RIFNOTE
Nobel Laureate,Professor Wole Soyinka, will have his new book titled “The Putin Files: Excursion Around The Ideology Of Pain”, unveiled on Friday.
THE PUTIN FILES, according to a statement sent to Rifnote, is the latest in the popular INTERVENTIONS series by Wole Soyinka.The event, which holds at the Freedom Park, Lagos Island, and virtually, at 2pm is organised by the publishers of the series, Bookcraft Africa, and will feature readings from the book by Wole Soyinka as well as some members of the audience.
The statement added that there would also be a conversation between the Nobel laureate and Anthony Kila, a professor of strategy and development, politicaleconomist, public affairs analyst and newspaper columnist,who is currently Institute Director at the Commonwealth Institute of Advanced and Professional Studies (CIAPS).
According to the organizers, the session will afford guests the opportunity of engaging with Soyinka on the subject of the book.
“The blurb to the book says that Soyinka “with typical ardency, takes on the still unfolding and increasingly brutal war in Ukraine and what it’s resolution — one way or another — might portend for the future of our very fragile continent.” On the subject of the book itself, Soyinka writes: “…But why Putin? Why has he overtaken others as the most deserving, today, of my deadly doggerel? …why should Africa, or any entity that relates to that continent poke her nose in Putin’s business? Of course, that is assuming that the ongoing human catastrophe in the Ukraine is strictly Putin’s business to begin with,” the statement read.
It further stated: “The INTERVENTIONS series, which began in 2004 has featured eleven volumes by Professor Soyinka, and two by guest contributors. The series was designed to provide a platform for regular public engagement on social, cultural and political issues in Nigeria, Africa and globally. Usually in essay form, the themes of the INTERVENTIONS series, as Soyinka states in the Introduction to the series, “vary literally from the sublime to the ridiculous, from national foibles to the tragic face of nation existence, from citizen derelictions and delinquencies to government criminalities and betrayals of trust, from the celebration of life and other eulogies to lamentations.
” Failed projects. Occasional triumphs. They are narratives of the ‘bad, the good, and the ugly’ in encounters high and low. National questions, the quest for genuine federalism, the theocratic menace and the quest for parity in resources, and attachment to identity. The series are intended, basically, ‘for the records’, handy reference pamphlets of what has been said in the past.”
