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Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka says a comment the late novelist Chinua Achebe made about him shortly after he (Soyinka) won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986.
Soyinka revealed this in a conversation with an American-based Nigerian novelist Okey Ndibe; which aired on Channels Television’s Book Club.
In the course of the conversation, Ndibe recalled how Achebe; at one time, said: “The Nobel Prize did not make one the Asiwaju of African Literature.”
He then asked Soyinka how he took that statement at the time.
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Soyinka said: “The subject was not even literature when he (Achebe) made that statement. So it was disappointing that he created a nexus between my normal sociopolitical life and my normal way of articulating an opinion.
“It was almost like because I won the Nobel Prize, I have no right to offer; to do what I used to do before all my life. I responded to it, even though I wanted to make light of it”, Soyinka continued. “I was a little bit disappointed and I didn’t see the necessity; that particular subject, which was under contention.
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“It didn’t relate to literature. So, it was like, oh, am I now to carry this burden for the rest of my life? That people will think I am doing what I used to do before simply because I now have a Nobel Prize.”
Prof Soyinka said ignorance was the reason why literary enthusiasts often segregate themselves into either Soyinka camp or Achebe camp.
“Everybody feels they have a right to pronounce authoritatively, not only on the products but on the producers of the products and their positions in society,” he said.
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On his experience after bagging the Nobel prize, Soyinka said, “It has bred demands, expectations; it has bred even envy in some areas – one can cope with that – antagonism where totally unnecessary, uncalled for. But that’s part of human life; any kind of achievement does that.”