Emeritus Professor Femi Osofisan, NNOM, FNAL.
Emeritus Professor Femi Osofisan (aka Okinba Launko) was born at Erunwon,
where his Idomila-Iloto father was headmaster, on the 16th June 1946. After
primary schooling in various towns, including Ilesa, Ife, Erunwon and Ifo, he
finally had his secondary education at the Government College, Ibadan. From
there, he proceeded to the University of Ibadan where, after a year abroad at
the Université de Dakar, Senegal, he obtained a BA [Second Class Upper] Honours
degree in French.
Osofisan then proceeded to the Sorbonne, in Paris, for his postgraduate studies, but returned two years later to take his PhD at the University of Ibadan. After this, he joined the faculty of Ibadan as Assistant Lecturer, and rose through the ranks to the post of Professor in 1985.
Prof Osofisan has served as Acting Head of the erstwhile Department of Modern Languages; Acting Head and Head of the Department of Theatre Arts, and was a member of Senate from 1980 till 2011, when he took his mandatory retirement. He has also held similar positions at the University of Benin, where he first became a full professor in 1983.
Apart from Benin, Osofisan has been a Visiting Professor or Visiting Playwright to several other institutions both at home—(e.g. Obafemi University, Ile Ife; University of Ilorin; Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago Iwoye; Kwara State University, Ilorin, etc.)—and abroad, including the Universities of Legon, Ghana; Bénin in Lome, Togo; Yaoundé in Cameroon; Leeds and Northampton in the UK; Edinburgh in Scotland; Humboldt and Bayreuth in Germany; Athens in Greece; Colombo in Sri Lanka; Toronto and York in Canada; as well as Iowa, Northwestern, Pennsylvania, DePauw, Madison, New York, Ohio-Columbus, Bloomington, and Emory Universities, all in the USA; and Peking University, in China.
Professor Osofisan was a member of the pioneering “Think Tank” that set up the Guardian newspapers in 1983 and later, the Comet, and was on their Editorial Boards for several years. He was also a regular columnist for a number of national newspapers.
A restless artist and multiple award winner, he has published, both in his own name and under the pseudonym of “Okinba Launko”, over four dozens of plays (including The Chattering and the Song; Esu and the Vagabond Minstrels; Morountodun; Once Upon Four Robbers; The Oriki of a Grasshopper; Twingle-Twangle; Who’s Afraid of Solarin? (plus its Yoruba version, Yeepa, Solarin N Bo!); Tegonni; Aringindin and the Nightwatchmen; Bishop Ajayi Crowther; Nkrumah-ni, Africa-ni!; Reel, Rwanda; Midnight Hotel; Women of Owu, etc), plus five novellas (Kolera Kolej; Ma’ami (now a film in the same title); Cordelia; Wuraola Forever; and Pirates); and six volumes of poetry (Minted Coins’ Ire Ni!; Dreamseeker on a Divining Chain; Pain Remembers, Love Rekindles; Commemorations, and recently, Seven Stations Up the Tray’s Way). He is also the author of the acclaimed biography of J.P. Clark, entitled, J.P. Clark: A Voyage.
Professor Osofisan has been honoured with Fellowships from various international bodies, including the British Council, the International Writers Programme at Iowa, the Henri Clewes Foundation in Napoule, France, the Ragdale Foundation at Lake Forest, and International Research Institute at the Freie University in Berlin. He was Drama Consultant to FESTAC 77, to MAMSER, and to the 8th All-Africa Games (COJA). From 2000 to 2004 he served as the General Manager and Chief Executive of the National Theatre, Iganmu, Lagos; and from 2000 to 2012 was Executive Consultant, CHAMS Theatre Project.
As a scholar, Professor Osofisan has to his credit four books of published essays, including The Nostalgic Drum, published by Howard University Press in Washington, and The Muse of Anomy published by the Carolina University Press; plus five edited books; several monographs and essays in learned journals; as well as three books of translation.
He is a former President of the Association of Nigerian Authors [ANA]; former President of International PEN, Nigeria Chapter; and a current Vice-President of the Pan African Writers Association [PAWA]. In early 2013, he successfully convened the very first Playwrights’ Confab in the country, followed by the second one in 2005.
Osofisan was honoured with the French National Order of Merit Award in 1991; the University of Ibadan Faculty of Arts Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2001; the Nigerian National Order of Merit Award, (which is the highest award for Nigerian academics), in 2004; and the prestigious, international Fonlon-Nichols Award in 2005. A year later, in 2006, he became a Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Letters.
Osofisan was made Emeritus Professor at the University of Ibadan in 2014, and is currently Distinguished Professor at the Kwara State University, Malete, Ilorin as well as Visiting Professor at the Peking University, Beijing, China. This year (2006), he became the first African winner of the international Thalia Prize.
He is married to Professor (Mrs.) Adenike Osofisan, the first female professor of Computer Science in Africa, and current Director of the Business School of the University of Ibadan. Together they have four children.
Professor Emeritus Femi Osofisan is one of the advocates for this year's edition of WSICE [Wole Soyinka International Cultural Exchange].
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