How my father raised his children – Wole Soyinka’s daughter, Moremi

Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka’s daughter, Moremi Soyinka-Onijala, spoke about her father’s unique parenting style and influence on her and her siblings.

Mrs Soyinka-Onijala, a Special Adviser on Migration and Humanitarian Affairs to former President Olusegun Obasanjo, revealed this during an interview with TVC at a programme held at Remo Anglican College, Isara, Ogun State, to commemorate her father’s 90th birthday.

Mrs Soyinka-Onijala, the second child of Mr Soyinka’s second wife, Olaide Idowu, served as a member of a Ministerial Interim Committee on the Nigeria Police Trust Fund under former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.

She was conferred the traditional title Yeye Bamofin in July by the Odemo of Isara, Oba Albert Adebose Mayungbe, during an event to celebrate her father’s 90th birthday, held at Afotamodi Town Hall, Isara-Remo.

Mr Soyinka, who has a writers’ enclave named in his honour by the African Heritage Research Library and Cultural Centre established in 2011, turned 90 on 13 July.

To honour the playwright’s 90th birthday, events were organised, including lectures, essay competitions, advocacy sessions, theatrical presentations, classic plays and others.

In the interview’s video shared on the TVC YouTube page Tuesday, Mrs Soyinka-Onijala, Moremi Soyinka-Onijala, a lawyer, said: “My daddy was a gentle disciplinarian. He didn’t believe in using the stick, but a look in his eye was enough to tell you that you were doing something wrong. He preferred to talk to us rather than use physical punishment. The only time I remember my daddy beating me—I think he gave me three belts—was one day after primary school. The person who came to pick us up couldn’t find me because I had decided to follow some of my friends, the Oke, home without telling my parents or asking for permission.

Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka

“My siblings said, ‘Let’s go home.’ I said, ‘No, I’m going with them.’ So I went with my friends. The others, who were young, didn’t know how to explain, so they were looking for me. When they found me and brought me home, my daddy said, ‘No dinner.’ My mummy was like, ‘Please, she’s sorry.’ He said, ‘No, no dinner. Go to bed.’ Of course, mothers will later give you something to eat. And he gave me three belts.”

Soyinka’s preferences

Mrs Soyinka-Onijala revealed that her father’s favourite meals.

She said, “One of the first things I would like to share about my father is that he loves wine. He likes good wine, he’s a connoisseur of wine, and he has a very rich wine cellar. You may not know that as soon as we were born, my daddy used to give us sips of wine so that we could begin to appreciate the tastes and the differences.

“This is quite interesting. He also has a peculiar taste for food. He’s not the type of person to sit down and eat pounded yam, as I love it. He likes certain types of bush meat. But he doesn’t eat much. He eats very little.’’

Birthday

Mrs Soyinka-Onijala, a lawyer, noted that they marked her father’s 90th birthday by distributing school bags to students of Remo Anglican College in Isara, Ogun State.

She added that the programme benefited one thousand students.

“We, as a family, were discussing how to commemorate our father’s birthday meaningfully. Knowing that he likes children and that we have always done outreach as a family, though not on this scale, I suggested we get in touch with people on the ground to find out what we could do in Isara and Ake because Daddy attended St. Peter’s Anglican Primary School, Ake, the first school in Nigeria.

“We gathered statistics and decided to provide school bags. My siblings loved the idea, so we started preparing at the beginning of the year for a thousand children, half in Ake and half in Isara. We plan to return and do the same for the other arms. However, this hall wouldn’t contain us if the entire population of the four secondary schools were here. So we decided to do it in bits, focusing on SS2 and the entire Remo Anglican College because our grandparents were instrumental in the foundation of that school. It is a special school for us.”

Born in Abeokuta, Soyinka has garnered numerous awards and recognition for his work.

He was recently honoured with a Gold Medal by the Royal Academy of Morocco, recognising his exceptional influence on the development of world literature.