Nobel Laureate Professor Wole Soyinka has opened up on the reason he read the Koran while he was an undergraduate at the University of Leeds and continues to not only peruse it but also study other religions.
Soyinka made this statement at the launch of “A Letter to a President”, an open epistle written by Mubarak Bala which held at Quida Books in Ikeja GRA, Lagos on Saturday 5 August 2023. Ms Lola Shoneyin, award-winning writer, poet and CEO, Quida Books organized the event.
Bala, a humanist, has been in incarceration for three years in Abuja as he is currently serving a 24-year jail term for dumping Islam for atheism. Bala wrote the open letter to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to seek not just redress but also his intervention.
Soyinka said: “I was also in prison. But that wasn’t where I studied the Koran. I was always a curious person. I studied the Koran while I was a student in Leeds, in England. I went to one of the two mosques which existed there at the time, in Hall, in Leeds.
“I didn’t study just Islam. I was curious about religion. I was trying to find myself as a being. I was trying to find those aspects of me that to me were not rational. Intuition, for instance, what is it about? What is the meaning of possession?
“As a child we used to see the Aladura. We used to go to the Aladura churches and I was impressed by the way they came under possession. At the beginning I thought they were pretending. But I went again and again.
“As a child I used to sneak out to the Aladura, just as I used to go to the Roman Catholic Church, just as I used to listen to the babalawo. Just as I used to listen to the Muslim Muezzin, their chants are fascinating. I have written about it all in Ake.
“I have always been a curious person. So when I had the opportunity in the United Kingdom, I also went to the mosque. I studied the Koran. I studied the history of Islam. I continue to do so. In my library you will find this.
“I can tell you about the history of Islam. I can tell you when the notion of apostasy came into being in Portugal, not even in one of the moslem countries, when the issue of capital punishment for the abuse of Prophet Muhammed began. It began in the context of power. It began through a military officer who just got fed up with Muhammed being maligned. It didn’t come from Mohammed himself. I repeat, It didn’t come from Mohammed himself. No. It came from power brokers.
“And so to find human beings carrying this on their head like something of a revelation directly from God, it’s hypocrisy. It’s a lie, complete lie. And there are Muslim societies who are coming to terms with that.
“So what’s wrong with us in this country? Why have we created a new religion from gba were mo esin (fanatcism)? It cuts across not just Islam. We find it in Christianity as well. We find it in all religions.
“There is an extra religion called gba were mo esin, people who really should constitute themselves into a totally new religion. So we know them, so that the genuine believers who remain rational and who remain humanized can also join hands with others of different religions who remain rational, who insist on being humanized.
“I teach in a Muslim country, as some of you know, in Abu Dhabi. I have been teaching there for some time now. I have been looking at how they pursue their religion of Islam. They have a festival every year, the festival of tolerance. That and even a Ministry of Tolerance.
“Every year, there is a festival, celebration, where people are brought together. Here the principle is divide and dominate. We have situations where children who can hardly walk are being given the hijab. What is the meaning of that?
“Who are you trying to pretend to fool? Why at that age? I have never seen such a sight in the years I have been in Abu Dhabi, in Dubai where I have also been and in some of the other emirates. I have not seen any child being cloaked up to toes. But here, it’s gba were mo esin.”