Wole Soyinka

and Post
Colonialism

What is Colonialism?

Political Domination of Another People

Their leaders cannot make decisions that arent 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

Economic

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 Mans Burden

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

Nigeria

Largest country in Africa (130,000,000)

50% Muslim, 40% Christian, 10% Traditional
Comprised of various tribal societies with
independent cultures and histories.

Yoruba
Igbo
Hausa

Nigerian Literature

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

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

To incorporate the preWriter

colonial 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 Kings

Horseman

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