IBADAN UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
Gege: Ogun Studies in English
Vol 4, No 1 (2004)
Published by the 
Department of English, 
Olabisi Onabanjo University, 
PMB 2002,
Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State,
NIGERIA.
IBADAN UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
Gege: Ogun Studies in English
Vol 4, No 1 (2004)
Editor-in-Chief 
Samson Dare
Editor
Udu Yakubu
Editorial Board
Oyin Ogunba, Molara Ogundipe, Funso Akere, Harry Garuba, 
Efurosibina Adegbija, Adewole Adejare, Lekan Oyegoke, 
Lekan Dairo, J.F.Wiredu
Gege is an annual publication of the Department of English, 
Olabisi Onabanjo University. It is devoted to publishing 
original essays relevant to studies in English, both language and 
literature. Short poems, plays, and prose fiction as well as book 
reviews are also welcome.
Articles in duplicate of an average length of 20 A4 pages typed 
double-spaced, with notes and references in the MLA style, 
should be addressed to: The Editor, Gege: Ogun Studies in 
English, Department of English, Olabisi Onabanjo University, 
PMB 2002, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State, NIGERIA.
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© Department of English, 
Olabisi Onabanjo University.
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Contents
1. Retrying Ali A. Mazrui's 
The Trial O f Christopher Okigbo 
-Professor Lekan Oyegoke 
(Department of English,
Olabisi Onabanjo University)
'"2. Reading Soyinka’s Poetry:
An Archetypal -  Semiotic Approach
- Udu Yakubu 
(Department of English,
Olabisi Onabanjo University)
3. Post-Structuralism and Literary Studies
Wale Oyedele 
(Department of English,
Olabisi Onabanjo University)
4. John Donne and His Contemporaries:
The “Metaphysical” Poets
Osita Ezeliora 
(Department of English,
Olabisi Onabanjo University)
5. Autobiography and National Experiuence:
A Study of Wole Soyinka’s Selected Writings
- Doyin Aguoru 
(Department of English,
Olabisi Onabanjo University)
6. Remedying Basic Grammatical Errors 
Through the Teaching of Passive 
Transformation in English:
A Teacher's Report
- Dr. Samson Dare
IBADAN UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
(Department of English,
Olabisi Onabanjo University) 126
7. A TextLinguistics Approach to the Teaching 
of Poetry to Students in a Science-Based 
University: A Teacher’s Experience
- Dr. Bolanle Akeredolu-Ale 
(General Studies Department,
University of Agriculture, Abeokuta) 140
8. Writing Skills Needs of Second Language 
Science Students in Nigeria
- Dr. Taofiq A. Azeez 
(General Studies Department,
University of Agriculture, Abeokuta) 149
9. Classroom Interaction and Effective English 
Language Teaching in Nigerian Secondary 
Schools
- Bidemi Okanlawon
(General Studies Department,
University of Agriculture, Abeokuta) 163
IV
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101 Gege: Ogun Studies in English
Autobiography and National 
Experience: A Study of 
Wole Soyinka’s Selected Writings
Doyin Aguoru
Introduction
This paper seeks to portray the national experiences of the 
Nigerian nation through the autobiographical genre. The 
autobiography is a literary form that narrates the events in an 
environment, the history of a people and the prevailing 
conditions that motivate a people, through the life of an 
individual. The study therefore examines through the 
autobiographies of Wole Soyinka various stages of social 
change, philosophical ideology, and cultural and political 
occurrences that have shaped the current form of the Nigerian 
State.
Literature is a reflection of life. Several critical works have 
identified the functional relevance of literature to society. 
Literature thus continues to occupy itself with the experiences 
and nations. The autobiographical form is a sub-genre of the 
biography. It has become popular because of its direct impact 
on literature and the society. It delineates historical, political 
and cultural ideologies of the generation within which it is 
written through a narration of real events and happenings of the 
time. This is what gives the autobiographical genre its validity 
and authenticity.
This form of literary writing is in three types: the fictional, non 
fictional and the factional. In fictional autobiography, the writer 
describes imaginary events and places in such a personal 
manner hat the reader believes he/she is participating in the
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author’s life experiences. If the characters are built around 
national figures, the writer represents them with fictionalized 
personalities without exposing the names or events.
The nonfiction type gives a true but subjective account of one’s 
life and experiences. Faction, the more contemporary and 
controversial form of biographical writing has been described 
as ‘a biographical story which is an imaginative interpretation 
or construction, call it improvisation of a story around some 
known facts...in life’ (Bamikunle, 1999:1) Bamikunle’s 
analyses of the autobiographical form, using Wole Soyinka’s 
biographical style as an example. Furthermore, he relates 
Soyinka’s autobiographical style to Northrop Frye’s, 
positioning that the imaginative and the fictional. This, 
according to him is because the two types are both creative and 
they take on the form of a novel. Interestingly, autobiographical 
accounts have been used in^for measuring and defining the 
values and ideologies of nations, and the decisions and actions 
of leaders. Often it is in these narratives that attempts are made 
to comprehend their strategies and decisions that were of great 
importance.
