Femi Osofian

Playwright, Nigeria

Restless artist and multiple award winner, Nigeria’s Femi Osofisan (aka Okinba Launko) wears many caps—as activist playwright, scholar, poet, novelist, journalist, actor, director, song writer, and so on. Osofisan was educated at Ibadan, Dakar and Paris, and after several years of writing, directing and teaching both at home and abroad, retired from formal teaching in 2011. He was subsequently appointed an Emeritus Professor of Theatre Arts at the University of Ibadan. A member of the Advisory Board of the International Research Centre, Freire Universitat, in Berlin, Osofisan became in 2016 the Thalia Laureate, the first African to win this prestigious Prize of the International Association of Theatre Critics. He has published, both in his own name and under the pseudonym of Okinba Launko, five novellas, six volumes of poetry, as well as dozens of plays.

The Africa-Diaspora Triad Three Plays on African-Americans and the beginnings of African Independence (2): Maya Angelou

In the late 1950s, when many African countries gained political independence, progressive African-Americans were encouraged by the new African leaders to come and help in nation-building. Ghana in particular, under the dynamic Kwame Nkrumah, attracted figures like WEB DuBois, Maya Angelou, and so on. But what was the result of this interaction between the Africans and their guests? What were the mutual gains or losses? How can these help us construct a more propitious future? Femi started exploring these questions in his earlier play, A Nightingale For Dr Dubois, and now wishes to continue, by looking at Maya Angelou.