Atelewo Cultural Initiative, a Yoruba literary and pro-cultural group, has launched a documentary on the life of Pa Gabriel Omotayo Onibonoje at its Annual Mother Language Celebration Day held at the BNI Youth Centre, University of Ibadan on Saturday.
The documentary is part of the Ogbontarigi Docuseries Project launched in 2020 to document and celebrate the lives of veteran Yoruba literary giants and the project has featured the late Lawuyi Ogunniran, Chief Oladapo Olatubosun, Prof. Arinpe Adejumo and Chief Banjo Akinlabi.
The 45-minute documentary gave an insight into his birth, his early beginnings, how he started his publishing empire, the challenges, the successes, and his contribution to indigenous publishing up to the time he retired from active business.
While launching the documentary, the Co-Founder of the organisation, Ibrahim Oredola explained the inspiration behind the docuseries project, “Ògbóǹtarìgì is a project inspired by our experiences at the height of the pandemic. During the COVID-19 restriction, as an alternative to our physical Jomitoro Cultural Meetup, we started a Yorùba ́Book Reading on the zoom platform as many are at home and movements are limited. In this zoom event, we curate fantastic Yorùba ́literature to read and we have other people from within and outside Nigeria join us. In one of the sessions, after we finished reading Eégún Alaŕé, an operatic Yorùbá novel authored by Lawuyi ̀ Ògúnniran,́ and we were having a virtual post-reading discussion as usual and because many of us read the novels while in secondary schools, some people on the virtual suggested that the author was late. Another participant immediately countered this notion and said emphatically that the author was still alive.
“This prompted us to do more research about him and we found out that indeed he was alive. We paid him a visit and during that visit, we realised how he and his art have been under-appreciated looking at the low level of online visibility, relevance, recognition and respect that have been accorded a writer of his worth who has written over 15 powerful Yorùbá novels that have impacted the lives of millions of school children in Southwestern Nigeria. So my co-founder, Rasaq Malik and I decided to correct this and that was how we started the Ogbontarigi Docuseries Project.
“The project is currently in its 3rd phase where we are launching the documentary on Pa Gabriel Omotayo Onibonoje. The choice of Baba Onibonoje was very easy, he was not just a veteran Teacher, Entrepreneur, Culture Advocate, Author, Researcher, Bookseller and Promoter but he was also one of the very few patrons of indigenous publishing in Nigeria who had given platforms to many authors like Adebayo Faleti, Oladejo Okediji, MA Fabunmi, Oladapo Olatubosun and many others. And that is why we decided to honour him.
“It is quite unfortunate that he had passed on earlier in February before we officially launched this documentary at the ripe age of 92 years, may his soul rest in peace. While the documentary has been published and is available on our Youtube channel, I also want to use this opportunity to appreciate Goethe-Institut Nigeria for their support on this project”, he concluded.
The event also featured an award ceremony for the winners of the third edition of Atelewo Prize for Yoruba Literature. Mr. Babatunde Shittu was declared as the overall winner for his entry in the drama category titled “Láàdì” and received a cash prize of 250,000 Naira.
Other shortlisted winners who received prizes are: Jimoh Lateef Aderoju for his manuscript ‘Àròfọ̀ Àsìkò; Alimi Adeniran Omosalewa for her Yoruba translation of Women of Owu by Prof. Femi Osofisan ‘Awon Obinrin Owu’; and Rasheed Malik Adeniyi for his manuscript titled ‘Nǹkán Yan’. All the runners-up received 100,000 Naira each in cash prizes.
Also present at the event were Mr. Iskil Mustapha ‘Arojinle’, a Yoruba content creator and an On Air Personality at Fresh FM, Mr. Bode Oje, a renowned Yoruba sci-fi author and the author of “Irinajo Sinu Ayedimeji”, and Chief Fatai Oodua ‘Lalude’, a veteran theatre practitioner amongst other dignitaries.
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