The 2025 IATL Honorary Fellowship: Wole Soyinka

The 2025 IATL Honorary Fellowship is awarded to Wole Soyinka, Nigerian playwright, poet, scholar and political activist whose work has transformed both world literature and contemporary thought. In 1986, he became the first African writer to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, for his ”vivid, often harrowing” works marked by an ”evocative, poetically intensified diction.”

Soyinka’s impact on the world of contemporary literature and theatre is profound and enduring. His multifaceted oeuvre comprises plays like The Lion and the Jewel and Death and the King’s Horseman, novels such as The Interpreters and Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth, poetry collections including Idanre and Poems from Prison, cultural criticism, and memoirs. His essays, especially Myth, Literature, and the African World, position his work as a vital bridge between African heritage and global theatre.

For decades, Soyinka has been using his voice and visibility to challenge authoritarianism, defend democracy, and promote social justice in Africa and beyond. His outspoken commitment to democracy and human rights – often at the cost of imprisonment and exile – has made him a beacon of moral and artistic truthfulness. In recent years, he has addressed urgent global concerns within international forums, participating in UNESCO and UN-organised debates, where his reflections link the ethics of artistic creation to the defence of human dignity in contemporary society.

The IATL Fellowship celebrates Wole Soyinka as a complex personality whose vision embodies the values of artistic integrity, critical courage, and cultural responsibility that guide theatre leaders everywhere. The IATL family worldwide welcomes Professor Soyinka and salutes him as a living symbol of artistic excellence and ethical leadership that can illuminate the world’s most challenging realities.