Scholars like Robert F. Sayre in a bid to understand the making 
of America, celebrate the indispensability of biographical 
writings, especially the autobiography. He wonders why 
autobiographies and their writers are not acknowledged 
literarily. To him, the autobiography is ‘something that is not 
currently interesting, but historically rich and culturally 
revealing (1980:146).
Forms of autobiographies in America include early exploration 
.narratives, tales of travellers transformed the new land. 
Therefore, Sayre is of the opinion that autobiographies have 
become better appreciated now because of the impact and 
significance of writers like Normal Mailer, Malcom X, and a 
host of others. To him, autobiographical writing in American 
started before the revolution and is still being written. He states 
that America and autobiography have been peculiarly linked:
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In any case, autobiography in America is 
somehow both a- part of our daily 
vernacular and our earliest heritage, 
reaching back to the puritan dairies and 
the seventeenth and eighteenth- century 
travel narratives, the Indian captivity 
narratives and the “biography” and 
“autobiography” of notable Indian chiefs, 
countless success stories of businessmen 
and celebrities, the protest stories of ex­
slaves and victims, the tales of pioneering 
and the “Americanization” of immigrants, 
the deceitful apologies of scoundrels and 
rogues, the - utterly artificial “True 
Confessions”... Autobiography in 
America is not only a genre with 
significant origins and distinguished 
classics, it is also an industry ...(Sayre,
1980:147 & 148)
American autobiographers in this perspective, apart from 
recording the foundation and cultural values of America, have 
ideologically contributed their own beliefs, aspirations, and 
faith to the ideology and concept^encapsulates that makes 
America what it is today. The American concept is not just a 
land and a people, but also a vision.
Considering the array of personalities and the faith of great 
leaders, the perceptions of autobiographers are inestimable. 
Sometimes ago, a collection of autobiographical accounts was 
dedicated to Vladimir Ilyich Lenin’s birth centenary. This 
compendium explicitly records the life, and times and the 
leadership of Lenin. Biographers were drawn from the entire 
social strata that existed during the life and times of V. I. Lenin. 
The observation and evaluation of these writers -  about thirty 
of them -  who were made up of peasants, non party peasants, 
politicians, commandants, comrades, generals and even
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relatives, reveal quite a lot about Lenin and his political 
ideologies.
A comrade noted his hard work and spirit of dedication, how he 
would sneak up at night when he was expected to be resting to 
think up policies that would eventually benefit the proletarians. 
Bruyevich’s account of his work pattern was his famous decree 
on land that kicked off the agrarian revolution. (Bruyevich, 
1970:23).
In the creation of the Soviet State emblem, there was a 
controversy on the vision and the symbol of the emblem, which 
was intended to be radically different from the coat of arms 
used by capitalist states. Lenin, on setting his eyes on the 
artist’s draft, displayed his much celebrated quick reasoning 
and visionary perspective,
We are struggling, we’re fighting and we 
shall go on fighting until the dictatorship 
of the proletariat is consolidated and until 
we drive out the White Guards and 
interventionist from our soil but it doesn’t 
mean that war, fighting, military effort 
will ever be the main thing for us, we 
need no conquests. A policy of conquest 
is totally alien to us .We do not attack, we 
defend ourselves against external
and internal enemies. Our war
is defensive and the sword is not our 
emblem... socialism will triumph in all 
countries, of that there can be no doubt.
The brotherhood of peoples will be 
proclaimed and implemented all over the 
world, and we need no sword, it is not our 
emblem. (Bruyevich, 1970:33).
His closest doctor, a surgeon, wrote on his encounters with 
Lenin until his (Lenin’s) demise. He commended his spirit and
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resistance after an assassination attempt by the opposing party. 
Lenin made light of his severe and complicated injuries by such 
sayings: it’s nothing, every revolutionary must be ready for 
such a thing’ (Rozanovs 1970:86,87). He also resisted the 
doctors paying him so much attention when he was sure there 
were other patients to be taken care of. The doctor consistently 
described his body as a strong one, perhaps attributing this to 
the kind of mind and spirit at work in him. ‘Vladimir Ilyich’s 
powerful constitution was doing a good battle with the 
hemorrhage’ (87), he said.
An autobiographer who was impressed by Lenin’s attitude 
wrote of his meeting with him as a non-party peasant. He 
concludes his narrative with these statements.
But Vladimir Ilyich wasn’t like many 
others, he wasn’t tied down by theory, he 
grasped life, events, and the revolution 
and directed it. He carried out the will of 
the masses as an elder; he is the soul of 
the masses, in all its wealth of aspects.
That is why the loss of Vladimir Ilyich is 
such a great loss for the people. That’s 
why not only party members, but we non- 
party people sorrow bitterly for that loss.
