Here are 9 facts about Wole Sonyinka you probably do not know

As the world celebrates talented Nigerian playwright, novelist, poet, and essayist, Wole Soyinka, we put together nine very important facts about him that you probably may not know.

The Yoruba native, also known as Oluwole “Wole” Babatunde who was born on July 13, 1934, turns 87 today.

He is a remarkable man who has lived a full and eventful life and is still living it.

Below are the 9 facts about Sonyinka you may not have heard of before

1. He has been married three times and has divorced twice.

2. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2014 and was cured 10 months after treatment.

3. He is widely known to fight against injustice in Nigeria and has been referred to as the "conscience of the nation".

4. He was the first African to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.

5. He was part of the founders of the first Confraternity (Pyrate Confraternity) in the country.

6. He is Fela Kuti's cousin. Fela Kuti was a Nigerian multi-instrumentalist, political activist, Composer and Pan-Africanist. We are bold to say greatness runs in the family.

7. The most popular book of his is Death and the King’s Horseman; A play.

8. Soyinka was named Commander of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 1986 by General Ibrahim Babangida.

9. And finally, he has been arrested a couple of times. He wrote about his time in prison in his 1972 book “The Man Died: Prison Notes of Wole Soyinka”.