– (Homage to the Afohun p’ogun p’ote, the Warrior-King, who fights tyrants with bare words)
By Yinka Oludayisi Fabowale
I’d met him before I met him. I’d met in and through his creative expressions and hosts of innumerable disciples, or acolytes, who populate the diverse fields of the media, as well as the literary and creative arts.
My early appreciation of what the name, Femi Osofisan, and the profound contributions of its bearer to the world of arts first came during national youth service in Lagos State more than 30 years ago.
The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Drama group, with members drawn from a group of talents discovered during the competitive inter-platoon variety show/social night performances on the orientation camp, was to choose a play for that year’s major performance, in fulfilment of members’ secondary assignment or Community Development (CD) service. The play must be a work by an African playwright and which addressed the African experience and concerns.
I’d expected popular works of Wole Soyinka, Ola Rotimi, John Bekederemo Pepper–Clarke, Wale Ogunyemi and Zulu Sofola, who, to me, then ruled the pantheon of African dramatic literature in English Language, to come up among suggestions.
Incredibly, the unanimous verdict of the group, consisting mostly of theatre and performing arts graduates and a sprinkle of amateur actors like me, only favoured performing a Femi Osofisan’s play. Even so, there was no consensus which of the playwright’s plays to pick, as almost everyone strove hard to justify why his/her own favourite was the best choice – Once Upon Four Robbers, Farewell to a Cannibal Rage, Midnight Hotel, Chatterings and the Songs, etc.
Although an avid literary student and theatre buff, I was not so familiar with Osofisan’s works and accomplishments. I knew him merely by reputation as a university scholar and brilliant columnist writing for the influential The Guardian of the period. I must admit though that I’d been particularly impressed watching one of his hilarious and yet thought-provoking satires: Esu and The Vagabond Minstrels as an undergraduate at the Arts Theatre, University of Ibadan. The production was staged by a performing troupe from UNIFE now Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) which had Nollywood star, Segun Arinze, then a Diploma student in the university’s Dramatic Arts Department playing the highly comical character, “Epo Oyinbo”.
With such austere knowledge about him, I had to watch my colleagues, who were his students in Ife, Benin, Ilorin and Ibadan schools of drama excitedly debate the man and his art.
Regrettably, the NYSC authorities overruled our decision by persuading us to stage Soyinka’s The Trials of Brother Jero, which was on the list of secondary school literature texts instead. The argument was that our effort would be more socially relevant by taking the play on tour of schools to enhance the pupils’ understanding of the text.
From newspaper articles, interviews, his own books and further interactions in the arts circuit, I gained further illumination and deeper immersion into the world of Prof Osofisan – his drama, scholarship, literary activism – all influenced by his radical leftist ideology.
My appreciation of him escalated when I entered into Journalism, especially as a culture/entertainment reporter/critic and moved to Ibadan as the Oyo State Correspondent of The Guardian in the early 90s, which incidentally coincided with the theatre icon’s return to the University of Ibadan from where he’d left to teach in other universities for a spell of time.
His presence on the campus marked a renaissance of live theatre tradition which was vigorously sustained by regular quality stage productions of his old and new plays including Twingle Twangle and Women of Owu, personally directed by him and other spectacular performances put up by other Thespians including some of his old students notably Solomon Iguanre, Yemi Akintokun and Smart Babalola.
I would often sneak in at the UI Arts Theatre, now Wole Soyinka Arts Theatre, to watch and critique these epic performances, which were then published in my newspaper, without venturing to meet the eminent dramatist personally.
