> > By Uduma Kalu
> >
> > "THE stars have departed/ the sky in monocle/ surveys the world
> > under/ the stars have departed and I - where am I?"
> >
> > These were the opening lines in Christopher Okigbo's Watermaid
> > published in his single but immortal collection of poems, Labyrinths.
> > Okigbo was lamenting the pains of loss, and of death, the same way
> > the classical poet, William Shakespeare, lamented in Julius Caesar,
> > his memorable play, that when 'beggars die there are no comets seen
> > but the heavens themselves blaze forth the bones of princes'.
> >
> > Sad as these immortal lines are, they seem incapable of conveying the
> > depth of pains in the hearts of most Nigerian scholars and writers
> > since the news broke that death has visited the house of Nigerian
> > letters.
> >
> > Within a space of two weeks, two foremost African literary and
> > theatre theorists of renown, Prof. Sunday Ogbonna Anozie, otherwise
> > known as "the structuralist", and first African Professor of Theatre
> > Arts, Prof. Joel Adeyinka Adedeji passed on.
> >
> > News of the death of Anozie broke on the Internet early this month.
> > Though the details of his death are still scanty, his family was said
> > to be making preparations to return his body to the country. He was
> > said to have died in Canada of heart and kidney problems. He was 61.
> >
> > Adedeji's death came later. He was said to have died of cancer in New
> > Jersey, United States of America last week at 69.
> >
> > Recently, a novelist, Nkem Nwankwo, author of Danda and My Mercedes
> > is Bigger than Yours, also passed on. Nwankwo and T. M. Aluko were
> > known for introducing the comic angle, into the Nigerian novel, which
> > since Chinua Achebe and Cyprain Ekwensi had tended to be serious in
> > terms of mood, tone and at the end tragic. He died at 68. He was a
> > teacher at the University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
> >
> > Also death snatched from the arthouse, the famous television actor,
> > Chris Erakpotobor on November 6.
> >
> > And just as the bereaved members of the art community were about
> > sighing in relief that they have had enough of sad news, Senator Lai
> > Joseph, the redoubtable documentarist who had achieved a rare feat by
> > producing a monumental book AFRICA HYMNNARY, a compilation of 445
> > hymns he composed, bowed to a prolonged cancer ailment on November
> > 13. He had launched the book amid pomp even while he was ill, on
> > September 25 with the support of many of his politician and artist
> > friends.
> >
> > Another foremost theorist, Chinweizu, author of The West and the Rest
> > of Us, and Towards the Decolonisation of African Literature Vol. I,
> > last week in London, reportedly suffered a stroke. But the good news
> > is that he is recovering well.
> >
> > Taking a summation of all these, some of the brightest minds and
> > professors in Nigerian literature have raised alarm not just on the
> > fate of Nigerian literature but to mourn the loss of these great
> > scholars who were of the same generation.
> >
> > Professor Niyi Osundare, poet and lecturer at the University of
> > Ibadan, was the first to echo the feelings of his colleagues. He
> > lamented:
> >
> > "The titans are going, and I hope the younger folks should see it as
> > a challenge to really add to the house they have built. If we
> > can't ... at least, we should prepare ourselves to build a solid
> > house on the foundation they have laid."
> >
> > To Niyi Osundare, Adedeji's death is a terrible blow. "It's really a
> > terrible blow. I don't know whether any disaster can really capture
> > the depth of loss I feel. He was my teacher in the university here
> > from 1969 to 1972. He taught me. He taught me improvisation, and he
> > taught me introduction to dramatic literature. And indeed that was
> > when we had the School of Drama with people like Wole Soyinka, Dapo
> > Adelugba and others working with him. It was under his watch that the
> > School of Drama transformed into the Department of Theatre. He was
> > really a man of theatre.
> >
> > "So many things about him we will miss. Like his thoroughness. He was
> > a very thorough scholar and a scholarship in African aesthetics and
> > the African without losing sight of the universal appeal. He was a
> > man of magnificent elocution. We all loved the way he projected on
> > stage and off stage. He was a very good teacher and a good friend of
> > his students."
> >
> > Osundare would therefore want the young ones to learn from Adedeji.
> > He wants them to learn Adedeji's "hard work, discipline, thoroughness
> > because, this looks very much like the age of mediocrity. Adedeji
> > never tolerated any half-haphazard job. He would always tell you, 'Do
> > it well. Don't do it like an amateur.' He used to say 'amataer'. I
> > will never forget the way he directed The Man Who Never Died. We
> > loved it, and we told him so. He is a man we are going to miss a lot."
> >
> > On hearing the death of Anozie, Osundare exclaimed: "Oh, which one!
> > The structuralist? Oh, my God! I am hearing this for the first time.
> > Oh, my God! I met Prof. Anozie only once in his lifetime. But I met
> > him on several occasions on the things he wrote. Well, as an applied
> > linguist and writer, I was always fascinated by his analysis although
> > I didn't always agree with him. Because there were times we thought
> > he was too positivistic in his analysis. But nobody could doubt the
> > depth of his commitment and the depth of his scholarship. Oh, my God!
> > I didn't know.
> >
> > "I wonder what is happening to the house of letters in Nigeria
> > because all the important ones are going! So, he's certainly another
> > person we'll all miss terribly. Here was somebody who was a linguist;
> > who was a sociologist; who was an anthropologist; who was a literary
> > scholar, all rolled into one. But he never wavered throughout his
> > life. He remained with the academic commitment throughout."
