Femi Osofisan (Femi Baba Adeyemi Osofisan) Biography

Nigerian dramatist and novelist, born in Ijebu Ode, Western Nigeria, educated at the universities of Ibadan, Dakar, and Paris. Inspired to some extent by Wole Soyinka, and respecting his achievement, Osofisan nevertheless departs from the older dramatist in providing more emphatic social and political commitment in his own plays, and greater scepticism about the liberating effects of myth and ritual. His plays are usually premièred at the University of Ibadan, where he became a lecturer, and staged by Osofisan's own theatre group. Published plays include A Restless Run of Locusts (1975), about political violence; The Chattering and the Song (1977), dedicated to Wole Soyinka and Christopher Okigbo, which deals with the role of artists and intellectuals in bringing about political change; and Who's Afraid of Solarin? (1978), a satirical work adapted from Gogol's Russian political farce, The Government Inspector; Morountodun and Other Plays (1982); Birthdays are Not For Dying and Other Plays (1988); and Yungba Yungba and the Dance Contest (1995). His novel Kolera Kolej (1975) satirizes post-independence politics in Africa.