Wole Soyinka was born on 13 July 1934 at Abeokuta, in western Nigeria. His father was a priest in the Anglican Church and principal of a school. His mother owned a store and was active within the women's liberation movement. His family belongs to the Yoruba people, whose culture has influenced Soyinka's works. Soyinka has six children. He had his university studies at Government College in Ibadan, then he continued at the University of Leeds, where he obtained his doctorate. During the six years spent in England, he was a dramaturgist at the Royal Court Theatre in London. In 1960, he was awarded a Rockefeller bursary and returned to Nigeria to study African drama. He taught drama and literature at various universities in Ibadan, Lagos, and Ife. Wole Soyinka is best known as a playwright. His works also include poetry, novels, and essays. Soyinka writes in English, but his works are rooted in his native Nigeria and the Yoruba culture, with its legends, tales, and traditions. In 1960, he founded the theatre group, “The 1960 Masks” and in 1964, the “Orisun Theatre Company”, in which he has produced his own plays and taken part as an actor. During the civil war in Nigeria, Soyinka appealed in an article for cease-fire. For this he was arrested and accused of conspiring against government. Soyinka has published about 20 works: drama, novels and poetry. He wrote his first plays during his time in London, The Swamp Dwellers and The Lion and the Jewel (a light comedy), Later, he wroteThe Trial of Brother Jero, A Dance of the Forests, Kongi’s Harvest. Soyinka’s poems include Poems from Prison (1969), A Shuttle in the Crypt (1972) the long poem Ogun Abibiman (1976) and Mandela’s Earth and Other Poems (1988).
