SOYINKA DEDICATES AWARD TO SARO WIWA'S MEMORY

 

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Laolu Akande New York

 

Professor Wole Soyinka received this year's Langston Hughes award from the City College in New York recently and promptly dedicated the award to the memory of Ken Saro Wiwa, who along with other 9 Ogoni activists were judicially murdered by the Abacha Junta 5 years ago .

At the well attended award ceremony Soyinka compared Saro Wiwa with the Black writer Hughes "who fought for the right to human dignity" He said like Hughes Wiwa was the voice of his people, commending the Ogoni writer's struggle for his quest to make his people an equal partner in Nigeria. "He fought for equality in Nigeria and lost his life in that course", Soyinka who has previously set up a Saro Wiwa fund noted. He said the award money will go to that fund.

The President of the College, Stanford A. Roman said: Soyinka was an inspiration and will continue to be, describing the Nobel winner as a hero and "an embodiment of human dignity" The nobel laureate also received a proclamation from the New York City's Manhattan Borough for his "lifetime work in the literary and political arena" According to the Director of the Langston Hughes festival, Victoria Chevalier said it was a delight to honor Soyinka with the award. She disclosed that top African novelist and author of the classic, "Things Fall Apart" was a previous winner of the award.

Others that have won the medal include James Baldwin, Alice Walker, Ralph Ellison, George Lamming and Toni Morrison. Langston Hughes was a black poet, based in Harlem and was famous for championing what he called "the local values" of African Americans. Since 1978, the City College has been organizing the award in honor of Hughes

Chevalier says the award "celebrates prose, poetry, fiction, critical writing and dramatic arts which articulate a world of diverse truths often muted, even unheard and unspoken" Soyinka who said Hughes was once in Nigeria, said he had met him before his death in Harlem, describing him as a poet and cultural activist. Before Soyinka received the award, he had a literary conversation with the Harvard Professor of Afro-American Studies.

Laolu Akande is a New York based journalist.