Soyinka

These essays by the acclaimed African novelist and post-colonial theorist include pieces on important contemporaries including Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka, but also delves into the links between language and identity.

His case has sparked a wave of support from intellectuals and politicians, including Nigerian Nobel Prize-winning author Wole Soyinka and French President Emmanuel Macron.

From the legendary Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti to the first African Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka, and contemporary stars like Davido, Ayra Starr, and Tems, many of the most prominent figures in Nigerian pop culture are Yoruba.

This is a Biennale that speaks the language of assurance, but is actually soaked in anxiety, and too often resorts, as the Nigerian author Wole Soyinka deplored in a poem, to “cast the sanctimonious stone / And leave frail beauty shredded in the square / Of public shame.”

And writers from other African countries and the diaspora, such as Wole Soyinka and Maya Angelou, have called Accra home, even if only for a short time.