Nobels

Wole Soyinka

Primer africano ganador del premio Nobel de literatura (1986), Wole Soyinka se ha establecido como una de las fuerzas literarias más obligante en el continente. Nacio en Abeokuta, Nigeria, eL 13 de juio de 1934. Hombre universal: poeta, dramaturgo, novelista, crítico, conferencista, catedrático,actor, traductor, político, y editor.

La escritura de Soyinka mezcla lo africano con tradiciones culturales europeas, la seriedad de la literatura modernista de la élite, y la actualidad del teatro popular africano. Sus primeras poesías se pueden encontrar en una de las primeras ediciones de Black Orpheus y A Shuttle in the Crypt (1971), inspirada de su encarcelamiento durante la guerra civil nigeriana. El Hombre Murió (1972), resultante de sus anotaciones en la prision, fue publicado después de su liberación.

Soyinka está comprometido activamente con la justicia social, fogaz orador y figura pública que lo ha convertido en un símbolismo de realce a los valores humanos en el continente.

Él tiene sus raíces en los mitos de la gente de los Yoruba, los ritos, y los modelos culturales, que alternadamente tienen conexiones históricas con la región mediterránea. Con la educación en su pais y en Europa adquirio familiaridad profunda con la cultura occidental. Su colección de ensayos,: "Mitos de la literatura, y del mundo africano " lo hizo para aclarar y enriquecer la lectura. (cotizado por la Boston Globe, 1986).

Además de sus propias escrituras, Soyinka ha adaptado una coleccion de la obra clásica para satisfacer el contexto africano, incluyendo Euripedes el Bacchae, la ópera de Brecht Three Penny, y el Genet The Blacks. Mientras que algunos críticos africanos han acusado a Soyinka de acogerse mas a las tradiciones europeas que las nigerianas, él ha sostenido que " el tigre no tiene que hacer alarde de su tigritude, " una referencia al movimiento de Negritud de Paul Brians. En una entrevista entitulada " porqué soy un humanista secular, " Soyinka dice, " tomo la mayoría de mis metáforas del Worldview de Yoruba"

Wole Soyinka nació el 13 de julio de 1934 en Abeokuta, cerca de Ibadan en Nigeria occidental. Después de los estudios preparatorios en la universidad del gobierno en Ibadan en 1954, continuó en la universidad de Leeds, en donde, más adelante, en 1973, tomó su doctorate. Durante los seis años pasados en Inglaterra, fue dramaturgo en el Teatro de la Corte Real en Londres 1958-1959. En 1960, le otorgaron un Rockefeller Bursary y volvió a Nigeria para estudiar drama africano. En el mismo tiempo, él enseñó drama y literatura en varias universidades en Ibadan, Lagos, e Ife, donde, desde 1975, ha estado sirviendo de profesor de literatura comparativa. En 1960, fundó el grupo de teatro, " La Mascara de 1960" y en 1964, la " Compania de Teatro Orisun ", en el cual ha producido sus propios obras y ha participado como agente.

Durante la guerra civil en Nigeria, Soyinka abrogó en sus escritos por el alto al fuego pero fue arrestado en 1967, acusado de conspiración con los rebeldes de Biafra, y fue detenido como preso político por 22 meses hasta 1969.

