Soyinka at 92

WHAT is it like to be Wole Soyinka (WS to his friends and associates) at the grand age of 92? Does the writer brood over the eternal things, wondering where time went? Jorge Luis Borges, the Argentine writer who left this planet in 1986, the same year that Soyinka became the first African to be honoured with the Nobel Prize in Literature, once said about time that it is “the substance I am made of. Time is a river that carries me away. But I am the river.” Is this the kind of thought Soyinka is likely to entertain as age sidles up to him? Probably.

But we also know– and we have this on the authority of a member of the editorial board of this newspaper who, for this purpose, shall remain anonymous– that Soyinka remains his rascally self. Who else but Soyinka, the man who takes his work seriously but refuses to take himself too seriously, would autograph a book to a much younger admirer with the following words: “Chief and all that…”

It’s an interesting and instructive moment of levity, this. For those who may not know, Wole Soyinka is the current Akinlatun of Egbaland, a chieftaincy title conferred on him in 2005. But no one has ever introduced Soyinka as a chief, an appellation wasted on a man who, apart from having many an axe to grind with traditional institutions, is individualist to the point of sedition. So far as we know, Soyinka, who accepted the honour under duress, never consummated it. Why would he then allude to it and himself in the manner just described?

The reference is typical Soyinka, who is wont to kill (more than) two birds with one stone: mocking the idea of himself as a chief, and at the same time bringing in the young admirer, an accomplished scholar in his own right, on the act. Why does all this matter? It is a reminder that, at 92, when many people understandably lower the flag of resistance, Soyinka remains his impish, self-deprecating, and clubbable self.

At various events to mark his 92nd birthday, several people have spoken of the need to immortalise Soyinka. For instance, former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and former presidential candidate, Kingsley Moghalu, described Soyinka as a national treasure and global icon, saying Nigeria should accord him greater national recognition in line with the treatment reserved for distinguished personalities in other countries. For Moghalu, “Wole Soyinka is a national treasure and a global titan of immense dimensions and proportions. In certain countries, individuals who achieve what he has are greatly honoured in many formal ways, including diplomatic passports (I hope he holds, at the very least, a Nigerian diplomatic passport), honorary citizenship and so on.”

President Tinubu appears to agree. In an official statement, the President described Soyinka as “one of Nigeria’s living repositories of history, knowledge, and courage” and noted that “Exceptional individuals like Professor Soyinka do not come often in a generation—men who illuminate the paths for humanity to follow across diverse endeavours, who are not afraid to go against convention, and who do not let the man die in the face of oppression and injustice.”   

ALSO READ: Soyinka for Africa Day celebration at Mandela Gardens

We identify with the sentiment encoded in these statements, though we dissent in the most important matter of all—we do not deny that Soyinka is a national treasure, we only affirm that he is more than that. His greatest contribution, all told, lies in his unswerving dedication to the principle of human dignity, hence one of his most memorable statements: “Justice is the first condition of humanity.” He is already—and we say this in a sense that only the French seem to grasp–an immortal. 

Happy birthday, Professor Soyinka, Chief and all that.