Hubert Ogunde: A centenary birthday dance for the doyen of theatre

The roar of children chatter erupts, as they make their way back home from school. The kids are enjoying their jokes. Suddenly, one of them dashes across the main road in fear, as he tries to avoid being hit by the biggest of the group over a silly comment.

Just across the road, a woman walks into the motor park with heavy load on her head. There’s a shaft of afternoon sunlight at her back, as she drags her feet with each step. She shoves aside the hands of a tout, who is hurrying passengers into an apparent empty vehicle.

There seems to be an air of cheerfulness among the crowd: Smiling and happy faces, hoping to get a hold of activities in the face of raucous sound from the motor park. This afternoon, the buzz of Ososa doesn’t seem to slow down. It exists in its own peculiar world: warm and friendly

Tucked a few kilometres away from Ijebu-Ode, and lying on the Sagamu-Ore Expressway, Ososa is a rustic community in Odogbolu Local Council of Ogun State. Sprawling out from what was originally a small village with seven quarters, Oke-Ala, Osalakoye, Oke-Esin, Odo-Owa, Ijoku, Odo-Alere and Idomowo, Ososa has grown into a town with modern life. This was where the late Hubert Adedeji Ogunde, the doyen of Nigerian theatre, was born 100 years ago, today.

When Hubert Adedeji was born 100 years ago, it was certain that nobody in Ososa knew how famous he would become. Hundred years after, he is now celebrated as the greatest theatre practitioner from this part of the world.Even if you never watched any of Ogunde’s films or sat through a performance of one of his plays, it’s likely that you would have heard how the doyen popularized the travelling theatre genre and the burgeoning film industry.

He dominated the theatre scene for several decades, leaving his footprints behind. His father, Mr. Jeremiah ‘Deinbo Ogundemuren, was a village headmaster, pastor and church organist. Ogundemuren was amongst the first in Ososa to go to school through the Christian Missionary Society (CMS), which had just established a primary school in the village. Pa Jeremiah remained a teacher at heart, teaching his grandchildren, until he passed on in 1961.

His mother, Eunice Owotusan, was born in 1888, to the family of an Ifa priest. By the time she married Pa Jeremiah, she was not only an animist, but also an illiterate. She was a locust bean seller by trade, but very industrious. She augmented the meagre income of her husband with her business.

“Madam Owotusan was, especially, a very clean, generous and a good-hearted human being. Her cleanliness was legendary. Until her death in 1986, if mama eats and you decide to help her wash her plate, she will let you but will go back and wash it again as no one could wash it to her measure. She loved her only child with a passion,” said Richard Ayodele Ogunde, Babaoba of Ososa.

As a teacher in those days, Pa Jeremiah was transferred very frequently. The effect of these transfers on his child, Hubert, was to allow him to be with his animist mother and his maternal grandfather, who was an Ifa priest. So, before he started school at almost 10 years of age, he was already a student of Ifa priesthood.

“It was at this time that the young Hubert, saw and learnt a lot about the Yoruba gods, beliefs and practises. This knowledge was to stand him in good stead, in his future profession, in the stories of his plays and the accompanying songs,” said Babaoba. But beyond the ifa knowledge, “Jeremiah taught his child music and how to play the organ. He brought up his child as a Christian and converted his wife to Christianity. It must have been heartwarming for Pa Jeremiah when his son, Hubert, became a teacher in the same St. John’s School, and also, the organist of the same church, where he had served.”

HE had his elementary education between 1925 and 1932, attending St John School, Ososa (1925 to 1928), St Peter’s School, Faaji, Lagos (1928 to 1930) and Wasinmi African School (1931 to 1932). His schooling ended in Standard Six in 1933, and he became a self-taught man after that. He read widely and was comfortable with the English language.

Between 1933 and 1941, young Ogunde was a teacher at Saint John’s Primary School, Ososa, where he taught in the elementary classes. He later organised his first band, as a teacher at Oke-Ona United School, Abeokuta. It was during this period that he developed special skills for opera and folklore, which in later life, launched him to becoming arguably the greatest Nigerian folklorist of all time.

It was during holiday in Ibadan that he joined the Nigeria Police Force in December 1941. He was later transferred on training to the Police Training School, Enugu, which later led to his appointment as a Third Class Police Constable. He was later transferred to the Nigeria Police Force ‘C’ Division, Ebute-Meta, Lagos.

The legend performed his first folk opera, The Garden of Eden and the Throne of God, which were regarded as huge success. Commissioned by the Lagos-based Church of the Lord founded by Josiah Ositelu, the performance was in aid of the Church building fund. The huge success of the production spurred Ogunde on to writing more operas until he decided to leave his amateur status as an artist and turn professional.

In March 1945, Ogunde resigned from the Force in order to pay full attention to his passion – acting. His resignation was spurred by reckless and gross misconduct of the colonial regime, which was demonstrated by Ogunde in his much talked-about 1945 opera entitled, Worse Than Crime.

The opera was a political satire on the colonial masters, which set to establish that ‘Colonialism in any shape or form is worse than crime’. This earned Ogunde and Mr. G.B. Kuyinu (his co-director) two days in the police custody. The opera was staged at Glover Hall and the late Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe chaired the show.

He founded Ogunde Theatre – the first contemporary professional company in Nigeria. By this act, Ogunde began the rise of modern professional theatre in Nigeria, a movement in which he remains the supreme artist and father figure.

The first play featured at the Ogunde Theatre was Tiger’s Empire. Premiered on March 4, 1946, Tiger’s Empire was produced by The African Music Research Party and featured Ogunde, Beatrice Oyede and Abike Taiwo. The advertisement for the play was the result of Ogunde’s call for “paid actresses”.

