Scholar, writer and filmmaker, Biyi Bamidele, has died.
He was 54.
News of his shocking death filtered in on Monday night, with her daughter, Temi, confirming it in a statement.
According to her, Biyi, who recently directed Elesin Oba: The King’s Horseman, Wole Soyinka’s Death and the King’s Horseman, filmed by Mo Abudu, passed on on Sunday.
He was also the director of Half of a Yellow Sun and Blood Sister.
Although the circumstance has yet to be revealed, the daughter notes:
“I am heartbroken to share the sudden and unexpected death on Sunday 7th of August in Lagos of my father Biyi Bandele.
“Biyi was a prodigiously talented writer and film-maker, as well as a loyal friend and beloved father. He was a storyteller to his bones, with an unblinking perspective, singular voice and wisdom which spoke boldly through all of his art, in poetry, novels, plays and on screen. He told stories which made a profound impact and inspired many all over the world. His legacy will live on through his work.
“He was taken from us much too soon. He had already said so much so beautifully, and had so much more to say.
“We ask everyone to please respect the privacy of his family and friends as we grieve his loss.”
His profile
Bandele was born to Yoruba parents in Kafanchan, Kaduna State, Nigeria in 1967. His father Solomon Bandele Thomas, was a veteran of the Burma Campaign in World War II, while Nigeria was still part of the British Empire. Bandele spent the first 18 years of his life in the north-central part of the country. He had ambitions to be a writer and when he was 14 years old he won a short story competition.
Later on, he moved to Lagos, then in 1987 studied drama at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. He won the International Student Playscript competition of 1989 with an unpublished play, Rain, before claiming the 1990 British Council Lagos Award for a collection of poems. He moved to London in 1990 at the age of 22 armed with the manuscripts of two novels. His books were published, and he was given a commission by the Royal Court Theatre.
Bandele worked with the Royal Court Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company, as well as writing radio drama and screenplays for television. His plays include: Rain; Marching for Fausa (1993); Resurrections in the Season of the Longest Drought (1994); Two Horsemen (1994), selected as Best New Play at the 1994 London New Plays Festival; Death Catches the Hunter and Me and the Boys.
In 1997 he did a successful dramatization of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. Bandele’s stage adaptation of his own novel The Street (1999), premiered in 2001 and was published in one volume with his play Happy Birthday Mister Deka, which premiered in 1999.
His directorial debut film Half of a Yellow Sun was screened in the Special Presentation section at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival, and received a “rapturous reception”. The film received a wide range of critical attention. His new film, entitled Fifty, was included in the 2015 London Film Festival. He also directed the third season of the popular MTV drama series, Shuga. In 2022 he directed the first Netflix Nigerian Original series, Blood Sisters.
He was announced as the director of the new Netflix and Ebonylife TV co-production “Elesin Oba, The king’s Horseman” the screen adaptation of Wole Soyinka’s stage play “Death And The King’s Horseman”, and is set to premier at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2022. (WIKI profile)
