Wole Soyinka, The Open Sore of a Continent: A Personal Narrative of the Nigerian Crisis

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The Open Sore of a Continent: A Personal Narrative of the Nigerian Crisis

combines an excoriating assessment of Nigeria’s ruling clique (paying particular attention to the military ‘governments’ of Generals Murtala Mohammed, Ibrahim Babangida and Sani Abacha), painful eye-witness reports of human rights violations, and a poetic appeal for Nigeria’s future: June 12, 1993, the date on which Moshood K. O. Abiola was elected civilian President, to supersede General Babangida, is when “The hands of the nation clock were stopped on a day that, ironically, recorded its birth. If the nation is to live, its resuscitation must commence where its heart first stopped beating” (143).

The book was written whilst Soyinka, in exile from Babangida and Abacha’s regimes, was working

1880 words

Citation: McLuckie, Craig. "The Open Sore of a Continent: A Personal Narrative of the Nigerian Crisis". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 18 August 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=12857, accessed 28 March 2024.]

12857 The Open Sore of a Continent: A Personal Narrative of the Nigerian Crisis 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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