Nobel Laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka has said he has made arrangement for his transition. Soyinka, who turned 90 on 13 July 2024 and whose birthday was celebrated across the globe, made this statement in an exclusive interview Larry Madowo, host of the African Voices Changemakers and Playmakers series on CNN had with him
The interview was first broadcast on CNN on Saturday, 21 September, 2024.
At the tail end of the interview, in which Soyinka spoke, among other things, about writing, activism, life in prison and the Nobel Prize in Literature, which he won in 1986, Madowo asked him, “Now that you have your own legal piece of earth here, what is your new future?”
Soyinka, responding, said he didn’t want to be morbid but hinted that his transition was his future, adding that he had made arrangement for that within the estate.
Madowo, taken aback by the distinguished writer’s response, laughing, said: “That is the most morbid answer anybody has ever given me. ‘I have made arrangements for my death?”
Soyinka again responded: “Many people don’t like to hear it. As I said all the time. I won’t say it here. In fact, CNN, everybody knows what we are talking about. It is where we are all headed. It’s a future for everybody.”
Still, Madowo interjected, saying, “But before you die… ”
However, Soyinka later toned down his response and gave a more realistic and less morbid answer, saying that in terms of productivity the immediate thing is to go on a vacation.
“But in terms of productivity the immediate thing is to go on a vacation. Take a resolution which will be attested judicially, not grant any more interviews, certainly not writing, but simply trying to resume certain activities which gave me pleasure, which I consciously and rigorously cut off to be able to pursue my vocation. Because I’m not going to sit on it.
“I would also get into a vehicle, somewhere, I don’t care, in the world and sit for a week or two weeks to be just a tourist. I’m looking forward to that, ” Soyinka maintained.