But his wisdom and experience are not 
lost. We shall carry out his behest of 
collective work, without the enslavement 
of man by man. (Chernov, 1970:82)
Lenin’s life and personality can be studied through this 
autobiographical collection. His impact and influence during 
the Bolshevik revolution remains outstanding in the minds of a 
people who feel and express tremendous loves through their 
writing, for their leader. The writings on the life and the times 
of Lenin further symbolize the relevance of the autobiography.
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Starobinsky in his study describes an autobiography as ‘ a 
biography of a person written by himself. (Starobinsky, 
1980:73). It is also described as ‘a form of biographical 
literature’ (Encyclopedia Britannica, 1984:1009) W.L. 
Howarth, however, creates a new angle in his analogy by 
stating that ‘an autobiography is a self portrait’ (Howarth, 
1980:85). In spite of the several, diverse definitions given to the 
autobiography, there are specific features in the writing of this 
form that makes it universal, irrespective of the background and 
the age within which the autobiographer lives. Strategic 
elements like character, which depicts the personality and 
image the book presents, portray the various factors that make 
up the character, around whom the story is woven, ‘his sense 
of self, of place, of history, of his motives for writing’ 
(Howarth, 1980:87).
In autobiography, the writer/author is different from the 
characters he/she portrays. They may bear the same names but 
might not share the same time and space. The author plays two 
demanding roles, first as a narrator, second as a protagonist 
taking the form of an artist in a self-portrait. In writing, the 
narrator maintains a credible level of suspense by feigning 
ignorance on most of the issues that he or she knows much 
about.
Technique is another element that connotes style, structure and 
imagery. This is what gives autobiography its credibility in the 
literary perspective.
Style is seen as resulting from the margin 
of liberty offered to the “author” after he 
has satisfied the requirements of language 
and literary convention and of the use he 
has put them to (Starobinsky, 1980: 74).
Style in autobiography is also varied. For instance, when it is 
used in a narrative it becomes self-revelatory. It establishes a 
relationship between the autobiographer and his past
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experiences, and it also facilitates a meeting point between the 
author and his or her target audience.
The third factor is the thematic preoccupation of an 
autobiography. This includes issues, ideas and beliefs woven 
around a particular storyline. ‘The theme may arise from the 
author’s general philosophy, religious faith, or political or 
cultural attitudes’ (Howarth, 1980:87). Themes are therefore 
‘personal ... also representative of an era, just as other literary 
works may illustrate the history of ideas (87).
One may want to attribute archetypal features to thematic 
issues. This is because of the inclusiveness of themes in literary 
works. Writers therefore build their work around issues that 
appeal to the reading public like death, births, love, incest, hate, 
wars, etc.
The concepts and ideologies that an autobiographer is 
preoccupied with in his/her writings are reflections of his/her 
experiences, whether real or imagined. Soyinka’s observation 
of the experiences, the structures and ideologies of his people is 
the preoccupation of his biographical collection. We shall be 
analysing three forms of these in the study. Ake and Ibadan are 
autobiographical, while Isara, the third in this selection, is a 
biography of his father within which some references were 
made to Soyinka as a child.
Style (as earlier defined), in all its varieties is creatively adapted 
v these narratives. Employing the first person narrative form, 
Wole Soyinka describes the first eleven years of his childhood. 
His characters are limited to the people around his 
neighborhood, his immediate and extended family members, 
the social and especially the political structure of his hometown 
Ake.
The ‘Autobiography of Childhood’ stylistic device plays a 
major part Soyinka’s childhood account in Ake. This growing
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up theme is viewed as suitable for autobiographical narratives 
because since the innermost development and growth of the 
child is significantly affected by the child’s absorption in and 
judgement of external events.
Most autobiographers succeed better with 
their childhood than their later life, even 
youth. This success must be ascribed 
partly to the strength of an established 
literary tradition. However different 
children and their circumstances may be, 
their mode of apprehension and growth is 
much more similar than in later life, so 
that all ‘childhoods’ can profit by 
traditional treatment (Pascal, 1960:84).
If the child in this state does an intrinsic examination, his 
understanding and awareness of self will be through the 
assessment of others, especially the older citizens of his society. 
‘The process of growth therefore takes a lively concrete form, 
through observed things and people ... The choice of events is 
decided in the main by memory -  usually there is no other 
authority -  and what remains in memory is still alive and vivid’ 
(1960:85).
Isara, A Voyage Around Essay was written a few years after 
Ake. Soyinka in the author’s note states that ‘The completion of 
that childhood biography, rather than assuage a curiosity about 
a vanishing period of one’s existence only fuelled it’ (Soyinka 
1989: vii) Soyinka agrees that the completion of Ake inspired 
the writing of Isara. Images of what he described as 
‘incomplete memory’ returned to haunt him in the persons of 
the protagonists of the 1930s and 1940s.
Apart from borrowing the sub-title from John Mortimer’s play, 
Soyinka claims that Isara is a creation of those moments when
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one gets into a kind of creative groove.
