Makavelli001:
I think the comparision of Wole Soyinka and Chinua Achebe is mischievous at best.

There is no comparison really.

I like to think that what makes someone a SPECTACULAR writer is their ability to tell stories that finds a home in your heart.

I left secondary school MANY YEARS AGO, and I can tell you, that there are literatures I read back then, that I can still remember today... I can remember the dialogues... Incidents...Names... And even the pictures I created in my mind of what I think the writer was trying to portray.

I only read Wole Soyinka because I needed to pass my literature exams.
I remember how we had to debate The Lion and the jewel in our literature class... Soyinka portrayed Africa like a helpless continent that needed western civilization to survive.
I have never opened any of his books since after secondary school.

But I have read Things fall apart by Chinua Achebe more than 10 times.
I have read The Concubine by Elechi Amadi more than 15 times.

I mean, from start to end.

I have replayed different scenarios and different endings in my head.

I have thought about A Things Fall Apart where Ikemefuna did not die...
A concubine where Ihuoma's children didn't hunt lizards on the very day Ekwume came visiting...

These are memories that will remain with me forever because a writer dared intrude my subconscious and made a home there.
.
.
.
I will chose to read Efuru by Flora Nwapa over any of Woke Soyinka "finest works".

There are at least 10 African writers who I'll read first before I pick any Wole Soyinkas books, like;
Ngugi wa Thiongo
Cyprian Ekwensi
Mongo Beti
Buchi Emecheta
Aye Kwei Armah
Etc.

And No, my submission is NOT because of the politics of "ANYWHERE BELLE FACE' Wole Soyinka has subjected himself to, which has made him a nuisance/laughing stock right now, it's just how I have always felt about his works.
I never connected to ANY of his books, I had to struggle to read, to relate, or even understand them and I have read over 200 books from African writers series alone.

Many Nigerians will easily remember Ikemefuna and Okonkwo more than they can remember any character in Wole Soyinka's books, this is because of RELATABILITY, a writer speaking to the reader in a familiar language.

Chinua Achebe is NIGERIA'S GREATEST LITERARY EXPORT to the world and there is a reason he is called THE GODFATHER OF AFRICAN LITERATURE...

I mean, THINGS FALL APART alone has been translated into 57 Languages!!!

It is not news that the reason why Achebe was snubbed for a Nobel Prize for literature was because he was too committed in his support of African culture and the oppressed, instead of using his platform to serve the interests of big powers in the west who were and are still our puppet masters.

Like the late Nelson Mandela once said; paraphrased, Achebe is the writer in whose company the prison walls fell down.

Achebe is THE GOAT.
There is NO COMPARISON.
Kapish?

EmperorCaesar:


Didn't Marie and Pierre Curie win the prize?
How about Einstein?
Tesla?

So whats your claim exactly

And how's Hawkings ahead of Tesla and Einstein??

pharmagba:

Stop this childish nonsense
The West hates this, the west hates that
Yet they gave Nelson Mandela

melow666:


To summarize, Achebe writes to tell a story, Soyinka writes with big grammer to showcase his dexterity of the English language and maybe win awards.

Donald7610:


Your bitterness gets grade

Beebling:


Omoale that's your father's name

Stone03:



Na only 'mgbati mgbati' wide mouth you get. The OP has laid down convincing points, let's here yours of your cursed ideas

seunowa:

I think you are getting it wrong somewhere especially in that direction you are always hammering on. Writing a book with complex English grammar is not the reason one is being given a Nobel prize. It also encompasses other genres of literature such as drama, poem, prose, playwright and others alike.
I immensely appreciate both works. They are exceptional and distinctly different in the way their writings are projected to targeted audience. These targeted audience are different on the basis of their cognitive capacity.
Soyinka wrote plays and acted in drama. He even directed many songs. It is not just about writing novels but embracing other genres.
Those who sat on the committee of Nobel prize were not just random fellows but global intellectual icons in literature fields.

melow666:
Let's ask chat GPT, i believe it is neutral enough and has the objectivity to tackle this.

melow666:


Achebe wrote poems and fictional and non-fiction work, he also was a radio presenter at one time in his career. The ability to raise from the dead, a once lost civilization, dead and misconstrued is why i would prefer him. A told an African story, the way it should be told.

