UNILAG To Host 4-Day International Conference... As Wole Soyinka Turns 80

The University of Lagos (UNILAG) will be hosting a four-day international conference in collaboration with the the Wole Soyinka Society (WSS) as in celebration of the 80th birthday of Nobel Laureate Professor Wole Soyinka.

"In collaboration with the University of Lagos, the Society aims to hold the 2014 Wole Soyinka conference to coincide with the celebration of Akinwande Oluwole Soyinka's 80th birthday and to also commemorate one of the Society's founding members, Esiaba Irobi (1/10/1960 - 3/3/2010)," WSS announced on its website.

Prof. Soyinka will turn 80 on the 13th of July.

Titled the and with the theme the conference will hold from July 10th to July 14th 2014."

Prof. Biodun Jeyifo of Harvard University will present the keynote lecture entitled:

During the four-day conference, there will be five plenary sessions, each preceded by a keynote address by distinguished scholars: Professor Niyi Osundare (Nigeria); Professor Isidore Diala (Nigeria); Professor Motsa Zodwa (South Africa); Professor Anjali Gera Roy (India) and Dr James Gibbs (Britain).

Also, an adaptation of Soyinka’s Trials of Brother Jero, titled 'Haba Pastor Jero', sketches from Soyinka’s and A Dance of the Forests, will be presented.

According to a public announcement, the conference aims "to promote the perpetuation of the cultural and artistic legacy of Professor Soyinka."

"What the conference sets out to do is to incite excursions into the interface between art & humanity and the interface between humanity, as a subject of a permanent process of transitions," WSS wrote.

The maiden edition of Wole Soyinka International Conference was held in 2004 at the University of Florida in Orlando as the Wole Soyinka Festival.