As part of its 76th Foundation Day Anniversary, the University of Ibadan has established the Wole Soyinka Institute in honour of one of its distinguished alumni, Nobel laureate, Wole Soyinka.
Renowned as a poet, dramatist, essayist, and human and civil rights activist, Soyinka is often referred to as the Global Humanist.
The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Kayode Adebowale, announced the university council’s decision on Tuesday, 19th November, after a special command performance of Soyinka’s latest play, “Canticles: A Pyre Foretold,” staged at the Wole Soyinka Theatre (formerly the Arts Theatre).
The production, featuring a 50-man cast and directed by Dr Tunde Awosanmi, a former Head of the Department of Theatre Arts, had premiered on 17th November as the year’s Convocation Play.
According to Adebowale, the institute was designed to “serve the global community in research, performance, teaching, and exchange endeavours on Soyinka’s life, works, and ideas related to him.”
He described the initiative as the university’s way of celebrating and immortalizing one of its most illustrious alumni.
He said: “For our institution, the Wole Soyinka Institute shall function as a window of seeing the world through new prisms. The institute shall be a platform for renegotiating global status for our nation, the African continent, and the entire black humanity.
“It shall midwife global discourses that are as fierce and at the same time as humanizing as the politics, ideology, philosophy, and ideas of the legend, Wole Soyinka. Through the gravitation of the minds and psyche of young thinkers and researchers across races, the institute shall be Africa’s major contribution to the intellectual understanding of the human race into centuries to come.”
The Vice-Chancellor lauded Soyinka’s exceptional contributions as a creative thinker, philosopher, and advocate for civil and human rights.
He traced Soyinka’s journey from his time at the university to his global achievements, including his distinction as the first African Nobel laureate.
Though Soyinka had been widely celebrated globally since his 90th birthday on 13th July, Adebowale noted that the University of Ibadan insisted on hosting its own celebration of his milestone.
“The announcement of Professor Wole Soyinka in 1986 by the Nobel Foundation as the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, and as the first African to have won the award, topped the numerous honours he has brought to his Alma Mater,” he said.
At the event, Soyinka was also conferred with the PINK International Award by La Veronica Magazine, led by Veronica Isioma Joei.
The PINK Award was presented by Dr Joe Odumakin, President of Women Arise for Change and promoter of the PINK International Award.
She was supported by the award’s initiator, Princess Veronica Okei, and Adebowale.
In her remarks, Okei explained that her organization had decided to confer its 11th Anniversary and 6th Annual Award on Soyinka because he embodied the core values for which the magazine and the awards were established.
She described him as “a symbol of excellence, a source of inspiration, and a testament to what can be achieved when passion, dedication, and talent come together.”
While presenting the award to Soyinka, Dr Odumakin highlighted the Nobel laureate’s contributions, tracing his “over six decades of activism even at great sacrifices and grave personal risks.”
She added, “Soyinka’s personality and career in writing and activism epitomize core values of revolution — Resistance, Resilience, and sheer commitment to the protection of the rights of the individual in society, as well as the survival of our collective humanity.”
In his response, Soyinka expressed gratitude to the Vice-Chancellor and the university community for the recognition.
He reaffirmed his enduring commitment to the cause of humanity and praised the students’ performance of his play, stating that he was not surprised by its quality, as the University of Ibadan has a long-standing reputation for “quality productions and outputs.”
