Literary Work of Wole Soyinka

With a career spanning more than six decades, Soyinka is widely regarded as one of the most important literary figures of the twentieth century, and his works have had a significant impact on African and world literature. Find below a compilation of books, poems, plays, and more created by Wole Soyinka.

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Public Lectures
TitleTypeYear
Keffi’s Birthday TreatPlay1954
The InventionPlay1957
The Swamp DwellersPlay1958
A Quality of ViolencePlay1959
The Lion and the JewelPlay1959
The Trials of Brother JeroPlay1960
A Dance of the ForestsPlay1960
My Father’s BurdenPlay1964
The Strong BreedPlay1964
Before the BlackoutPlay1964
Kongi’s HarvestPlay1964
The RoadPlay1965
Madmen and SpecialistsPlay1970
The Bacchae of EuripidesPlay1973
Camwood on the LeavesPlay1973
Jero’s MetamorphosisPlay1973
Death and the King’s HorsemanPlay1975
Opera WonyosiPlay1977
Requiem for a FuturologistPlay1983
A Play of GiantsPlay1984
From Zia, with LovePlay1992
The Detainee (radio play)Play
A Scourge of Hyacinths (radio play)Play
The Beatification of Area BoyPlay1996
Document of Identity (radio play)Play1999
King BaabuPlay2001
Etiki Revu WetinPlay1983
Alapata ApataPlay2011
“Thus Spake Orunmila” (in Sixty-Six Books“Thus Spake Orunmila” (in Sixty-Six Books)Play2011
“Towards a True Theater”Essay1962
Culture in TransitionCulture in TransitionEssay1963
Neo-Tarzanism: The Poetics of Pseudo-TransitionEssay1975
Art, Dialogue, and Outrage: Essays on Literature and CultureEssay1988
From Drama and the African World ViewEssay1976
Myth, Literature, and the African WorldEssay1976
The Blackman and the VeilEssay1990
The Credo of Being and NothingnessEssay1991
The Burden of Memory – The Muse of ForgivenessEssay1999
A Climate of Fear (the BBC Reith Lectures, audio and transcripts)Essay2004
New ImperialismEssay2009
Of AfricaEssay2012
Beyond Aesthetics: Use, Abuse, and Dissonance in African Art TraditionsEssay2019
The InterpretersNovel1965
Season of AnomyNovel1973
Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on EarthNovel2021
A Tale of TwoShort story1958
Egbe’s Sworn EnemyShort story1960
Madame Etienne’s EstablishmentShort story1960
Kongi’s HarvestFilm
Culture in TransitionFilm
Blues for a ProdigalFilm
Idanre and other poemsPoem Collection1967
A Big Airplane Crashed into The Earth (original title Poems from Prison)Poem Collection1969
A Shuttle in the CryptPoem Collection1971
Ogun AbibimanPoem Collection1976
Mandela’s Earth and other poemsPoem Collection1988
Early PoemsPoem Collection1997
Samarkand and Other Markets I Have KnownPoem Collection2002
Telephone Conversation (appeared in Modern Poetry in Africa)Poem1963
AbikuPoem
NightPoem
Civilian And SoldierPoem
In the small hoursPoem
DedicationPoem
I think it rainsPoem
Procession I – Hanging dayPoem
Post mortemPoem
To my first white hairsPoem
IV The BeginningPoem
Animistic Spells, I -XIVPoem
GulliverPoem
CapitalPoem
UlyssesPoem
Fado SingerPoem
The Man Died: Prison NotesMemoir1972
Aké: The Years of ChildhoodMemoir1981
Ibadan: The Penkelemes Years: a memoir 1945–1965Memoir1989
Ìsarà: A Voyage around EssayMemoir1989
You Must Set Forth at DawnMemoir2006
The Forest of a Thousand Demons: A Hunter’s Saga (a translation of D. O. Fagunwa’s Ògbójú Ọdẹ nínú Igbó Irúnmalẹ̀)Translation1968
In the Forest of Olodumare (a translation of D. O. Fagunwa’s Igbo Olodumare)Translation2010
The Open Sore of a Continent: A Personal Narrative of the Nigerian CrisisEssay1996
Harmattan Haze On An African SpringEssay2012
