Ruyi's World of Books & Stories

Wole Soyinka's work as a teacher of his nation and people in the last seven decades can be summed up in one word: transcendence. His entire envisioning of Nigeria – for which he has suffered persecution, deprivation, abuse, insults and other unspeakable forms of punishment – is reducible to transcendence. The tragedy of Nigeria is that there has never been a critical mass huge enough to embrace the intellectual and civic responsibilities of transcendence. Justice, Soyinka says, is the first condition of humanity. Sadly, this is not his most famous ‘quotable quote’ among his compatriots. What many Nigerians learn by rote is that other quote from his book, The Man Died. The two quotes, as indeed the entirety of Soyinka’s work and vision, are rooted in a transcendent view of society and her future. When Soyinka says justice is the first condition of humanity, he does not pause to enter qualifications, caveats, conditions, equivocation, and hesitation. It is a tr...

Inside of the tree was the strangest place I had ever set foot. I crashed through the roof of a compartment deep in the abyss, groaning in pains and gnashing my teeth as I rolled on the floor. Then I held myself to check for fractures, for my body seemed to hurt everywhere. Catching a breath, I lifted my head and looked around to see where I was. It was a little room and I could barely see beyond my nose. There was an opening in the wall to the left. So I limped to the place to see if there could be a way out of the mess. But there was none, and the light from the little opening almost blindfolded me. Then I took a deep breath and leaned on the wall like a mogul that has lost his place in the scheme of things. For a while, I was lost and could not figure out how to get myself out of the wicked pit. The atmosphere was tense as if an adversary was underway. As tears gathered in my eyes, I lowered my head. Lost in the pool of nothingness and fear stood, as a pillar of salt in my hea...