Wole Soyinka Released from Military Detention | October 1969 скачать в хорошем качестве

Wole Soyinka Released from Military Detention | October 1969

Footage of Wole Soyinka, the internationally known Nigerian playwright, speaking to a reporter after being released from 26 months of detention without trial by the military regime led by Major-General Yakubu Gowon. He was one of 151 civilian detainees who were released after Gowon had their cases reviewed under a general amnesty. He had been jailed after his individual attempt to stop the civil war. This included an unauthorised entry into the about-to-secede Eastern Region. Of his detention, Soyinka disclosed that he thought that he might have been "quietly done away with". Soyinka's experience in detention much of it spent in solitary confinement inspired "The Man Died", a book published in 1972. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986. "Profile of Wole Soyinka." http://adeyinkamakinde.blogspot.com/2... Transcript of Interview: REPORTER: Mr. Wole Soyinka, it's nice to have you back with us after some time. We all know you are a university lecturer, dramatist, a playwright of world class and not in any way a politician. Do you think you got yourself involved in politics in anyway before the authorities took you away some 26 months ago? SOYINKA: "Of course I got myself involved in what was happening. I don't know whether you'd call it politics or not, I don't consider war politic. I believe war is a human problem and I am a human being. You're quite right to say I got myself involved , but you're right to say I am not a politician. REPORTER: How do you feel about your release from detention after 26 months? SOYINKA: My feeling is one of amazement, amazement that it happened at all. This is my only feeling. I knew I would be released sooner or later ... either that or I would be quietly done away with in some obscure cell. It was one of two things, so one of them has come to pass and I suppose it's just a fact. REPORTER: What of your career at the university, in the drama world and all that? SOYINKA: Well, that is my immediate concern. You know, we have lost so much time on many projects that we had, both theatrical and film, so many things have completely been ruined and damaged, so many possibilities of creative work have been retarded and as far as I am concerned my immediate business is put all right. Source: Reuters News.