Each religion has its own masquerade - Wole Soyinka

By Olu Osunde - 13.04.2008

NOBEL Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, during the week came hard on those who criticise Nigerian’s traditional system on the basis of religion, saying that they were ignorant.

Professor Soyinka, who was speaking at a colloquium on the on-going 2008 Ife, Internationa Festival of Arts at the Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife, with the theme “Marks, masquerades and Marionette”, explained that it was an act of sacriledge for any religion to acclaim superiority to itself, adding that all religions today, has a particular trait that binds them together but are ignored.

He said, while the Christians display their own masquerade, which he said has become a universal concept in form of father Christmas, that of the Moslems, he said comes in form of hyjab.

Soyinka, who observed that Western mentality accounts for violence, killings and destruction that Nigeria witness today said, there was serious need for Nigerians to guard against deliberate erosion of the fundamental cultural rights of the people, which he described as undue destruction of their heritage saying that, afterall, Nigeria was not founded on theocratic values.

The don, who said that masquerade is social therapy, appealed to those who he said repudiate their tradition and destroy their shrines to desist from doing so in order to preserve their ancenstral heritage which he said “is a reawakening of our collective identity and a liturgy of our existence.”

He said, “deep religiousity causes people to create deities which they impose on natural elements”, adding that, there was nothing really unsacrilegious about masquerade.