The Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) is currently putting finishing touches to arrangements to organize an Epic International Conference to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Wole Soyinka’s THE MAN DIED.
The Conference with the theme, Literature in the Cause of Governance—50 Years After Wole Soyinka’s, THE MAN DIED, will be supervised by an Organising Committee under the Chairmanship of Prof Gbemisola Adeoti of the Department of English OAU, Ile Ife, Nigeria.
The Conference will take place from January to July 2021 in five states of the federation. These are: Ekiti, Ebonyi, Kaduna, Akwa Ibom and Ogun states.
Major highlights of the events will include Book Readings, Essay Competitions for Students, Paper Presentations, Drama Adaptations and Anniversary Banquet.
The Man Died is a riveting account of the atrocities perpetrated by the military regime against the civil populace, in which the author was also a major victim – of solitary confinement without trial for 15 gruelling months. During the Nigerian Civil War (1967–1970) Wole Soyinka was arrested and incarcerated for twenty-two months, most of it spent in solitary confinement in a cell, 4ft by 8ft. His offence: assisting the Biafran secessionists.
The book now regarded as a classic of prison literature, is a product of this experience. What comes through in the compelling narrative is the author’s uncompromising, principled stand on the universality and indivisibility of freedom and human rights.
