Meet Folake, The Woman Behind Prof. Wole Soyinka

Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka is not about books and books afterall! Recently, he took time off to attend a party in company with his wife, Folake. Dressed in his usual pristine cut attire, his wife was clad in a sky blue lace dress.

They were part of guests at a surprise party organised in honour of advertising guru, Biodun Shobanjo. The Group Chairman of Troyka Holdings, Shobanjo just struck a major advertising collaboration in Europe.

How did Folake meet the Nobel Laureate?

In an interview she had with The News Magazine when Prof clocked 80 years, Folake revealed that it was at the University of Ife. Of course, she knew he liked her, but the snag was that she was still young and he was so accomplished.

She said: “After I left Ife and went to do my NYSC in Kaduna state, Dr Biodunjeyifo came to visit me and said Kongi (Prof Wole Soyinka) had been looking for me. After the service year, Dr Yomi Ogunbiyi who was at the Guardian got me a job there and one day, Wole stopped by.”

It was an interesting courtship.

Explaining that her parents and most of her relatives objected to her relationship with the professor, she still had her siblings’ support.

“There were objections from everywhere. My parents worried that he was too famous and too accomplished. But within a few months after we were married, my parents had changed their mind and they loved him until they passed away. His close friends didn’t have a problem with it but also everyone had an opinion. Then came the Nobel Prize in 1986 and that derailed everything for a couple of years. More than a quarter of a century later, those opinions didn’t count, we are still trudging along. I have enjoyed love because of him,” she said.

A mother of three, she recalled an incident when Kongi, who is a brilliant playwright, showed his culinary skills. Then, their boys were still little, and they were in California.

“He lined all three according to their heights and asked me to sit. He said he has something to tell us and he was only going to say it once. He whipped some cooking utensils, moved them around noisily in the pot, threw some up, caught them performed a few tricks and then told us to listen. He said there were only three people in the world who can cook pasta like he does; one is dead, the other is in Silica, Italy and he is the third one and he is going to cook something that we have never eaten. He cooked pasta that day and we truly enjoyed it. True dramatist,” Folake said.

They have been married since 1989 and the marriage waxes stronger daily.