Well, i have my own bias and the non-extant Prof Soyinka with his recent politics and antics coupled with his indigestible work does not put him in my favor, thus i am not neutral nor objective, but i believe AI might provide some bit of objectivity and remove any inherent bias as it cannot have one. So let us ask Chat GPT then. Find attached.

KoshCAD:
Keep quiet,

Talk about your so called Achebe.

Did he tick every boxes to win it and they did not give him.

The fact is Achebe does not worth being given nobel prize and that is final.

If it pains Una, you all can create your own in ala Igbo and go give him in his grave.

Paystack:


Achebe and Soyinka no be mate my boy.

Soyinka only got recognition after the works of Achebe brought limelight to Africa

Qadaffi2idiamin:
You talk too much...

Most of you from the are enjoying the dividends of Achebe's patriotism but you know not. Do you know what it means to be bitter?

You think because the white bearded cultist won a Nobel laureate makes him better than most African artists?

You are too young to point such finger at an accomplished man like Achebe.

All these nonsense would have been laid down if your grandfather Awolowo allowed the Eastern region to break away as agreed but he became an opportunist just to gain meager favour which has led your region no way.

Shut up if you don't know what to say!

pharmagba:

Don't glory in error
It was "Ake" that won him the Nobel laureate

Qadaffi2idiamin:
You talk too much...

Most of you from the are enjoying the dividends of Achebe's patriotism but you know not. Do you know what it means to be bitter?

You think because the white bearded cultist won a Nobel laureate makes him better than most African artists?

You are too young to point such finger at an accomplished man like Achebe.

All these nonsense would have been laid down if your grandfather Awolowo allowed the Eastern region to break away as agreed but he became an opportunist just to gain meager favour which has led your region no way.

Shut up if you don't know what to say!

melow666:


Achebe wrote poems and fictional and non-fiction work, he also was a radio presenter at one time in his career. The ability to raise from the dead, a once lost civilization, dead and misconstrued is why i would prefer him. A told an African story, the way it should be told.

Well, i have my own bias and the non-extant Prof Soyinka with his recent politics and antics coupled with his indigestible work does not put him in my favor, thus i am not neutral nor objective, but i believe AI might provide some bit of objectivity and remove any inherent bias as it cannot have one. So let us ask Chat GPT then. Find attached.

KoshCAD:
Mumu, master of known but won the greatest award.

Wetin your so called master in story telling win?

BlowYourMind:
Chinua Achebe died miserable, full of confusion and anguish, he was attacking wole Soyinka and yorubas because he could reach the height WS got to, what a life, that is the same thing that happened to the bitter grieving obi, he too is on bitterness and anguish on rampage and his people with them, Achebe full of wrath and depression thought he deserved the prize Wole Soyinka got with his mediocrity and bitter grieving obi thought he deserved presidency by causing mayhem and chaos, no mediocre can go through the backdoor to get anything.
God bless Wole Soyinka the nemesis of bitter grieving obi.

KoshCAD:
Lol, he's unpopular,

It is your father that is popular.

Why are we not talking about your father and his work today? Abi he's not man like Soyinka?

kettykin:


How many of these sold upto 100,000 copies outside the shores of Nigeria. Most of these are short poems and drama and not novels . It is novels that rule the world of literature and not poems.nibhave friends and relatives that have written more poems than this. In this artificial intelligence age , I can surpass this poems and plays in 24 hours

raskymonojendor:
Even the prolific writer, Chimamanda, gave Soyinka the flowers. She knows no one comes close to Prof Soyinka in literature in Nigeria. Soyinka's works are advanced university level stuff for brilliant minds. Similar to the likes of advanced stuff from einstein and other Nobel laureate. Low IQ people find them hard to understand.

The only book I read of Achebe was Chike and the river in primary school where he portrayed Ibo people as lowly people that needed Lagos to survive.

gistray:

It is Soyinka who was bitter.

He held more than 100 interviews trying to demarket Achebe after taking Cannabis.

Paystack:


They gave it to him with a white man by his side my boy.

