Hubert Ogunde

Early life

Ogunde was born in Ososa, near Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State, Nigeria, to the family of Jeremiah and Eunice Ogunde. His father was a Baptist and his maternal grandfather was a follower of African traditional religion. Ogunde briefly lived within the precincts of his grandfather's compound and was expsoed to Ifá and Shango celebrations. Both the Christian and traditional African religion influenced his upbringing. He had his education between 1925 and 1932, attending St John School, Ososa, (1925–28), St Peter's School, Faaji, Lagos, (1928–30) and Wasinmi African School, (1931–32). His first contact with performance art was as a young member of Egun Alarinjo and Daramola Atele's travelling theatre group during his elementary school days. After completing his education, he worked as a pupil-teacher at St. John's School and was also church choirmaster and organist. He later joined the Nigerian police force in March 1941 and posted to Ibadan. In 1943, the police force posted him Ebute Metta where he joined an African initiated church white garment church. In Lagos, he created an amateur drama group the African Music Research Party in 1945.

Like many of his theatre contemporaries, such as A. B. David, P. A. Dawodu, Layeni and G. T. Onimole, his theatre career began under the patronage of the Church. In 1944, he produced his first folk opera, The Garden of Eden and The Throne of God, commissioned by the Lagos-based Church of the Lord (Aladura) founded by Josiah Ositelu. The performance was sanctioned to aid contributions to a Church building fund. The folk opera premiered at Glover Memorial Hall with the chairman of the ceremony, Azikiwe in attendance. Ogunde's first play incorporated realism and dramatic action in the acting, dancing and singing of the performers separating it from the common Native Air Operas predominant in Yorubaland at the time an innovation that contributed to making the play a success. At the request of the Alake of Abeokuta, Ogunde performed The Garden of Eden at the Ake Centenary Hall. Encouraged by the success of the play, Ogunde went on to write more operas. He wrote and co-directed three religious themed plays: Africa and God (1944), a folk opera infused with Yoruba cultural themes than were non-existent in The Garden of Eden, Israel in Egypt (1945) and Nebuchadnezzar's Reign and Belshazzar's Feast (1945). In 1946, he resigned his post with the police to become a professional dramatist.

Beginning of stage career: folk operas

Ogunde's African Music Research Party later known as Ogunde Theatre Party founded in 1945 is the first contemporary professional theatre company in Yoruba land. Previous performance groups were masked theatre troupes called alarinjo who were dependent on the court or church for support and grew in popularity as a result of word of mouth. Ogunde distinguished his group by using promotion methods such as advertisements and posters and changing the round stage used by alarinjo performers to one with a proscenium. In addition, he introduced dramatic action and realism into his plays depending on the audience for commercial support. By these acts Ogunde began the rise of modern professional theatre in Nigeria, a movement in which he remains the father figure. After leaving his job as a police constable, Ogunde moved away from his earlier focus on religious themes and started writing plays that were nationalistic or anti-colonial in outlook, a trend in Lagos during the furious forties. During this period, many of his early movies were co-directed by G. B. Kuyinu.

In early 1945, he produced Worse than Crime, a political play infused with Yoruba dance and ancient folk songs and like most of his early plays, it was premiered at Glover Memorial Hall, Lagos. Later in that year, he wrote The Black Forest and Journey to Heaven, two Yoruba operas that also improved on his use of traditional Yoruba folklore but with the latter having a strong Christian influence. In November 1945, he wrote a pro-labour play, Strike and Hunger motivated by the events of a general strike by labour unions led by Michael Imoudu. In 1946 he wrote and produced Tiger's Empire. Premiered on 4 March 1946, Tiger's Empire was produced by The African Music Research Party and featured Ogunde, Beatrice Oyede and Abike Taiwo. The advertisement for the play was the result of Ogunde's call for "paid actresses". It marked the first time in Yoruba theatre that women were billed to appear in a play as professional artists in Light in their own right. Tiger's Empire was an attack on colonial rule. He followed Tiger's Empire with Darkness and Light, a play he vaguely remembers. Later in 1946, he produced Devil's Money, an African story about a man who entered a contract with an evil spirit so as to get rich. The folk opera was successful with a set of twenty-four actors donning costumes. After the death of Herbert Macaulay, he wrote the opera Herbert Macaulay, to commemorate the life of the nationalist who died in 1946. He then released another political themed play, Towards Liberty in 1947. Before 1948, Ogunde plays were staged in Lagos and occasionally in Abeokuta, both his growing popularity in other Western Nigeria provinces made him think about traveling to other cities with his theatre troupe. In 1948, he went on a tour major Western Nigerian cities with his group, including stops at Abeokuta, Ibadan, Oyo, Ede and Ogbomosho. When he took his tour to the north, he had two major encounters with the police due to the political context of Worse than Crime and Tiger's Empire. His first tour outside Nigeria was not well received by the Ghanaian audience largely because they did not understand the Yoruba language and Ogunde was ignorant about the tastes of the audience.

Ogunde wrote his first satire, Human Parasites, about the craze for Aso ebi, a social culture which encourage both men and women to buy the most expensive materials for social gatherings. “The custom has lent itself to much abuse in that the occasions for celebrating marriages of funerals occur so often that one may be asked by friends to buy ‘Aso Ebi’ more than ten times a year”. Human Parasites lampooned Lagos socialites but many of them were Ogunde's patrons. Around the time, he wrote Human Parasites, he changed the name of his troupe to Ogunde Theatre Party from the previous name of African Music Research Party. Ogunde's earliest dramas were folk operas whereby the actors on stage sang their lines with limited dialogue.

