Nigerian playwright and Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka released a new book in the Interventions series. It is titled The Putin Files: Excursion Around The Ideology Of Pain and was published by Bookcraft Africa in Ibadan, Nigeria.

As the title suggests, the book looks at Putin’s regime in Russia and the ongoing war in Ukraine. As noted in the publisher’s note, Soyinka “takes on the still unfolding and increasingly brutal war in Ukraine and what its resolution — one way or another — might portend for the future of our very fragile continent.”

Soyinka’s The Putin Files was formally unveiled on Friday, June 16 at 2 pm, at Freedom Park, Lagos, and virtually via Zoom. The event was organized by the publisher Bookcraft Africa and featured book readings by Soyinka as well as audience members. It also included a conversation between Soyinka and Anthony Kila, political science professor and international director of studies at the European Centre of Advanced and Professional Studies (CAPS).

It might be intriguing to some readers that Soyinka wants to look at Putin and his regime through an African lens. Soyinka suggests that the Putin-Ukraine issue has a much wider impact and, thus, needs to be addressed:

…But why Putin? Why has he overtaken others as the most deserving, today, of my deadly doggerel? … Why should Africa, or any entity that relates to that continent poke her nose in Putin’s business? Of course, that is assuming that the ongoing human catastrophe in the Ukraine is strictly Putin’s business to begin with.

The Interventions Series began in 2004 and contains 11 books by Soyinka and two by guest contributors. The series was designed to provide a platform for regular public engagement with social, cultural and political issues in Nigeria, Africa, and globally. Usually in the form of essays, the volumes published include topics such as green cards, trumpism in academe, and democracy, to name a few.

The themes vary from “the sublime to the ridiculous, from national foibles to the tragic face of nation existence, from citizen derelictions and delinquencies to government criminalities and betrayals of trust. . .Failed projects. Occasional triumphs. They are narratives of the ‘bad, the good, and the ugly’ in encounters high and low.”

If you are a fan of Soyinka’s plays and novels, then definitely check out his essays in the Interventions series. His latest one The Putin Files seems fascinating especially for readers who like to keep up with current events and political issues going on around the world!

***

Buy The Putin Files: Bookcraft Africa