Don't take shadows too seriously. Reality is your only safety. Continue to reject illusion.
Wole SoyinkaRead
Nigeria has had the misfortune - no, the fortune - of seeing the worst face of capitalism anywhere in Africa. The masses have seen it, they are disgusted, and they want an alternative.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Wole Soyinka suggests that Nigeria's experience with capitalism has been detrimental, resulting in public discontent and a desire for change.
In this quote, Wole Soyinka reflects on the harsh realities of capitalism as experienced in Nigeria, contrasting the idea of misfortune with the potential for a transformative fortune. He indicates that the population has become disillusioned with the negative impact of capitalism, leading to a collective yearning for alternative economic and social systems that better serve their needs, highlighting a critical perspective on capitalist practices and the aspirations of the masses.
Themes
CapitalismNigeriaDiscontentAlternativeSocial Change
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech discussing economic reforms, one might quote Soyinka to emphasize the need for a new direction.
More from Wole Soyinka
All quotes →Trading and religion have always been aligned together in the history of the world, and especially on the African continent.
Wole SoyinkaRead
A war, with its attendant human suffering, must, when that evil is unavoidable, be made to fragment more than buildings: It must shatter the foundations of thought and re-create. Only in this way does every individual share in the cataclysm and understand the purpose of sacrifice.
Wole SoyinkaRead
Rwanda, which is one of the younger independent states in Africa, must be regarded as a model of how great human trauma can be transformed to commence true reconstruction of people. Human trauma can lead to stunted growth and mass withdrawal.
Wole SoyinkaRead
I have a kind of magnetic attraction to situations of violence.
Wole SoyinkaRead
Art is solace; art is vision, and when I pick up a literary work, I am a consumer of literature for its own sake.
Wole SoyinkaRead
Similar quotes
You realize that for all the shenanigans that go on in the big circus of politics, everybody wakes up and goes to work.
Lewis BlackRead
Remember that a civilized nation cannot just have one party; if there were only one party, this would merely be a dictatorship. Politics could not advance.
Sun Yat-SenRead
If experience teaches us anything at all, it teaches us this: that a good politician, under democracy, is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar.
H. L. MenckenRead
The Iranian regime supports violent extremists and challenges us across the region. It pursues a nuclear capability that could spark a dangerous arms race and raise the prospect of a transfer of nuclear know-how to terrorists. Its president denies the Holocaust and threatens to wipe Israel off the map. The danger from Iran is grave, it is real.
Barack ObamaRead
A statesman is an easy man, he tells his lies by rote._x000D_ _x000D_ A journalist invents his lies, and rams them down your throat._x000D_ _x000D_ So stay at home and drink your beer and let the neighbors vote.
William Butler YeatsRead
The proximate cause of Iraq's unraveling was the increasing authoritarian, sectarian, and corrupt conduct of the Iraqi government and its leader after the departure of the last U.S. combat forces in 2011.
David PetraeusRead