“I’m A Mythologist,” Wole Soyinka Admits About His Faith

Wole Soyinka, the Nobel Prize-winning author, has claimed that he is not a follower of any religion, including Christianity, Islam, or Orisa, and that he does not require a religion or worship any gods.

At a public presentation of his two-volume collection of essays on Sunday, Soyinka made this revelation and said he saw nothing wrong with using mythologies as an integral part of his creative process.

As a mythologist, he said, individuals have the freedom to fabricate stories about themselves based on their own experiences.

Is a religion truly necessary for me? I’ve never believed I need one. I study mythology.

However, religion? I don’t worship any gods, sorry. However, I see deities as artistically real and, as a result, as my traveling companions in both the actual and the imagined worlds,” he remarked.

The Nobel Prize winner continued by saying that he thought individuals had a right and couldn’t help but make up stories about themselves.