African week has brought many prominent people to the European Parliament. One of them is Wole Soyinka, a Nigerian writer, poet, playwright and the first African winner of the Nobel prize for literature in 1986.
African week has brought many prominent people to the European Parliament. One of them is Wole Soyinka, a Nigerian writer, poet, playwright and the first African winner of the Nobel prize for literature in 1986. On Thursday, in talks with MEPs, he spoke passionately about the need for human rights violators to face justice. Whilst at the EP we caught up with him and asked him his views on cooperation between cultures.
Wole Soyinka has been imprisoned several times in Nigeria for his mediation during the civil war and later criticism of the military and government. All his poetry and plays seem to deal with corruption, tyranny and the cult of personality in African dictatorships.
Wole Soyinka, on Thursday you were on the panel for the closing session on intercultural dialogue. What issues should people be talking about concerning intercultural dialogue?
“For me it's a human phenomenon - what we're talking about is how to practicalise and enhance this kind of dialogue. The international community has reached the level now that the notion of a hierarchy of cultures has been eroded. Nowadays the recognition of cultures that are unknown or strange is far more advanced and there is far more dissemination of cultural phenomena. So what it means is that the mechanisms of cultural exchange need to be enhanced”.
Your work has dealt with many political themes in Africa - corruption, abuse of power and so forth. What role should the poet and playwright play in society - in Africa and in Europe?
“Again we come to this cultural interaction and obviously every culture has its priorities. I have always taken the position that somehow political concerns have a way of occupying the proper space within cultural programmes. People constantly ask the question ”what is the place of the individual in the community“. I believe that the socio-political element of culture, whether it is the poetry of the African continent or the Soviet Union, finds its own way. It's like water - it finds its own level”.
You spoke earlier about “mechanisms of exchange” between cultures, what do you mean exactly?
“To give you examples, the British Council and the Alliance Française from time to time send theatre groups to Africa for performances and workshop - to Nigeria for example. Then Nigerian groups can go abroad and introduce to the audiences theatrical idioms that they have never encountered before. One only has to be part of this to see how much enriching it is that they spread their horizons”.
The other example is the phenomenon of the internationalisation of local festivals. One example is the festival at my University which is called “Masks, Masquerades and Marionettes”. It was an opportunity to introduce Nigerians to the mask traditions of the rest of the world. We invited Japan, China, and the Scandinavian countries. Many Nigerians do not know that so called “masking” is a tradition of these countries - they always thought it was from Africa.
It was doubly useful for Nigerians because there is this religious fundamentalism which is warping the cultural understanding and the horizons of people. Many Christians and Muslims (in Nigeria) still believe that masks are a sign of fetishism, paganism, barbarism - including students.
How do you feel to be at the European Parliament during Africa week?
How do I feel? This is my old stomping ground! When we were in trouble I used to visit MEPs and talk to them. When things seem to be stabilised in our country and I received an invitation, it was an opportunity to come here and say thanks for your assistance during the last dictatorship. I'm usually invited during crises for Nigeria - and we're hoping never to have to come back under those circumstances. I'm quite happy to pass through...
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