Kole Omotoso

Kole Omotoso (1943-2023) was an academic, drama and language lecturer, playwright, director and actor.

Also known as Bankole Omotoso, Bankole Abidjabi and Bankole Abayomi.

Biography

Born Bankole Ajibabi Omotoso (pronounced "Omotosho") on 21 April 1943 in in Akure, Ondo state, Nigeria. He obtained South African citizenship in 1999.

He passed away in Johannesburg on 19 July 2023.

Omotoso was married to ** and the couple had three children — including actor, director and filmmaker Akin Omotoso and author Yewande Omotoso.

Training

He studied at King's College, Lagos, the University of Ibadan, and the University of Edinburgh. There he completed a doctoral thesis on the modern Arabic writer Ahmad Ba Kathir.

Career

He taught at the University of Ibadan to lecture on Arabic studies (1972–76), then moved to the University of Ife to work in Drama (1976–88). This was followed by visiting professorships in English at the University of Stirling and the National University of Lesotho, as well as a period with the Talawa Theatre Company, London.

His 1988 controversial historical novel about Nigeria, Just Before Dawn was published by Spectrum Books and the reaction to it led to Omotoso leaving his native country. After visiting professorships in English at the University of Stirling and the National University of Lesotho and a spell at the Talawa Theatre Company, London, he was brought out to South Africa by the South African academic and political leader Dr Frederik van Zyl Slabbert, where he settled in Cape Town to become a professor of English at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa (1991–2000). This was followed by a contract appointment as an Extraordinary Professor in the Drama Department of the University of Stellenbosch (2001 to 2003).

From 2004 onwards he lived in Johannesburg and in Centurion, Gauteng, where he worked as a freelance writer, actor and businessman.

Author of nine novels, three plays and numerous academic publications.

Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance

Internationally known for his academic writing as well as his plays, he has held various positions and fulfilled a number of roles after settling in South Africa.

As lecturer

In 2001 he joined the University of Stellenbosch's Centre for Theatre and Performance Studies as researcher and was contracted as a professor in the Stellenbosch Drama Department for three years. In this time he taught African theatre and wrote and directed a play for the department. On the expiration of his contract in 2004 he became a freelance writer, actor and businessman.

As writer

Besides the nine novels and the numerous articles and formal lectures on cultural and theatre matters, he also gave many talks on literature, drama and playwrighting at festivals and other events. The account of his move to South Africa, Season of Migration to the South: Africa's crises reconsidered (1994) was published

Two key academic works on theatre are The Theatrical Into Theatre: a study of the drama and theatre of the English-speaking Caribbean (1982) and Achebe or Soyinka? A Study in Contrasts (1995).

Film work

Omotoso has had roles in the films Mandela and De Klerk (1997, playing Thabo Mbeki); Sista kontraktet (1998);

Technical advisor on Africa for Lord of War (2005).

TV work

He did some advertising work, and since 1996 he has been a familiar and popular icon for South Africans, since he was used in a classic and long term Vodacom television and poster ad for cell phones, a campaign which began and became associated with the 1995 Rugby World Cup. He soon became known to most South Africans as "Yebo GoGo" [= "Hello, Grandma"], after the malappropriate words used by the dumb white character played by Michael de Pinna in the ad, and this public role would continue well beyond 2001 till about 2010.

Roles in TV dramas and series include

Charlie Jade (TV Series) , episode called And Not a Drop to Drink (2005)

Jacob's Cross (TV Series) under the name Bankole Abayomi (2007)

Playwriting

He has published two plays, namely The Curse (1976) and Shadows in the Horizon (1977).

In addition he wrote and directed a play called Yes and Know to the Freedom Chatter with the students at the Stellenbosch Drama Department in Stellenbosch in 2001. This has not been published.