Soyinka founded the Nigerian

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Civil war and imprisonmentedit
After becoming head of the Cathedral of Drama at the University of Ibadan, Soyinka became more politically active. Following the military coup in January 1966, he met secretly and unofficially with the military governor Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu in the southeastern city of Enugu (August 1967), to try to prevent a civil war. As a result, he had to go into hiding.

He was imprisoned for 22 months as a result of the civil war between the Federal Government of Nigeria and the Biafrans. Although he refused materials such as books, pens and paper, he wrote a significant body singapore telephone number search of poems and notes criticizing the Nigerian government while in prison.

Despite his imprisonment, in September 1967 his play The Lion and the Jewel was produced in Accra. In November, Brother Jero's Essays and The Strong Breed were produced at the Greenwich Mews Theatre in New York. He also published a collection of his poetry, Idanre and Other Poems. It was inspired by Soyinka's visit to the shrine of the Yorùbá deity Ogun, whom he considers his "companion" deity, kindred spirit and protector.

In 1968, the Negro Ensemble company of New York produced Kongi's Harvest. While still incarcerated, Soyinka translated from Yoruba a fantasy novel by his compatriot D.O. Fagunwa, entitled The Forest of a Thousand Demons: The Saga of a Hunter.

Liberation and literary productionedit