It’s not constant, you go and come back 
to that groove. Having written Ake, and 
running into those letters of my father, 
after my father died, there occurred the 
same kind of evocation of time past, it 
took place as I had in Ake... (Aguoru 
1994, unpublished interview).
Isara, though a biography of his father, is not without reference 
to Soyinka’s existence as a child. The authorial comments of 
the omniscient narrator in Isara include him amongst the 
characters, a grand son of Josiah in particular, although he is 
not referred to as Wole in Isara, as he is in Ake.
Ibadan, The Penkelemes Years is a memoir that covers the 
period 1946 -  1965. Soyinka’s first statement in this work is 
absolute,
Ibadan does not pretend to be anything 
but faction, that much abused genre 
which attempts to fictionalize facts and 
events, the proportion of fact to fiction 
being totally at the discretion of the 
author. (Soyinka, 1994: 14).
He, in this work, clearly separates himself -  the author- from 
his character who is still ‘himself’. He uses a number of 
fictitious names to describe his character in the memoir though 
he maintains a number of real names of other people. Relying 
on the second person narrative as well as the omniscient 
narrative style, he disassociates himself from the characters 
while claming an interpretive knowledge of their thoughts and 
actions.
4 '
Soyinka in a chat on his biographical writings mentioned that 
he writes to fulfill various needs; one of which was to celebrate 
personalities that he believes had meaningfully contributed to a
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particular life style, ideology and forms of existence. One sees a 
dominant representation of this point of view in the selection 
and portraiture of his characters.
Soyinka confesses that the personality of Rev. I.O. Kuti, a man 
whom he holds in high esteem, contributed significantly to the 
creative contents of Ake:
I tell you the background of Ake... it was 
not Ake’ I wanted to write. I wanted to 
write a biography on my uncle Rev 1.0 
Ransome Kuti, a very remarkable person 
as you may have gathered from Ake.
Very remarkable individual and the 
period when he lived I found very 
interesting and fascinating. I wanted to 
write about that period using him as a 
myth (Aguoru, 1994, unpublished 
interview).
The second need was a desire to document and preserve part of 
those things, which he thought had validity and had contributed 
immensely to an individual, group or nation’s quality of life. 
These were landmarks, images and transformations that needed 
to be embossed boldly in literary writing. Therefore the 
political experiences, formation and actions of pressure groups, 
geographical and cultural factors become the thematic pre­
occupation of his writings. These emphasize and depict the 
root, base of the experiences that have made the Nigerian 
people. The towns of Ake, Isara and Ibadan hold, to Soyinka, 
significant strategic positions in the political history of Nigeria.
The third reason Soyinka gives for his interest in this genre is a 
consciousness of a sense of responsibility to his people. 
Political statements found in Ake are in relation to the 
nationalist struggle and the Abeokuta Women’s Union. In 
Isara, Soyinka defines his goal in the representative history of 
the patriarchs,
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...Its significance for me is that it 
represents the period when a pattern of 
their lives was set -  for better or worse -  
under the compelling impact of the major 
events in their times, both local and 
global, the uneasy love -  hate relationship 
with the colonial presence and its own 
ambiguous attitudes to Western educated 
elite of the Nigerian Protectorate 
(Soyinka, 1987: vii).
The characters in Isara lived extraordinarily fulfilled lives but 
their existence was marked by an ‘intense quest for a place in 
the new order’ (vii) this target was of great importance to their 
generation in comparison to the attitudes of their offspring. This 
focus and faith in themselves as a people is perhaps what makes 
them Soyinka’s heroes.
In Ibadan, Soyinka explores one of the moral duties of a writer 
to his society: to mirror the society and to be a spokesperson for 
the society against an unjust government. He describes his 
reason for choosing to write Ibadan as being triggered off by
...the politics, the unfinished business, of 
that political entity, Nigeria, into which I 
happen to have been bom, its sociology, 
and political pathology... The immediate, 
triggering event was the Nigerian 1993 
democratic venture and its aftermath.
Underlying it all is also the agonising, 
truly lamentable brief memory span that 
appears to bedevil my society. Well, 
perhaps it is not so much a matter of 
mental retention as the seeming in ability 
to extend meaningfully the affective span 
of memory. (Soyinka, 1994: ix, x).
(emphasis mine).
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After his supposed romance with General Ibrahim Babangida, 
the Nigerian former military President, Soyinka puts up a pose 
of indifference until the 1993 experience when out of a sense of 
duty he warned Nigerians once again by reminding them of the 
past experiences that led to the Nigerian civil war.
I felt I had an obligation to explain why it 
seemed in not so much an attempt to 
explain the past, but an attempt to -  from 
my own point of view, peg down why one 
constantly appears or seem to be at war 
with one’s environment. I feel I have a 
duty to call Nigerian’s attention to the 
fact that they were about to make very 
unrewarding moves. We have not really 
moved from where we were a couple of 
decades ago, so people are playing the 
same game as they played before but their 
colours have changed. Everything seems 
to be that replay which I warned about 
initially taking place now in almost every 
form (Aguoru, 1994).
