Overview
Papers of Nigerian author and humanitarian Wole Soyinka, including compositions, correspondence, and records of his teaching and human rights activities.
Dates
- Creation: circa 1936-2013
Language of Materials
Collection materials are in English.
Conditions Governing Access
There are no restrictions on physical access to this material.
A portion of this collection is shelved offsite. Retrieval requires advance notice. Readers should check with Houghton Public Services staff to determine retrieval policies and times.
Extent
52 linear feet (108 boxes)This collection of Wole Soyinka's personal papers includes manuscripts and typescripts of his compositions, including the "Prison Diary" (handwritten notes penned between the lines of printed books while he was incarcerated), financial papers, correspondence and other materials concerning his work with the Union of Writers of the African Peoples (UWAP), and administrative correspondence and materials from his tenure as the Head of the Department of Dramatic Arts at the University of Ife.
The collection also contains personal and professional correspondence, including the many greetings sent to congratulate him on his 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature. Correspondence regarding his compositions includes letters to and from publishers, copyright permissions, and correspondence concerning translations. Correspondents include American scholar and colleague Henry Louis Gates and London publisher Rex Collings. Soyinka has also participated in many United Nations activities regarding African development and child welfare, principally with UNESCO and UNICEF. The collection contains correspondence exhibiting Soyinka's involvement with humanitarian causes, including campaigns on behalf of writers suffering political persecution, principally Ken Saro-Wiwa, Tai Solarin, and Kofi Awoonor.
The collection also contains correspondence and other materials (programs/playbills, reviews, posters, etc.) related to theatrical productions of Wole Soyinka's plays, arranged alphabetically by title of play.
Biographical materials include clippings and other materials about Wole Soyinka and his life, such as biographical statements for inclusion in directories. There is also a small amount of correspondence related to Wole Soyinka's personal family life.
Biographical / Historical
Wole Soyinka was born in Nigeria in 1934 and educated at the University College, Ibadan (later the University of Ibadan) from 1952-54 and the University of Leeds (B.A., 1957). While in England, he served as a playreader at the Royal Court Theatre. Returning to the newly independent Nigeria in 1960, he held teaching appointments at the University of Ife, Ibadan (1962-63), and the University of Lagos (1965-67). Professor Soyinka was Head of the Department of Theatre Arts at the University of Ibadan from 1969 to 1972 and Head of the Department of Dramatic Arts at the University of Ife from 1975 to 1985. During the Nigerian civil war, he was imprisoned by the military government and served two years before being released in 1969. He has held teaching posts as a visiting lecturer at many universities in the United States, most recently as a professor in African American Studies at Emory University.
His many plays include The Lion and the jewel, A Dance of the forests, and Death and the king's horseman. He is also a noted novelist , memoirist , essayist, and poet. He has been involved in international literary movements (Union of Writers of the African Peoples [UWAP] ) as well as global humanitarian efforts (Amnesty International, UNESCO), and is much in demand as a lecturer and speaker, known for his passionate commitment to civil liberty in his own country and around the world. In 1986, Soyinka was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Arrangement
The collection is organized into ten series:
- I. Compositions
- II. Correspondence
- ___II-A. By correspondent
- ___II.-B. Nobel Prize greetings
- ___II-C. Ledgers
- III. Union of Writers of African Peoples (UWAP) records
- IV. University of Ife records
- V. Production files
- VI. Financial records
- VII. Subject files
- VIII. Biographical material
- IX. Audio-visual material
- X. Additions to collection
Physical Location
Harvard Depository, b
Immediate Source of Acquisition
2004MT-114. Purchased from Wole Soyinka with the Amy Lowell fund, Harvard Theatre Collection funds, and funds from the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute and the President's Office; received 1995.
Processing Information
Processed by: Susan Radovsky and Beth Carroll-Horrocks, with assistance from Maggie Lehrman.
The addition (2023MT-87) to this collection was processed to a basic level with minimal rehousing, organization, and preservation. (Max Goldberg and Melanie Wisner, 2023)
Processing Information
This finding aid was revised in 2024 to address outdated and harmful descriptive language. During that revision, contextualizing processing notes were added to the description of several items. For more information on reparative archival description at Harvard, see Harvard Library’s Statement on Harmful Language in Archival Description.
- Title
- Soyinka, Wole. Wole Soyinka papers, 1936-2013 (MS Thr 427): Guide.
- Status
- in_progress
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard College Library
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- eng
- EAD ID
- hou01766
Repository Details
Part of the Houghton Library Repository
Houghton Library is Harvard College's principal repository for rare books and manuscripts, archives, and more. Houghton Library's collections represent the scope of human experience from ancient Egypt to twenty-first century Cambridge. With strengths primarily in North American and European history, literature, and culture, collections range in media from printed books and handwritten manuscripts to maps, drawings and paintings, prints, posters, photographs, film and audio recordings, and digital media, as well as costumes, theater props, and a wide range of other objects. Houghton Library has historically focused on collecting the written record of European and Eurocentric North American culture, yet it holds a large and diverse number of primary sources valuable for research on the languages, culture and history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.
Houghton Library’s Reading Room is free and open to all who wish to use the library’s collections.
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