Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, was on Saturday officially decorated as an ‘Honourable Citizen’ of Cap-Haïtien, capital of the northern region of the Caribbean Island country of Haiti.
A statement made available to Qed.ng by Soyinka’s ally, Jahman Anikulapo, indicate that the honour is in continuation of the laureate’s week-long visitation to Haiti as the 2018 ‘Distinguished Guest’ and subject-focus of the famous international cultural exchange programme, “Meetings of Here and Elsewhere”, curated by the Haiti-based Laboratorio Art Contemporain (LAC) with facilitation by the Lagos-based Culture Advocates Caucus (CAC).
At the ceremony on Soyinka’s arrival at the city’s international airport Mayor, Jean-Claude Mondesir, assisted by senior members of his administration, formally handed the Key to the country’s second largest and most touristic city to the 83-year-old.
The mayor said the decoration and the key were to demonstrate Haitians’ appreciation for the laureate’s life-long defence of the fundamental rights of the oppressed.
He said Haitians owed Soyinka immense gratitude for always giving voice to the voiceless through his work, and for the tremendous influence his writings and worldview, especially his commitment to the preservation of African values, have had on blacks in the Diaspora, of which Haiti is a leading light.
At the airport ceremony, Soyinka had been lavishly welcomed to the city by a brigade of 500 youths, who performed in his honour.
Other eminent citizens of the city and senior government officials were also in attendance.
Shortly after, he was a guest at the CRA School, where he mentored students and youths of the city, on the importance of education and commitment to preserving their identities as young black people.
He told them that their family back home on the continent, are always ready to welcome them back home anytime the so wished to return.
At a cultural dinner also held in his honour at the Institute for Haiti Public Policy Observation, INHOPP, Soyinka said he felt the deep connection between the cultures of the Haitians and Yoruba in the poetry and songs that were rendered.
He said he felt the voices of Orishas in the chants by a voodoo priest, and flavours of ‘woro’ music in the singing and dances by the all-women troupe that performed.
Fritz Jean, director of the centre, and former governor of Haiti Central Bank, praised Soyinka’s commitment to humanity and freedom.
Senator Dieudonne Luma, the only female senator in the Haiti national parliament, later gave him a plaque of Honour and Merit.
She said the honour was in respect of his continuous struggle for the betterment of “collective humanity”, irrespective of race or gender.
