Following the passing of Nigerian actor, playwright, theater director, and musician Chief Hubert Adedeji Ogunde D.Lit. today, Bestsellers/Blockbusters is paying tribute to him (10 July 1916 – 4 April 1990). In 1945, he formed the African Music Research Party, the country of Nigeria’s first modern professional theatre group. Like the literary titan that he was, he arrived, observed, and took over the theater world.
It’s understandable why he was given the title “Doyen of Theatre.” The success of two groundbreaking Yoruba feature-length films, Ija Ominira and Ajani Ogun, in the late 1970s inspired Ogunde to co-produce his first celluloid movie, Aiye, in 1979. He then released three full-length movies using Yoruba mysticism as an influence: Jaiyesimi, Aropin N’tenia, and Ayanmo.
Following a brief illness, Ogunde passed away on April 4th, 1990, at the age of 73 in London’s Cromwell Hospital. Years after his passing, Ogunde’s legacy endures, and many people find it impossible to ignore his various contributions to the theater industry. Rip.
