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Wole Soyinka: A Guide to His Body of Works

(By Ernest Ogunyemi) - 52 Books in 64 Years: Your Guide to Wole Soyinka’s Body of Work 

        

The Nigerian writer and activist Wole Soyinka turned 87 this week. He was born on July 13, 1934, in Aké, Abeokuta, a town in southwestern Nigeria. 

        One of the greatest writers of his generation, Soyinka produced plays, novels, poems, and essays that explore African art and worldviews and serve as witnesses to sociopolitical issues in the world. The multi-talented artist, wrote the poet and academic Tanure Ojaide in Black American Literature Forum, “combines traditional African and Western influences so dexterously that he creates a personal authenticity.” 

        In 1975, Soyinka edited Poems of Black Africa, considered by many scholars to be the first anthology of poems that truly captures the abundant identities and realities of Black Africa. From 1975 to 1979, he was a Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo University. He has since taught at Harvard, Oxford, and Yale. 

        In 1986, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, the first African and Black writer to be so honoured. In December 2017, he received the Europe Theater Prize’s “Special Prize.” 

        In his introduction to the Africa39 anthology, he wrote: “The primary function of literature is to capture and expand reality. It is futile therefore to attempt to circumscribe African creative territory, least of all by conformism to any literary ideology that then aspires to be the tail that wags the dog. It projects its enhanced vision of Life’s potential, its possibilities, narrates its triumphs and failures. Its offerings include empowerment of the oppressed and the subjugation of power. It will not attempt to do all of this at once—that will only clot up the very passages of its own proceeding.” 

        To celebrate Soyinka’s 87th birthday, here is a guide to his full-length published works, categorized by genre. It comprises 25 plays, 10 essay collections, seven poetry collections, five memoirs, three novels, and two translated works. (Publishers’ synopses appear in quotes.) 

Before Obi Cubana: Performative Elitism, Nightlife, and Popular Culture in Nigeria

(By Saheed Aderinto) – Before Cubana: Performative Elitism, Nightlife, and Popular Culture in Nigeria 

        The incredible display of wealth at the funeral of the mother of Obi Iyiegbu, owner of Cubana Nightclub, is among the most sensational social media developments this week. Obi Cubana, as Obi Iyiegbu is informally called, mobilized insanely rich Nigerians to contribute to the “most expensive” funeral of 21st century Nigeria. The spectacle of honoring the dead began with the donation of 46 cows by another nightclub owner, Cubana Chief Priest. The visuals of the arrival of the animals is a reminder of how non-human creatures have historically been used to frame a unique image of progress and performative elitism. Most of the financiers or “bankrollers” of the funeral were also patrons of Cubana Nightclub. Their list is as diverse as their source of wealth. 

         Many have wondered how a nightclub owner was able to mobilize billions of naira for a private event. History has some answers. In 1996, socialite Ken Olumesi completed his multi-million naira club named Nightshift Coliseum in Ikeja, Lagos. Nicknamed “Mecca of Entertainment,” and voted as Nigeria’s most beautiful nightclub, the clients of Nightshift Coliseum included famous footballers, entertainers, military officers, and clean money businessmen and their 419 counterparts. A symbol of wealth, class, and status, Nightshift Coliseum was a badge of honor for most of the elites of the period. It was a rite of passage for old and young monies. Indeed, the eclipse of stardom for many artists was incomplete without playing at the Nightshift Coliseum. 

Obi Cubana, Entrepreneurial Creativity, and New Model of "Igba Boi"

(By Moses Ochono) - THE CURIOUS AND INSTRUCTIVE CASE OF OBI CUBANA 

        As an economic historian who edited a well-received book on entrepreneurship in Africa, the introduction to which argues for the recognition of distinct African entrepreneurial traditions and innovations, I find the case of Obi Cubana (Chief Obinna Iyiegbu) quite fascinating. 

        Let me first get a few caveats out of the way. I do not endorse his vulgar, exhibitionist, and performative wealth, but I do not judge it either. To each their own. We all operate from different value and ethical scripts, but none is, in the final analysis, inherently superior to the other. 

        Besides, a person has a right to spend their money as they wish, and Cubana's exhibitionism cannot be analyzed or understood outside his business and brand, which are anchored by show business and entertainment, the lifeblood of which is performance, vulgar excess, and razzmatazz. In other words, his antics have instrumental and utilitarian logic in his line of business. 

         What appears to others as his vulgar exhibitionism and excessive self-indulgences are actually part of his business repertoire, part of the script, and aspects of a carefully, strategically organized spectacle to boost his brand. If I'm right then this is a type of genius. 

Obi Cubana and His Economic Importance

(By Rudolf Ogoo Okonkwo) – The Economic Importance of Obi Cubana, Ike Nnobi et al., 

        Until last week, I have never heard the name Obi Cubana. All that I knew of Cubana was all that lifestyle magazines say about the Cubana nightclub in Lagos. I had no idea who owned it. And then, Obinna Iyiegbu, aka Obi Cubana, held the funeral of his mother in Oba, Idemili North Local government of Anambra State. 

        As pictures and videos from the ceremony saturate social media, I placed a call to an Oba friend of mine in Boston. I asked a simple question. “Who is Obi Cubana?” 

         My friend did not know him. He told me Obi Cubana was a kid when he was at home. He also mentioned that Obi Cubana’s father was the principal of Merchant of Light, Oba, when he was a high school student there. 

         After high school at Dennis Memorial Grammar School Onitsha and obtaining a degree in Political Science from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, the kid went out of Anambra state, to Abuja, Owerri, Enugu, Lagos and did well for himself. 

         Every town or village in Eastern Nigeria has one or two Obi Cubanas. They are the often-misunderstood children of our wobbling Nigeria. They are kids who, despite the odds, have plowed through the rivers of injustice, the stench of corruption, and the air of insecurity to set up businesses, build networks, and climb to the top of the social strata of Nigeria. They are kids who, even when they were sitting in the deepest valley of despair, say to themselves that the world is theirs. In some weird ways, packed in them are the metaphors of what could have been in Nigeria.