Adieu, Uncle Jimi

ON Monday, February 5, Nigeria lost one of its most illustrious performance artists. The foremost film actor, dramatist, folk singer, poet and playwright, Jimi Solanke, joined his ancestors at the age of 81 in his home state, Ogun, following an illness related to old age. The songwriter reportedly breathed his last while being taken to the Babcock Hospital, Ilishan-Remo, for medical attention. Naturally, the transition opened a floodgate of plaudits as eminent Nigerians described Solanke’s passing as a huge loss to the entertainment and creative industry. For instance, in his reaction to the incident,President Bola Tinubu said that Solanke was one of the finest Nigeria’s creative artists and a bastion of cultural heritage. Tinubu described the literary and cultural virtuoso as a bastion of the country’s cherished mores and cultural heritage. In his own reaction, the Ogun State governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun, described the death of the renowned culture ambassador as a colossal loss to the theatre community and Ogun State.

Tracing the trajectory of Solanke’s craft, Abiodun added: “Renowned for his tireless dedication to the arts, Baba Agba as he was widely known by his numerous fans across the country was a great ambassador of our dear state. He promoted the culture and tradition of the Yoruba race on the global stage with his drama, music, poetry and other works of art. In 1961, he emerged as one of the pioneer members of the Orisun Theatre Group founded by Professor Wole Soyinka. He went on to put in several decades of diverse exposures and experiences into the global entertainment industry across several broadcast stations, countries and festivals, impacting the sector greatly.

“Many of his admirers still recall with nostalgia his epic performances at the Western Nigeria Television (WNTV), Ibadan in the 1960s, his unforgettable stagecraft at the World Festival of Negro Arts in Senegal and the amazing skills he exhibited at the Pan-African Cultural Festival in Algeria, all in the 1970s. Also to his credit are brilliant performances in epics like Death and the King’s Horseman, Kurunmi, Kongi’s Harvest, The Divorce and Ovaramwen Nogbaisi. These performances and his numerous talents turned him into a global icon of the arts. He was at different times described by the Oxford Times and the New York Times as a ‘skilled Nigerian actor’ and an ‘excellent troupe’ respectively owing to his performance of Wole Soyinka’s Kongi’s Harvest, during a tour of Europe. He sang with Highlife music legends like Roy Chicago, Eddy Okonta and Chris Ajilo. He also worked with many global musicians, including Chubby Checker of Twist fame and Millicent Small of Rock Steady. He was with Ralph MacDonald, the lead voice in the chartbuster, Ona La, The Path.”

The president of  the Tola Adeniyi Foundation  for Theatre and the Arts (TAFTA), Chief Tola Adeniyi, described Solanke’s demise as a big loss to the African continent, saying that he was a  “thespian, folk singer, poet, playwright, dramatist, producer, director, choreographer, theatre teacher, painter, sculptor and guitarist, et cetera, a bundle of talents.” On its part, the Institute of Cultural Studies at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), an organisation with which Solanke had a long and  fruitful relationship, described him as  a total man of the Arts, foremost dramatist, folk musician and cultural icon whose dexterity in theatre and the arts generally was phenomenal in his multiple roles in the artistic hemisphere.  It said Solanke “stood tall as a man of huge creative endowments whose relevance is well ubiquitous” and “carved a niche for himself as a children’s folk musician and prodigious folklorist.”

After his education at the University of Ibadan, where he obtained a diploma certificate in drama, Solanke had a sojourn in Los Angeles, California, United States, where, with his drama group, The Africa Review, he established himself as a master storyteller and Yoruba cultural ambassador, staging performances in black schools. On his return to Nigeria, he joined the Nigerian Television Authority ( NTA) and ran popular children’s  shows between the 1980s and the 1990s. He was a member of the Ori Olokun Theatre which later morphed into the Awo Varsity Theatre. Also, following a brilliant outing as the eponymous, character in Ola Rotimi’s Overamwen Nogbaisi, he was employed as a Senior Cultural Officer by the Midwest Arts Council under the administration of Colonel Samuel Ogbemudia. A folklorist to the core, Solanke linked his sound health to his vocation as a folk musician, and his collaborations with artistes such as Beautiful Nubia provided ample opportunity to advance the cause of the genre. As a matter of fact, Ibudo Asa, a centre set up in his home town, Ipara-Remo, to enliven that genre of music, had the target of training “ children as early as five years to express themselves through folklore so that we can have plenty of Jimi Solankes,” as the artist wisely reckoned that he was “not going to be here forever.”

Like most artistes in his genre, Solanke did not have commensurate financial rewards for his craft, yet he continued to give to society without looking back, moulding the lives and careers of generations of young people through his engagements with the rich culture of his environment. Solanke was not just a performer; he epitomised performance itself. He was an unassailable cultural institution. And, crucially, he saw beyond his day and established Ibudo Asa to enrich the future. In this regard, we endorse the call by the Ogun State chapter of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) on the Ogun State government to take over the facility and classify it as one of the state’s cultural heritage sites. As the association noted, the rank of performers moulding the minds of young ones is being “depleted by death and deliberate steps should be taken in packaging books and music for young folks for their moral edification and upbringing.” This is beyond Solanke himself; it is a project that has cultural education at the heart of its core.

Uncle Jimi, as he was fondly called, was such a jolly good fellow. He will be fondly remembered for many years to come. Adieu, master of music.