Literary icon, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has said that despite the bleak realities confronting Nigeria, hope is not totally lost on the country.
According to Soyinka, Nigerians are still managing to eke out a living regardless of the odds.
The Noble Laureate spoke during an interview with the Cable News Network, while alluding to the ironic title for his first novel in 48 years, Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth.
He said things happened around one as one grew up, witnessing the degrading of dream and environment in the society and world over.
Soyinka stated that “I found intuitively, that only prose fiction can handle things that have been bubbling up inside me.”
He said the title of his prose came after some people, years ago, conducted a poll which placed Nigeria among the top four happiest nations in the world.
“That thing has been with me, in my head. I asked, ‘Who are these people? What do they know? What have they seen? What have they experienced in Nigeria that they make such an attribution?’
That title really has been waiting to answer that claim in many ways. When you look at the surroundings, everything is the opposite and yet, Nigeria is not a complete disaster.
“People still manage to eke out a living not only a living but to some extent a dignified and satisfied living.
I think it’s not surface appearance of contentment or making the best of a really bad job, insisting that no matter what, life must go on… It’s that which needed to be, quote and unquote, celebrated in addition to the bleak actualities.”
On his reaction to Donald Trump’s election as president of the United States, he said, “I never really totally turned my back on the United States. I mean how could one? We have many Nigerians there, to start with.
When I stroll through the streets of the United States, I sometimes think the United States is an extension of Nigeria, that it’s part of our diaspora. That’s not an easy decision but it was inevitable.”
