Favour Ibitunde 

On Wednesday, July 31, the Head of Department, Professor Nelson O. Fashina led staff and student representatives from the Department of English on an excursion to the Initiative for Information, Arts, and Culture Development in Nigeria, at Jericho, Ibadan(IACD) in celebration of Wole Soyinka’s 90th birthday. 

The IACD excursion which was led by a tour guide, Miss Tolulope Bamigbola took the representatives through the life of Wole Soyinka in pictures, videos, and accessories. Wole Soyinka was born in 1934, at the Historic Communities, Ijebu and Egba. 

Further revelation shows a picture of his house, which he named Ijegba, a combination of Ijebu and Egba;  his family tree and a series of testimonies about Wole Soyinka by his classmates, about his time as a student in Government College, Ibadan and University of Ibadan, amongst other exhibitions. 

In a video that was also played during the tour, Wole Soyinka said his creative side was always in him. In his words, “There was always a probability that I was  creative since I was 5.”

A trip was also made to Booksellers Limited, a building away from IACD, where Wole Soyinka’s books are displayed.

Ending the excursion, the Head of the English Department, Prof. Nelson Fashina in his address to the students in the excursion team, said, “Let this experience enrich your minds as part of your intellectual, social, cultural, and psychological immersion into the same track of excellence that produced the Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka .”