Nobel Prize: Soyinka Brings Achebe Back To Life

By Fola James

The time worn feud between Nigeria’s two literary giants, Professors Wole Soyinka and Chinua Achebe has come back to life, years after the latter joined the silent majority.

Professor Achebe, who died in March 21, 2013, was before his demise, believed to be in a silent battle with Soyinka over who among the duo should have been awarded the 1986 Literature Nobel Prize.

The bitter rivalry, for a long time, also polarized the nation’s literary sector to Achebe and Soyinka camps, even though there was never a time the protagonists engaged themselves in a public duel.

But speaking during an interview on a Channels Television programme, Soyinka said he was unhappy that Achebe made an uncomplimentary comment against him for winning the prestigious prize.

Achebe said at the time “The Nobel Prize did not make one the Asiwaju of African Literature.”

The Nobel Laureate said he considered the particular remark by Achebe uncalled for and disappointing, particularly after the author of popular Things Fall Apart, said the Prize did not make Soyinka the best writer in the continent.

He said Achebe should not have made the comment at the time he did.

According to Soyinka in the interview with Okey Ndibe, “The subject was not even literature when he (Achebe) made that statement and so I was disappointed that he created a nexus between my normal sociopolitical life and my normal way of articulating an opinion.”

Soyinka said he was not happy about the perceived supremacy contest that existed between him and Late Achebe, and that his life has never remained the same since then.

He said “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. I was a little bit disappointed and I didn’t see the necessity; that particular subject, which was under contention, 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.”

He said the decision of some people to polarize the sector boiled down to ignorance wondering why “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.”