How They Killed Deborah Samuel, Abduct Chibok Girls Over Religion – Soyinka

Nigerian playwright and novelist, Prof. Wole Soyinka on Sunday, recalled how over a hundred secondary school girls were abducted in Chibok, Borno State years ago and how a Christian girl, Deborah Samuel, was killed recently in Sokoto State by her colleagues in the name of religion.

Soyinka described the events as regrettable. He berated the atrocities Nigerians and Africans commit against one another in the name of religion.

Naija News reports that Soyinka made reference to the two events while explaining why he doesn’t belong to any religion.

Soyinka explained his position yesterday during the public presentation of his two-volume collection of essays, Of Power and Freedom and the forthcoming release of a collection of poems.

The event tagged A Special Soyinka Retrospective was held at Alliance Francaise, Mike Adenuga Centre in Ikoyi, Lagos.

I Am Not A Christian, Muslim or An Orisa Worshipper

A journalist, writer and Executive Editor of TheNEWS/PMNEWS, Kunle Ajibade, threw a question to the Nobble Laurette on Sunday, during the Q&A session about his religious status.

Ajibade asked: “You say in one of the essays in Of Power and Freedom that you are not a Christian, you are not a Muslim and you are not an Orisa worshipper. And that you use the gods of these religions merely as mythological constructs. But what exactly is your religion?”

Without hesitation, Soyinka replied that he was neither a Christian, Muslim or Orisa worshipper and had never felt he needed any religion.

The renowned poet explained that he does not worship any deity but that he considers deities creatively real and are his companions in his journey in both the real and imaginative worlds.

The Nobel Laureate, who stopped short of saying deities are mythological beings people create or project, also said he is a mythologist and believes that people have a right and cannot help creating mythologies around themselves, their experience about what they project from the inner recesses of their minds as answers to questions.

Soyinka said, “Do I really need one (religion)? I have never felt I needed one. I am a mythologist. I believe that people have a right and cannot help creating mythologies around themselves, around their experiences about what they project from the inner recesses of their minds as answers to questions.

“And so I find nothing wrong with utilizing mythologies as part and parcel of my creative warehouse.

“But religion? No I don’t worship any deity. But I consider deities as creatively real and therefore my companions in my journey in both the real and imaginative worlds.”

The Q&A session was the concluding part of the programme, which had a panel of discussants do justice to exciting discourses around the life and works of Soyinka, Naija News understands.

The discussants are Professor Awam Amkpa, Dean of the School of Humanities, New York University Abu Dhabi, who spoke on Soyinka’s Global Humanism: Professor Okey Ndibe, writer and journalist, who spoke on Soyinka’s Scholarship and Nigeria/World Politics:

Dr Razinat Muhammed, Dept of English, University of Abuja, spoke on Soyinka & His Women; Ms Achalugo Chioma Ilozumba, writer and lawyer, did justice to Soyinka & The Young Writers; and Mr Tade Ipadeola, Poet, lawyer and winner Nigeria Prize for Literature, spoke on The Old & New Poetries of Soyinka.

Amkpa’s discourse revolved around the threat people pose to humanistic ideals in Africa and the globe by their nefarious activities and evil acts against their fellow humans. He posed a question echoing what had been asked earlier in Rome, whether Soyinka was the last humanist standing.