"As is often the case with Nobel laureates, Soyinka had come very close to winning the prize the year before (1985), and the resulting disappointment of expectations had provided the Nigerian press with an occasion for a dress rehearsal of what would prove to be fierce and prolonged debates over the value of the Nobel Prize in Africa. A clear majority of those who participated in the debates desired this recognition for their compatriot, expressing dismay that Soyinka had been passed over in favor of Claude Simon (one of the less prominent founders of the French nouveau roman) and renewing the call for an African laureate. But Soyinka's critics, who had been attacking him for his "Euromodernist" orientation since the 1970s, saw no more reason for ordinary Africans to covet the Nobel Prize than for them to admire Soyinka's "unintelligible" plays and poetry. Indeed, according to Soyinka's nemesis, a critic and newspaper columnist named Chinweizu, the two made a perfect match: a Nobel for Soyinka would be a nice instance of "the undesirable honoring the unreadable." (3) For Chinweizu and others, the playwright's selection by the Swedish academicians, far from constituting an act of welcome recognition of Nigeria's and Africa's formidable literary achievements, would simply affirm Europeanprejudices regarding African cultural deficiency."
- Ikhide
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