> >
> > Professor Dan Izevbaye of the University of Ibadan too expressed his
> > feelings thus: "It means we've lost two colleagues who had done
> > ground-breaking scholarships. Anozie was the first to try to
> > introduce structuralism into the analysis of African Literature and
> > Culture. And he was also the first to do a major significant work on
> > Okigbo ... Adedeji manages to bridge the traditional and the modern
> > through studies and the practice, especially, since he did his
> > groundbreaking work on Alarinjo Theatre. That has been a very useful
> > plank for linking the traditional and modern practice of theatre.
> > He's a proven academic, and simple going, social person."
> >
> > Izevbaye went on to describe Anozie as a man dedicated to the rigours
> > of scholarship when structuralism was yet to take root among African
> > scholars.
> >
> > "But it was to the nature of his commitment and dedication, to the
> > advancement of African theatre that he tried to float a critical
> > method through the launching of a journal, The Conch, dedicated to
> > that. It didn't really survive but like the dedicated pioneer that he
> > was, he kept it going for quite sometime, on his own speed. It's a
> > loss to the academic community."
> >
> > Anozie, he said, was a man of independence and single mindedness who
> > did not move with the currents. Indeed, it was the ability of Anozie
> > to move through the tide of criticism that followed his views that
> > makes Izevbaye paid him such glowing tributes.
> >
> > "Most people don't just agree with him. That's why I referred to him
> > as independent and single minded and that he stood against the tide
> > of critical opinion which he thought did not represent the truth."
> >
> > On Adedeji whom Izevbaye had known since the 60's both as a colleague
> > and as a theatre director at the University of Ibadan, he said:
> >
> > "It's a shock really, and a loss to the community of theatre
> > practitioners and teachers since he was something of a pioneer
> > theatre administrator in our university, and has been professor of
> > theatre arts for so many years. It's a big loss to the institution..."
> >
> > "It's difficult even now to believe it happened", remarked Professor
> > Dapo Adelugba, Head of Theatre Arts Department Unibadan. "I hadn't
> > seen him for quite sometime, and I just assumed that he had been too
> > busy with his schedules. But I didn't even know he was abroad. I
> > understand he was abroad holidaying with his children. So up till
> > now, it's a puzzle. But I understand he had been ill in Nigeria for
> > sometime. I didn't get to know about it until the final event
> > happened. So how I feel, of course, absolutely flabbergasted. How the
> > community here feels? Everybody just feels shattered. Very upset. We
> > were not thinking along those lines at all. Many of us didn't know he
> > was ill. I didn't know."
> >
> > Adelugba however, recalled his relationship with the late
> > professor. "I got to know him as back as in the 60's when I joined
> > the staff of the School of Drama. He had entered the school before
> > me. So I joined him and Demas Nwoko and others at the School of Drama
> > which transformed into the Department of Theatre Arts in September
> > 1970. And 1967, when I joined the staff, I had known him. And the
> > interaction had been of co-teachers within the same unified
> > university system."
> >
> > He described Adedeji as an ardent teacher who gave a lot of attention
> > to the quality of his work. "He was multi-talented. He was very good
> > in theatre history. He wrote a groundbreaking theatre on Alarinjo
> > Theatre, which is still a point of reference today, even though he
> > wrote it as far back as 1969.
> >
> > "He also was very good in the area of voice and speech, and oral
> > interpretation. So he taught voice, speech and oral interpretation.
> > He also taught theatre history. He taught dramatic literature and he
> > was particularly partial to tragedy. He developed the plays over the
> > years in tragedy. I developed the plays in the areas of comedy, and
> > other comic forms. So, our work tended to complement each other over
> > the years. And he was very keen on the electronic theatre.
> >
> > "Indeed, he was very keen on setting up of a performing arts company,
> > a professional company. And the university performing company was his
> > brainchild. And he was very keen on the success of it until we got
> > into an economic crisis with the naira becoming valueless as it was
> > in the mid 80's''.
> >
> > He went on to say that the department is waiting for the deceased
> > family to announce the burial date for them to organise a celebrity
> > of life for Adedeji. "We think it's a celebration of life. He lived a
> > good life and lived an exemplary life. I think that deserves a
> > celebration, although we are sad. We are in a state of mourning that
> > he has to go so soon. But we also have to celebrate the achievements,
> > and we hope to do that as soon as we know the date of the burial."
> >
> > On Anozie, Adelugba said: "Sunday Anozie was a foremost literary
> > theorist and critic. You will recall that he was a structuralist
> > critic and theorist. And very passionate... for I gathered from his
> > old students that he was a passionate lecturer, and real scholar -
> > scholar in the best sense. And some of his books are there forever.
> > Once again, it's a sad loss but he did achieve a lot in his lifetime.
> > I think he was courageous.
> >
> > "He obviously had his point of view about literature and theory. And
> > he was consistent with his points of view, even though it took time
> > for people to understand his passion for structuralism. But he had
> > his points of view that literature has a scientific side to it, and I
> > believe that he is still one of the major theorists/critics that
> > Africa has produced. So we are going to miss him."
> >
> > He argued that Anozie applied the structuralist form in his study of
> > Christopher Okigbo. "It was there he approached Okigbo's poetry as a
> > structuralist. I think it was there. When he moved into the very
> > actual analysis of poetry, he allowed himself to be propelled by his
> > love for structuralism."
> >
> > Dr. Chukwuma Okoye of the Theatre Arts Department described Adedeji
> > as " somebody who studied theatre at that time, stayed into it, and
> > then others simply followed."
> >
> > Sad as the death of these writers and theorists has hit writers
> > Osundare's call to the younger ones is one that hopefully will ease
> > the pains of loss. And as Okigbo illustrated in his Path of Thunder
> > which goes thus:
> >
> > "An old star departs / leaves us here on the shore/ gazing heavenward
> > for a new star approaching; /the new star appears, /foreshadows its
> > going. / Before a going and coming that goes on forever..." - new
> > writers should step into their elders' shoes.

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