Université de Cocody-Abidjan

Introduction

“There is a raging fire in the minds of many of our citizens, and we had better
put it out before it leaps forth and consumes the nation1’’
The bulk of the literature on the period of increasing disturbances in Nigeria
must be seen as an attempt by Nigerian writers to re-assert their moral commitment to
the political and social plight of their country. In this process, Soyinka occupies a
unique position. Perhaps, no other Nigeria living artist today embodies the hope, the
despair, and the great talents than Soyinka.
His writings set in the period of social crisis in Nigeria between 1966 and 1970
point out the quest for human freedom by the weight of critical spirit. This finds its
expression in Idanre and Other Poems (1967), Madmen and Specialists (1971), A
Shuttle in Crypt (1972), and The Man Died (1972). But Season of Anomy (1973) is
much more infuriating, for it is a pretext for the author to put out the raging fury in the
mind of his country men before it leaps and consumes again the whole nation.

 

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