Wole Soyinka and
Post Colonialism
What is Colonialism?
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Political Domination of Another People
 Their leaders cannot make decisions that aren’t agreed upon
by British
The Establishment of a Government
 Often figure head rulers are set up to placate the masses, but
power remains with British
Large-Scale Religious Conversion
 Christianity becomes the only acceptable, civilized religion
Forced Economic Dependence
 Trade happens, but usually raw materials taken for a cheap
price from colony and more refined items sold back to colony
from Britain at a much higher price
The Building of an Infrastructure (roads, railroads, hospitals,
schools, etc.)
Justifications for Colonialism
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Economic
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Colonialism provided a huge natural resource base for
small European powers
Colonies provided ready markets for finished products
Religious: The need to spread Christianity
Cultural: “The White Man’s Burden”
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Because British felt they were more civilized and had the
only correct religion, they felt it was imperative that they go
out and get everyone else to conform for the sake of their
souls.
The British Empire in 1914
Colonial Africa
Post Colonial Africa
Nigeria
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Nigeria
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Largest country in Africa (130,000,000)
50% Muslim, 40% Christian, 10% Traditional
Comprised of various tribal societies with
independent cultures and histories.
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Yoruba
Igbo
Hausa
Nigerian Literature
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Nigeria is one of the most divided nations
in the world, both religiously and tribally
Consequently, it has had an extremely
difficult time cohering together as a nation
It has also given birth to two of the most
important modern writers in the world:
Wole Soyinka (Yoruba) and Chinua
Achebe (Igbo)—both of whom have had to
write in English in order to reach the
majority of people in their own country.
Wole Soyinka
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Educated in Europe,
especially in the works
of Shakespeare.
Later adopted the
traditional Yoruba
religion.
Worked in his dramas
to combine Yoruba
traditions with Western
literary forms.
Won the Nobel Prize for
Literature in 1986.
The Duty of the African Writer
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To incorporate the precolonial mythos of the
people into literature
To acknowledge the
effect that colonialism
has had on the culture
To help to forge a new
national identity that
combines pre-colonial
and postcolonial
elements into
something new and
independent.
Death and the King’s Horseman
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Based on a true event that happened in
1946.
Dramatizes the conflict between the precolonial and the colonial that is at the heart
of postcolonialism.
Uses a definition of “tragedy” that
combines Western ideas with Yoruba
myths: tragedy seen as transition