In the autobiographical field, a man is best qualified to write 
about his life. It is inevitable that memory maybe distorted, and 
there is a tendency for individuals to remember pleasant events 
and repress or gloss over the unappreciable ones. However, the 
story of a man’s life is symbolic and largely representative. For 
instance, Olaudah Equiano could not have mentioned the plight 
of each slave he came across in his narrative nor Wole Soyinka 
his daily experience of the first eleven years of his life. 
Soyinka, however, does make a number of clarifications in his 
last two autobiographical works. In Ibadan, he states,
I had indeed resisted all their efforts to
provoke me into any autobiographical
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account beyond the age of eleven -  The 
innocence for most...any testament after 
‘the age of innocence ’ is a lie, or half -  
truth, doctored truth, selective truth or 
annotated truth, or in simple diction -  a 
confection of sorts (Soyinka, 1994:4).
In Ibadan, Soyinka emphasizes his factional style by appealing 
to the old boys of Government College Ibadan to ‘excuse any 
lapses in memory in my account’. He adds, ‘to illustrate that 
aspect of faction that I have tended mostly to employ the 
deliberate dislocation of some actual names and events from 
their physical moorings, and occasionally, actual time (ixv).
Rousseau’s confession is perhaps the earliest accepted 
autobiography; his work was marked out by some critics as an 
‘enlargement of truth’ (Homstein 1984:64). Stephen Spender’s 
opinion about confessional autobiographies is quite fascinating: 
he believes the writer nurses a secret motive which he tucks 
away in his narrative pattern. Restif de la Bretonne’s Monsieur 
Nicholas and Rousseau’s Confession fall within the same 
category.
Restif’s autobiography claims to have been an entirely truthful 
account of more than sixty years of his life (Spender, 
1980:117). The account of his sexual exploits and other vices is 
with the intention of portraying the exact truth about one’s 
human heart (119). He however displays his other motives 
unknowingly
One is boasting; another is to make out 
that Restif was, under all his looseness, a 
pious moralist exhorting his readers to 
live virtuous married lives. Yet despite 
his nauseating hypocrisy, Restif’s
plodding determination to describe the
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life he has known... does give an 
amazing truthful picture of the Eighteen 
Century French lower classes (Spender,
1980:119).
Restif pretends that the goal of his book is to teach a moral 
lesson but shrouds his secret immoral tendencies that have 
earned Rousseau similar criticism. After telling the stories of 
his life, he seems to pose the question: which among his fellow 
human beings can say he was a better person than him, 
especially in view of his description of the Day of Judgment.
In his analysis of Rousseau’s work, Spender resents the 
author’s narrative style which seems to justify wrongdoing 
because everyone is bad:
... Rousseau does not tell the truth. There 
is a lie concealed within his very method.
For to say to oneself: ‘if I tell the worst 
about myself I shall only reveal that I am 
no worse than other men’ is dishonest.
First some men are better than others.
Second by the worst one means worst, 
and it is degrading to comfort oneself by 
attempting to prove that others are as bad 
as one own’s worst.
Furthermore, Spender believes that some people only confess to 
some crimes because they feel that it flatters their sense of 
strength. No one confesses to ‘meanness, cowardice, vanity, 
pettiness: not unless he is assured that his crime, instead of 
excluding him from humanity brings him back into the moral 
fold’ (121). Horstein agrees with Spender that the incidents 
Rousseau recorded and whatever embellishments he may have 
included, give a picture that portrays the time and age that he 
lived (Homstein, 1984:464).
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Historical records in newspaper houses, national, local and state 
archives have consistently proved to be a source of verification 
of historical events.
History in postmodern times has become a multifaceted 
discipline -  the old priorities and crux of arguments of the 
economic, the political, and social are no more the major 
concern of historians:
Historians now study a staggering variety 
of subjects from love to hate, to smell and 
taste, frpm health and sickness, to 
madness and fear, from childhood to old 
age, from water to smoke, from crime and 
justice, to sex and pleasures, from tiny 
villages to great cities, from obscure 
individuals to huge collectivities, from 
seemingly irrational folk-beliefs to 
constructs of collective memory and 
forgetting (Evans, Encarta 2001).
This postmodernist attitude to the writing of history has brought 
about change in the perception of historian’s approach, theories 
and methods of< writing. Historical facts and historical fiction 
are contemporary features of historical writings. There are, 
however, constitutional laws against history being used as 
propaganda or falsification of historical facts.
