A featured conversation from Conversations Across the Diaspora between Sarah Ladipo Manyika and Nobel laureate, author, playwright, poet, and political activist Wole Soyinka.

The selected conversation engages Professor Soyinka's first work of fiction in nearly 50 years, Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth which was released on September 28th.

Click here to view the Audio Summary provided by Professor Wole Soyinka

Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth is available for purchase online at the MoAD bookstore.

‍WOLE SOYINKA was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1986. Born in Abeokuta, Nigeria, in 1934, he is an author, playwright, poet, and political activist whose prolific body of work includes The Interpreters, his debut novel that was published in 1965, and Death and the King’s Horseman, a play that was first performed in 1976. Soyinka was twice jailed in Nigeria for his criticism of the Nigerian government, and he destroyed his U.S. Green Card in 2016 when Donald Trump was elected president of the United States.

Sarah Ladipo Manyika was raised in Nigeria and has lived in Kenya, France, Zimbabwe, and England. Sarah is a novelist, short story writer, essayist, and founding books editor for Ozy.com. Her debut novel, In Dependence, is an international bestseller while her second novel, Like a Mule Bringing Ice Cream to the Sun, has been translated into a number of languages.

Her nonfiction includes personal essays and intimate profiles of people she meets from Mrs. Harris and Pastor Evan Mawarire to Toni Morrison, Margaret Busby, and Michelle Obama. Sarah previously served on MoAD’s board and currently serves as Board President for the women’s writing residency, Hedgebrook. Sarah is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a San Francisco Public Library Laureate, and a member of the National Books Critics Circle.

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This program series is made possible by the generous support of Peggy Woodford Forbes This program is presented in partnership with the San Francisco Public Library‍

Funding has been provided by California Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) as part of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.

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