No writer typifies the second generation of post-colonial Nigerian writers more than Femi Osofisan. One of Nigeria’s finest playwrights and thinkers, Osofisan’s work evinces a strong, progressive outlook and a keen understanding of Nigeria’s complicated history.
A December 1979 feature article published in the Daily Times, one of Nigeria’s most widely circulated dailies of the twentieth century, described Femi Osofisan as an ‘apostle of social resolution.’ At the time, Osofisan was a 33-year-old lecturer of Comparative African and European Literature at the University of Ibadan. But, beyond the classroom, he also wrote and directed plays and published opinion articles in newspapers and academic journals. Osofisan described himself in the Daily Times as, ‘the playwright from the underprivileged and the downtrodden particularly in our society and the Black world in general.’ More than 40 years since that article was published, Osofisan has scarcely departed from that ambitious mission.
Born on 16th June 1946 in Erunwon, present-day Ogun State, Osofisan lost his father as an infant and spent his childhood across different towns in Nigeria. He gained admission to Government College, Ibadan in 1959 where his lifelong interest in drama emerged...
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