Professor Soyinka delivered a beautiful and pointed tribute to Kofi Awoonor on September 27 at a gathering of Nigerian writers at the Freedom Park, Broad Street, Lagos:

These butchers continue to evoke the mandate of Islam, thus, we exhort our moslem brother and sister colleagues: Take back Islam. Take back that Islam which, even where it poses contradictions, declares itself one with the Culture of Learning, one that honours its followers as People of the Book, historic proponents of the virtues of intellect and its products. There is no religion without contradictions – it is the primacy of human dignity and solidarity that serves as arbiter. We call upon the fastidious warrior class of the intellect, steeped in a creative contempt and defiance of enemies of the humanistic pursuit…

Read the entire speech at Pambazuka News