Soyinka is sometimes criticized for being too abstract.
The critique of abstraction often stems from a misunderstanding of how universal truths are apprehended. My engagement with myth, with the archetypes and cosmological frameworks of my heritage, is precisely an attempt to escape the tyranny of the abstract, the sterile pronouncements of ideologies that detach themselves from lived reality and the complex, often contradictory, pulse of human existence. The 'abstract' is often the realm of the oppressor, the theoretical construct used to justify brutality. My work seeks to anchor these larger forces in tangible human experience, in the visceral realities of suffering and resilience, often demonstrating how the seemingly 'mythic' is, in fact, deeply embedded in our everyday lives and historical struggles.
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