The University of Abuja in Nigeria has established a Centre for Wole Soyinka Studies, and named Olabode Ojoniyi F’15 as its inaugural director. The new center aims to honor the legacy of Wole Soyinka, who won the 1986 Nobel Prize for Literature, and to promote the study of his work and contributions to global literature, theater, and human rights.
The University of Abuja’s Centre for Wole Soyinka Studies will serve as a hub for academic research, cultural exchange, and intellectual discourse centered on Soyinka’s extensive body of work. It will house an expansive archive of Soyinka’s writings, including his plays, essays, and poetry. Additionally, the center will facilitate interdisciplinary research collaborations and foster a vibrant community of scholars devoted to Soyinka’s legacy.
Olabode Ojoniyi F’15 teaches in the Department of Theatre Arts at the University of Abuja, and holds a PhD in Performing Arts from the University of Ilorin. He is a national award-winning playwright in Nigeria.
In 2015, Ojoniyi was awarded an African Humanities Program Postdoctoral Fellowship for his project “In My Mother’s House: Counter Discourse in Tracie Chima Utoh-Ezeajugh Radical Drama.” The African Humanities Program (AHP) ran from 2008-2023 and strengthened research in the humanities in Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda through competitive fellowship programs funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and administered by ACLS.
In February 2020, Wole Soyinka gave a passionate keynote address at the Fourth Regional Assembly of the African Humanities Program in Abuja, Nigeria, sponsored by ACLS.
