A small campus bungalow in the University of Ibadan has played an outsized role in the life of one man, one family, one university, and the nation. It was in this house on Ebrohimie Road, University of Ibadan, where, sometime in 1967, the writer Wole Soyinka was arrested after having returned home from a visit to Biafra for a personal intervention in the Nigerian Civil War that was just breaking out.
A documentary based on this little building on the University of Ibadan campus, where the poet, playwright, memoirist, essayist and polemicist lived while he was a teacher at the premier tertiary institution, is billed to debut in July.
Titled, Ebrohimie Road: A Museum of Memory, the 110-minute documentary written and directed by the writer, culture researcher Kola Tubosun with the ace cinematographer, Tunde Kelani, behind the camera, is slated as part of activities commemorating the 90th birthday (July 13) anniversary of the Nobel laureate.
Produced by Olongo Africa, the documentary will first be screened on July 11, 2024 at the University of Lagos, where it will feature as the third item in a full-day scholarly event jointly organised by the Wole Soyinka International Cultural Exchange, WSICE, and the Nigeria Academy of Letter, NAL.
The theme of the event is ENI-OGUN: An Enduring Legacy, and it will aside from the screening, feature a symposium, a dance performance and a reception. The documentary, which features revealing interviews with immediate families, relatives, associates as well as comrades of Soyinka, will also be screened on July 20 at the WS90 celebration in London, jointly organised by the WSICE and The Africa Centre. It will thereafter move around other cultural and historical centres in Nigeria, parts of Europe, North and South America, as well as festivals across continents.
The documentary tells the story of Nigerian Civil War through the eyes of a small bungalow located a few meters from the bustling main gate of the university campus, where Soyinka was arrested in 1967 on ‘espionage’ charges for daring to cross to the Biafra Republic to dissuade then Colonel Odumegwu Ojukwu, leader of the secessionist group from going to war with government of Nigeria.
This would lead to his incarceration for 29 months by the Nigerian government led by the Lt. General Yakubu Gowon. He was only released in October 1969, a few weeks before the war ended in 1970, and even though he returned to the house, he did not return to his job at the Department of Theatre Arts, but instead proceeded on exile in 1971 and choosing to take up a role at the University of Ifẹ̀ (now Obafemi Awolowo University) in 1976, where he retired in 1985, a year before winning the Nobel Prize in Literature.
This house played host to many friends, family, and associates over the years while he was in solitary confinement, and features in his years of employment with the Ibadan University. And it was in that house where, in October 1969, after his release, he granted a famous interview to a journalist from Daily Times to express himself about the war and the events that got him locked up. The portrait from that encounter made it to the cover of Ìbàdàn: The Penkelemes Years (1994).
The documentary examines how the personal became the national, through the recollection of central and peripheral characters; how a small campus residence became witness to some of the most significant issues in Nigerian social, political, and literary history, many of which remain unresolved: And how ecological changes contribute to the erosion of history and a sense of place.
Through stories, visuals, and historical records, the documentary unearths what makes Ebrohimie Road more than just a campus street or physical location, but a place of history and a museum of memory.The documentary was produced with support from Open Society Foundation and Sterling Bank Nigeria.
