Pioneer Nigerian filmmaker,Francis Adetunji
Oladele, who passed on in the early hours of June 22, 2015 at an Ibadan
hospital, after a brave battle with prostate cancer, will be buried on
Wednesday, July 1, 2015 at his residence – Lapiti Estate, ‘The Forest’
(Opposite First Baptist Church), OkeIsokun, IseyinByepass, Oyo Township, Oyo
State.
He would have been 83 on August 30.
Born to Oyo parentage, on August 30, 1932, the
rather adventurous youngster first worked in Nigeria as a photo-journalist with Daily
Times of Nigeria where he introduced the then very popular column, Social
Diary. He traveled to the United
States of America in 1955 at the young age of 22 to study photography at
the popular New York Institute of Photography. He later worked at the
Technicolor, USA, where he was recruited by the then Premier of Western Region, Chief ObafemiAwolowo to
return home as the pioneer AfricanHead of
the Film Unit of the defunct Western Nigeria Television (WNTV), Ibadan.
At the then WNTV, Francis Oladele was perceived asa non-conformist, as
he never failed to express his dissatisfaction with apparent stranglehold of
government officialdom on creativity and productivity. His determination to
express his innate artistic talent, by all means necessary, left him with no
other option than to resign his appointment from WNTV.
On September 21, 1965, he established
Calpenny-Nigeria Films Limited – the first private film production company in
Nigeria -- with an intent to provide a platform for artistic expression in a
more profound way and in the process, opening up the Nigerian arts for
international scrutiny and acceptability.
He complimented this efforts with the establishment of KongiClub atAdamasingba in Ibadan, which
became the rallying point for artistes, like Wole Soyinka, DapoAdelugba, John Pepper Clark, as well as TunjiOyelana,
who actually honed his artistic stage performances as the Resident Artiste.
Unknown to many, what could have become the very first indigenous
feature film from the production stable of Oladele, was Trials of Brother Jero, the popular satiric comedy by Wole Soyinka.
That was way back in 1966. However, the success recorded by Kongi’s Harvest (also by Soyinka)both at
Ibadan as well as during the Dakar Festival around 1965, coupled with its thematic relevance, especially in respect to
African despots at the time, made that work the preferred project ahead of Trials of Brother Jero
Apart from being the pioneer in the Nigerian feature film industry,
Francis Oladele achieved another first for Nigeria by deciding to make films
based on the work of successful and internationally acclaimed Nigerian writers.
By indicating a creative preference for historical epics, he also established
for the Nigerian film industry the vital link between great literary works and
film. This adaptation of novels into film not only assures future feature
film-makers in Nigeria of a storehouse of material as manifested by the
prolific output at Nigerian writers, but also serves as an inspiration for
future writers who can now write with the wider and more immediate cinema
audiences in mind. After the initial efforts, both established and bourgeoning
Nigerian storytellers have had their works adapted for the screen.
Therefore, armed with its Pioneer Certificate, Francis Oladele’sCalpenny
Nigeria Films Limited, produced Kongi’s
Harvest (1970), based on Wole Soyinka’s dramatic epic of the same title.
Shot on location in Nigeria, with a Nigerian cast and a mixed technical crew of
foreigners and Nigerians, it was directed by the popular Afro-American actor/director,
Ossie Davis.
Oladele followed this trend up with the production of Things Fall Apart (1971), also based on
an amalgam of Chinua Achebe’s novels;Things
Fall Apart and No Longer at Ease,
shot under the title “Bulfrog in the Sun”,
due to the civil war at the time.“Bulfrog
in the Sun” was indeed adopted as the title at the instance of the reigning
military junta at the time, who insisted that ‘nothing was falling apart in
Nigeria’; this coming at a time the dust of the Nigerian Civil War was just
beginning to settle.
A notable filmmaker with Pan-African vision, Oladele introduced
several innovations into African film industry, by bringing in notable film
practitioners of African descent into his crew, in addition to picking the
actors and actresses from outside Nigeria. For the lead roles, he chose John
Seka of Sierra Leone and: Princess Elizabeth Toro of Uganda. Both Kongi’s Harvest and Things Fall Apart enjoyed good box-office responses in Nigeria and Things Fall Apart was well received
particularly in Atlanta, Georgia in the USA, especially in view o its rich
cultural motifs and also being an excellent piece of story woven together by
the world renowned master-story-teller, Chinua Achebe.
He equally produced rare documentaries for the United Nations, notable
among which was the story woven around the War in Congo, featuring the Late
General Murtala Ramat Mohammed. These are apart from several other documentary
efforts, like Ballard Dubar andMeet Olu. He also did a major
documentary on the late Head of State, General Murtala Mohammed, sponsored by
the United Nations.
His last feature film effort was the production of Eye of Life (1988), a multi-million naira
film project, which, however, could not be released due to the sudden
devaluation of the Naira by the then Babangida administration in 1988.
As a prolific writer, he authored and delivered several
papers at conferences across the globe, while his works have continued to
attract scholarly attention by students and researchers in the area of film
production, both at home and abroad.Francis
Oladele was in the process of assembling materials for his autobiography, when
he bowed to death.
Francis Adetunji Oladele shall forever be remembered for his efforts
in the film industry for his mentoring efforts, as well as his long-drawn
battle with the Lebanese, who with their Nigerian collaborators at the time,
held the Nigerian film industry by the jugular. He criticized successive
Nigerian government on their neglects of the Nigerian film industry, which he
saw as a veritable cultural and educational advocacy tool. Such a
confrontational stance probably robbed him of a well-deserved national honors.
In 2012, Francis Oladelewas conferred with the iREP Documentary Film
Forum’s Lifetime Achievement award, which earns him a place in the
prestigiousiREPInternational Fim Festival’s Hall of Fame.
NB: Two days after his internment, iREP Documentary Film Forum in
conjunction with his associates and friends, will celebrate his life and times
on July 3 at the Freedom Park in Lagos.
Sgnd:
LanreOladele
For the family
