Femi Odugbemi: Greatest Way To Honour Wole Soyinka Is To Honour His Journey

Nigerian Filmmaker, Femi Odugbemi has said that the greatest way to honor Nigeria’s first Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka is to honor his journey and to help young people understand the things that he holds dear.

Odugbemi made this comment during an interview with ARISE NEWS on Monday while discussing the recent special premiere of the movie “The Man Died,” which is an adaptation of Soyinka’s activism and time in prison.

He said, “Professor is perhaps one who doesn’t care very much about those symbolisms and symbolic gestures of naming things after him. I think the greatest way to honor him is to honor his journey. In the hearts of young people, for them to understand the things that he holds dear, the things that he spent his life pursuing, the expansion of knowledge, the honor of culture, his spirituality, his capacity for his creativity to address issues of human rights, of humanism.”

He added that Soyinka has always been focused on changing the world and impacting people, something that the world will always remember him for.

“It’s going to be very hard in this world to have conversations surrounding the value of human life, justice, without a reference, not just to his writings but to his activism. I think it’s important to understand that Prof Wole Soyinka has lived a life of risks where he has had skin in the game. He’s had the opportunity to benefit from his privileged background and has chosen to constantly be found on the side of truth. I think those are the real legacy for anyone and I am happy that we are celebrating him in the season and providing those gestures to let him know that. But I think the more important thing is that we all understand what he truly is about and that Nigeria changes in the course of it.”

Speaking on what inspired the production of the movie, he said, “In this season of Professor Soyinka’s 90th birthday, it’s a story that recommends itself. All of us are looking at what an inspiring life he’s lived, but for me, it’s even more important that as an artiste, as a storyteller, as a filmmaker, as an author, he has applied that creative impulse to the big questions of nation building. There are so many conversations in nation building that I think our creative industry needs to be at the forefront of. For us, Prof’s birthday provides an amazing opportunity to make such a film.”

The filmmaker highlighted that the movie was “made in Nigeria by Nigerians,” adding that the movie brought together both “experienced and emerging actors in our country today.”

He also said that he hopes there are many more films and plays that begin to tell more about the history of Nigeria and help particularly the younger generation to understand the past.

“I think one of the things that’s clear to us is that there is a gap in the political history of our country in terms of how this generation understands it. There is also an important space for a lot of very difficult conversations in nation building that I think our creative industry can help us to bring to the forefront of national conversation. I think that’s what this film I hope advances. I hope there are many more films, many more plays that begin to pick bits and pieces of our history that are missing, so that we can make a whole for many of our young people who perhaps out of ignorance say things and do things that clearly betray a lack of grounding in the things that have gone on in the past.

“I hope that this film becomes a reference for who Prof Wole Soyinka is. I hope this is a profile encourage that inspires many others to not only be part of a conversation from behind the keyboards of their laptop but to understand that activism, resistance, defense of human rights all require a certain agency in the office of citizen and the courage that that would require and the fact that there is a price to pay . I think all of that is what we showcase in this film in the person of Prof Wole Soyinka.”

The film, directed by Awam Amkpa and produced by Femi Odugbemi, is based on Wole Soyinka’s prison memoirs and stars Wale Ojo, Nobert Young, Sam Dede, amongst others.

Melissa Enoch

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