Osofisan @ 80: National tribute to a cultural icon

The 80th birthday of eminent playwright, critic, poet, and scholar Professor Femi Osofisan is being celebrated from June 11. Activities will take place over a week in two cities.

STARTING June 11, Nigeria’s literary and theatre communities will gather in Lagos and Ibadan to celebrate Professor Femi Osofisan, one of Africa’s most respected dramatists, poets, and scholars, on his 80th birthday.

Osofisan, also known as Okinba Launko, was born on June 16, 1946. He attended Government College, Ibadan, and later earned an honours degree in French from the University of Ibadan in 1966.

Eight years later, after aborting his postgraduate studies in Paris, he returned to Ibadan. He obtained his PhD in 1974 and then joined the faculty as Assistant Lecturer. He became a professor in 1985. On retirement in 2014, he was made an Emeritus Professor.

Osofisan has written more than 40 plays, five novellas, and six poetry collections. He also authored a biography of J.P. Clark, ‘J.P. Clark: A Voyage.’

His 80th birthday is being celebrated with performances, film screenings, and discussions. As a playwright, critic, poet, and public intellectual, Osofisan has influenced generations of artists, scholars, and audiences worldwide.

A statement by the organising committee explained that the celebration will allow “theatre practitioners, filmmakers, academics, students and admirers to honour the icon whose work has consistently interrogated power, history, justice and the human condition.”

They added that the events offer “a rare opportunity to revisit Osofisan’s dramatic oeuvre across stage and screen while engaging in critical dialogue about his enduring impact.”

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Lagos will host the first leg of the celebration from June 11 to 15. It begins with a three‑day stage production of Osofisan’s ‘YungbaYungba and the Dance Contest’. Bunmi Adedina is directing the play, running daily at 2 pm from June 11 to 13 at the Department of Theatre Arts, Lagos State University of Education, Ijanikin. The play’s command performance will be held at 1:00 pm on June 11. 

Segun Adefila and Shola Adenugba will also direct Osofisan’s ‘No More the Wasted Breed’ and ‘The Engagement’. These will be staged on the same days.

On June 14, the celebration moves to the J Randle Centre for Yoruba Culture and History, Onikan, Lagos. The day begins at 3 pm with a talk by dramatist and former Deputy Editor of the Guardian, Ben Tomoloju, titled ‘The Femi Osofisan I Know’. It is immediately followed by the unveiling of ‘100 Songs of Femi Osofisan’ produced by Semoore Badejo for Concrete Studios.

Later on June 14, at 2 pm, a roundtable discussion themed ‘Femi Osofisan’s Drama and the Deconstruction of the Nigerian Postcolonial State’ will take place. The roundtable will feature filmmaker Tunde Kelani, Professor Mabel Evwierhoma from the University of Abuja, and Professor Akin Adesokan from Indiana University.

Writer and academic Professor Razinat Mohammed, theatre and media scholar Dr Onyekaba Cornel-Best, and Professor Ifure Ufford-Azorbo of the University of Uyo will also participate. Theatre director Israel Eboh will join them. Culture curator and communicator Jahman Anikulapo will moderate the session.

The day concludes at 6 pm with a screening of Maami, a film adaptation by Tunde Kelani based on Osofisan’s original work, at the same venue.

The activities in Lagos end on June 15 with a second roundtable themed ‘Interpreting Femi Osofisan for the Stage’ at 4 pm. Performance and Visual Arts Studies Scholar at Texas A & M University, Professor Grace Adinku; CEO of Zmirage Multimedia Company, Teju Kareem; and academics, Dr Toyin Ogundeji and Professor Rasheedat Liman, will speak at the session.

Veteran actress and culture entrepreneur Joke Silva, Chairman of the Guild of Nigerian Dancers, Segun Adefila, and President of the National Association of Nigerian Theatre Practitioners, Makinde Adeniran, will also speak at the event. Theatre teacher and President of the Society of Nigerian Theatre Artists, Professor Tunji Azeez, will moderate. The screening of ‘Cordelia’, an adaptation of Osofisan’s novella of the same title by Kelani, will conclude the day’s activities at 6 pm. 

The organising committee, comprising Jahman Anikulapo, Bunmi Adedina, Grace Adinku, Olakunbi Olasope, and Alphonsus Orisaremi, disclosed that the talk and roundtables will be accessible via Zoom. Registration link: https://bit.ly/3PLZrN6

The celebration train will head to Ibadan on June 17. A recorded presentation of ‘YungbaYungba and the Dance Contest’, originally performed at the University of Ghana, Legon and directed by Grace Adinku, will be screened at the Staff Club, University of Ibadan. The screening starts at 2:00 pm. A question-and-answer session will follow immediately.

The Ibadan programme concludes on 18 June with a recorded performance of ‘Farewell to a Cannibal Rage’. The play was staged at Texas A&M University and directed by Adinku. The event begins at 2:00 pm with the screening, followed by a roundtable session and tributes.

Partners and supporters of the celebration include the JRandle Centre for Yoruba Culture and History, Lagos; University of Ibadan; Lagos State University of Education; Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA; University of East Anglia, UK; Mainframe Productions; Ibadan Literary Society; Concrete Studios; and Friends of Femi Osofisan.