'Zulu Sofola ('Zulu Nwazulu Sofola) Biography

Nigerian dramatist, born in Issele-Uke, Nigeria, educated at Virginia Union University and the Catholic University of America, Washington DC, where she gained her MA with a thesis on Igbo ritual. She returned to Nigeria in 1966 and taught at the University of Ibadan before becoming Head of the Department of Theatre Arts at the University of Ilorin. She has also worked as a producer of plays for stage and television. Among the works which established her reputation as Nigeria's most notable woman playwright are Wedlock of the Gods (1970), King Emene (1974), The Sweet Trap (1977), Old Wines Are Tasty (1981), and Song of a Maiden (1991). Her plays range from farce to high tragedy and combine elements of traditional African ritual with devices from the Western dramatic tradition. Local dialects and standardized English co-exist to ironic effect in her satirically incisive social comedies.