And of those imperatives that challenge our being, our presence, and humane definition at this time, none can be considered more pervasive than the end of racism, the eradication of human inequality, and the dismantling of all their structures. The Prize is the consequent enthronement of its complement: universal suffrage and peace.
--From Wole Soyinka's Nobel lecture, delivered December 8, 1986. Two days later, just after receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature from King Carl Gustaf of Sweden, Soyinka symbolically presented the award to the audience.
Photo courtesy AP/Wide World Photo