Six years ago on May 29, elder arts man and music impresario, Steven Bankole Omodele Rhodes, known to many as Steve Rhodes, passed on to eternal glory at 82.
Steven Bankole Omodele Rhodes5
In his memory, Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, will on May 29 declare open a commemorative exhibition at the museum gallery of the Freedom Park, old Colonial Prison, Broad Street, Lagos.
The event is put together by the Steve Rhodes Foundation (SRF), founded in the aftermath of his passing, as well as the Steve Rhodes Memorial Anniversary Committee.
The week-long exhibition is designed especially to celebrate Rhodes’ eminent contributions to the Nigerian (and African) music and artistic heritage with an exhibition of the rich and resourceful collection of photographic recordings of his over six decades of illustrious career.
Rhodes was a veteran broadcaster, musician and showbiz impresario who bestrode the arts community for over six decades, producing, managing, creating and advocating for the arts and culture.
Born on April 8, 1926 in Lagos, to Justice Bankole and Mrs. Mabel Jones de Rhodes, the young Steve attended at different times, CMS Grammar School (Lagos) and Dennis Memorial School (Onitsha), for his secondary education.
He spent 11 years in England and Germany to further his education. As a jazz musician in Germany, he played with some itinerant bands and followed them on concert tours of Switzerland, Italy and Germany.
While in England, he met with fellow Nigerians and Africans with whom he shared the passion to return home to see how they could contribute their own quota to nation-building in the post-Independence era.
The death of his father (and the strong nostalgia) forced his voyage back home, and he joined the Federal Ministry of Information.
He became the first Nigerian Controller of Programmes of the Western Nigerian Television.