An ugly incident was brought to limelight in the British High 
Court in 2000 over such manipulations. Deborah Lipsstadt, an 
American academic, brought a libel against David Irving, a 
British historian:
Irving was a Holocaust denier who 
falsified history. The defense was won 
precisely on the close examination of 
Irving’s writings that demonstrated that 
he had inserted into quotes from 
documents words that were not in the
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original, relied on sources he knew to be 
forged because they supported his point 
of views, suppressed passages in texts 
that were inconvenient for his argument 
and in general doctored the historical 
record in the interests of his political 
views which the judge affirmed to be 
racist and extremist (Evans, Encarta 
2001 ) .
With such occurrences, it becomes more difficult for 
biographical writings which are still treasured as historical 
pieces to be altered to suit the author’s whims.
Soyinka’s biographical collection can be read vis-a-vis Nigerian 
historical texts, especially biographies and autobiographies of 
men and women who participated in the events he has recorded. 
Justice Kayode Eso, the author of The Mystery Gunman does 
explain a lot of the issues raised in Ibadan.
The mystery gunman episode which Eso borrows as the title of 
his biography is perhaps the most daring encounter Soyinka had 
in his several brushes with the Nigerian government. Kayoed 
Eso, who was Chief Judge that presided over the case, wrote of 
the judicial and political implications of his decisions and final 
judgment. This, apart from other numerous w ritings, confirms 
the historical events and issues intricately treated in Soyinka’s 
collection.
The Tale of the Cities
Soyinka’s peculiar choice of titles for his biographical work is 
symbolic. Ake, Isara and Ibadan are cities that have been in 
existence and still exist today. The important feature of his 
choice can also be seen in the setting of these narratives. He 
deliberately relates the physical, psychological and social 
values of each of these towns to the theme of his work.
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In Ake, for instance, he introduces us to the landscape and 
beauty of Ake, the Parsonage and its environs. In his account, 
he discovers the entire Abeokuta township in his tour with the 
police band when he was just four years old. Soyinka used this 
chapter to describe the city of Abeokuta as he knew it as a 
child, the buildings, the business centres, the market places, 
Mrs Me Cutter’s Matenity clinic, the sewing mistresses, food 
stalls, book stalls and the old women who sold herbs and 
concoctions for herbal preparation. He saw sign posts that read 
‘To Lafenwa, the other Igbein, Ibara’ (Soyinka, 1988:41). This 
adventure continued to as far as Lantoro.
He records with nostalgia, the smells, sights and sounds of the 
town most of which are no longer in existence in Abeokuta. 
This actualizes the reality of his statement on the social changes 
in Abeokuta:
Writing about a certain stage of social 
development ... For instance, we have a 
problem in this nation, things vanish ... I 
used to lament it, it should be possible to 
go somewhere and see something at least 
an important fragment, not just any 
fragment, of something which has 
validity, which has contributed to one’s 
own quality of life (Aguoru, 1994).
With this, he refuted the claim that Ake was a celebration of 
himself. According to him, ‘I was merely generally interested in 
those things that were no longer there’ (1994).
The effect of modernity on Abeokuta is also documented. There 
was the advent of electricity, the transformation from the use of 
gramophone to the re-diffusion box and the diverse news that 
was disseminated at certain hours. This medium of 
communication brought about the first stage of the 
globalization process in terms of communication. It gave details 
on the import and significance of the Second World War,
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foreign fashion and happenings in the international community, 
which in turn further influenced the Abeokuta community.
Tunde Adeniran, a political scientist in his evaluation of 
Soyinka’s politics observes that Abeokuta, the place of Wole 
Soyinka’s birth, ‘was a centre where different forces and 
influences clashed or intermingled’ (Adeniran, 1994:13). 
Adeniran notes in his historical analysis that the Egba Native 
Authority was in operation by 1834, with Oba Ademola 11, the 
Alake reigning in splendour. By 1879, the Egba United 
Government had been established as a manifestation of the 
political consciousness in Abeokuta.
These facts have been found to correspond with the historical 
background the biographers of Mrs. Funmilayo Kuti presented. 
The people of Abeokuta are part of the Yoruba people who 
have ‘inhabited the southwestern Nigeria for over a 
millennium’ (Odim and Mba, 1997:1). The Egba, as they are 
known, are one of the subdivisions of the Yoruba who speak 
mutually intelligible dialects of the same language. The Egba 
eventually clustered into three provinces, Egba Alake, Egba 
Gbagura, and Egba Okeona. They have their political leadership 
where each province has a ruler. The Egba people were faced 
with series of war experiences before they finally resettled 
under a rock they called “Olumo” (last ditch) and the new home 
‘Abeokuta’ under the rock (1987:4).
Soyinka’s childhood years especially the first eleven, was spent 
in Abeokuta township where he lived in Ake with his parents. 
His father was a head teacher of a primary school and his 
mother a trader. The location and geographical setting in Ake 
remain within 'f'the township of Ake and the trips he made 
outside were to Isara during the holidays and to Ibadan where 
he went for an interview.
