Yinka Olatunbosun
The Department of Dramatic Arts at Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, is ready to have fun its 50th anniversary, marking 5 many years of shaping African efficiency, indigenous scholarship, and cultural activism.
Founded within the mid-Seventies at what was then the University of Ife, the division emerged as a radical hub for African complete theatre. Central to its id is its founding Head of Department, Africa’s first Nobel Laureate in Literature, Prof. Wole Soyinka.
This was disclosed throughout a press briefing held on November 6 at KAP Cinema, Ikeja.
Speaking on the anniversary milestone, the present Head of Department, Dr. Toyin Bifarin, highlighted the Golden Jubilee as a second to mirror on the division’s founding ethos: utilizing drama as an instrument for human rights, civic consciousness and social transformation.
“The Department of Dramatic Arts, Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) Ile-Ife has been the breeding ground for some of the most influential figures in African literature and performing arts. We are excited to celebrate its 50 years of excellence starting with this press conference. The flag-off ceremony will hold on November 12 at the Pit Theatre with the pioneering HOD of the department, Prof. Wole Soyinka, unveiling the official logo for the anniversary at the Pit Theatre, OAU. The anniversary lecture is scheduled to be held on January 12, 2027,” Bifarin stated.
The anniversary lecture could be delivered by Prof. Bode Sowande and the panellists session could be moderated by Prof. Ahmed Yerima and Paulyn Ugbodaga.
A four-day celebration that includes a significant homecoming gala might be held within the first quarter of 2027. It will conclude with Variety Night, Academic Session, Juma’at Service, Campus Excursions, Veterans Day, Grand 50th Gala Dinner, Fundraiser and an interdenominational service at OAU, Ile Ife.
The celebration is anticipated to deliver collectively alumni, cultural icons, theatre practitioners, and students from across the globe to honour the division’s foundational historical past and discover the way forward for African efficiency within the digital age.
Members of the alumni affiliation are calling on authorities, company our bodies and distinguished people to help the establishment which at the moment holds a capability of 900 college students.
The infrastructure deficit has remained one of the daunting challenges with sustaining qualitative schooling on the division. At the second, there’s a want to renovate the theatre and set up trendy lighting and sound tools for performances, bathrooms and altering rooms for performing college students and lecturers, radio, podcast and movie studio and a tour bus for performances.
Professor Ola Rotimi was the structural and inventive architect who engineered the transition of OAU’s theatrical arts from a analysis wing right into a fully-fledged tutorial division.
Serving as a Senior Research Fellow on the Institute of African Studies, he bodily and programmatically laid the groundwork between 1976 and 1977 for what’s now the OAU Department of Dramatic Arts earlier than handing management over to Professor Wole Soyinka and proceeded to set up the Department of Theatre Arts at University of Port Harcourt.
Over the previous 50 years, OAU’s Department of Dramatic Arts has skilled generations of outstanding playwrights, administrators, actors, students, and media producers who dominate Africa’s inventive industries together with Prof. Ahmed Yerima, Dr. Sola Fosudo, late Dr. Kola Oyewo and late Dr. Tejumola Olaniyan. Other notable alumni embrace Yemi Solade, Yemi Sodimu, Segun Arinze and Asake.
