Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Soyinka: The Strange Case of Nobel Schizophrenia

Abstract

Henry Louis Gates Jr. reminds us that behind every civilization is a theme of barbarism. Similarly, Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) alerted us that within every individual is a Dr. Jekyll (good) and a Mr. Hyde (bad). Skip Gates tries to deal with this dualism at the civilizational level. Stevenson handled it at the individual level. Dear Mr. Soyinka, Let me recapitulate a few Jekyll/Hyde contradictions about your open letter to me. You ask of me, you demand of me “decorum in handling colleagues”, yet you make this demand within the most indecorous diatribe to hit the Internet since the Gates debate began.