Ha publicado cerca de 20 trabajos: dramas, novelas y poesías. Él escribe en inglés y su lenguaje literario es marcado por la gran riqueza de palabras. Como dramaturgo, ha sido influenciado por, entre otros, el escritor irlandés, J. M. Synge, pero se liga con el teatro africano popular tradicional por medio las combinaciones de danzas, de músicas, y movimiento corporal. . Él basa su escritura en la mitología de su propia tribu -- Yoruba -- con Ogun, el dios del hierro y de las guerras. Él escribió sus primeros teatros durante su estadía en Londres, Los Habitantes del Pantano y el León y la Joya (una comedia ligera), que fueron realizadas en lbadan en 1958 y 1959 y publicadss en 1963. Comedias satíricas son: El Jucio del hermano Jero (realizado en 1960, publ. 1963) y su secuela , Metamorfosis de Jero (realizada 1974, publ. 1973); Una Danza de los Bosques (realizada en 1960, publ. 1963); Cosecha de Kongi (realizada en 1965, publ. 1967) y Locos y Especialistas (realizadas en 1970, publ. 1971). Entre las obras filosóficas serias de Soyinca además de "Los Habitantes del Pantano". La Casta Fuerte, (realizadas 1966, publ. 1963); El Camino(1965) y "La Muerte y el Caballero del Rey" (realizada 1976, publ. 1975). El Bacchae de Euripides (1973), lo ha reescrito para una promocion africana y la ópera Wonyosi (realizado 1977, publ. 1981), se basó en la ópera Brecht del Mendigo Alegre de Juan la ópera de Threepenny. Las obras dramáticas mas recientes de Soyinka son Un Juego de Gigantes (1984) y Requiem para un Futurologo (1985).

Ha escrito dos novelas, Los Intérpretes (1965), narrativamente, un trabajo complicado que ha sido comparado con Joyce y Faulkner, en que seis intelectuales nigerianos discuten e interpretan sus experiencias africanas, y la Season of Anomy (1973) donde relata sus pensar y su reencuentro durante su encarcelamiento y enfrentan el mito de Orpheus y de Euridice con la mitología del Yoruba. Otra obra puramente autobiográfica, "El Hombre Murió: Notas en la Prisión" (1972) y el cuento de su niñez, Aké (1981). Sus ensayos literarios se recogen en la obra "Mitos, Literatura y el Mundo Africano"(1975).

Los poemas de Soyinka, que muestran una conexión cercana a su teatro, se recogen en "Idanre, y otros Poemas" (1967), Poemas desde la Prisión (I 969), A shuttle in the Crypt (una escala a la cripta)(I 972) y en El Poema Largo, (The Long Poem, Ogun Abibiman) (1976).

ESTA BIOGRAFIA TEMPORALMENTE EN INGLES,

ESTA SIENDO TRADUCIDA.

TONY MORRISON

1993

Born Chloe Anthony Wofford, in 1931 in Lorain (Ohio), the second of four children in a black working-class family.Displayed an early interest in literature. Studied humanities at Howard and Cornell Universities, followed by an academic career at TexasSouthern University, Howard University, Yale, and since 1989, a chair at Princeton University. She has also worked as an editor for Random House, a critic, and given numerous public lectures, specializing in African-American literature. She made her debut as a novelist in 1970, soon gaining the attention of both critics and a wider audience for her epic power, unerring ear for dialogue, and her poetically-charged and richly-expressive depictions of Black America. A member since 1981 of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, she has been Awarded a number of literary distinctions, among them the Pulitzer

Prize in 1988.

Novels

The Bluest Eye. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston 1970

Sula. New York: Knopf 1973

Song of Solomon. New York: Knopf 1977

Tar Baby. New York: Knopf 1981

Beloved. New York: Knopf 1987

Jazz. New York: Knopf 1992

Plays

Dreaming Emmet (performed 1986, but unpublished)

Essays

Playing in the Dark-Whiteness and the Literary Imagination.

Cambridge, Massachusetts, London, England: Harvard

University Press 1992.

Racing Justice, Engendering Power: Essays on Anita Hill,

Clarence Thomas and the Others on the Constructing of Social Reality. Ed. and introduction Toni Morrison, Chatto and Windus1992.

Reference Works

Black Women Writers (1950-1980): A Critical Evaluation. Ed. by Mari Evans, New York: Anchor Books 1984.

Susan Willis, Specifying: Black Women Writing the American Experience. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press 1987.

Nellie Mc Kay, Critical Essays on Toni Morrison. Boston: MA (Hall) 1988.

Afro-American Writing Today: An anniversary issue of the Southern Review. Ed. by James Olney, Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press 1989.