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Isara is the home of Wole’s paternal grand parents. Isara 
represents, from Soyinka’s point of view, the base of political 
and economic ideology of the circle of friends of his father who 
were privileged to have been educated. The geographical 
setting of Isara is unique because the travel experiences of the 
exiles are relived through flashback techniques, such that 
Efuape’s endeavours in Lagos and the prevailing circumstances 
in the centre of excellence become a part of it. Opeilu’s 
experiences in Ibadan are also significant to the setting the 
writer creates. In describing the physical and geographical 
features of Isara, he hints at the perpetual fear of war in which 
his ancestors lived. He wonders why they settled on ‘such 
inclement soil. Was it, a need for safety in those earlier, 
uncertain times? Yet the town looked exposed to any 
determined incursion, the wooded valleys were perfect hiding 
places for an enemy...’ (Soyinka, 1989:2).
Ibadan, the name of a town, represents the bedrock of Nigerian 
politics. Historically, Ibadan was originally a war camp for a 
number of tribes who were defending themselves against 
invaders from the north in the inter-tribal wars of the nineteenth 
century (Benson, 2001:159).
Ibadan had a sizeable number of warriors who had regrouped to 
form formidable militia. Ibadan therefore recorded victories in 
many battles until the imperialistic power, Britain, took over the 
politics of the land. Ibadan was a strategic base for settler 
politicians. Obafemi Awolowo, among others, had his base in 
Ibadan. ‘He was the first secretary-general of the Egbe Omo 
Oduduwa, leader of the Action Group and Premier of the west. 
Ibadan was a centre for both regional and national politics’ 
(Benson, 2001:167).
The choice of the cities as locations and settings for these works 
implies that most of the events that took place in the maturing 
years of the author were witnessed by him. His entrance into 
Government College, Ibadan is documented in Ibadan. He 
mentioned the added advantage of being there: he became
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conscious of the political structures as a student, and travelled 
all the way to listen to political rallies of politicians like 
Michael Imodu and Nnamdi Azikiwe.
Ibadan is also reputed to have housed two of the best 
educational institutions: ‘Ibadan gained a staunch reputation as 
the cradle of learning in Nigeria. The Government College, 
Ibadan. The first university in Nigeria, The University College, 
Ibadan...’ (Benson, 2001: 168). Soyinka was also privileged to 
have been a student of both institutions.
The Nation and the Movement
Soyinka’s exposure to the leadership of the Egba Women 
Union is perhaps the greatest political allusion that has been 
made to his later involvement in politics. Mrs. Funmilayo 
Ransome-Kuti, his aunt and Mrs. Eniola Soyinka his mother, 
were deeply involved in the women union.
Mrs. F.R. Kuti’s biographical account is a detailed historical 
account of her life and her activities, which included 
responsibilities at the international level
Her life encapsulates much of the 20th 
century history of Nigeria while the 
records of her ancestry depict the 
evolution of Abeokuta in the 19th century 
(Odim and Mba, 1997:1).
Mrs. Kuti spent most of her lifetime in Abeokuta, her 
hometown, working on its progress and the progress of the 
women folk. This eventually propelled her entry into the public 
and political life of the nation. Irrespective of the level of the 
height she attained as a women union leader in Nigeria and a 
‘participant in national and international politics’ (1) Abeokuta 
remained her base and her source of inspiration.
Soyinka in Ake portrays the Kutis’ the reverend and his wife as 
highly respected members of the society. The society, the
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students and teachers of the school where Rev. I. O. Kuti was 
principal held the couple in high esteem. He hilariously 
recounts the episode in Ake when some students stole a poultry 
bird from Mrs. Kuti’s farm. The principal had caught the boys 
roasting the chicken and so he invited them for interrogation. 
The high point here is that the leader of the boys, Iku explained 
that while trying out a chemistry experiment on the phlogistic 
theory of combustion an extra- ordinary fowl came along,
Principal, it was a frisky cockerel. It was 
not one of those mangy, timid fowls 
which one meets in most houses. It was a 
spirited cockerel principal-how could it 
be otherwise when it was raised, reared 
and nurtured under the very hands of the 
principal and his wife, Beere? (Soyinka,
1988:174).
Soyinka describes the activities of the women’s union which 
had been structured to include ‘regular meetings apart from the 
general one’ (1988:199). It was later decided that an hour was 
to be ‘set aside for reading, writing and arithmetic, another for 
health questions’ (199). It was evident that Mrs. Kuti was set to 
eradicate illiteracy from amongst Egba women. This trait was 
first displayed after her marriage and redeployment to her 
husband’s working place. She had to resign her job at Abeokuta 
Girls Grammar School and relocate to Ijebu-Ode.
On her arrival at Ijebu-Ode, she set about 
assisting as unpaid ‘help’ at the school ... 
she established a nursery class known as 
Mrs. Kuti’s class...one of the pioneering 
pre-school classes in Nigeria. She also 
organized a ‘Young Ladies club’ in Ijebu- 
Ode where she transferred many of the 
skills she acquired abroad (Odim and 
Mba, 1997:38).
