The Nigerian writer, Nobel Prize winner for Literature in 1986, honored with his presence the Villena Hall of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC), which was kind enough to celebrate its 63rd anniversary with presentation of the Dulce María Loynaz International Prize to the African intellectual.

My hands are full and so is my heart, expressed in gratitude the first African Nobel Prize winner in Literature.

It is very good to be back among this creative family; I have had great adventures, both political and creative in Cuba, commented Soyinka.

I come from your “mother continent” and mine, and I know very well the role that this country played in the liberation of Africa, it is something that we can never forget, he added almost at the end of his speech, surrounded by a spirit of celebration that filled the capital’s Sala Villena and the attendance of the poet and ethnologist Miguel Barnet, Honorary President of the Uneac.

In this world, even more than a liquid ether, of little consequence and depth, to count and have today, among Cubans and Africans, Wole Soyinka, is an invaluable privilege, said the director of the José Martí National Library, Omar Valiño.

The words of tribute on the date were in charge of the president of Uneac, Marta Bonet, who recalled the context that gave rise to the entity.

The intellectuals built an institution that united all generations, all artistic trends, all expressions of art and literature. In it we find ourselves, 63 years later, the musicologist specified.

Today we have many more intellectuals and artists than in 1961, he said, but the cultural challenges are greater.

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