with that simple idea. "That essence may ensure that, indifferent to the indifference of the world, Africa profoundly matters to her own-- and for reasons that are not only laudable by universally applicable." Anti-hegemonic claims to universalism. It's powerful.
Almost as an aside, Soyinka offers a different lens into the Sahelian crisis today. He attacks the religious claims of the absolutist, impositional Salafi Islam of Sudan, Somalia, Northern Mali, and Soyinka's own Northern Nigeria. Soyinka posits the Muslim-on-Muslim nature of much of the crisis as evidence instead of colonialism--cultural hegemony plus conquest of land, minerals, human bodies-- and racism-- light-skinned, Arab-aligned peoples attacking multiple foundations of existence of darker skinned African people. The power dynamics across the Sahel are complex and localized, but I appreciated this perspective and its basic assumption that we must question motives, deconstruct. In historical longform, I think this is best illustrated by Segu.
August 29, 2012
Ok I had to admit I thought this was going to be a novel, instead is the story of the last 50 years of Africa, the roots of its believes and why now things are the way they are. Wole Soyinka effort is maybe to show the reader why somethings are so slowly changing and why some African cultures act the way they do. As a complete ignorant about all African related issues I found this book captivating and illuminating and I'm sure is full of fascinating informations.
THANKS TO NETGALLEY AND YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS FOR THE PREVIEW
THANKS TO NETGALLEY AND YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS FOR THE PREVIEW
November 28, 2024
2.5/5
For eleven years now I've been reading Wole Soyinka, about as long as I've spent systematically delving into the Nobel Prize for Lit laureates and evaluating who is worthy and who is eh. His Aké: The Years of Childhood is one of my absolute favorites, and over I've found myself reading and accruing him whenever I was at a loss as to what to read or what to acquire from a used book store. This was the last work I had added during my first blitz of author discovery that I hadn't yet found a copy of, and I bought at least two of his other works as compensation before I made the effort to source this from a local-at-a-stretch library. Now, it had been six years since my last Soyinka, and everything I had read of him previously has been composed during the '80s and '90s. To encounter him in 2012 form then was a changed meeting the changed, and unfortunately for the both of us, we have both grown and developed in different directions dependent on our needs: he as an internationally respected Black thinker negotiating authenticity on a long contested continent, me as a working class white queer seeking solidarity on one of the countries that has long done the contesting. In short, we have similar priorities that have been trained in very different ways, and unfortunately, Soyinka's wonderful prose can't make up for how much he's swallowed mainstream/wildly out of touch views of subjects ranging from Nazis to Islam. It certainly solidifies my justification for being disillusioned for the entire Nobel Prize process (imagine making any war criminal known as the president of the USA a laureate for peace), but that doesn't prevent it from being disappointing. In any case, I'm not going to give up on the couple of Soyinkas I have remaining in my collection, but I'll admit, it certainly helps that both works were published before the 'War on Terror' rotted many a critical thinker's brain, world famous or otherwise.
For eleven years now I've been reading Wole Soyinka, about as long as I've spent systematically delving into the Nobel Prize for Lit laureates and evaluating who is worthy and who is eh. His Aké: The Years of Childhood is one of my absolute favorites, and over I've found myself reading and accruing him whenever I was at a loss as to what to read or what to acquire from a used book store. This was the last work I had added during my first blitz of author discovery that I hadn't yet found a copy of, and I bought at least two of his other works as compensation before I made the effort to source this from a local-at-a-stretch library. Now, it had been six years since my last Soyinka, and everything I had read of him previously has been composed during the '80s and '90s. To encounter him in 2012 form then was a changed meeting the changed, and unfortunately for the both of us, we have both grown and developed in different directions dependent on our needs: he as an internationally respected Black thinker negotiating authenticity on a long contested continent, me as a working class white queer seeking solidarity on one of the countries that has long done the contesting. In short, we have similar priorities that have been trained in very different ways, and unfortunately, Soyinka's wonderful prose can't make up for how much he's swallowed mainstream/wildly out of touch views of subjects ranging from Nazis to Islam. It certainly solidifies my justification for being disillusioned for the entire Nobel Prize process (imagine making any war criminal known as the president of the USA a laureate for peace), but that doesn't prevent it from being disappointing. In any case, I'm not going to give up on the couple of Soyinkas I have remaining in my collection, but I'll admit, it certainly helps that both works were published before the 'War on Terror' rotted many a critical thinker's brain, world famous or otherwise.