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In Abeokuta where she and her husband finally settled, her 
union set aside a period for attending to tax problems and it was 
at one of such meetings that the activities of the Parakoyi, the 
district officers and Alake Ademola’s system of government, 
was rejected. The women marched to the Alake’s palace and 
one of the officers Kemberi, spoke the minds of Egba women
Kabiyesi, the message which I bring to 
you today is a message of all the women 
who have left their stalls, their homes and 
children... they have come to say - 
Enough is Enough. The words which you 
heard from me are the words of Mrs.
Kuti...She asked me to tell you... that the 
women of Egba have had Enough. They 
are starving, their children are starving 
...they have no hope for a better future...
Now, the women are saying Enough 
(Soyinka, 1988:207).
Alake, Oba Ademola the second, was a figure who was known 
to be head strong even among his subjects and chiefs. He was 
accused of being selfish by some of his close associates. The 
fabric he designed for the centenary of the Ebga throne became 
controversial:
Why print only the Alake’s name, oriki 
(cognomen), picture and stamp on the 
cloth when he is not the only Oba of 
Egbaland? Selfishness and vainglory.
(Akinwumi, 2002:194).
Akinwumi observes in his findings that Ademola used the two 
objects for his ‘own aggrandizement’ and surrounded himself 
with ‘art objects with symbols of wealth and power and used 
them among others to glorify and elevate himself creating for 
himself an ‘awe-inspiring aura’ (2002:201). He was seen as an
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oppressor. He designed an inferior version of the fabric for his 
subjects to set himself apart from the ruled.
Ibadan, a memoir, traces the impact of the nationalist 
movement which heralded the independence of Nigeria and the 
political chaos that led to the civil wars in 1965 and the military 
incursion in 1966. Soyinka had become a national figure 
through his writings, especially his plays. Ojiako reports his 
arrest by the western government thus
Mr. Wole Soyinka, the Nigerian author 
and playwright was wanted by the police 
in connection with an incidence in which 
an armed man entered an Ibadan studio of 
the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation, 
seized a recorded tape of a speech by the 
Western Nigerian Premier and substituted 
a tape... (Ojiako, 1981:218 & 219).
The impact of this event led to his arrest as a prime suspect of a 
case Justice Kayode Eso was to preside over. The background 
to this event was that the power brokers of the West had various 
interests which were clashing. The crisis in the Chief Obafemi 
Awolowo-led Action Group was as a result of a serious 
disagreement he had with Chief Samuel Akintola.
Soyinka in his account in Ibadan had watched with dismay 
Akintola’s misrule in the West and indeed the entire political 
structure of Nigeria. Maren, as he chose to refer to himself in 
Ibadan, had travelled extensively in Nigeria, especially during 
the period of elections while working on his research. This 
brought him in personal contacts with ‘all kinds of people, in all 
kinds of places, normal, natural contacts with no thoughts of 
political complications’ (Soyinka, 1994:337).
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He observed, however, that all the groups he met exhibited a 
shared distrust for their leaders. Akintola’s NNDP had proved 
to be a reprobate organization... (337). After a meeting of the 
leadership of the Action Group, the leaders became worried. 
‘The governor of the West, Sir Odeleye Fadahunsi, was under 
pressure to swear in S.L.A. for another term as Premier’ 
(Soyinka, 1994:340) because of his claim of overwhelming 
victory.
Maren, in a feast in his friend’s house, was indifferent to the tit 
bits or scraps of information filtering in on what the Premier 
had to say at the evening broadcast. He knew the Premier and 
what he could do; he was going to inflict on his people
more threats, more arrogance of power, a 
desperate man’s rhetoric to sanctify 
infamy by defiling the airwaves yet again 
with claims of victory. Every intelligence 
report that came through to them 
confirmed the party’s resolve to cling to 
power (1994:357).
Justice Eso’s account better captures the effect of the Premier’s 
broadcast on the listening public. It was catastrophic. Eso states 
that only ‘the first two stanzas had come in, before the dead 
silence followed. But the damage had been done. Indeed, a 
great damage had been done to the body politic of the country’ 
(Eso, 1996:3).
Eso, a disciplined judge acquitted Soyinka, the accused, for 
lack of evidence of his participation in the gunman episode. 
Soyinka came up in 1994, about thirty years later with Ibadan 
proving his involvement in the episode, a plan that started off 
the Western uprising.
Conclusion
Literature, through the autobiographical genre, has affected in 
positive ways on the lives of people. People who have charted
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125 Gege: Ogun Studies in English
the course of history and national life in Nigeria are deliberately 
celebrated in the hope that these will be emulators of these great 
personalities whose exemplary lives will teach a lot to the 
coming generation. Soyinka’s autobiographical writings have 
contributed their own quota in this regard. It has also been 
proven that the historical experiences of a people can be 
documented, preserved and transferred through the 
autobiographical medium.
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