# Wole Soyinka

> Wole Soyinka (born 1934) is a Nigerian playwright, poet and essayist who in 1986 became the first Black African, and remains the only Nigerian, to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. He was imprisoned for nearly two years during the Nigerian Civil War, later fled into exile under General Sani Abacha, and has continued a long record of pro-democracy activism.

**Category:** People & Ethnicity · **Updated:** 2026-07-26 19:36:35 · **Canonical:** https://nigeriastuff.org/a/wole-soyinka

## Key facts
- **Born:** 13 July 1934, Abeokuta, Ogun State
- **Nobel Prize:** Literature, 1986 — Nigeria's only laureate to date
- **Civil war imprisonment:** 1967–1969, roughly 22 months, much of it in solitary confinement
- **Prison memoir:** The Man Died: Prison Notes (1972); banned by a Nigerian court in 1984
- **Exile under Abacha:** Fled Nigeria in November 1994; charged with treason in absentia, March 1997; returned October 1998
- **Landmark play:** Death and the King's Horseman, written 1975, first staged 1976
- **Recent documented activism:** Tore up his US green card in December 2016 over Donald Trump's election; his US visa was revoked in October 2025

## Sources
- Wole Soyinka — Biography.com (A&E Television Networks) (https://www.biography.com/authors-writers/wole-soyinka)
- Nigeria — World Report 1997 (country chapter) — Human Rights Watch (https://www.hrw.org/reports/1997/nigeria/Nigeria-05.htm)
- Wole Soyinka: Biography, Political Activism, Major Plays, Nobel Prize, Achievements — World History Edu (https://worldhistoryedu.com/wole-soyinka-biography-political-activism-major-plays-nobel-prize-achievements/)
- Wole Soyinka's US visa revoked by Trump administration — The Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/oct/28/wole-soyinka-nobel-us-visa-trump)
- Soyinka shreds U.S. green card in anger over Trump victory — Reuters (https://www.reuters.com/article/world/soyinka-shreds-us-greencard-in-anger-over-trump-victory-idUSKBN13R0J4/)

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