Wole Soyinka

Playwright, Poet & Novelist

(1934 – Present) · West Africa

Nigerian playwright, poet, and novelist who became the first African writer to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, awarded in 1986. His plays, including Death and the King's Horseman and A Dance of the Forests, blend Yoruba mythology with political critique. He was imprisoned by the Nigerian government during the Biafran war.