Volume 13, Number 2 · July 31, 1969
Tribal Gods
By D.A.N. Jones
Idanre and Other Poems
by Wole Soyinka
Hill & Wang, 88 pp., $3.95 (available in paper in the fall ($1.75))
Plays from Black Africa
edited by Frederic Litto
Hill & Wang, 320 pp., $1.95 (paper)
Murderous Angels
by Conor Cruise O'Brien
Atlantic Monthly-Little, Brown, 216 pp., $5.75
These lines indicate some of the difficulties of reading Wole Soyinka, probably the best Yoruba poet writing in English. He now lies in jail, in the region named 'Nigeria' by Europeans, on the ground that he has offered comfort to a rival tribe, the Ibo of Biafra, against the will of the establishment of his own tribe and their masterful Hausa allies. It has been rumored that Soyinka has been tortured and driven mad; but, for several reasons, I would be surprised if these rumors came true. He is, however, sick with eye trouble and not receiving proper treatment.
Review, 3505 words
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