To tell you the award 🥇 is shyte

That award was created by one individual Alfred Nobel who didn't know what to do with his ill gotten wealth

Putinofrussia:
Achebe was just a mere story teller.
Soyinka is more of a genius.
This is Soyinka's showcase:
Plays

Keffi's Birthday Treat (1954)
The Invention (1957)
The Swamp Dwellers (1958)
A Quality of Violence (1959)[134]
The Lion and the Jewel (1959)
The Trials of Brother Jero (1960)
A Dance of the Forests (1960)
My Father's Burden (1960)
The Strong Breed (1964)
Before the Blackout (1964)
Kongi's Harvest (1964)
The Road (1965)
Madmen and Specialists (1970)
The Bacchae of Euripides (1973)
Camwood on the Leaves (1973)
Jero's Metamorphosis (1973)
Death and the King's Horseman (1975)
Opera Wonyosi (1977)
Requiem for a Futurologist (1983)
A Play of Giants (1984)
Childe Internationale (1987)[135][136]
From Zia with Love (1992)
The Detainee (radio play)
A Scourge of Hyacinths (radio play)
The Beatification of the Area Boy (1996)
Document of Identity (radio play, 1999)
King Baabu (2001)
Etiki Revu Wetin
Alapata Apata (2011)
"Thus Spake Orunmila" (in Sixty-Six Books (2011)


Novels

The Interpreters (1965)
Season of Anomy (1973)
Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth (Bookcraft, Nigeria; Bloomsbury, UK; Pantheon, US, 2021)[138][139]
Harmattan Haze on an African Spring
Short stories

A Tale of Two (1958)
Egbe's Sworn Enemy (1960)
Madame Etienne's Establishment (1960)
Memoirs

The Man Died: Prison Notes (1972)
Aké: The Years of Childhood (1981)
Ibadan: The Penkelemes Years: a memoir 1945–1965 (1989)
Ìsarà: A Voyage around Essay (1989)
You Must Set Forth at Dawn (2006)
Climate of Fear (Literature) (2005)
Poetry collections

Telephone Conversation (1963) (appeared in Modern Poetry in Africa)
Idanre and other poems (1967)
A Big Airplane Crashed into The Earth (original title Poems from Prison) (1969)
A Shuttle in the Crypt (1971)
Ogun Abibiman (1976)
Mandela's Earth and other poems (1988)
Early Poems (1997)
Samarkand and Other Markets I Have Known (2002)
Essays

"Towards a True Theater" (1962)
Culture in Transition (1963)
Neo-Tarzanism: The Poetics of Pseudo-Transition
A Voice That Would Not Be Silenced
Art, Dialogue, and Outrage: Essays on Literature and Culture (1988)
From Drama and the African World View (1976)
Myth, Literature, and the African World (1976)
The Blackman and the Veil (1990)[141]
The Credo of Being and Nothingness (1991)
The Burden of Memory – The Muse of Forgiveness (1999)
A Climate of Fear (the BBC Reith Lectures 2004, audio and transcripts)
New Imperialism (2009)
Of Africa (2012)[143]
Beyond Aesthetics: Use, Abuse, and Dissonance in African Art Traditions (2019)

Films

Kongi's Harvest
Culture in Transition
Blues for a Prodigal
Translations

The Forest of a Thousand Demons: A Hunter's Saga (1968; a translation of D. O. Fagunwa's Ògbójú Ọdẹ nínú Igbó Irúnmalẹ̀)
In the Forest of Olodumare (2010; a translation of D. O. Fagunwa's Igbo Olodumare)
..

ObaOfBeninNahMu:


You see why we don't support mad people giving birth? You are the reason

Beebling:


Oh how do know my father is mad ? thank you for telling me

confusedlady:



How someone can ever compare Achebe to Soyinka beats me hollow....
In fact no proper student of literature can ever do this because Soyinka transcends all genre of literature while Achebe is grossly limited in his range.


Soyinka writes prose,poetry and drama.

Achebe is limited to prose and a few poems....

In fact while Soyinka was at the University as a lecturer,his books were being used as basis for awarding doctorate degrees to professors.

Achebe is a good prose writer but Soyimka writes prose,poetry and drama. This is a no brainer. There is just no basis for comparism.

Raf4:


That's a statement of facts.
Was Achebe father of African literature?