Terry Otten, The Crime of Innocence in the Fiction of Toni Morrison. Columbia, University of Missouri Press 1991.

Barbara Hill Rigney, The Voices of Toni Morrison, Columbus, Ohio: Ohio State University Press, 1991

Patrick Bryce Bjork, The Novels of Toni Morrison: The Search for Self and Place Within the Community, New York: Lang, 1992

Denise Heinze, The Dilemma of Double- Consciousness": Toni Morrison's Novels, Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 1993

Amanda Louise Gwyn Mason, Return of the Repressed: Forms of Fantasy in the Novels of Toni Morrison, Ann Arbor, Michigan: Univ. Microfilms International, 1993

Conversations with Toni Morrison , Edited by Danielle

Taylor-Guthrie, Jackson, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, 1994 Douglas Century,Toni Morrison, New York: Chelsea House, 1994

From Nobel Lectures, Literature 1981-1990.

Chief Albert Luthuli

Africa's first winner of the Nobel Prize for Peace and president of the ANC until his death (under mysterious circumstances) in 1967.

Albert John Mvumbi Luthuli was born sometime around 1898 near Bulawayo, Southern Rhodesia, the son of a Seventh Day Adventist missionary. In 1908 he was sent to his ancestral home at Groutville, Natal where he went to the mission school. Having first trained as a teacher at Edendale, near Pietermaritzburg, Luthuli attended additional courses at Adam's College (in 1920), and went on to become part of the college staff. He remained at the college until 1935.

Albert Luthuli was deeply religious, and during his time at Adam's College he became a lay preacher. His Christian beliefs acted as a foundation for his approach to political life in South Africa at a time when many of his contemporaries were calling for a more militant response to Apartheid.

In 1935 Luthuli accepted the chieftaincy of the Groutville reserve (this was not an hereditary position, but awarded as the result of an election) and was suddenly immersed in the realities of South Africa's racial politics. The following year JBM Hertzog's United Party government introduced the 'Representation of Natives Act' (Act No 16 of 1936) which removed Black Africans from the common voter's role in the Cape (the only part of the Union to allow Black people the franchise). That year also saw the introduction of the 'Development Trust and Land Act' (Act No 18 of 1936) which limited Black African land holding to an area of native reserves – increased under the act to 13.6%, although this percentage was not in fact achieved in practice.

Chief Albert Luthuli joined the African National Congress (ANC) in 1945 and was elected Natal provincial president in 1951. In 1946 he joined the Natives Representative Council. (This had been set up in 1936 to act in an advisory basis to four white senators who provided parliamentary 'representation' for the entire Black African population.) However, as a result of a mine workers strike on the Witwatersrand gold field and the police response to protesters, relations between the Natives Representative Council and the government became 'strained'. The Council met for the last time in 1946 and was later abolished by the government.

In 1952 Chief Luthuli was one of the leading lights behind the Defiance Campaign – a non-violent protest against the pass laws. The Apartheid government was, unsurprisingly, annoyed and he was summoned to Pretoria to answer for his actions. Luthuli was given the choice of renouncing his membership of the ANC or being removed from his position as tribal chief (the post was supported and paid for by the government). Albert Luthuli refused to resign from the ANC, issued a statement to the press ('The Road to Freedom is via the Cross') which reaffirmed his support for passive resistance to Apartheid, and was subsequently dismissed from his chieftaincy in November. "I have joined my people in the new spirit that moves them today, the spirit that revolts openly and broadly against injustice."

At the end of 1952 Albert Luthuli was elected president-general of the ANC. The previous president, Dr James Moroka, lost support when he pleaded not-guilty to criminal charges laid as a result of his involvement in the Defiance Campaign, rather than accepting the campaign's aim of imprisonment and the tying up of government resources. (Nelson Mandela, provincial president for the ANC in Transvaal, automatically became deputy-president of the ANC.) The government responded by banning Luthuli, Mandela, and nearly 100 others.

