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He is one of the
select few mentored by the late D.O. Fagunwa. “To know him in person
was to know a gentleman on whose cheeks perpetual smiling had
fortuitously etched a dimple,” notes Yemitan in a tribute to
commemorate Fagunwa’s 45th memoriam in 2008.

That relationship, though, began innocently

“The late D.O. was
at Igbobi College from 1945 to 1946. I was in his Yoruba class in
Igbobi College in 1946 and I remember that instead of him going to the
blackboard to write, we sat down and discussed. That was his method of
teaching and we teased him about the veracity of the content of his
book. We will be throwing banters with him. I think he had only written
‘Ogboju Ode’ at that time. Did you see what I wrote in the brochure?
That’s part of what he told us. He narrated the story of how he wrote
‘Ogboju Ode’ and the royalty he was given. What he spent the money on,”
explains Yemitan whose recollection is contained in an article
published in the brochure of the fourth D.O Fagunwa Memorial Lecture
held on December 7, 2010.

The duo’s path crossed again after Igbobi College.

“He was in the
General Publications Section of the Western Region Ministry of
Education. When that was to take off, there was an advertisement in the
press asking people to contribute short stories and I wrote one short
story which was accepted. Later on, I discovered that he was in charge
of the publication, so later I went to Ibadan. I was in Ibadan and was
dealing with him on a regular basis. I was writing short stories
regularly for ‘Aworerin’ and he was in charge. There was one Mr Levy, a
white man, he was the topmost man. D.O. Fagunwa was next to him so our
meetings became regular.” Fagunwa later gave fillip to Yemitan’s
writing career by editing and publishing his first work, ‘Oniruru
Itan’, a collection of short stories in Yoruba. “At that time, I used
to tell short stories on radio, on Nigerian Broadcasting Service on a
weekly basis and he became one of my ardent listeners. When I told a
story on radio, the next time he would call me. ‘Ladipo, I heard your
story.’ We were dealing regularly together, I was close to him and
because he had taught us before, this made us so close. He used to
advise me, he used to tell me the modulation in Yoruba language and
each time I wrote, he would help me edit it and tell me how to do it
better.

“I used to write
short stories on a regular basis and he used to ask me to write more.
One day, this book, ‘Oniruru Itan’, just came. It was edited and
published by D.O. Fagunwa. It was printed by Caxton Press but it was a
publication of Western Region General Publications. I simply saw
author’s copies, they didn’t tell me they were publishing it. He was
just asking me to write the stories, I didn’t know he had the intention
of publishing it. This was my first ever publication. It was edited by
D.O. Fagunwa. He was my mentor, my everything. When he died, I felt it
keenly.” But death couldn’t diminish Yemitan’s love for Fagunwa. He
started an archive on the educationist thereafter. One of his
materials, the first in memoriam advert on Fagunwa published in a
newspaper on December 7, 1964 is also in the memorial brochure.

Lover of research

Having benefitted
from Fagunwa’s mentorship, Yemitan proceeded to distinguish himself
with several other works. ‘Ijala Are Ode’, the first work in Yoruba
language published by Oxford University Press, (now University Press)
in 1963 is one of his popular works.

“I wasn’t a
hunter,” he starts on how he wrote the book. “I come from Abeokuta and
my father had the chieftaincy title of Ashipa. Ashipa is the head of
hunters and my father was the head of hunters in a large area. So,
whenever they had occassions to demonstate their culture, what they do
in the wild, I saw it. That was how I got in touch initially in Ijala.
I became interested in it and I was in radio, I was a radio news
reader, then producer for many years. It was in my line of profession,
doing research on culture and other things, that was how I went into
it. I did more research and wrote that book.” His love for research
also made him write ‘Madam Tinubu’. “I was told Madam Tinubu was an Owu
woman. That was how I got interested and I started to research. Later
on, I discovered her relationship to Owu was minimal. She was from
Gbagura but I wrote the book.” He did same for the novel, ‘Gbobaniyi’
which he wrote on vacation in London and ‘Oruko lo Yato’ I and II, a
collection of short stories derived from the Ifa corpus.

Writing in English

Apart from writing
in Yoruba, the retired broadcaster also writes in English. ‘The Bearded
Story Teller’, ‘Happy Times Are Here’, and ‘Adubi War’ are amongst
those written in English. “Basically, it’s because I try to be
proficient in both languages. At Igbobi College, we were taught by
Professor Babalola who was a good English scholar and he grilled us so
much. The famous author, Cyprian Ekwensi, was also one of our tutors at
Igbobi College and he inspired us to write,” he says on why he uses
both languages.

Eternal language

While some claim
that people are no longer write in Yoruba, Yemitan believes otherwise.
“People are writing in Yoruba. The fact is that publishers, if they
know that a book is not going to be a school text, they refuse to
accept it. I still write in Yoruba. I have just translated late
Professor Saburi Biobaku’s ‘The Egba and their Neighbour’. Seun Olufuwa
and I have just translated Professor Soyinka’s ‘The Lion and the Jewel’
into Yoruba. Professor Akinwumi Isola has been preaching to me that I
write too much in English. I should go back to writing in Yoruba. I
write in English because I travel out and people are interested.” He
reiterates that writings and writers in Yoruba language are endangered.
“There is hope. In fact, the hope is brighter now. Right now, in many
universities in the US and other places, people are studying Yoruba. My
grand daughter studying Medicine is taking Yoruba as one of her
subjects in the preliminary stages. People are interested in Yoruba.
Yoruba can never die, it can never die. There is no immediate danger to
Yoruba language, I can say that for sure.”