Wole Soyinka: Child of the Forest

trinidad+tobago film festival 2010 screening

Year	2009
Duration	52 minutes
Type	Documentary
Country	Nigeria/South Africa
Language	English
Director(s)	Akin Omoyoso
Rating	n/a
Contact	akin@tompictures.co.za

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Akinwande Oluwole Soyinka—Wole Soyinka to the world—is one of Nigeria’s and Africa’s treasures. A novelist, poet and playwright, he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986, the first African to be so honoured. Throughout his long, chequered career Soyinka has never backed down from speaking truth to power, and using his writer’s gifts to take aim at oppression, corruption and the legacy of colonialism and slavery.

This profile presents the many sides of Soyinka, from writer to activist to revolutionary. A number of interviewees including fellow writers, members of his family as well as Soyinka himself testify to his restless, inquisitive spirit, and his desire for knowledge for the betterment of country and continent. Stylized recreations of pivotal moments from his career round out this celebration of a true literary lion.

Trinidad + Tobago premiere.

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