“How Many of You Can Claim to Be Kidnapped at 91 on the Way to a Theatre Festival?” — Soyinka
Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, delivered a dramatic and humorous reflection as the National Theatre in Lagos was renamed in his honor, recalling his own life as a “theatrical creation” and even joking about being kidnapped at 91 while on his way to a theatre festival.
Speaking at the ceremony attended by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, cultural icons, traditional rulers, colleagues and students, Soyinka admitted that he accepted the honor with “mixed feelings.”
“I’m notorious for criticizing so many appropriations of public monuments by past leaders,” he said. “About 25% of them are deserved, but here I am standing to watch my name being put up as yet another appropriator. It just didn’t sit well with me.”
He recalled how he once publicly challenged a former president in Abuja for naming a road after “one of the most brutal and venal rulers we’ve ever had in this country.” Yet, reflecting on Nigerian theatre pioneers such as Yubato Gode, Dolai Dipo, Fibberissima, Akuyuba, and Akpavot, he eventually resolved to accept the recognition.
“If a group of bankers have got together, using some of my money also — I bank with them after all — in order to honor me, what’s wrong with that? I said, accept it,” he remarked.
Soyinka described his nostalgia for the building, first erected during a military regime and mocked as “the general’s hat” because of its design. He lamented its decline into a slum, recalling that during Lagos at 50, he advised the state government to “plant a bomb” to demolish it. “And these bankers have now made me eat my words,” he added. “If eating one’s words produces a morsel like this, then it’s a very tasty set of words.”
He also said the theatre “owed him,” recounting how two of his actors nearly got electrocuted on its stage due to leaks and faulty wiring. He admitted he initially dismissed attempts to save the building but noted that its revival was proof of what collaboration could achieve.
On a personal note, Soyinka described himself as a “dramatic creation,” pointing to the coincidences in his life — from arriving at the event straight from a theatre festival in Abu Dhabi, to being kidnapped at 91 en route to another theatre gathering.
“These bankers must have said, this character is really a dramatic piece of work himself, let’s name it after him,” he joked.
Soyinka concluded by dedicating the honor to fellow African dramatists such as Bernard Adi from Senegal, Sonny Labutansi, and Wereleke from Cameroon, while expressing hope that the new-look National Theatre would ensure Nigerians no longer had to travel abroad to celebrate African theatre.