Luthuli's ban was renewed in 1954, and in 1956 he was arrested – one of 156 people accused of high treason. Luthuli was released shortly after for 'lack of evidence' (see Treason Trial). Repeated banning caused difficulties for the leadership of the ANC, but Luthuli was re-elected as president-general in 1955 and again 1958. In 1960, following the Sharpeville Massacre, Luthuli led the call for protest. Once again summoned to a governmental hearing (this time in Johannesburg) Luthuli was horrified when a supporting demonstration turned violent and 72 Black Africans were shot (and another 200 injured). Luthuli responded by publicly burning his pass book. He was detained on 30 March under the 'State of Emergency' declared by the South African government – one of 18,000 arrested in a series of police raids. On release he was confined to his home in Stanger, Natal.

In 1961 Chief Albert Luthuli was awarded the 1960 Nobel Prize for Peace (it had been held over that year) for his part in the anti-Apartheid struggle. In 1962 he was elected Rector of Glasgow University (an honorary position), and the following year published his autobiography, 'Let My People Go'. Although suffering from ill health and failing eyesight, and still restricted to his home in Stranger, Albert Luthuli remained president-general of the ANC. On 21 July 1967, whilst out walking near his home, Luthuli was hit by a train and died. He was supposedly crossing the line at the time – an explanation dismissed by many of his followers who believed more sinister forces were at work.

Sir William Arthur Lewis

1979

Sir William Arthur Lewis was born on January 23, 1915. He was an African-American economist, educator and

Nobel Prize winner.

From St. Lucia, he was the fourth son of George Ferdinand and Ida Lewis. He was educated in St. Lucia up to the

secondary Level. He proved during this time to be quite a scholar. Later he entered the London School of Economics

where he distinguished himself as a student of Economics. His excellence was rewarded, when at the age of

twenty-three, he was made a lecturer. During this time he published numerous papers and pamphlets.

Lewis in 1947 married Gladys Jacobs and had two daughters, Elizabeth and Barbara. Between 1951 and 1957 he

was Stanley Jevons Professor of Political Economy at Manchester University. During this time, he was also adviser

to numerous governments and served as adviser on underdeveloped countries. He advised the Ghana government in

1953 and in 1957. He also served in the same capacity in Nigeria, Trinidad and Barbados. He had also been on numerous United Nations Commissions.

He won a Nobel Prize in 1979, with Theodore Schultz, for pioneering research on economic development in emerging countries. He published a book, The Theory of Economic Growth, in 1954 that is regarded as the seminal study in the field. In this book he advocated the development of infrastructure, education in all its areas and specialization in agriculture and high employment.

Arthur Lewis also served as Vice Chancellor of the University of the West Indies, adviser to the British Colonial Development Corporation, Chancellor of the University of Guyana, Professor at Princeton University and as the Chairman of the Caribbean Development Bank. Sir Arthur Lewis died on June 15th, 1991. He is buried on the grounds of Sir Arthur Lewis Community College in St. Lucia a marked the end of a distinguished St. Lucian and Caribbean patriot.

Reference:

Africana The Encyclopedia of the African and

African American Experience

Editors: Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates Jr.

ISBN 0-465-0071-1

Derek Walcott

Premio Nobel - 1992

Derek Walcott was born in 1930 in the town of Castries in Saint Lucia, one of the Windward Islands in the Lesser Antilles. The experience of growing up on the isolated volcanic island, an ex-British colony, has had a strong influence on Walcott's life and work. Both his grandmothers were said to have been the descendants of slaves. His father, a Bohemian watercolourist, died when Derek and his twin brother, Roderick, were only a few years old. His mother ran the town's Methodist school. After studying at St. Mary's College in his native island and at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica, Walcott moved in 1953 to Trinidad, where he has worked as theatre and art critic. At the age of 18, he made his debut with 25 Poems, but his breakthrough came with the collection of poems, In a Green Night (1962). In 1959, he founded the Trinidad Theatre Workshop which produced many of his early plays.

