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    A Study Guide for Wole Soyinka's "Civilian and Soldier"
    A Study Guide for Wole Soyinka's "Civilian and Soldier"
    A Study Guide for Wole Soyinka's "Civilian and Soldier"
    Ebook31 pages12 minutes

    A Study Guide for Wole Soyinka's "Civilian and Soldier"

    By Gale and Cengage

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    About this ebook

    A Study Guide for Wole Soyinka's "Civilian and Soldier," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Poetry for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Poetry for Students for all of your research needs.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCengage Learning - Gale
    Release dateSep 28, 2016
    ISBN9781535820851
    A Study Guide for Wole Soyinka's "Civilian and Soldier"

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      A Study Guide for Wole Soyinka's "Civilian and Soldier" - Gale

      12

      Civilian and Soldier

      Wole Soyinka

      1967

      Introduction

      Wole Soyinka's poem Civilian and Soldier was written as a response to the rising violence in his native Nigeria in late 1966, a situation that soon led to a three-year-long civil war. In the poem, Soyinka presents a civilian who has recently been shot to death, speaking as a ghost to the man who shot him. He is not angry at the soldier, but he is certain that the soldier does not understand the cause of his own actions, or why he is spreading destruction across the land. He imagines the day that the soldier will be killed in combat, and thinks that then, finally, it will be time to teach him a lesson about life.

      Soyinka is one of the greatest writers Nigeria has ever produced. He publishes poetry infrequently, having made his reputation as a dramatist. His plays have been produced in theaters around the world. In 1986, he was the first black African to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

      The collection in which this poem appeared, Idanre and Other Poems, was published just as the Nigerian civil war began in 1967. Soyinka, who has always advocated political involvement in his plays and in his teaching, was arrested during the war and imprisoned for twenty-two months, though no charges were ever brought against him. In addition to being recognized for his writing, he is internationally acclaimed for his efforts to bring attention to the struggles of African nations, and for bringing Yoruba literary traditions to an international

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