Osofisan is 2016 Thalia laureate

Nigerian’s foremost playwright, scholar and literary giant, Prof. Femi Osofisan, has been formally inducted as the winner of the prestigious Thalia Award by the UNESCO global partner in the performing arts – the International Association of Theatre Critics. The event, which was attended by over 150 world authorities in theatre criticism from 66 countries, took place on Tuesday, September 27, 2016, at the German Embassy to Serbia.

Nigeria Ambassador to Serbia and the German Ambassador to Serbia led the cream of the international community, which witnessed the glamourous event. Osofisan has, by the feat, become the first African to be so recognised by the respected Thalia Award committee. The Thalia Award is a unique professional honour next only to the Nobel Prize for literature, which a Nigerian also won in 1986.

Enroute to receive the prize, the African continent had opportunity to showcase Osofisan as its leading dramatist through an impressive ceremony held in Egypt. On September 20, he was honoured as one of the icons of African Theatre at the 2016 edition of Cairo International Festival for Contemporary and Experimental Theatre. This also came a few months after the Pan African Writers Association (PAWA) honoured Osofisan for his contributions to literary development of the African continent.

Osofisan, in his acceptance speech as Thalia laureate, thanked the organisers for the life-changing honour that has shifted global attention to African theatre and literature, which he believes has a lot more to offer humanity and the emerging global knowledge economy.