April 21, 2013
My intial rating would have been 5 stars and it certainly would have been amazing. But as I neared the end I actually found myself being disappointed. Indeed as this is a basic overview and nothing is focused on, but no that wouldn't be truthful, the focus was the Yoruba culture. I was disappointed that Mr. Soyinka when mentioning the veil didn't say that the stigma in politics and socially is all a ruse. He is right when he says the weil is not the question, no the real question that is not asked or made known is the treatment of women and their rights globally and nationally. The media has garned it so that it is men that tell women to wear the veil and it is men that tell women not to, not to be prejudiced women have called on others to wear it or take it off, but usually those are a minority. Africa is refered to as Mother Africa and She and yet it is the women that are the first educators of children, however, as a whole women are hardly mentioned in this book. According to Mr. Soyinka women would not wear the burqa in Africa because of the tropical sun! Geographically the contient of Africa is diverse and not every place has the same amount of heat, but as he may well know Afghanistan is hardly a cool climate and it's not really a question if it is viable in any temperatures. That is beside the point. The future of Africa is paralled in my mind with the condition of women as any country should be. Whether it is the veil, female circumcision, divorce, abortion rights or even fair pay in the work place these are only subjects that are the tip of the iceberg for human rights for women and in turn children too. In this book he discuss Africa in its history and as a whole, what of the future? What indeed for the future for the new children of Africa that are born every minute? In his praising for the Yoruba culture and how wonderful it is, what is the view of women? What place are women seen as in the Yoruba? For the next generations are born where women stand in that society she will bring up her children knowing her own self worth and the children or both sexes will know theirs and be able to take that into their lives and shape the contient of Africa accordingly. I agree with him that the predominate religions of Christianity and Islam are paternalist religions and both in turn are no different to each other in this way and the same in that these religions came on to Africa by force. From his knowledge the Yoruba culture with stood these invasions compared to otehr cultures and religions by the fact of the belief system, which is remarkable in itself.
June 9, 2015
"Africa - concept or reality - is an acknowledged continent of extremes, and, by the same token, it is hardly surprising that is draws extreme reactions". Wole Soyinka has the merit of expressing in clear erudite prose how the history of his own continent is inextricably linked to that of its European colonisers and to the Arab neighbouring countries. But what can Africa do for us? - Soyinka states that Africa represents a possible viable 'third way', an alternative to the world's binary religio-cultural positions, a way to 'depolarise' our narratives reminding us that the world 'does not spin on the vertical or horizontal axis of two oppositional views'. Africa offers an alternative take on the dynamics of power, placing herself outside the contending hegemonies of the world not one to impose its religious and ethical views. Certainly not a piece of work that can be read lightly, his achievement is that he makes us think deeply about our cultural and religious projections onto the continent challenging deeply ingrained views. I enjoyed the first part of this work, with wide-ranging questions on Africa's position in relationship to the rest of the world. His second part is somewhat much narrower but basically points to, via the example of the Orisa, not a way to life but a guide to our existence, one that defends and nurtures our aspirations to freedom and peace.
April 10, 2024
Wole dey spit. This man made point upon points and then whetted our appetite about what the Orisha had to offer.
Now, I did not understand everything. I am no English or Anthropology undergraduate, however, I am more than inspired to finish the African Writers Series
Now, I did not understand everything. I am no English or Anthropology undergraduate, however, I am more than inspired to finish the African Writers Series
May 18, 2023
Soyinka's breathtaking command of language is on full display here in a good sequence of essays about Africa in history and modern political circumstance. Soyinka references widely, from historical events to literary themes, and blends history, commentary, politics, and religion with unsurprising ease.
Unfortunately, I found that sometimes this blend can muddy the points he seeks to make with the essay as a whole, even as sections deliver poignantly. I found his writing on religion to be quite interesting but lacked the historical evidence I need to fully get on board with his argument.
On the whole, an interesting read with some valuable challenges to my thinking and worldview.
Unfortunately, I found that sometimes this blend can muddy the points he seeks to make with the essay as a whole, even as sections deliver poignantly. I found his writing on religion to be quite interesting but lacked the historical evidence I need to fully get on board with his argument.
On the whole, an interesting read with some valuable challenges to my thinking and worldview.
