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Chronicles of Greatness (17) Ola Rotimi
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Emmanuel Gladstone Olawale Rotimi (1938 –2000)
“ When the rain falls on the leopard, does it wash off its spots? Has the richness of kingly life washed off the love of our King for his people?”
-Ola Rotimi
Emmanuel Gladstone Olawale Rotimi was popularly known and called Ola Rotimi. He was born 13th April 1938 in Sapele to an Ijaw mother and a Yoruba father. Most of his write ups centred around cultural diversity. Ola Rotimi was a Nigerian Scholar, playwright and director.
Ola Rotimi's education was in Nigeria. He schooled in Port Harcourt and Lagos before he left for the United States of America in 1959 to further his education at Boston University.
In 1963, he obtained his B.A in Fine Arts.
In 1966, he obtained his M.A in Playwright at the Yale School of Drama, after which he came back to his home country – Nigeria.
In the 1960s, he taught at the University of Ife now Obafemi Awolowo University and Port Harcourt University.
In the 1990s, due to the political condition of Nigeria, Ola Rotimi lived most part of his life in the Caribbean and the United States where he taught at Macalester College in St. Paul Minnesota.
In 2000, Rotimi returned to Ile-Ife to join the faculty of Obafemi Awolowo University where he lectured till he died.
In his work, Ola Rotimi most times examined Nigeria's history and ethnic traditions. His first two plays – To Stir the god of iron produced 1963 and Our Husband has gone mad again produced 1966, published 1977 were staged at the drama schools of Boston and Yale Universities.
In 1983 and 1988, “If: A Tragedy of the Ruled” and Hopes of the Living Dead premiered at the University of Port Harcourt.
In 1987, the radio play – Everyone his/her ow problem was broadcast.
In 1991, To be or to Become was published.
In May 2000, Hazel Rotimi, Ola Rotimi's wife, died, a couple of months after her death, precisely August 18, Ola Rotimi died at Ile-Ife.
The second half of Ola Rotimi's last creative decade was invested reworking two of his plays – Man Talk, Woman Talk, Tororo, Tororo, Roro was published in 2002 under the title The Epilogue.
It is said that the two plays were probably meant as an epilogue to both Rotimi's theatrical and comic careers, which span the entire spectrum of his career.
It is comical and Ola Rotimi made use of "Nigerian English" like "Se you get?" "I called God on him" and so on.
They are also a social satire and this publication they spurred fresh interest in his satires. Rotimi is remembered as a model in the literary genre who has in his own way shaped the conduct of the theatre and whose plays have displayed the power of drama to form the thinking process of the society and attempted to solve some of the problems encountered in daily living.
Rotimi's dream of directing a play of 5000 cast became a reality at the Amphi Africa Theater when he was being laid to rest as the crowd was drawn to a manuscript of the day's program outline. There was a dramatic entry and exit to the stage around his casket with the man turning his casket.
Books: The Gods Are Not to Blame (produced 1968; published 1971), a retelling of the Oedipus myth in imagistic blank verse; Kurunmi and the Prodigal (produced 1969; published as Kurunmi, 1971), Ovonramwen Nogbaisi (produced 1971; published 1974), about the last ruler of the Benin empire; and Holding Talks (1979) and many more.
Awards: Two Fulbright Scholarships.
Outstanding Attribute: Ability to write to keep people's attention until the end of the story.
Supporting Attributes: Tenacity, Focus, Consistency and steady growth.
Ola Rotimi. (2015). Encyclopedia Britannica website. Retrieved 5:10, May 28, 2015, from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/510642/Ola-Rotimi style="color: #000000;">.
Copyright © 2015 [Adebola A. Ayoade]. All Rights Reserved.
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