Wole Soyinka, the Nobel Laureate, recently shared a harrowing experience of being abducted and robbed in Bucharest, Romania.
Soyinka arrived in Bucharest around 12:10 a.m. to attend the Sibiu International Theatre Festival, where he was to be honored. After missing his hosts at the airport, he boarded what appeared to be an official taxi to Novotel Hotel instead of heading to the hotel, the driver diverted to a deserted, dimly lit area.
“At nearly 1 a.m., the driver stopped in an unfamiliar place and revealed a POS machine, urging me to enter my pin,I had to enter it without seeing the screen because he kept hiding it. For about 25 to 30 minutes, I deliberately entered the wrong pin, buying time, hoping someone would appear — maybe someone from the hotel or a passerby. But the place was completely deserted.” the writer recalls the standoff lasted nearly 30 minutes.
The driver eventually abandoned Soyinka after stealing his money.
Soyinka later managed to reach his hotel and was transported to Sibiu, where the festival took place.
Despite the ordeal, Soyinka emphasized that the incident was more significant than his personal loss, viewing it as an assault on the community.
“Not that I like to lose money. But for me it’s much smaller. It’s not just an attack on me as an individual; it’s an assault on the community,” he stressed. He expressed disappointment in the Romanian authorities’ handling of the case, noting they seemed more focused on containing the incident quietly rather than pursuing justice.
Soyinka recounted this experience in an interview, highlighting the dangers of organized crime and the need for accountability. He has written about the incident in the next edition of his Intervention Series, which will be published soon.