June 1, 2024
This has been a very interesting book. Gave to me by my Yoruba girlfriend. To be honest, I learned more from it than I thought I would.
May 29, 2024
3.5/5
I think Soyinka has a lot of interesting things to say about politics, religion, and art, but I wasn’t the biggest fan of how this book delivered those ideas. To start with the good, his analyses on the effects of colonialism on African politics and the through lines between traditional and modern ways of thinking are particularly fascinating. I especially appreciated his consideration of the religious wars between Christianity and Islam, and what the Yoruba faith Orisa has to offer our world and to say about these dominant theologies. Additionally, I loved the short commentary on art and dialogue in the very last section.
That being said, I occasionally found his writing style grammatically convoluted and the structure was overall a little messy. I will probably enjoy my reading experience more once I’ve had the chance to consume more African literature and politics, so this is definitely going on my reread list.
I think Soyinka has a lot of interesting things to say about politics, religion, and art, but I wasn’t the biggest fan of how this book delivered those ideas. To start with the good, his analyses on the effects of colonialism on African politics and the through lines between traditional and modern ways of thinking are particularly fascinating. I especially appreciated his consideration of the religious wars between Christianity and Islam, and what the Yoruba faith Orisa has to offer our world and to say about these dominant theologies. Additionally, I loved the short commentary on art and dialogue in the very last section.
That being said, I occasionally found his writing style grammatically convoluted and the structure was overall a little messy. I will probably enjoy my reading experience more once I’ve had the chance to consume more African literature and politics, so this is definitely going on my reread list.
January 12, 2013
I read this book when I was in Tanzania, hearing the call to prayer from the local mosques in pretty much every city or village I visited, which was appropriate given Soyinka's emphasis on the clash between the monotheistic religions and indigenous African spirituality (especially the Yoruba religion he grew up in). (I'm going to review another book I read in Africa, Binyavanga Wainaine's Someday I Will Write About All of This in a moment, and the two books form an extremely useful dialog; finishing up Chinua Achebe's There Was a Country, which is the third of what amounts to a triangulation of my reflections.) Soyinka is, of course, one of the towering figures of African literture--along with Ngugi and Achebe one of the triad that framed my understanding of Africa in transition from colonialism to the current chaos, or maybe chaoses plural). Of those, Soyinka stands out for his insistence on African religion/spirituality as a radical alternative to the forces that enslaved the continent from both the north and the west. He's fully aware of the legacy of western/Christian slavery, but he gets it out of the way quickly in this book, saying in effect "yes, we know; but fixating on it gets us nowhere in dealing with what must be dealt with." He's properly insistent that Islam's historical culpability and continuing participation in oppressive practices be unflinchingly acknowledged. (I learned some things about maroon/resistance communities in Persia that I had no previous clue about). Repeatedly, he insists that the Yoruba approach provides a way of avoiding the destructive binaries that have created so much destruction in recent years. Similarly, he has no patience for the strong men and dictators who have made African democracy a farce.
In part because his earlier work shaped my thinking, I'm in agreement with Soyinka. The continent, and those who pay attention to its real wisdom, would be well served by taking the Yoruba approach to inclusiveness and humility seriously. But it's not easy to see how that could happen in the world of corporate power and Jihad. Not so much a failing of the book as a sobering fact of geopolitics.
I did get a bit tired of Soyinka repeating the same fundamental point about Islam, especially in the final chapters which too often leave the continent for excursions into the problems of Islam in France, Germany, etc. Through the first half, this was getting a "this is the place to start reading about Africa" review. I wasn't exactly let down, but the last half didn't live up to the promise.
Still, not a bad place to start reading about contemporary Africa.
In part because his earlier work shaped my thinking, I'm in agreement with Soyinka. The continent, and those who pay attention to its real wisdom, would be well served by taking the Yoruba approach to inclusiveness and humility seriously. But it's not easy to see how that could happen in the world of corporate power and Jihad. Not so much a failing of the book as a sobering fact of geopolitics.
I did get a bit tired of Soyinka repeating the same fundamental point about Islam, especially in the final chapters which too often leave the continent for excursions into the problems of Islam in France, Germany, etc. Through the first half, this was getting a "this is the place to start reading about Africa" review. I wasn't exactly let down, but the last half didn't live up to the promise.
Still, not a bad place to start reading about contemporary Africa.
