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Monash hosts African Nobel Laureate

12 October 2005

Due to unforeseen circumstances the 2005 Monash-PEN Melbourne Lecture by Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka, scheduled for 25 October at the State Library of Victoria, has been cancelled. Ticketholders should contact the Victorian Writers' Centre on (03) 9654 9068 to arrange a refund.

African playwright, poet, political activist and 1986 Nobel Laureate Professor Wole Soyinka will speak at a public lecture this month hosted by Monash University and PEN Melbourne.

Professor Soyinka (pictured) will deliver the 2005 Monash-PEN Melbourne Lecture at the State Library Victoria on 25 October.

The lecture has been organised by Dr Chandani Lokuge, director of Monash's Centre for Postcolonial Writing, and Ms Judith Buckridge, president of PEN Melbourne. PEN represents writers worldwide.

Professor Soyinka was the first African to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. He writes in English and has published more than 20 major works including drama, novels, poetry and essays.

Dr Lokuge said the lecture was a special event for Monash.

"Professor Soyinka is one of Africa's leading intellectuals, a giant of the literary world and one of the world's foremost postcolonial writers," Dr Lokuge said. "As a playwright, poet, novelist and essayist, he is passionately engaged in the socio-political rights of his people and in justice as the first condition of humanity.

"It is a great honour for Monash to be involved in a literary event of this significance that reaches out to the wider community of Victoria."

Professor Soyinka was born in 1934 in Abeokuta, western Nigeria, and educated in Nigeria and England. After completing a doctorate at the University of Leeds, he returned to Nigeria in 1960. He has been imprisoned several times for criticising the Nigerian government. After five years of voluntary exile in Europe from 1970 to 1975, he returned to Nigeria and became active in local and national politics.

In 1981 he published Aké, which is considered a classic of childhood memoirs. Other works include The Man Died: The Prison Notes of Wole Soyinka (1972), Art, Dialogue and Outrage (1988), The Open Sore of a Continent (1996), From Zia With Love (1992), and Beautification of Area Boys (1999).

In 1994, he was appointed UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for the promotion of African culture, programs and communication.

Professor Soyinka will deliver the lecture at the Village Roadshow Theatrette, State Library Victoria, La Trobe Street, Melbourne, from 8 pm to 9.30 pm (entry at 7.45pm).

Tickets are $20, with $15 concession tickets available for students and members of PEN and the Victorian Writers' Centre. Contact the Victorian Writers' Centre on +61 3 9654 9068.