LABAF 2024 Celebrates Soyinka @90 with Documentary Screening, Exhibitions, and Cultural Events
The Lagos Book and Arts Festival (LABAF) 2024 is honoring the towering legacy of Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, in a year-long celebration that has permeated Nigeria’s cultural landscape. This year’s edition of the festival is dedicated to Soyinka’s 90th birthday and has been aptly titled “The Soyinka Year” in recognition of the poet, playwright, essayist, and human rights activist’s remarkable contributions to literature and global humanism.
As part of the festivities, LABAF has organized several tribute shows, book readings, talk sessions, and exhibitions. A major highlight is the screening of The Man Died, a documentary based on one of Soyinka’s most significant works. The documentary, which explores Soyinka’s harrowing 27-month incarceration during Nigeria’s civil war, was featured in a special screening on November 13 at the Agip Hall, MUSON Centre, Onikan, Lagos. This screening is part of the 26th edition of LABAF, which runs under the theme ‘BREAKOUT: Hope is a Stubborn Thing’ and includes over 60 events held at its traditional venue, Freedom Park, Lagos Island.
The Man Died documentary, which premiered on July 12 to mark Soyinka’s 90th birthday, has received critical acclaim and has been showcased internationally at prestigious film festivals such as the Berlinale in Germany, Carthage in Algeria, the Jo’Burg Film Festival in South Africa, and the African Film Festival in New York. The film has also garnered attention from global streaming platforms, although it has yet to be officially released in cinemas or online. The film tells the personal and brutal story of Soyinka’s 27-month imprisonment during the Nigerian Civil War, a period when he sought to mediate peace between the Nigerian government and Biafra. Soyinka’s narrative is one of resilience, as he endured intense psychological and physical torment, finding solace in his own mind amidst the brutality.
The film is directed by Awam Amkpa, a Nigerian-American professor of drama, film, and social-cultural analysis at New York University. Amkpa, who is also a playwright, director, and curator, brings his expertise in postcolonial theatre and African cinema to this powerful documentary. His other works, including his book Theatre and Postcolonial Desires, have contributed to the study of African diaspora representation in the arts.
In addition to the documentary screening, a special edition of the annual Timeless Memories exhibition has been dedicated to Soyinka. Titled ‘Wole Soyinka@90: The Man Who Didn’t Die in the Face of Tyranny’, the exhibition features immersive audio and video installations narrating Soyinka’s prison experience. The exhibition highlights his survival of 22 months of solitary confinement between 1967 and 1969. This powerful installation, curated by Oludamola Adebowale, runs from November 12 to 17 at Kongi’s Harvest Hall at Freedom Park in Lagos.
The celebration of Soyinka’s 90th birthday continues to reverberate across the world, with the The Man Died documentary also being featured as the opening film at the Eastern Nigeria International Film Festival (ENIFF) in Enugu on November 27. The festival explores the theme ‘Reimagine’, reflecting on how African storytelling can reshape narratives and drive social change.
As LABAF 2024 continues, the festival remains a significant cultural event, bringing together over 60 events that explore the intersections of literature, film, music, and activism, all centered around the life and works of one of Africa’s most iconic figures, Wole Soyinka.
