Dialogue: Conversations Across the Diaspora with guest Wole Soyinka

An interactive series brings you eclectic conversations from across the African Diaspora. Join author and host Sarah Ladipo Manyika for talks with some of the most exciting voices from Berlin to Harare, from Tamale to London and New York and everywhere in between. We introduce you to all sorts of folks—some you will know, others you may never have heard of, but never the usual suspects talking about the usual topics. We speak with everyone from actors to poets, scholars, athletes, entrepreneurs, architects, artists and many more.  

This month we feature a conversation between Sarah Ladipo Manyika and Nobel laureate, author, playwright, poet and political activist Wole Soyinka. Professor Soyinka is publishing his first work of fiction in nearly 50 years, Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth. After you register you will receive information to join via zoom on September 30 at 12 noon (Pacific Daylight Time) / 8pm (UK/Lagos). If you don’t see an email from MoAD in your inbox, please check your spam or junk mailbox.

Wole Soyinka was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1986. Born in Abeokuta, Nigeria, in 1934, he is an author, playwright, poet and political activist whose prolific body of work includes The Interpreters, his debut novel that was published in 1965, and Death and the King’s Horseman, a play that was first performed in 1976. Soyinka was twice jailed in Nigeria for his criticism of the Nigerian government, and he destroyed his U.S. Green Card in 2016 when Donald Trump was elected president of the United States.

Sarah Ladipo Manyika was raised in Nigeria and has lived in Kenya, France, Zimbabwe and England. She is a novelist, short story writer and essayist and founding books editor for Ozy.com. Her debut novel, In Dependence, is an international bestseller while her second novel, Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun, has been translated into a number of languages. Her nonfiction includes personal essays and intimate profiles of people she meets from Mrs. Harris and Pastor Evan Mawarire to Toni Morrison, Margaret Busby and Michelle Obama. She previously served on MoAD’s board and currently serves as Board President for the women’s writing residency, Hedgebrook. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a San Francisco Public Library Laureate and a member of the National Books Critics Circle.

Learn about past Conversations Across the Diaspora programs, including links to recordings of the events on MoAD’s blog.

This program series is made possible by the generous support of Peggy Woodford Forbes.

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