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A poet who escaped the clutches of a brutal dictator
Scott Neil, The Royal Gazette
October 02, 2006

http://www.theroyalgazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061002/NEWS/110020124

Africa’s first Nobel Prize winner for literature fled his native Nigeria to escape the clutches of a dictator who "would have loved to add to his CV the honour of having executed a Nobel Laureate".

Political activism has made Akinwande Oluwole "Wole" Soyinka one of the most significant figures to emerge from Africa.

During his first visit to Bermuda those fortunate enough to find themselves within earshot of the distinguished poet and writer hung on his every word.

Present and former national leaders and esteemed academics were amongst those who made a point of seeking out the unmistakable figure as he flitted through the Fairmont Hamilton Princess Hotel during the Second African Diaspora Heritage Trail Conference.

Using elegant and precise language he spoke of his vision of what role the ADHT should fulfil in uniting and supporting the dispersed people of Africa and their descendants, how far the African Diaspora and the people of Africa have come in reclaiming their identity and traditions, and what form of atonement former colonial masters and countries involved in slave trading of African people should undertake.

He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1986, but despite his world-recognised stature his outspoken criticism of the tyrannies in Africa meant he remained a prime target for his enemies, which included the former Nigerian dictator General Sani Abacha. He went into voluntary exile during General Abacha’s reign.

Was his status as a Nobel Laureate not enough to afford protection from possible assassination?

"Has the Nobel Prize protected me? Normally it is supposed to, but we have very peculiar situations in Africa. The last dictator I fought in Nigeria would have loved to have added to his CV the honour of having executed a Nobel Laureate – he tried his best," said Prof. Soyinka.

Fellow Nigerian author, environmental and Ogoni rights’ activist Ken Saro Wiwa was hanged with eight other Ogoni activists in 1995 by the regime of General Abacha.

"He and eight of his companions were fighting for ecological respect and resource parity from the multi-nationals in the delta. They were hanged in a kangaroo trial and he (Abacha) certainly did his best to try and grab me. I took a political sabbatical but that did not stop him."

Prof. Soyinka refers to the late dictator as "an example of a lunatic".

He continued: "So it depends what is happening at a particular time as to whether a Nobel Prize is a blessing or a curse. In certain places doors do open to you because of the distinction.

"Before the Nobel I was already a political activist involved in a number of international organisations. The Nobel Prize expanded my constituency beyond the normal level especially coming from the Third World where people are always looking for figures around which they can build expectations and visions."

The African continent has seen a number of regimes "turning sour" with former freedom fighters corrupted by their own power and ending up acting like the colonial masters of old, said Prof. Soyinka.

One example is the Zimbabwe regime of President Robert Mugabe, a man who Prof. Soyinka admired in the past but who he has strongly spoken against in recent times. Using the Zimbabwe leader as an example of the African leaders that end up corrupted, he explained: "He was a freedom fighter, like others. But then they all go sour on us. Power goes to their head, they believe that they are divinely appointed and they begin to think they fought the war of liberation by themselves rather than just being leader of a people, a movement and having the privilege of directing it and being alive at the moment of victory.

"But then they manipulate the constitution to virtually make themselves president for life. They end up behaving as the former colonial masters who treat their citizens as children. I find that so insulting an unacceptable, the patronising mentality of the past.

"That’s not to say we should wipe out their achievements for prosperity, but when they have gone sour they should be pushed aside."

According to Prof. Soyinka the way forward for Africa is linked to the involvement of the descendants of the continent, the African Diaspora spread across Europe, America and the Caribbean through slavery and enforced movement during colonial times in the past 400 years.

"There are some who are descendants of slaves who found themselves in new social conditions and had no choice in the manner, and then there is the economic Diaspora who have created special communities all over the world, for instance we have a Nigerian community, which is quite separate from the African-American community in the United States.

"We are talking about self-defiant, self-established Diaspora. The liberation struggle of the 1960s and 70s in the US and the Caribbean and South Africa came from the Diaspora. I think the African family is really establishing its identity and authority," he said.

"For me the members of the African Diaspora should consider themselves as having first claim of the cultural, intellectual and material resources of the African continent since they are part of the roots, so the primary claim of entitlement goes to them.

"It’s irrational that others should be exploiting those resources rather than members of the dispersed family who in fact possibly were thrown out of their own countries in the first place.

"The European world tended to dismiss the African continent as the ‘white man’s grave’ and ‘the dark continent’, but despite that the western world has done pretty well from Africa in terms of both the fiscal and material and even cultural resources."

He added: "So there is logic in any kind of movement like this one that endeavours to interest the dispersed members of the family in the realities of the African continent."

Should there be reparations and atonement by the former colonial powers that exploited Africa?

Prof. Soyinka said: "It is a vexed question. I think an acknowledgement of wrong is essential, it’s an equilibrium. The minimum is an acknowledgement of the gross human error that needs to be remedied in order to establish a new level of relationship and that has to apply across the board, whether European or Arab or Asian, those who engaged in that totally abominable trade in human commodity directed at the African people.

"They owe that acknowledgement to the people. The nature of the acknowledgement is subject to discussion. No-one is saying take a certain amount of money and go and distribute it to the descendants – that is ridiculous.

"I have proposed before that, as a token of that acknowledgement, there should be a return of all the artistic works that were looted from the African continent. The artistic products of the people is an expression of their very humanity and since it is their humanity that was denied by turning them into commercial commodity one way of restoring and apologising is returning those artistic works."

One of the questions that faced the African Diaspora Heritage Trail Conference was defining the role of the organisation. Prof. Soyinka believes it should be playing a more active role in reuniting the African people and the Diaspora with their heritage and traditions building on the work of UNESCO.

"UNESCO has done a lot of work in the retrieval of the heritage of various neglected nationalities, recording of neglected oral material. But UNESCO is not an emotional body, it is there to retrieve, record and make available to specialist interests," he explained.

"The ADHT is singularly positioned to turn that archive into a living dynamic to bring to the people, to move people and archives and cultural material where they are cohabiting, making members of the Diaspora aware of the existence of this material literally in situ as opposed to recorded material.

"(Its role should be) integrating the living creators of that material, and bringing outsiders, not just the Diaspora, in contact with the richness of these resources. That’s the difference between academic research – it’s very inert material that ends on the shelves. What this organisation is for is to make people participants in this retrieval adventure to bring both sides together. That’s the difference."

The second ADHT conference, which lasted five days and ended yesterday, was Prof. Soyinka’s first. It was also his first visit to Bermuda. What did he think of the Island and the fact that it is run by a black Government?

He replied: "I have always known Bermuda as an island as a tax haven especially for British and Americans. I always considered it an artificial place until now. The place is now run by the majority people, but boy – how long that took. Is it not shaming that it took so long?"

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