Ola Rotimi: "Humanity as my Tribesmen"

Abstract

la Rotimi lives somewhat in the shadow of his fellow Nigerian dramatist, the Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka. But while Soyinka commands international respect and admiration, Rotimi's reputation within Nigeria, both as playwright and director, is unsurpassed. Born in 1938 of Yoruba and Igbo parents (a significant cross-community. parentage in terms of Rotimi's committed stance against the destructive elements of tribalism) Rotimi was educated at the prestigious Methodist Boys High School in Lagos, and then in the USA, with degrees from Boston University (B.F.A.) and Yale (M.F.A.), where between 1963 and 1966 he was Rockefeller Foundation Scholar in Playwrighting and Dramatic Literature. Like many other contemporary Nigerian playwrights (Omotoso, Osofisan, Clark-Bekederemo, Sofola, Sowande, Lakoju, etc.) Rotimi works from a base in university teaching, in his case from the universities of Ife and Port Harcourt. His first play, Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again, was written and produced at Yale in 1966 (and published by OUP in 1977). It is a light-hearted satire which shows alertness to the ridiculous posturing of politicians and some sense of the menace that lurks behind the farce. It is also very "modem" in its ideological stance, with women's role in contemporary politics given considerable emphasis. Rotimi's reputation was established, however, with three major dramas he both wrote and staged following his return to Nigeria in the autumn of 1966 — The Gods Are Not to Blame (produced at the first Ife Festival of the Arts in 1968), Kurunmi (second Ife Festival, 1969) and Ovonramwen Nogbaisi (fourth Ife Festival, 1970). These three plays will be discussed briefly in order to give some insight into Rotimi's methodology and concerns, leading to a fuller discussion of two important later works, If (first performed University of Port Harcourt Theatre, 1979) and Hopes of the Living Dead (first performed University of Port Harcourt Theatre, 1985.)