My Hope Is That We Wouldn’t Be Going All the Way to Abu Dhabi to Watch African Theatre — Soyinka

N Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has expressed gratitude and nostalgia as the National Theatre in Lagos was renamed in his honor, but admitted that he accepted the gesture with “mixed feelings.”

Speaking at the ceremony attended by President Bola Tinubu, top government officials, traditional rulers, colleagues, students, and admirers, Soyinka reflected on his long-standing criticisms of leaders who appropriated public monuments by naming them after themselves.

“I accept this honour with mixed feelings,” he began. “First of all, I’m notorious for having criticized so many appropriations, personal appropriations of public monuments by some of our past leaders, in which we end up everything is named after them. About 25% of monuments are well and truly deserved, but I have to stand up in public and watch my name being put up as yet another appropriator. It just didn’t sit very well on me.”

Recalling his past opposition to such practices, he said he once challenged a former president in Abuja over naming a major road after “one of the most brutal and venal rulers we’ve ever had in this country.”

However, Soyinka explained that he reconsidered after reflecting on the history of theatre in Nigeria and his predecessors in the arts, including Yubato Gode, Dolai Dipo, Fibberissima, Akuyuba, and Akpavot, who laid the foundation for Nigerian performance culture.

“By the time I looked at all of them, I said, well, somebody has to carry the can. And if a group of bankers have got together, using some of my money also—I bank with them after all—in order to honor me, what’s wrong with that? I said, accept it,” he remarked.

Soyinka also shared personal nostalgia, recalling the National Theatre’s original construction under a military regime, when it was mockingly nicknamed “the general’s hat” because of its roof design. He described its foreign origins, noting it was modeled after a Bulgarian Palais des Sports, not a true theatre.

He lamented the theatre’s decay over the years, describing it as a slum. “When Lagos was celebrating 50 years and we looked for a hub, one of the places we visited was here. I told them, plant a bomb, blow it up. It was a desert, a slum. And these bankers have now made me eat my words. If eating one’s words produces a morsel like this, then it’s a very tasty set of words.”

Recounting personal experiences with the theatre, he said: “This building owes me. It nearly electrocuted two of my actors during a performance because of leaking roofs and exposed wires. I nearly lost two performers here. That was definitely one debt it owed me.”

He also recalled when artists approached him to protest against an attempt by private investors to take over the building. “I told them, go and thank anybody foolish enough to want to take it over,” he said, noting that the current renovation by the banking consortium proved him wrong.

On a lighter note, Soyinka said he felt like a “dramatic creation” himself, recounting coincidences such as being flown in from Abu Dhabi where he had just attended a festival of African theatre, and even being kidnapped at 91 on his way to a theatre festival.

“These bankers did some research and said, this character is really a dramatic piece of work himself. Let’s name it after him. And they thought, if theatre dries off, if writers, directors, choreographers run out of material, they only need to look at that name and create theatre around him.”

While accepting the honor, he reminded the audience that he represents a collective tradition. “I merely represent the preoccupation and commitment of others like Yubato Gunde, Bernard Adi from Senegal, Sonny Labutansi, Wereleke from Cameroon, and many others. My hope is that with the recreation of this building, this institution, we wouldn’t be going all the way to Abu Dhabi to watch African theatre.”

Soyinka concluded by thanking President Tinubu, whom he called “a great conspirator,” the banking consortium, and all those involved in transforming the National Theatre into what he described as a symbol worthy of the continent’s cultural heritage.