In honour of Femi Osofisan, who turns 70 in June 2016, some of his colleagues in the academia and friends who have known him over the years, have decided to honour him with an international conference.
Titled, ‘Femi Osofisan, Post-Negritude Tradition and 50 Years of Nigerian Literary Drama’, it is convened by Tunde Awosanmi, Kunbi Olasope, Jahman Anikulapo and Sola Adeyemi, and an open call for papers has since been announced.
“To reflect the interdisciplinary contributions of Femi Osofisan to the academy, and his use of African performance culture to expose societal ills through drama, the conference is inviting papers by scholars exploring the works of Osofisan and drama, music, dance, gender issues, poetry and literature from a range of perspectives,” the statement from the conveners explained.
Themes can include, but are not limited to: ‘The drama and theatre of Femi Osofisan’, ‘Femi Osofisan and the performance of poetry in Nigeria’, ‘The culture of adaptations and re-readings in Nigerian drama’ and ‘African diasporan cultural encounters: the nature of classics’.
Others are: ‘The Classical tradition and influence on Nigerian literature’, ‘Dance and music in the drama of Femi Osofisan’, ‘Fiction and popular journalism in Nigeria Film and Television: The Visitors Series of Detective Drama,’ ‘Film and Television: Nollywood’ and ‘Arts Management and Cultural Administration’.
Deadline for submission of abstracts is December 16 and can be emailed to femiosofisan2016@gmail.com.
The statement said that booking for the conference will open in February 2016, where interested participants can benefit from the ‘early bird’ rates and reserve accommodation at the University of Ibadan Guest Houses.
Anyone of the aforementioned conveners can be contacted for further details and clarifications on the conference, which is to take place from June 13 to 17, 2016 at the Conference Centre of the University of Ibadan.
The conference, the statement said, is not just to mark his birthday, as well as celebrate his achievements and contributions, especially to world theatre and scholarship.
Born Babafemi Adeyemi Osofisan, the distinguished African dramatist, theatre practitioner and culture scholar will be 70 on June 16, 2016. He has had a distinguished career in the academia.
Emeritus Professor of Drama, University of Ibadan and Distinguished Professor, Kwara State University, Nigeria, Osofisan is a theatre director, actor, critic, poet, novelist, editor and newspaper columnist. He has written and produced more than 60 plays, five volumes of poetry, four novels and several collections of essays.
Since winning the first Western Nigeria Broadcasting Service (WNBS) Prize for Independence Anniversary Essay in 1965 with ‘Five Years Ago’, Osofisan has won several other awards, including the first Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) Literature award in 1983 for Morountodun and Other Plays, and later for Drama with Yungba-Yungba and the Dance Contest in 1993. Minted Coins, a collection of poetry written under the pseudonym, Okinba Launko, won the ANA Poetry Prize and the Regional Commonwealth Poetry Award for First Collection in 1987. In 2000, he was short-listed for the prestigious Neustadt Prize in the United States of America. He has been honoured with Officier de l’Ordre Nationale de Merite, Republique de France (1999); Nigerian National Order of Merit (NNOM) in the Humanities (2004); Fonlon-Nichols Prize for Literature and the Struggle for Human Rights (2006); and Fellow, Nigerian Academy of the Arts (FNAL) in 2006.
Osofisan was also a drama consultant to the Second World Festival of Black and African Arts and Culture (Festac ’77); the Cultural Olympiad, 1996 Olympic Games, Atlanta; and Movement for Mass Mobilisation, Social Justice and Economic Recovery (MAMSER), Abuja (1989). He was also the President of ANA (1988 to 1990) and PEN, Nigeria (2004 to 2010), and one time General Manager and Chief Executive of the National Theatre, Lagos, Nigeria.
Osofisan’s plays have been performed in many countries, where he has also held teaching or research fellowships, including Japan, Sri Lanka, Ghana, Lesotho, China, U.S., Canada, United Kingdom, France and South Africa. They are among the most produced in Nigeria.
He is a founding member and Literary Editor of the first Editorial Board of The Guardian, Lagos (1983-84); Founder and Artistic Director, Kakaun Sela Kompani (1979) and CentreSTAGE-Africa (the Centre for Studies in Theatre and Alternative Genres of Expression in Africa, a non-governmental trusteeship organization); and Founder and Editor of Opon Ifa, a poetry chap-book (1974), which later became Opon Ifa Review, a quarterly journal of the arts, primarily for creative writing.
