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TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN
I have learnt that Mr. Gerd Meuer is a possession of some real treasures on Wole Soyinka the first African and Nigerian to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986. These treasures of information, manuscripts films and interviews Meuer conducted on tape spanning about five decades on Wole Soyinka, his intellectual voyage, political activism, theatre development in the various universities he taught in Nigeria and abroad.
There are also several private letters, thousands of emails and manuscripts annotated by Soyinka himself. It is amazing that Meuer had kept these prized treasures over the years in his home in the Black forest of Germany. I am my colleagues in Nigeria and places where I have practiced journalism abroad are amazed to find out that Meuer is in possession of what can be used as a platform ingredient and resource material for academic pursuit research and excellence. These materials are originally scripted into English and have been translated into Germany by Meuer.
These materials are only in the possession of Meuer and no other person. He has known Wole Soyinka since his university days in Ibadan, Nigeria. Though I have known Wole Soyinkas politics as a secondary school student, I had the privilege of having knowledge of his theatre and academics as an undergraduate at the University of Ife now Obafemi Awolowo University Ile Ife. Before he won the Nobel Prize, I was close to other intellectuals who worked with him at the Department of Dramatic Arts and I know none of them have kept such a rich and intellectually stimulating material on Wole Soyinka for almost five decades.
It is necessary to gather these materials, sort them and put them in a place where researchers will find them useful. Sorting them will involve a lot of hard work and it will take months to digitalize them. These materials can later be donated to the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife (where Soyinka taught for years) and they do not have these materials and also Essay foundation in Abeokuta. They can be kept in a place to be called House of Literature on Kongi (Wole Soyinka).
Many aspects of Soyinkas life, theatre and literature are woven into his political activism at gun-point, the trials incarceration and writing of The Man Died; His meetings with politicians who were killed in the 1st and 2nd Republics His fight against the Military and escape from Nigeria during Abacha years; meeting with Ojukwu and Victor Banjo who led the Biafran invasion of the Mid West. You cannot separate Soyinka from Nigeria's history and what Meuer in his possession ia also a resource for historians in the academia and policy makers.
All these will also be of interest to Political Scientists too for a research into the metamorphosis of Nigeria into a state of anomie and failure. Or eventual success in the future. These are materials that ought to be preserved for the future generations.
Thank you vey much.
Yours Sincerely,
Tunde Akingbade
NMMA Journalist of the Year 1992
Young African Leader, USIA, 1993
Artist Angel, Vermont studio centre
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