Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has distanced himself and the Pyrate Confraternity from a viral video in which some individuals dressed in red and white apparels similar to those of Pyrates members sang to mock alleged physical ailment of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Although, Tinubu was not mentioned by name and directly in the satiric video, the appropriation of his now famous Yoruba declaration, “Emi L’okan” (It is my turn) which he made to affirm his bid for the Presidency while speaking with party faithful some months ago made many to insist that the video was about him.
Apart from the similarity of the Pyrates regalia, Soyinka might have decided to react to the video for its mock poetics, as the chanters made a brazen claim in their song, which is in pidgin, singing: “Hand dey shake/Leg dey shake/Baba wey no well e dey shout emi l’okan”.
This has been interpreted by many, especially on social media, to mean that Tinubu is unwell physically and therefore unfit to run for president in 2023.
But in a release entitled “Interim Statement on a Dubious Political Outing”, Prof. Soyinka wrote:
“My attention has been drawn to a video clip making internet rounds, of a dancing and chanting group, in red and white costume, purportedly members of the Pyrates Confraternity. The display acidly targets a presidential candidate in the awaited 2023 elections.
“Since the whole world knows of my connection with that fraternity, it is essential that I state in clear, unambiguous terms, that I am not involved in that public performance, nor in any way associated with the sentiments expressed in the songs.
“Like any other civic group, the Pyrates Confraternity is entitled to its freedom of expression, individually or collectively. So also is Wole Soyinka in his own person. I do not interfere in, nor do I attempt dictate the partisan political choices of the Confraternity.
“I remain unaware that the association ever engages in a collective statement of sponsorship or repudiation of any candidate. This is clearly a new and bizarre development, fraught with unpredictable consequences.
“In addition, let me make the following cultural affirmation. I have listened to the lyrics of the chant intently and I am frankly appalled. I find it distasteful. I belong to a culture where we do not mock physical afflictions or disabilities. Very much the contrary. The Yoruba religion indeed designate a deity, Obatala, as the divine protector of the afflicted, no matter the nature of such affliction. This sensibility is engrained in us from childhood and remains with us all our lives. It operates on the principle of mortal frailty to which all humanity remains vulnerable.
“One of my favorite authors, about whom, by a coincidence, I had cause to write quite recently, was CLR James, author of The Black Jacobins, Beyond A Boundary etc. etc. I called him my ideological uncle. He suffered from Parkinson’s Disease, but remained alert, lucid and combative for decades after the onset of the disease. We interacted politically at the Tanzanian pan-African Congress, the Dakar Festival of Negro Arts and a number of other cultural and political fora. We met frequently in his lifetime, dined together in restaurants, despite his challenge. it would be unthinkable, and a desecration of his memory to be part of any activity that mocked his affliction.
“A further statement will be issued when I have made further enquiries into this strange, uncharacteristic outing of the association.”
Prof. Soyinka is one of the seven founding members of the Pyrate Confraternity, a group birthed when he was an undergraduate at the University College, Ibadan, now University of Ibadan in 1952.
In his memoir, You Must Set Forth at Dawn, recalls that the fraternity’s “creed was anti-elitism and anti-colonial mentality” Soyinka’s moniker in the Pyrate Confraternity, is “Captain Blood”.
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