A Dance of the Forests

Wole Soyinka · b. 1934 · Nigeria

Why it matters

Commissioned for Nigeria's independence celebrations, then refused to deliver the rosy pageantry expected of it, summoning ancestral spirits who prove no more admirable than the living. Soyinka's first major play, dismantling nationalist nostalgia before it could even set in.

At a glance

Dense Yoruba cosmology, masquerade, and a nonlinear ritual structure make this Soyinka's most demanding play.