Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka at UT

Watching the presidential primary unfold these last few weeks, the thought has often occurred to us: "When will Obama and Clinton shut up about saving the people of Darfur from displacement and genocide, and start talking about the important stuff, like plagiarized speeches and superdelegates?"

Haven't had the same reaction? Tonight, a very different kind of politics will be on display at the B. Iden Payne Theatre at the University of Texas. Our city will play host to one of the great voices for democracy and social justice in post-colonial Africa.

In the mid-1960's, Wole Soyinka spent two years in solitary confinement after attempting to act as a peace broker during Nigeria's bloody civil war. As a politically-charged writer in an era of coups and dictatorships, he has been forced repeatedly into exile, where his plays and novels have found a receptive international audience. In 1986, he became the first winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature from sub-Saharan Africa. He dedicated his Nobel acceptance speech to then-imprisoned Nelson Mandela -- a key moment in introducing the West to Mandela's struggle against apartheid.

Tonight he'll deliver a speech on "Race, Rights, and the Agony of Darfur." His visit was arranged by a collaboration of several UT departments and local organizations. You can get an idea of the themes of his speech here.

Note: Death and the King's Horseman, one of Soyinka's major plays, just closed a run on South Congress. It was produced by the Pro Arts Collective, an arts non-profit that puts up work from the African diaspora.