Akinwunmi ishola biography samples
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By Rebecca Joneson •
This post is the first in an occasional series of writer profiles, looking especially at those working in African languages.
Akinwumi Isola
For readers and speakers of Yoruba, Akínwùmí Ìsòlá [pronounced Ishola] needs little introduction. A charismatic and stern-looking figure affectionately nicknamed ‘Honest Man’ for his predilection for speaking his mind, and with a fearsome list of occupations spanning playwright, film director, screenwriter, novelist, academic, literary critic, translator, actor, language activist and poet, Isola is one of the most renowned figures in contemporary Yoruba literature.
Now that film versions of his novels directed by Tunde Kelani are available (see more on this below), and with his historical dramas, Efúnsetán Aníwúrà and Olú Omohaving recently translated been into English by Pamela J. Olubunmi Smith and into French by Michka Sachnine, the time is ripe for Isola’s work to reach an even wider audience.
Pamela J. Olubunmi Smiths translation of Isolas Efunsetan Aniwura and Olu Omo
Isola, who is based in southwestern Nigeria, has been writing prolifically for over 50 years. His literary works have included novels – The Campus Queen, Ogún Omodé, Ó le Kú, Saworoide – an
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Akinwumi Isola: A giant in his own right
Niyi Akinnaso; [emailprotected]
In the early hours of last Saturday, February 17, , Prof. Akinwumi Isola solemnly joined the worthy ancestors of the Yoruba nation. As the author of the widely acclaimed Yoruba historical dramas, Efúnsetán Aníwúrà, Ìyálóde Ibadan and Tinúubú, Ìyálóde Egba as well as Ó le kú, a complex, but hilarious, love story, and Ogún Omodé, a recollection of episodic memoirs of his childhood, Prof. Isola would stand side by side with the departed giants in Yoruba scholarship and dramaturgy.
He would dine with departed novelists, playwrights, dramatists, and scholars of Yoruba language and culture, including D. O. Fagunwa; J. F. Odunjo; Herbert Ogunde; Duro Ladipo; Kola Ogunmola; Adebayo Faleti; Adeboye Babalola; Afolabi Olabimtan; and others. In a sense, during his lifetime, he was one or the other of these culture practitioners, depending on which of his contributions was in focus.
At the same time, he would be sorely missed by scholars of Yoruba language and culture he left behind, including his surviving teachers, notably, his Ph.D. thesis supervisor at Ibadan, Prof. Ayo Bamgbose, the preeminent scholar of Yoruba language. So important a student was Prof. Isola to Prof. Bamgbose that the latter
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