Soyinka

His case has sparked a wave of support from intellectuals and politicians, including Nigerian Nobel Prize-winning author Wole Soyinka and French President Emmanuel Macron.

From the legendary Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti to the first African Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka, and contemporary stars like Davido, Ayra Starr, and Tems, many of the most prominent figures in Nigerian pop culture are Yoruba.

This is a Biennale that speaks the language of assurance, but is actually soaked in anxiety, and too often resorts, as the Nigerian author Wole Soyinka deplored in a poem, to “cast the sanctimonious stone / And leave frail beauty shredded in the square / Of public shame.”

And writers from other African countries and the diaspora, such as Wole Soyinka and Maya Angelou, have called Accra home, even if only for a short time.

In “The Beatification of Area Boy,” by Wole Soyinka, a multilayered, exhilarating and moving play, the author presents a day in the life of Sanda, a security officer and the “King of Area Boys,” unraveling his relationship with the tenants and patrons of a Lagosian shopping center.