By Akeem Lasisi
All is now set for the 80th birthday of legendary Ijala chanter, Alabi Ogundepo. The event will hold on Sunday, October 10, in Saki, Oyo State, where Ogundepo hails from – although he lives in Osogbo, Osun State. The programme will also mark the traditional poet’s 60th year in the ijala grove, just as his biography, written by Sikiru Adewoye and Ayo Opakunbi, will be launched on the occasion.
Ogundepo, who is never tired of dazzling the audience with ijala the Yoruba’s rich hunters’ poetry, accompanied with songs and dances, started performing since when he was a child. He has been so consistent with it that, even at 80, he still chants and performs, with his voice as arresting as it has always been.
In the Yoruba poetry world, he ranks among the best. Such include the late Ijala chanter, Ogundare Fonyanmu; esa egungun (masqueraders’ poetry) chanter, Foyeke Ajangila; Iyere Ifa chanter, Yemi Elebuibon; and dadakuada singer, the late Odolaye Aremu. His name also does echo when more relatively Yoruba poets like the late Adebayo Faleti, Olanrewaju Adepoju and Olatubosun Oladapo are being discussed.
While he would favourably match any of the icons in terms of the countless number of performances he has done in the past six decades, he seems to have an edge over all in terms of the number of ijala jingles/adverts he has done on radio. He, for instance, symbolises the best of the old penetrating jingles that made radio particularly thick in the past. One of such that this writer remembers is that in which he sensitises parents against sending children to hawk especially in areas busy with vehicular flow. It was on old Radio O-Y-O:
Gbogbo abiamo pata, e je a sira wa leti
Gbogbo alagbato pata, e je a jo s’apero
S’omo ti o i dagba tója ta lo gbegba leri lo ni o maa kiri worobo
L’omo o si mo’gba ti onimoto n bo
Gbe bisiki wa l’awe gbo, lomo ba fi fo sona lomo bo seni’rin
Oro ohun dikaya o di houhou.
E ma t’aja loju ona mo tori moto o meni Kankan,
Ogun o ni f’eran wa yileele.
Expected at the 80th birthday feast are governors, traditional rulers, artists from different areas of the industry, with Ogundepo noting that members of the Theatre Arts and Motion Picture Producers Association of Nigeria (TAMPAN) will play a major role. They are expected to be part of an Artists’ Night coming up on Saturday, October 9. Some of the traditional rulers expected in Saki are the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi; the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi; the Olubadan of Ibadan, Oba Saliu Adetunji; and the Ataoja of Osogbo, Oba Jimoh Oyetunji.
