The Interpreter: Ritual, Violence and Social Regeneration in the Writing of Wole Soyinka

A concern for social regeneration stands as the factor that animates Soyinka’s life-long involvement in social and political activism, leading to his incarceration for two years during the civil war, and his having to flee into exile during the period of Sani Abacha’s dictatorship. Soyinka expresses this same concern for social regeneration in his writings, using different metaphors.

The focus of this work lies then in the exploration of the articulations of social regeneration in the works of Wole Soyinka. The first part focuses on the dramatic works, and the argument of the author is that the metaphor adopted by Africa’s foremost playwright in articulating his vision of social regeneration is that of ritual. Attention shifts in part two to Soyinka’s two novels; and here, Bello goes to the roots of Yoruba metaphysics to fetch a metaphor which describes a creature with contradictory personality; which at once is committed to the regeneration of the social order while at the same time retaining a vindictive, vengeful nature.

In The Interpreters: Ritual, Violence and Social Regeneration, Hakeem Bello realizes an ambition which he has nursed since his undergraduate days: which is to produce an original study on the writings of Wole Soyinka, considered by him as one of the most fascinating writers of all time.