Prof. Akinwande Oluwole Soyinka (born 13 July 1934) is a Nigerian writer, poet and playwright. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1986, the first African to be so honoured. In 1994, he was designated United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Goodwill Ambassador for the promotion of African culture, human rights, freedom of expression, media and communication. Soyinka's mother was from the Ransome-Kuti family, making him cousins to the late Fela Kuti.

Soyinka was born into a Yoruba family on July 13, 1934. His father was Christian Clergy, Canon SA Soyinka. He received a primary school education in Abeokuta and attended secondary school at Government College, Ibadan. He then studied at the University College, Ibadan (1952-1954) where he founded the pyrates confraternity (an anti-corruption and justice seeking Student organization). He went on to the University of Leeds (1954-1957) from which he received an First class honours degree in English Literature. He worked as a play reader at the Royal Court Theatre in London before returning to Nigeria to study African drama. He taught in the Universities of Lagos, Ibadan, and Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife). He became a Professor of Comparative Literature at the then university of Ife in 1975).

Soyinka has played an active role in Nigeria's political history. In 1965, he made a broadcast demanding the cancellation of the rigged Western Nigeria Regional Elections following his seizure of the Western Nigeria Broadcasting Service studio. He was arrested, arraigned but freed on a technicality. In 1967, during the Nigerian Civil War he was arrested by the Federal Government of General Yakubu Gowon and put in solitary confinement for his attempts at brokering a peace between the warring Nigerian and Biafran parties. While in prison he wrote poetry on tissue paper which was published in a collection titled Poems from Prison. He was released 22 months later after international attention was drawn to his unwarranted imprisonment. His experiences in prison are recounted in his book The Man Died: Prison Notes. 1972.

The years 1975-1984 were for Soyinka a period of increased political activity. During that time he was among the authorities at The University of Ife. He continuously criticized the corruption in the government of democratically-elected President Shehu Shagari, and often found himself at odds with his military successor, Mohammadu Buhari. In 1984 a Nigerian court banned The Man Died and in 1985 the play 'Requiem for a Futurologist' went into print in London. In the midst of several violent and repressive African regimes, Soyinka was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986, as one "who in a wide cultural perspective and with poetic overtones fashions the drama of existence" becoming the first African laureate. His Nobel acceptance speech was devoted to South African freedom-fighter Nelson Mandela. Soyinka's speech was a humane and characteristically outspoken criticism of apartheid and the politics of racial segregation imposed on the indigenous population by the Nationalist South African government.

He has been a consistent and outspoken critic of many Nigerian military dictators and of political tyrannies worldwide, including the Mugabe regime in Zimbabwe. His activism has often exposed him to great personal risk, most notable during the government of General Sani Abacha (1993-1998), which pronounced a death sentence on him in absentia. During Abacha's regime, Soyinka escaped from Nigeria. While abroad, he visited parliaments and conferred with world leaders to impose a regime of sanctions against the brutal Abacha regime. These actions and his setting up of the Radio Kudirat helped immensely in securing Nigeria's return to civilian democratic governance. While living abroad in 1996, Soyinka was named Robert W. Woodruff Professor of the Arts at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. When civilian rule returned in 1999, Soyinka returned to a hero's welcome back in Lagos, Nigeria. He accepted an Emeritus Professorship at Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) on the condition that the university bars all former military officers from the position of chancellor.

In 2009, 'The Literary/Political Philosophy of Wole Soyinka' was published by Yemi D. Ogunyemi. This book is dedicated to him for his literary, political and philosophical contributions to the Africans in Africa and Africans in Diaspora. The book is also an edifice celerating his 75th Birthday in July 13, 2009. Wole Soyinka was involved in the recent amnesty and disarming of Niger-Delta militants. He remains very vocal about positive change in Nigeria. He is a member of numerous bodies and has published many literary works. He is won many awards and titles both international and local.