Wole Soyinka is 92 years old as of October 2026. He was born on 13 July 1934.
Nigerian playwright and poet of Death and the King's Horseman who became the first African to win the Nobel Prize in Literature
Did you know?He was the first African writer to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, receiving the honour in the mid-1980s.
Quick facts
Date of birth13 July 1934
Age92
NationalityNigerian
BirthplaceOgun State, Nigeria
Occupationplaywright, poet, translator
Editor's Take:
Wole Soyinka became the first African to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. He grew up in western Nigeria in a Yoruba family and studied at Ibadan and Leeds. In London he worked at the Royal Court Theatre. His plays, such as Death and the King's Horseman, blend Yoruba myth with Western drama. During the Nigerian civil war he was jailed for 22 months, mostly in solitary confinement. He wrote The Man Died about the experience. He has spent much of his life opposing military rulers. He won the Nobel in 1986.
Akinwande Oluwole Babatunde Soyinka (born 13 July 1934) is a Nigerian writer, playwright, and poet. He has written three novels, ten collections of short stories, seven poetry collections, twenty-five plays and five memoirs.
