Renowned Nigerian scholar and writer, Prof. Kole Omotoso, is dead.
The versatile scholar, who was based in South Africa for many years, passed on at the age of 80.
The author of the factional novel, Just Before Dawn’, was the father of award-winning movie director, Akin Omotoso; and notable writer, Yewande Omotoso.
While ‘Premium Times’ first flashed the news of Omotoso’s death on Wednesday evening – quoting a family source – from Cape Town, South Africa another stakeholder Desola Adeyemi also announced the passage on Instagram.
Among those who have mourned Omotoso, who was also a big force in the film and advert sector, is seasoned movie director, Niji Akanni, who described him as a teacher, builder and grower.
The man, Omotoso
A man of many arts, Omotoso was best known in South Africa as “Yebo Gogo man” based on his role in adverts for the telecommunications company Vodacom. His written work is known for its dedication and commitment to fusing a socio-political reappraisal of Africa and respect for human dignity into most of his works.
Kole Omotoso was born into a Yoruba family in Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria. He was raised by his mother and maternal grandparents after the death of his father. Though the lack of a father figure could crush a young Nigerian boy, the events of his early childhood contributed a great deal to his development as a man and also as a writer. Omotoso was educated at King’s College, Lagos, and the University of Ibadan and then undertook a doctoral thesis on the modern Arabic writer Ahmad Ba Kathir at the University of Edinburgh.
According to his Wiki profile, Omotoso returned to Ibadan to lecture on Arabic studies (1972–76), then moved to the University of Ife to work in drama (1976–88). He became a writer for various magazines (including West Africa) in the 1970s and was well known among Nigeria’s literate elites. His major themes include interracial marriage, comic aspects of the Biafran-Nigerian conflict, and the human condition—as exemplified in friendship between the Yoruba and the Igbo and in relationships between children and parents.
His 1988 historical novel about Nigeria, Just Before Dawn (Spectrum Books), was controversial and led Omotoso to leave his native country. After visiting professorships in English at the University of Stirling and the National University of Lesotho and a spell at the Talawa Theatre Company, London, he became a professor of English at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa (1991–2000). From 2001 to 2003 he was a professor in the Drama Department at Stellenbosch University.
