Kole Omotoso, foremost Nigerian professor and author, is dead
Mr Omotoso died at the age of 80 in South Africa where he had been sick for a while.
A Nigerian author and professor, Kole Omotoso, is dead.
He died at the age of 80 in South Africa where he had been sick for a while, a family source told PREMIUM TIMES.
Mr Omotoso’s family later released a statement confirming his death.
“Our beloved father and husband moved on from this plane on Wednesday 19th late afternoon,” the family wrote in a statement sent to journalists.
They will share more information with the public as they gather themselves, they said while thanking friends of the family for their care, love and support.
Some of the works of fiction Mr Omotoso authored include The Edifice, The Combat, And Just Before Dawn.
His Novel ‘Just Before Dawn’ written in 1988 was controversial and caused him to flee Nigeria.
He became a visiting professor in English at the University of Stirling and the National University of Lesotho and had a spell at the Talawa Theatre Company, London.
Mr Omotoso became a professor of English at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa after later a professor in the Drama Department at Stellenbosch University.
He was a renowned Professor of African Literature and celebrated as a master of multiple genres.
His ‘Old Genesis’ beard gave him fame as one of the most prominent black faces on South African television, known as the “Yebo Gogo Man”.
His children grew to become equally famous, one of them a Hollywood movie director.
Born in April 1941, late Mr Omotoso went to King’s College, Lagos, from where he proceeded to the University of Ibadan and then to the University of Edinburgh where his doctoral thesis was on Ahmad Ba Kathir, a modern Arabic writer.
He returned to Nigeria to teach Arabic at the University of Ibadan and after a short while moved to University of Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo University, to work in drama.
Mr Omotoso was once described by Nelson Mandela, who was a family friend, as “the most photographed man in South Africa” due to his iconic Yebo Gogo folksy character portrayal, through which he became one of the most ubiquitous figures in South African popular culture.
Premium Times
Professor Kole Omotoso is dead
By Isa Isawade
Professor of English and renowned writer, Bankole Ajibabi Omotoso, popularly known as Kole Omotoso, has died at 80 in Cape Town, South Africa.
He had lived in Centurion, Gauteng, South Africa for many years.
The family, in a short message announcing the demise of the highly revered intellectual, said “Our beloved father and husband moved on from this plane on Wednesday 19th late afternoon. We are sharing this with his close and much-loved community and will share more as we gather ourselves.
“Thank you for your care and love and support.”
In South Africa, he was best known for his works of fiction and as the “Yebo Gogo man” in adverts for the telecommunications company, Vodacom.
The renowned intellectual was born on April 21, 1943, in Akure, Ondo State, South West, Nigeria.
Omotoso attended the King’s College, Lagos, and the University of Ibadan and later undertook a doctoral thesis on the modern Arabic writer Ahmad Ba Kathir at the University of Edinburgh.
He returned to his alma mater, the University of Ibadan to teach Arabic studies between 1972 and 1976 from where he moved to the University of Ife to work in drama from 1976 to 1988.
Prof. Omotoso started writing for various magazines (including West Africa) in the 1970s.
He was regarded as a member of Nigeria’s literate elites.
According to Wikipedia, Omotoso’s 1988 historical novel about Nigeria, Just Before Dawn (Spectrum Books), was controversial and led him to leave Nigeria.
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).
He was a professor in the Drama Department at Stellenbosch University between 2001 and 2003.
He also wrote a number of columns in African newspapers, most notably the “Trouble Travels” column in Nigeria’s Sunday Guardian from 2013 to 2016.
He was a patron of the Etisalat Prize for Literature.
In the mid-1990s and 2010s, he appeared as the “Yebo Gogo man” in several television advertisements for Vodacom mobile phones.
His fictional works include The Edifice (1971); The Combat (1972; Penguin Classics, 2008, ISBN 978-0143185536)
Miracles (short stories) (1973); Fela’s Choice (1974); Sacrifice (1974, 1978); The Scales (1976); To Borrow a Wandering Leaf (1978); Memories of Our Recent Boom (1982), and Just Before Dawn (Spectrum Books, 1988, ISBN 9789782460073).
His non-fictional books include The Form of the African Novel (1979 etc.); The Theatrical Into Theatre: a study of the Drama and Theatre of the English-speaking Caribbean (1982); Season of Migration to the South: Africa’s crises reconsidered (1994); Achebe or Soyinka? A Study in Contrasts (1995), and Woza Africa (1997).
His works in drama are The Curse (1976) and Shadows in the Horizon (1977).
Prof. Omotoso’s contributions to literary art remain iconic.
He is survived by his wife and children including filmmaker Akin Omotoso and writer Yewande Omotoso.