A professor of Performing Arts, Olabode Sowande, says any state peopled by persons ignorant of who they really are would be lost in conflicts, crises, self-destruction, and unhealthy pathologies.
He spoke on Thursday while delivering the 14th inaugural lecture of Ajayi Crowther University in Oyo.
The News Agency of Nigeria(NAN) reports that Sowande delivered a lecture entitled: “The Ultimate Goal of Playwriting and Drama is Man Know Thyself.”
He stressed the need for every man to understand his weaknesses, saying victory is true for a man who identifies and overcomes his weaknesses.
“We are only defined by what we know of ourselves. So, knowing your weaknesses and overcoming them is what the lecture is about. And it is a virtue that comes to us from the Greco-Roman civilization.
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“We have the same thing in various cultures of the world, what you see on the surface and what is below the surface, but essentially man knows thyself. If you don’t know yourself, you can’t succeed,” he said.
Sowande said that the maxim, ‘Man Know Thyself,’ was valid in every age, era, and generation.
The don said that the maxim was not only for the purpose of religion but relevant in defining the absolutes of human psychology toward interpersonal relationships in any society.
He lamented that the youths had been migrating from the society in large numbers out of frustration occasioned by happenings in the country.
The don recounted his experience with Ola Rotimi and Yinka Craig in the field of performing arts and thanked the university community as well as family members for their support.
NAN reports that the lecture was attended by Professor Dapo Asaju, the Vice-Chancellor of the institution, members of the institution’s management team and other dignitaries.
NAN
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