Nigeria Content Online

The sudden death of
Ola Rotimi in 2000 was no mean loss to African Drama and Theatre. The
passing of the ‘Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again’ author shut the tap on
a number of stories and ideas. To fill this gap, his children soon set
up a foundation in the United States to celebrate his life and works.

To fulfil the
vision of the late playwright and stage director, his son Kole Rotimi
recently relocated to Nigeria to start the Ola Rotimi Foundation.
During a brief visit to Lagos, he and his wife Kamela, spared some
minutes to discuss the beginnings of the Foundation, its forthcoming
launch and proposed projects.

“What we felt from
our observation was that African arts and culture was slowly dying,”
the younger Rotimi said. Thinking from the perspective of a
businessman, he had approached his dad with an idea for satisfying the
huge need for African and Nigerian art abroad. “If we were able to
create that market and create a link between the artists here and the
presenters over there, that would now encourage people to buy into the
arts and start to respect their culture here as opposed to trying to
copy and emulate what they see on TV.”

Father and son set
to work on plans to create productions here and to market them abroad,
especially at the International presenters’ workshop in New York, where
promoters sought shows and exhibitions for display around the world.
All such plans went on hold with the death of the renowned dramatist
and author of ‘The Gods Are Not to Blame’ in August of 2000.

Hopes of the living

Two years after his
father’s death, Rotimi began to implement the original plan with the
establishment of the Ola Rotimi Foundation. It was however not an
exactly smooth road. “[The promoters] said it was interesting but they
would not touch Nigerian art and I said why? And they said, ‘You don’t
know what you are getting.’ In Kenya, Ghana, Tanzania, Egypt and South
Africa they were sure of what they were getting, even though they
wanted stuff out of Nigeria.

“Eventually we were
able to convince some of them and we got the funding to start the Ola
Rotimi Foundation in the US (in September 2004). In 2005, we brought
the National Troupe to come and perform. It was a tour that was
actually supposed to be in 2004. It was supposed to be a 3-month tour
(of The Gods Are Not To Blame) and what the presenters had said had
come back and took a bite at us. They (the National Troupe) weren’t
able to come and I’m not going to point fingers, you can imagine why.”
It was possible to decipher however that state bureaucracy was
responsible for the Troupe’s no-show. The close to half a million
dollars that had been raised for performances across America, in
Bermuda, the UK and in the Bahamas had to be returned to the donors.

A two-week tour
eventually happened, piquing the interest of the same producer that
took South African musical Sarafina to Broadway. Plans to embark on a
nine-month tour with a 50-man cast however fell through, “because I was
not here (in Nigeria), I was over there. It killed the project; at that
point it was 2006, I now decided if I’m going to do this I have to come
back to Nigeria and do it from Nigeria.”

Coming to Nigeria

The US branch soon
closed shop with all transactions now taking place from Nigeria.
Rotimi’s older brother took over as the US representative and is in the
processing of restarting the US part of the foundation. According to
him, the Nigerian side will be responsible for the development, while
the US branch will handle marketing in the US and outside of Nigeria.

Since his return to
Nigeria in November has business been worth it, I ask. Comparing the
scenario to a situation in his dad’s absurdist play, ‘Holding Talks,’
he said, “It’s not the same Nigeria I remember growing up in. A lot of
people nowadays I’ve found will talk and not deliver. They’ll make
commitments and never come through on it. There’ve been some people
that have been totally committed, steadfastly by our side,” he said,
mentioning arts patron Rasheed Gbadamosi as one of the ‘good guys.’

Located outside the
Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife where the late Rotimi worked, the
Foundation has been in collaboration with the campus-based Institute of
Cultural Studies and has staged performances (‘When Criminals Turn
Judges’ and ‘Holding Talks’) at the Ife University and at the
University of Ibadan.

The satire ‘When
Criminals Turn Judges’ will also be staged at the Foundation’s official
launch at Terra Kulture on August 20. Grammy-winning Kora player
Mamadou Diabate will also be performing. The choice of the play –
originally written in 1967 but published in 2007 under the ‘Four
One-Act Plays’ – is a reflection of Rotimi’s experiences since his
return: broken promises.

Big plans

Other previously
unpublished works, including a much-anticipated Pidgin English
Dictionary, is also scheduled for release. Organisers also expect the
director of the International Black Film Festival to be in attendance
as a supporter of the Foundation’s objectives, which include raising
Nollywood’s standards to a competitive level. The foundation will also
produce films for submission at local and international film festivals.
Commenting on the state of the Nigerian film industry, Rotimi praised
some of the acting but called for improvement in the quantity and
quality of the film’s aspects like sound, scriptwriting, editing and
acting.

The launching will
also act as a fundraiser event for the Foundation’s projects, amongst
which is an artists’ database, which will provide information for
tourists on cultural events in Nigeria. “The artists’ database will be
free to artists; it will have the artists’ contact information, a brief
bio or write up on what they do and samples of their works. We are
hoping to raise 2 billion naira. The idea is to now have that as an
endowment for the foundation because as Nigerian artists we can’t keep
on depending on outside funding agencies that don’t or may not fully
understand how we work,” he said making reference to the abundance of
potential donors abroad who believed in the projects.

Artists will have
access to the endowment fund for grants and travel, especially for the
Presenters’ Workshop. “The idea is that the foundation will be doing it
to promote Nigerian artists, so when we go out to New York, we’ll now
have artworks, dances that are ready for purchase. The presenters from
all around the world will then come and see the different artists and
say ‘OK, I want this artist.’”

The question of
certain collaboration being destructive to the creativity of such plans
soon arose. Kamela Heyward-Rotimi, cultural consultant to the
foundation, said, “(The Foundation) is a non-governmental effort. It
(going solo) is from bitter experience and also to maintain the ability
to act on the things your organisation has put forward as its tenets or
mission.” She said affiliations were a preferred option.

“We’ve run into a
situation where in order for us to fund this project, you have to put
this person in and it takes away from the artistic purity of it,” her
husband offered. “The foundation’s goal is to be independent and not to
be a foundation where year after year you are going to see how to now
find your next few kobos to make this event come across.”

An institute for
the empowerment of artists is also on the cards. “We want to set up an
institute of our own where the closest thing to it is what we call a
business incubation centre in the business world, but it would be more
of an artist incubation centre. Let’s say a producer contacts the
foundation and says they want to bring a particular artist for a
six-month residency for the position of a scholar at Duke University
and now they say you’ve never been overseas. The duty of the centre is
to expose artists to how things are being done overseas.

“Basically the
foundation wants to work with artists who will then be like ambassadors
of Nigeria when they go out into the world to participate in
international events,” Kamela added.

At the centre,
artists will have access to communication tools, internet access,
computer accessibility and office equipment. Trained staff will be on
hand to help them compose mail: “a centre that will help them market
themselves properly,” Rotimi summarised.

Despite the many challenges facing their lofty ambitions, the
Rotimis appear unfazed. “It is an ambitious goal but I believe it is
one that we can achieve. It is challenging but I believe that we should
rise up to the challenge. I don’t believe that it is a situation where
people can only give to the foundation if they have millions of naira,”
Rotimi said calling on the public to contribute to the organisation’s
vision to keep Ola Rotimi’s legacy alive.