In 1947, Ogunde and Adesuwa, his wife and co-star traveled to London to make contacts with the promotion of his shows in England. The talks were not fruitful but in London, they had the opportunity to take waltz and tap dance classes. In his later operas, he syncretized the waltz with the traditional Batakoto dance and tap dance with traditional Yoruba Epa dance.

1950s-1960s

In 1950, Ogunde continued writing plays with political undertones, Bread and Bullet, first performed in 1950 is Ogunde's play about a coal miners strike in Enugu that resulted in the shooting of twenty-two people. In Northern Nigeria, the performance of the play was limited to certain areas due to allegations of seditious dialogue. It was during this time, Ogunde introduced English language to the dialogue of his plays. In January 1950, he staged a reproduction of his 1945 play Black Forest, he re-arranged the play introducing English and Yoruba dialogue with African music played by both Western and African instruments. The re-produced Black Forest and Bread and Bullet changed his style of drama from Yoruba folk opera to improvisational theatre where dialogue is spoken. Ogunde then released a string of plays with dialogue either spoken or sung. He released an Islamic morality tale My Darling Fatima in 1951 followed by three situational comedies: Portmanteau Woman (1952), 'Beggar's Love (1952) and Princess Jaja (1953). In 1955, his theatre went on a tour Northern Nigeria, including performances at the Colonial Hotel, Kano. During this time, Ogunde wrote less but went on grueling road tours to different parts of the country becoming a traveling theatre group. He also changed the name of the group from Ogunde Theatre Party to Ogunde Concert Party around 1947.

In the 1960s, he produced two important plays: Yoruba Ronu and Otitokoro which refer to the political events in the Western Nigeria and which led to the declaration of the state of emergency in 1963. He was the most prominent of the dramatist of the folk opera. He composed over 40 operas in Yoruba. His play Yoruba Ronu (Yoruba Think) was a satirical account of the strife that plagued Yorubas in the 1960s. The protagonist of the play, Oba Fiwajoye, was betrayed by the actions of his frenemy deputy, he was betrayed to his enemy, Yeye-Iloba leading to his imprisonment along with two of his political allies. The deputy then assumed the throne but ruling with a tyrannical fist before he was eventually killed by the people. The play was staged at an Egbe Omo Olofin meeting in the presence of NNDP leaders such as Akintola. During the performance, Akintola and a few others walked out, feeling it was a subtle attack on their role in the Western region crisis. It was banned in western Nigeria for some time but was produced with great success in other parts of the country.

In the 1960s, The advent of Western Nigeria Television (WNTV) gave Ogunde an avenue to reach his audience without traveling. He produced his plays: Ayanmo and Mama Eko for the television audience.

Ogunde was a representative of Nigeria to Expo 67 in Montreal, on his way back to Nigeria, he stopped at New York and performed at the Apollo Theater in Harlem.

Celluloid years

In the late 1970s, Ola Balogun, directed two pioneering and successful Yoruba films, the first, Ajani Ogun co-produced with Ade Love and the second Ija Ominira, with Duro Ladipo. Ogunde joined the trend, he invited Ola Balogun to direct Aiye, an adaptation of one of his stage plays. Ogunde chose the play partly because it attracted crowds during its run of performances. Unlike the stage act, the film was shot in a way to allow a sequel. The film premiered in 1980 and within a year it made its money back. Aiye explored Yoruba mysticism, the issue of witchcraft and traditional notions of light and darkness. Ogunde sold some of his properties to finance the movie. The next Ogunde play was Jaiyesinmi, a sequel to Aiye co-directed by Ogunde and Freddie Goode. His third film is Aropin N'Tenia, another adaptation of a stage play which had premiered in 1964, the film had less superstitious moments like the previous ones. He provided the funds for most of his movies with the exception of his fourth. His fourth film was Ayanmo originally adapted from a play that was dedicated to his late wife.

Music albums

Ogunde released a few music albums for his fans. His velvety baritone voice marked the songs in thees albums which like his play demonstrated knowledge of Yoruba ethos. He released the album Ori about destiny, Onimoto and then Adesuwa, about the loss of his wife and co-star in a tragic accident. The most popular of his albums is Yoruba Ronu, a soundtrack to the play with the same name.

Film village and national troupe

In 1986, he was invited by the Nigerian government to form a national drama troupe. During this time, he represented Nigeria in the Commonwealth Festival of Arts choosing a play called Destiny, which was a re-arranged Ayanmo that he had released earlier in 1970. Destiny was a production with thirty dancers. In the play, Ogunde incorporated one of his favorite dance steps, Ijo-Eleja (dance of the fishermen), Asan Ubo-Ikpa from Ibibio culture and the kwag-hir from Tivland.

Ogunde established a film village at Ososa his hometown. The venue was to be a rehearsal center for the National Troupe before he passed away in 1990.

Personal life and legacy

Ogunde married twelve wives. The eldest of his wives; Clementina Oguntimirin later became known as Adesewa Ogunde or Mama Eko (Lagos Mama), as she was popularly known by her fans in the 1960s, after taking the leading part in the popular play of that name. She had five children for him. The two senior girls, Tokunbo and Tope, are now leading members of the company. Ogunde became the leading producer of Yoruba celluloid movies, with J'ayesinmi (Let the world rest) and Aiye (Life!) blazing the trail.

Oguntimirin died in a road accident in September 1970 en route to a scheduled performance in Ilesha. The following year, Ogunde wrote a play in her memory entitled Ayanmo. Her death was mourned throughout the country and press and mass-media coverage of her death and funeral was extensive. Ogunde was ill during the shooting of Mr. Johnson. He died on 4 April 1990 at London's Cromwell Hospital following a brief illness. A portrait of Ogunde hangs in the National Gallery of Modern Art, Lagos. Another of his wives, Idowu Philips is also an actress.

Films

Television