Of Power and Freedom - Vol 1Essay2022
Of Power and Freedom - Vol 2Essay2012
Childe InternationalePlay1987
Selected Poems 1965-2022 - A RetrospectivePoem Collection2023
TitleTypeYear
Keffi’s Birthday TreatPlay1954
The InventionPlay1957
The Swamp DwellersPlay1958
A Quality of ViolencePlay1959
The Lion and the JewelPlay1959
The Trials of Brother JeroPlay1960
A Dance of the ForestsPlay1960
My Father’s BurdenPlay1964
The Strong BreedPlay1964
Before the BlackoutPlay1964
Kongi’s HarvestPlay1964
The RoadPlay1965
Madmen and SpecialistsPlay1970
The Bacchae of EuripidesPlay1973
Camwood on the LeavesPlay1973
Jero’s MetamorphosisPlay1973
Death and the King’s HorsemanPlay1975
Opera WonyosiPlay1977
Requiem for a FuturologistPlay1983
A Play of GiantsPlay1984
From Zia, with LovePlay1992
The Detainee (radio play)Play
A Scourge of Hyacinths (radio play)Play
The Beatification of Area BoyPlay1996
Document of Identity (radio play)Play1999
King BaabuPlay2001
Etiki Revu WetinPlay1983
Alapata ApataPlay2011
“Thus Spake Orunmila” (in Sixty-Six Books“Thus Spake Orunmila” (in Sixty-Six Books)Play2011
Childe InternationalePlay1987
TitleTypeYear
“Towards a True Theater”Essay1962
Culture in TransitionCulture in TransitionEssay1963
Neo-Tarzanism: The Poetics of Pseudo-TransitionEssay1975
Art, Dialogue, and Outrage: Essays on Literature and CultureEssay1988
From Drama and the African World ViewEssay1976
Myth, Literature, and the African WorldEssay1976
The Blackman and the VeilEssay1990
The Credo of Being and NothingnessEssay1991
The Burden of Memory – The Muse of ForgivenessEssay1999
A Climate of Fear (the BBC Reith Lectures, audio and transcripts)Essay2004
New ImperialismEssay2009
Of AfricaEssay2012
Beyond Aesthetics: Use, Abuse, and Dissonance in African Art TraditionsEssay2019
The Open Sore of a Continent: A Personal Narrative of the Nigerian CrisisEssay1996
Harmattan Haze On An African SpringEssay2012
Of Power and Freedom - Vol 1Essay2022
Of Power and Freedom - Vol 2Essay2012
TitleTypeYear
The InterpretersNovel1965
Season of AnomyNovel1973
Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on EarthNovel2021
TitleTypeYear
A Tale of TwoShort story1958
Egbe’s Sworn EnemyShort story1960
Madame Etienne’s EstablishmentShort story1960
TitleTypeYear
Kongi’s HarvestFilm
Culture in TransitionFilm
Blues for a ProdigalFilm
TitleTypeYear
Idanre and other poemsPoem Collection1967
A Big Airplane Crashed into The Earth (original title Poems from Prison)Poem Collection1969
A Shuttle in the CryptPoem Collection1971
Ogun AbibimanPoem Collection1976
Mandela’s Earth and other poemsPoem Collection1988
Early PoemsPoem Collection1997
Samarkand and Other Markets I Have KnownPoem Collection2002
Telephone Conversation (appeared in Modern Poetry in Africa)Poem1963
AbikuPoem
Civilian And SoldierPoem
In the small hoursPoem
DedicationPoem
I think it rainsPoem
Procession I – Hanging dayPoem
NightPoem
Post mortemPoem
To my first white hairsPoem
IV The BeginningPoem
Animistic Spells, I -XIVPoem
GulliverPoem
CapitalPoem
UlyssesPoem
Fado SingerPoem
Selected Poems 1965-2022 - A RetrospectivePoem Collection2023
TitleTypeYear
The Man Died: Prison NotesMemoir1972
Aké: The Years of ChildhoodMemoir1981
Ibadan: The Penkelemes Years: a memoir 1945–1965Memoir1989
Ìsarà: A Voyage around EssayMemoir1989
You Must Set Forth at DawnMemoir2006
TitleTypeYear
The Forest of a Thousand Demons: A Hunter’s Saga (a translation of D. O. Fagunwa’s Ògbójú Ọdẹ nínú Igbó Irúnmalẹ̀)Translation1968
In the Forest of Olodumare (a translation of D. O. Fagunwa’s Igbo Olodumare)Translation2010