Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka has called for restraint in the response to the travails of filmmaker and author Onyeka Nwelue.
Nwelue was recently stripped of his academic visitor status at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge over his alleged claim to be a professor at both varsities.
The author has denied wrongdoing, stating that he has always been called a professor since his teenage years.
In a statement on Monday made available to Qed.ng, Soyinka said he was both “shocked and appalled” at the decisions of a Canadian publisher to delist Nwelue’s The Strangers of Braamfontein from its collection over the incident which the author has already apologised for.
Soyinka’s statement read, “I feel compelled to intervene without further delay in this affair, having come across the following in Onyeka Nwelue’s efforts to ‘set the record straight’ over his entanglement with the British university establishment, Nwelue revealed in his response that:
‘The first message I received, when the article was published, was from my Canadian publisher…. telling me, they will remove my book, The Strangers of Braamfontein from their list. It shocked me, honestly….
‘The South African publisher, who was supposed to publish The Strangers of Braamfontein since 2021, will no longer publish it. They have not communicated to me, but they have informed those who pre-ordered the book.’
“If Nwelue was shocked, I felt both shocked and appalled. This is over-reaction in the sententious mode, a dangerous, extra-curricular response. The charges against this author do not involve plagiarism or other literary offence, nor any crime against humanity. Would his film documentaries – including his prize-winning latest be up next for the Censorship Index? Do we proceed to burn copies of that sociological expose and raunchy read – The Strangers of Braamfontein – already in our possession?
While empathising with Nwelue, Soyinka knocked him and the Nigerian society for the obsession with titles.
“At the risk of this being interpreted as an attempt to lure attention away from, or diffuse culpability into a loose perspective, it is essential – and this is addressed largely to his society (and mine) – to emphasize that, beyond Nwelue, that very society is indicted and summoned to some intense soul-searching, involving remedial action. Public figures are often the creations of that promiscuous facility known as Internet or Social Media, and unfortunately, some such figures of marketable interest fail to exercise caution, refuse to apply the brake on the media runaway vehicle on which they are launched. It is rather ironic, but while Nwelue permitted himself to ‘go for the ride’, so to speak, he appeared to have been more concerned for others –certainly for this ‘Prof’!” he said.
Soyinka further said that barely two days before the professorship saga Nwelue forwarded to him a message from within his internet circle. The message reads, “Prof needs to take control of his social media presence.”
The octogenarian, in his reply, laughed it off, saying it is “out of control”.
The renowned playwright added, “Among Nwelue’s intimate associates unfortunately, are some dubious hangers on who exploit his own susceptibility and frail health to nurse their hunger for notoriety. The ultimate responsibility is however his, and he has emerged upfront to accept this in a letter of apology. Now it is the turn of the enabling environment to also take stock and clean up its act. ‘Casting the first stone’ is easy enough; ensuring that the baby is not thrown out with the bathwater is the harder, and far more productive responsibility. The literary world can do with more babies from the bassinet of The Strangers of Braamfontein!”