It marked the first time in Yoruba theatre that women were billed to appear in a play, as professional artists Tiger’s Empire was an attack on colonial rule. Darkness and Light followed it, although Ogunde does not remember writing it. His popularity was established throughout Nigeria by his timely play, Strike and Hunger (performed in 1946), which dramatised the national strike of 1945. In 1946, the name of Ogunde’s group was changed to the African Music Research Party, and in 1947, it became the Ogunde Theatre Company.

The colossus traversed the length and breadth of Nigeria performing with ease particularly in remote villages and in metropolitan cities, as well as West Africa. Many of Ogunde’s later folk operas were basically popular musicals featuring jazzy rhythms, fashionable dance routines and contemporary satire.
His early plays were attacks on colonialism, while his later works with political themes, deplored inter-party strife and corruption in government circles in Nigeria.

Ogunde’s most famous play, Yoruba Ronu (meaning Yoruba think) performed in 1964, was such a biting attack on the premier of Nigeria’s Western Region, which led to the banning of the company from the region — the first literary censorship in post-independence Nigeria. The ban was, however, lifted in 1966 by the first military government in the country, and in that same year, the Ogunde Dance Company was formed. Otito Koro (Truth is Bitter) also performed in 1965 satirises political events in Western Nigeria of the first republic.

Ogunde’s technique was to sketch out the basic situation and plot, write and rehearse only the songs of his plays. The dialogue was improvised, thus, allowing the actors to adjust to their audience. The plays produced by his company usually reflected the prevailing political climate and interpreted for audiences the major issues and the aspirations of those in power.

“In his early days on stage, Ogunde faced serious challenge from Bobby Benson and Cassandra Show in 1949. Prior to this, the Ogunde theatre was mainly about the play, the songs and the music related to the play. However, when Bobby came with his ‘Congo – Samba to Jazz Variety show’ in 1949, a new dimension in theatre was introduced. Ogunde had to do something. He introduced the opening glee to all his plays,” said Babaoba.

The opening glee was essentially the latest dances from the western world accompanied with western music (with trumpets, western drums etc). He taught his wives to play the saxophones and to dance to samba or to any latest western craze. These changes were only additions to his usual plays, but they served him well.

He was not born with silver spoon, but was properly brought up and groomed in the Yoruba culture throughout his early years with his maternal grandfather and a pastor father. Instead of being confused, he had a good grasp of what really constituted a religion and that all seem to point to one God. He was therefore, a man who was comfortable with any and all religious beliefs. He was a traditionalist to the core. Although, he remained a Christian throughout his life, he was not uncomfortable with the Yoruba traditional religions and beliefs. He believed in God and that good will always triumph over evil.

“Ogunde was a teetotaler, never drank alcohol or smoked. But he had a sweet tooth. He loved sweet things like sugar and honey. He would drink any soft drink but his favourite was Fanta. He was not ostentatious in his dressing and living. He believed in moderation in all things except his theatre.” According to Babaoba, “he was a very handsome, tall, light-complexioned and gap-toothed man. He joked about how he was a frequent visitor to the police station while he was teaching at the Oke-Ona United School, Abeokuta, after organising a band performance in 1938. Reason being that some girls fought, because of him.”

Hubert Ogunde, in fact, had many wives. He insisted that he had to marry many wives to keep his theatre going. He explained that in the 1940s, no one wanted his daughter to marry an ‘Alarinjo’, who were considered to be never do well and lazy rascals. “Another major belief he had was that the theatre was a mission from God and that all around him were there to make his mission successful. He was ready to give his all for the success of his theatre. He was ready to adapt and even change if necessary for the success of his theatre. All his wives were all in the theatre and the children were all at one point or the other, member sof the troupe, even while still going to school,” Babaoba said. “He was particularly successful in making his wives believe in his mission, so much so, they all lived the mission.”

While performing on stage in the Glover Memorial Hall in the early 60s, the sick child of one of his wives – Madam Ibisomi – died in the dressing room. Still in shock and mourning of her child, she had to return to the stage to laugh and continue her role. She only collapsed after the play. That was the extent of the commitment that some of his wives who believed in his mission had to demonstrate.

Unfortunately, a greater blow was to come on September 2, 1970 with the death of his wife, Madam Adesewa (popularly called Mama Eko), from a motor accident, a few kilometres to Sagamu on their way to perform at Ilesha. She was at the time the manageress of the theatre company. The loss was sudden and brutal. As if to magnify the loss, it happened a few months after returning from a very successful tour of England and Italy in 1969 with the play, Oh Ogunde, where this woman was the centre of the shows.

Everything from top to bottom had to be rearranged and reorganised. Somehow, Ogunde found the inner strength from his belief that the theatre was his mission from God. He returned to the stage again after some months. The ability to rise after such a loss made the late Hubert Ogunde great,” Babaoba said.
In June 1984, about 14 years after he lost a wife, Ogunde lost another wife. Madam Ibisomi, who took over from Madam Adesewa, as the manageress of Ogunde Theatre, died after a brief illness.

Again, this woman was the central character – Iya Dudu- in his play and film ‘Aiye’. Another blow to his theatre and another re-ordering of things. This time, because of the financial success of Ogunde’s films, Aiye and Jaiyesimi, the impact on the family was slightly less than the 1970 disaster. The loss, though, was not less painful in any way.

Almost exactly five years after the death of Madam Ibisomi, Ogunde lost yet another wife. Madam Risikat Ogunde died in March 1989. She was, also, one of his best actresses. She managed the rehearsals during the ‘Ososa Experiment’ with the group that later became the National Troupe of Nigeria. Ogunde died on April 4, 1990 at London’s Cromwell Hospital following a brief illness… Sun re o…