September 4, 2013
Otherwise a creator of imaginative literature, Soyinka does a good job reviewing African histories and encounters with other hegemonic forces, even posing African myth as a potential "third term" in deconstructing the binaries of conflict. There's a postcolonial theory or eight in here somewhere, but Soyinka never really follows a concept through before it is subsumed by another one. I enjoyed this book because the prose style was appealing, Soyinka mastered a compelling voice here, and the first half of the book is much stronger surprisingly, especially considering Part II (Body and Soul) deals with issues of religion and an African spirituality, and Soyinka's creative works draw upon African (particularly Yoruba) myth. In Part I he does little contextualizing for those not so familiar with the histories of African peoples since colonialism, jumps from decade to decade and region to region. His intrinsically privileged perspective, as one of many African artists interrogating their continent for questions and answers, that is what I'm interested in. The charge of his prose as he asks how, if ever violable, Africa's borders were ever in Africa's self-interest, or poking at that last vestige of Old World slavery, the "Tree of Forgetfulness" (the physical monument as much as concept) from useful angles, he is at his strongest when he is entrenched and sustains an idea. I guess my real complaint with this book is that though I really enjoy Soyinka's writing, I find that his arguments for Yoruba / Orisa based myth as being alternatively instructive to the sustained conflict of monotheistic faiths fits, but rather too conveniently and quickly, and Soyinka could have really done a better job, with more pages, to complete his interrogation with a not-so anthropocentric view, as should be suggested by his very use of African myth in the first place.
October 3, 2014
So this is the first work of Wole Soyinka that I have read. So far, so good. I will definitely be reading more of his other works, and will perhaps use this book as a reference when doing some further research into African - particularly, West African history.
On what I thought of this book...
Firstly, it was clearly an academic work - it was very verbose. I sometimes had to read it with a dictionary open next to me in order to understand what was being said.
Secondly, some parts bored me. I considered putting the book down and returning to it at a later date, but I ploughed on, and the end was not disappointing. I found his point on culture, particularly Yoruba culture and religion fascinating, it gave me a renewed appreciation of my cultural heritage. However, I do think that he, in a sense, romanticises Yoruba tradition and religion; and with that underplays the significance of monotheistic religions to African progress and enlightenment.
To conclude, Of Africa is certainly a book worth reading - and re-reading - to fully grasp Soyinka's message.
On what I thought of this book...
Firstly, it was clearly an academic work - it was very verbose. I sometimes had to read it with a dictionary open next to me in order to understand what was being said.
Secondly, some parts bored me. I considered putting the book down and returning to it at a later date, but I ploughed on, and the end was not disappointing. I found his point on culture, particularly Yoruba culture and religion fascinating, it gave me a renewed appreciation of my cultural heritage. However, I do think that he, in a sense, romanticises Yoruba tradition and religion; and with that underplays the significance of monotheistic religions to African progress and enlightenment.
To conclude, Of Africa is certainly a book worth reading - and re-reading - to fully grasp Soyinka's message.
April 12, 2013
Wole Soyinka was imprisoned for his activism. Those of us who will not ever see the inside of a jail owe to ourselves and others in the world to read Of Africa and other books on the topic like Dambisa Moyo's Dead Aid,
This is easily the best book on Africa that I've read. It's a short book so there's no excuse for not reading it. The book is full of intelligent commentary and piercing truths.
Read this book first if you haven't read any books on the topic yet. Then read Dead Aid,
Wole Soyinka tells the story of a relative whose illness was cured at a clinic in Africa when for years and years he found no relief with Western medicine and doctors in the United States.
Wole Soyinka details the healing powers of the Yoruba techniques.
He was the first African person to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.
This is easily the best book on Africa that I've read. It's a short book so there's no excuse for not reading it. The book is full of intelligent commentary and piercing truths.
Read this book first if you haven't read any books on the topic yet. Then read Dead Aid,
Wole Soyinka tells the story of a relative whose illness was cured at a clinic in Africa when for years and years he found no relief with Western medicine and doctors in the United States.
Wole Soyinka details the healing powers of the Yoruba techniques.
He was the first African person to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.
September 24, 2016
I didn't really know what I was getting myself into with this book. It's an academic work, and not having read much on African history, much of this was lost on me. Part of that was also due to Soyinka's propensity for making unintelligible sentences. Or at least for making simple statements more complex than necessary. Perhaps he is only aiming for intellectuals with this book and that is fine, I guess, but it would have been nice to understand more of what he had to say about Africa and its place in history and the world. I stuck it out however and appreciated his views and insights on African religions vs Christianity and Islam.