Walcott has been an assiduous traveller to other countries but has always, not least in his efforts to create an indigenous drama, felt himself deeply-rooted in Caribbean society with its cultural fusion of African, Asiatic and European elements. For many years, he has divided his time between Trinidad, where he has his home as a writer, and Boston University, where he teaches literature and creative writing.

Selected Bibliography

Verse

25 Poems, Port-of-Spain: Guardian Commercial Printery, 1948

Epitaph for the Young, Xll Cantos, Bridgetown: Barbados Advocate, 1949

Poems, Kingston, Jamaica, City Printery, 1951

In a Green Night, Poems 1948–60, London: Cape, 1962

Selected Poems, New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1964

The Castaway and Other Poems, London: Cape, 1965

The Gulf and Other Poems, London: Cape, 1969

Another Life, New York: Farrar Straus Giroux: London: Cape, 1973

Sea Grapes, London: Cape; New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1976

The Star-Apple Kingdom, New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1979

Selected Poetry, Ed. by Wayne Brown. London: Heinemann, 1981

The Fortunate Traveller, New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1981

The Caribbean Poetry of Derek Walcott, and the Art of Romare Bearden, New York: Limited Editions Club, 1983

Midsummer, New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1984

Collected Poems 1948-1984, New York, Farrar Straus Giroux, 1986

The Arkansas Testament, New York, Farrar Straus Giroux, 1987

Omeros, New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1990

Drama

Harry Dernier, Bridgetown: Barbados Advocate, 1952

Dream on Monkey Mountain and Other Plays, New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1970

The Joker of Seville & O Babylon!, New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1978

Remembrance & Pantomine: Two Plays, New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1980

Three Plays, New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1986

Critical Studies

The Art of Derek Walcott, Ed. by Stewart Brown, Bridgend: Seren Books, 1991

From Nobel Lectures, Literature 1991-1995, Editor Sture Allén, World Scientific Publishing Co., Singapore, 1997

This autobiography/biography was written at the time of the award and later published in the book series Les Prix Nobel/Nobel Lectures. The information is sometimes updated with an addendum submitted by the Laureate. To cite this document, always state the source as shown above.

Don William Arthur Lewis

1979

Don William Arthur Lewis nació el 23 de enero de 1915, en Sta. Lucia, isla del Caribe. Fue el 4to. hijo de George Ferdinand y Ida Lewis. Se educó en su tierra natal hasta completar la secundaria luego viajó a Inglaterra a estudiar en the London School of Economics, siendo un alumno muy distinguido en Economía. A los 23 años fue contratado para dictar charlas, entre tanto, publicó varios ensayos. Se casó en 1947 con Gladys Jacobs y tuvo 2 hijas.

Entre 1951 y 1957 fue profesor de Stanley Jevons en Política Económica en la Universidad de Manchester fungiendo también de consejero a varios gobiernos sobre paises subdessarrollados. Asistió al gobierno Ghana en 1953 y 1957 también sirvió en la misma capacidad en Nigeria, Trinidad Tobago y Barbados. Cumplió varias misiones con la ONU.

Obtuvo el Premio Noble de Economía en 1979 junto a Theodore Schultz, por su investigación pionera de economia en los paises emergente. Publicó un libro, "La Teoría del Crecimiento Económico" en 1954, clasificado como el texto seminarial sobre la materia. En el, promovió el desarrollo de la infraestructura educacional en todos sus campos y la especialización en la agricultura y la alta empleomanía.

Fue Vice-Rector de la Universidad de las Antillas; consejero a la Corporación Británica de Desarrollo Colonial; Rector de la Universidad de Guyana; profesor en la Universidad de Princeton y presidente del Banco de Desarrollo Caribeño.

Sir Arthur Lewis, falleció el 15 de junio de 1991. Sus restos reposan en el patio del colegio de la Comunidad de St. Lucía que fue honrado con su nombre.

Un distinguido afrodescendiente, patriota y caribeño.

Referencia:

The Encyclopedia of the African and

African American Experience

Editors:

Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates Jr.

ISBN 0-465-0071-1