Wole Soyinka is a Nobel laureate and a major political force in his native Nigeria, though the civil war in that country and the dictatorships that have ruled it have made it necessary for Soyinka to live elsewhere. His poetry reflects not merely his experience but the experience of Nigeria. Okot p'Bitek is another poet who has addressed many of the same issues, treating to many of the same tensions caused by the Nigerian civil war from his native Uganda. Both writers are creating a new literature that draws on the colonial past of their countries to find a literary accommodation between European and African traditions. Monye refers to the way Africans have been portrayed in the works of European writers such as conrad and states,
I believe that it is in reaction to this kind of portraiture of their people that modern African writers like Chinua Achebe, Ngugi Wa Thiong'o, Ayi Kwei Armah, Wole Soyinka, Christopher Okigbo, Okot P'Bitek, etc. have taken up the challenge to tell the story of their people and not to allow outsiders to do it for them (Monye corso.ccsu.ctstateu.edu/ctrev/af_lit.htm).
These writers are also reacting to the way their people have been subjected to political and social control, first from the colonial powers, since then to military dictatorships. Each poet also reflects a belief in the power of the movement toward democracy and freedom.
Nigeria was a British crown colony and protectorate before independence on October 1, 1960. It is the largest of the coastal states of West Africa, and it has been calculated that at least one of every four Africans is a Nigerian. Political consciousness developed in the 1920s as a by-product of Western education, lading to a number of nationalist movements. These groups were united in opposition to British rule, but they were not in agreement over what should ultimately replace the colonial system. Their disagreements were exacerbated by ethnic cleavages ran...