March 26, 2013
A nice little publication by one of Africa's greatest literary giants on his views of the current state of the continent on matters of politics and religion. Although I wish that he'd include a little more history to my benighted self, and although I don't really agree with his completely laudatory praise for the Yoruba religion as opposed to the monotheistic faiths, I still recommend this book to anyone looking for an African perspective on current events within the continent.
January 4, 2015
An attainable yet scholarly text giving a high-level history of the African continent, the obstacles facing it today, and its potential for contributing to the world - especially in an era of globalization and cultural clashes.
When asked "what is Africa?," it is NOT a hegemonic construct, nor does it aspire to be. In that, could be its greatest gift to the world.
When asked "what is Africa?," it is NOT a hegemonic construct, nor does it aspire to be. In that, could be its greatest gift to the world.
Want to read
December 13, 2012I remember mall bookstores of my youth. They were often incredibly tiny. Today's Indigo in the Eaton's Centre is huge. But go down there looking for something written by a winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature and you will have all of ONE OPTION. FFS.
June 10, 2013
A terrible book by a great author. Ramblings at the end of one's live, blaming the (western) world, devoid of a healthy perspective. Pity. Proof of why one should always bow out at the top of one's game.
July 4, 2014
Amazing reflections on the idea of Africa, with wonderful stories from history. One gets the impression though it could have been better edited, but it doesn't really need it since Soyinka is such a beautiful writer.
April 28, 2013
Very dense, and rather verbose. A set of interesting essays, but I wonder how many people will actually finish it? One of the selections for Accra Book Club.
February 3, 2015
A good primer on Soyinka's many passions, in particular his distrust of absolutes and his copious historical erudition.
February 7, 2015
A highly intellectual read - enjoyable and informative on spiritual climate of West Africa and in the diaspora.
December 20, 2016
he had me at the preface.
February 15, 2021
Soyinka writes like an artist: concrete, abstract, concrete. Sometimes within the same sentence. He has a very different perspective from mine which doesn't mean it wasn't helpful. I struggled with the structure of the first 6 chapters and felt his argument in the final chapters was what he had developed the most and particularly what he wanted to convey. I also struggled with this assessment because while I believe he knows that the judeo-christian and islamic faiths do not condone violence, he seemed to try to prove the people who practice it still perpetuate it, but the indigenes african religions do not. He admitted that the african invisible religions were not perfect either. It seemed a little contradictory to me to lift up his own religious ideals and try to prove it would solve everything while also saying the followers are not ideal candidates for the proof. Wouldn't every religion espouse the same? Seemed like a flawed argument, but I learned a lot about the yoruba gods and think it actually helped me to understand more of the book "The Black God's Drums".
March 2, 2024
Deserves a re-read because Wole Soyinka’s command of language made sentences so complex that they became difficult to parse. Not sure how to describe the genre of this novel. Sure, there were tidbits of African history mixed in, but each chapter felt like an essay on how the world and Africa itself has struggled to recognize Africa’s potential. There’s so much pride—despite candid critiques—for his nation, especially the last chapter on Yoruba Orisha; I very much appreciated that this book was written not by an outsider, but an African. Would be nice to get a physical copy of this book as I can imagine it’s the type of book that I’d pick up and re-read from time-to-time, gleaning new details, late into the night.
June 14, 2025
It’s difficult to rate this book because the first half was a consideration of the history of the African continent and it engaged me completely. But the second half was about comparative religion— really an appreciation of indigenous African religions as more organic to people’s lives than the missionary religions of Christianity and Islam. It is not a topic I generally find engaging in this depth.
May 31, 2019
I learned a lot from this book and had multiple arguments with the author in my head. However, every time I thought he was going down one path, he would circle back and discuss the opposing one. It was at times difficult to get through, but I think it was very helpful in broadening my perspective.
October 19, 2024
Not entirely sure what to say about this book, but I think it makes important points about religious fanaticism and Africa's spirituality as a great start to overcome it. The soul "Of Africa" is really the point of this book. Still the point is not exactly clear in the beginning so I can't quite say it is perfect. Soyinka's writing style shines through however. Probably worth a reread.
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