Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has revealed that he has made preparations for his eventual passing. Soyinka, who turned 90 on July 13, 2024, and whose birthday was celebrated worldwide, made this statement during an exclusive interview with Larry Madowo, host of CNN\u2019s African Voices Changemakers and Playmakers series. The interview aired on Saturday, September 21, 2024.<\/p>\n
Towards the end of the discussion, where Soyinka reflected on topics such as writing, activism, his time in prison, and his 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature, Madowo asked, \u201cNow that you have your own legal piece of earth here, what is your new future?\u201d<\/p>\n
In response, Soyinka, while not wanting to sound morbid, suggested that his future involved his eventual transition, adding that he had already made arrangements for this within his estate.<\/p>\n
Surprised by the answer, Madowo laughed and said, \u201cThat\u2019s the most morbid answer anyone has ever given me. You\u2019ve made arrangements for your death?\u201d<\/p>\n
Soyinka calmly replied, \u201cMany people don\u2019t like to hear it. As I always say, I won\u2019t avoid it here either. Everyone knows what we\u2019re talking about; it\u2019s where we\u2019re all headed. It\u2019s a future for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Madowo attempted to lighten the mood, interjecting, \u201cBut before you die…\u201d<\/p>\n
Soyinka later shifted to a more pragmatic response, explaining that his immediate plan was to take a vacation and refocus on personal enjoyment rather than public commitments.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn terms of productivity, the immediate thing is to go on a vacation. I plan to make a formal resolution\u2014judicially attested\u2014not to grant any more interviews or engage in writing, but to simply resume activities that once gave me pleasure, which I had rigorously set aside to pursue my vocation. I\u2019m not going to dwell on it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI also plan to just travel as a tourist somewhere, anywhere in the world, for a week or two. I\u2019m really looking forward to that,\u201d Soyinka concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has revealed that he has made preparations for his eventual passing. Soyinka, who turned 90 on July 13, 2024, and whose birthday was celebrated worldwide, made this statement during an exclusive interview with Larry Madowo, host of CNN\u2019s African Voices Changemakers and Playmakers series. The interview aired on Saturday, September 21, 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19662,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[8961,84,8962,866],"class_list":["post-19660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-cnn-african-voice","tag-death","tag-interview","tag-wole-soyinka"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19660"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19660"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19660\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19661,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19660\/revisions\/19661"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}