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" Nigeria has had the misfortune - no, the fortune - of seeing the worst face of capitalism anywhere in Africa. The masses have seen it, they are disgusted, and they want an alternative. "
Wole Soyinka
Capitalism
Africa
Seeing
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" I grew up in an atmosphere where words were an integral part of culture. "
Wole Soyinka
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Where
Up
" I like to say, 'I spend one-third of my time in Nigeria, one-third in Europe or America, and one-third on a plane.' "
Wole Soyinka
America
Europe
Time
" Under a dictatorship, a nation ceases to exist. All that remains is a fiefdom, a planet of slaves regimented by aliens from outer space. "
Wole Soyinka
Dictatorship
Nation
Outer Space
" I've always written plays for the purpose of getting something out of my system. "
Wole Soyinka
System
Purpose
Out
" The greatest threat to freedom is the absence of criticism. "
Wole Soyinka
Criticism
Greatest
Absence
" I ceased using words like optimism and pessimism a long time ago. "
Wole Soyinka
Time
Optimism
Long Time
" Colonialism bred an innate arrogance, but when you undertake that sort of imperial adventure, that arrogance gives way to a feeling of accommodativeness. You take pride in your openness. "
Wole Soyinka
Way
Adventure
Pride
" Books and all forms of writing have always been objects of terror to those who seek to suppress the truth. "
Wole Soyinka
Books
Always
Writing
" The problem with literature, with writing, is that it works sometimes in terms of correction of social ills. Other times, it just does not suffice. "
Wole Soyinka
Sometimes
Literature
Problem
" We live in a materialist world, and materialism appeals so strongly to humanity, no matter where. "
Wole Soyinka
World
Where
Matter
" I like my peace and quiet whenever I can grab it. "
Wole Soyinka
I Can
Quiet
Like
" No human is completely fearless. "
Wole Soyinka
Fearless
Human
" Power is domination, control, and therefore a very selective form of truth which is a lie. "
Wole Soyinka
Lie
Control
Truth
" Trading and religion have always been aligned together in the history of the world, and especially on the African continent. "
Wole Soyinka
History
World
Together
" Books and all forms of writing are terror to those who wish to suppress the truth. "
Wole Soyinka
Truth
Books
Terror
" After the death of the sadistic dictator Gen. Sanni Abacha in 1998, Nigeria underwent a one-year transitional military administration headed by Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, who uncharacteristically bowed out precisely on the promised date for military disengagement. Did the military truly disengage, however? No. "
Wole Soyinka
Military
Dictator
Death
" Given the scale of trauma caused by the genocide, Rwanda has indicated that however thin the hope of a community can be, a hero always emerges. Although no one can dare claim that it is now a perfect state, and that no more work is needed, Rwanda has risen from the ashes as a model or truth and reconciliation. "
Wole Soyinka
Truth
Now
Community
" One, a mass movement from within, which, as you know, is constantly being put down brutally but which, again, regroups and moves forward as is happening right now as we are speaking. "
Wole Soyinka
Now
Right
You
" Writing in certain environments carries with it an occupational risk. "
Wole Soyinka
Environments
Certain
Risk
" I'm not fond of biographies. I don't like writing about myself. "
Wole Soyinka
About
Fond
Like
" My father was a schoolteacher, and so I had the advantage of both western educational instruction in the school, as well as what you might call the process of imbibing the traditional processes of education instruction around me. "
Wole Soyinka
Father
Me
Process
" Even when I'm writing plays I enjoy having company and mentally I think of that company as the company I'm writing for. "
Wole Soyinka
Enjoy
I Think
Think
" There is only one home to the life of a river-mussel; there is only one home to the life of a tortoise; there is only one shell to the soul of man: there is only one world to the spirit of our race. If that world leaves its course and smashes on boulders of the great void, whose world will give us shelter? "
Wole Soyinka
Home
Great
World
" Military dictatorship, you can focus on it, you can fight it directly. It's a band of power-driven people. "
Wole Soyinka
You
Fight
Band
" See, even despite pious statements to the contrary, much of the industrialized world has not yet come to terms with the recognition of the fallacy of what I call the strong man syndrome. "
Wole Soyinka
World
Strong
See
" The Sudanese government has been playing games with the world, with the Africa Union, in particular, have been playing for time in order to conclude its mission of ethnic cleansing in the Sudan. "
Wole Soyinka
Time
World
Government
" My horizon on humanity is enlarged by reading the writers of poems, seeing a painting, listening to some music, some opera, which has nothing at all to do with a volatile human condition or struggle or whatever. It enriches me as a human being. "
Wole Soyinka
Reading
Me
Music
" History teaches us to beware of the excitation of the liberated and the injustices that often accompany their righteous thirst for justice. "
Wole Soyinka
Beware
Justice
Thirst
" African film makers are scraping by on a mere pittance. "
Wole Soyinka
Scraping
Mere
African
" Some of the greatest uprisings and consequent civil wars in Mexico have centered squarely on the ownership of land. "
Wole Soyinka
Greatest
Land
Mexico