Bitef

piscem i društvenim kritičarem. On neprekidno koristi svoju kreativnost zauzimajud se za marginalizovane pripadnike društva. Svojim izuzetnim pisanjem u mnogim žanrovima Osofisan je poveo svoju generaciju pisaca putem gde oni svoje pisanje komada koriste kako bi pokrenuli društvene i političke reforme,..“ U predavanju na Univerzitetu u Ibadanu 2006. godine harvardski profesor Biodun Džeifo (Biodun Jeyifo) Osofisana je nazvao „najafričkijim dramskim piscem postkolonijalne ere... najplodnijim dramskim piscem na afričkom kontinentu...“ Džeifo je zatim Osofisana, uz Sojinku, postavio u središte „radikalnih i književnih kulturnih pokreta u poslednje tri decenije“. Profesor Osofisan, roden 1946. godine, upisao je Univerzitet u Ibadanu 1966. i diplomirao 1969. na Katedri za francuski (godinu dana je studirao na Univerzitetu u Dakaru dok je pripremao diplomski). Zatim je dobio stipendiju za Sorbonu u Parizu. Tamo, medutim, nije završio studije jer mu mentor nije odobrio tezu o afričkoj drami. Najzad je odbranio doktorat na Univerzitetu u Ibadanu sa disertacijom „Poreklo drame u Zapadnoj Africi“, na engleskom i francuskom.

Kao nekadašnji redovni profesor na Univerzitetu u Ibadanu (danas profesor emeritus) i priznat dramski pisac, reditelj i kritičar, godine 1982. imenovan je za člana pionirskog uredništva i think tank-a The Guardian Newspaper (Lagos). Svoje komade je režirao u Ibadanu, na drugim afričkim univerzitetima, kao i u Velikoj Britaniji, SAD (pored ostalih, na Univerzitetu Pensilvanija i Univerzitetu Ajova), u Nemačkoj, Šri Lanki i Kanadi. Njegovi komadi (posebno Once Upon Four Robbers i The Chattering and the Song, kao i njegove afričke adaptacije grčkih i elizabetanskih komada, poput Antigone i Hamleta) počeli su da osvajaju nacionalne i medunarodne nagrade. Osnivač NVO Centre Stage Africa (Centar za proučavanje pozorišta i alternativnih žanrova izražavanja u Africi) i potpredsednik Panafričkog udruženja pisaca, Osofisan je počeo da pridobija međunarodnu pažnju posle izvođenja Many Colours Make the Thunder King (1997) u Guthrie Teatar u Mineapolisu. Zbirka Osofisanovih eseja objavljena je 2001. godine pod nazivom Insidious Treasons. U njoj se nalaze važni Osofisanovi eseji o drami, poput Insurrection, The Terror of Relevance in Contemporary Nigeria, The Frontiers of Terror in a Post-Colonial State i Challenges of Nigerian Drama on the Euro-American Stage.

ing across many genres, Osofisan has led his generation of writers on the path of utilizing their writings as a mobilizing tool for social and political change...’ In a lecture given at the University of Ibadan in 2006, Harvard Prof. Biodun Jeyifo called Osofisan ‘the most African playwright of the post-colonial era... the most prolific playwright on the African continent...’ Jeyifo went on to place Osofisan with Soyinka at the centre of the ‘radical and literary cultural movements of the past three decades. Born in 1946, Prof. Osofisan entered the University of Ibadan in 1966 majoring in French (he studied for a year at the University of Dakar as part of his degree), graduating in 1969. He then won a scholarship to the Sorbonne in Paris. He did not complete his graduate degree there, however, because his supervisor did not allow him to do a thesis on African drama. He eventually obtained his PhD at the University of Ibadan with a dissertation on the Origins of Drama in West Africa in English and French. A Professor and former Chair at the University of Ibadan (he is now a Professor Emeritus) and recognized as playwright, director and critic, in 1982 he was appointed member of the pioneer Editorial Board and think tank of The Guardian Newspaper (Lagos). Directing his own plays at Ibadan, at other

African universities and in the U.K., the U.S. (University of Pennsylvania and the University of lowa among others), Germany, Sri Lanka, and Canada. His plays (especially his Once Upon Four Robbers, The Chattering and the Song and his African adaptations of Greek and Elizabethan plays such as Antigone and Hamlet) began winning national and international awards The founder of the NGO called CentreStage Africa (the Centre for the Study of Theatre and Alternative Genres of Expression in Africa) and Vice-President of the Pan African Writers’ Association, his plays began receiving international attention after a production of his 1997 play Many Colours Make the Thunder King was presented at the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis. A volume of Osofisan’s collected essays were published in 2001 under the title Insidious Treasons. Included were major essays by Osofisan on Drama as Insurrection, the Terror of Relevance in Contemporary Nigeria, The Frontiers of Terror in a Post-Colonial State, and The Challenges of Nigerian Drama on the Euro-American Stage. Chosen to be the keynote speaker at the International Federation of Theatre Research World Congress in South Africa in 2007, he was - incredibly - unable to obtain a visa and his paper had to be read on his behalf. That major paper, a truly extraordinary piece of committed theatre criticism entitled