David Olagoke: A playwright who sharpened our imagination for literature

Adebayo Obajemu

Professor David Olagoke may have departed this world, but his immortality is assured; thanks to his slim body of literary works, which bestrides the swath between popular literature and the more serious one.

It will be hard to find any students of literature in the 70s and 80s, who did not encounter the ‘Iroko Man and the Woodcarver’ and ‘The Incorruptible Judge’, the popular titles out of his rich literary corpus.

The success of the two plays lie in their ability to enter into the inchoate minds of young students in form two and three where the two works were mostly prescribed texts in most secondary schools in Nigeria along with their prose counterparts – Chike and the Rivers by the inimitable sage of African literature, Professor Chinua Achebe, The Passport of Mallam Iliyia by Cyprian Ekwensi and Eze goes to School by Onuorah Nzekwe.

These works along with lyrical poems of Achebe, Soyinka,  Clark , Awonoor and others fired the creative imagination of youthful students in Nigerian secondary schools and instilled in them the love of literature.

The beauty of these works is that students were able to see in creative form the world they lived in and shared, and  the characters they could identify with and share  their passion, motives, challenges and triumphs.

For years, writers like  Anozie, Olagoke, Onuorah Nzekwu , Aluko and some few others who made enormous contributions to literature were shunned by critics. They are largely unsung heroes of our vast literary landscape. There is a need to focus more attention on the works of these neglected writers and give them the attention they deserve.

Olagoke obtained  his Ph.D in Applied Linguistics from the Prestigious University of London.

He  was born on January 22, 1934 in Aiyegbaju Ekiti. He attended Methodist Boys’High School, Lagos, 1945-50, University College, Ibadan, 1954-57, Institute of Education, University of London, 1957-58, University of Colchester, Essex, 1967-68; and University of London, 1983-85.

He was appointed and served as Education Officer at King’s College, Lagos from 1958-60; Principal Lisabi Grammar School, Abeokuta, 1961-68.

He was later appointed Lecturer II/I, University of Lagos, 1968-76; Senior Lecturer, 1976-84; Associate Professor of English University of Lagos, 1984-87; Professor of English and Dean of Arts, Ondo State University, Ado-Ekiti November 1987 and retired in 2004 .

Olagoke who was a Longman Research Fellow, University College, London University, 1973-74 authored many plays including; The Incorruptible Judge, Longman, Evans, 1962; Irokoman and the Woodcaver, London, Evans, 1963; Hakimu Nwadilifu, A Swahili translation of the Incorruptible Judge, Evans; and Death in the Forest, University Press, Ibadan, 1983;

He was married to Patricia Olajumoke Ayeni in 1960 and the union was blessed with three sons and two daughters.

It is good to ponder and consider the implications of impurities in the arm of government, which has a responsibility to ensure that powerful men in the other arms of government can’t rule anyhow.

The  arm that can ensure that it is only the law that rules is not to be trifled with. The judiciary is today in tatters, and this has not really been thoroughly explored by writers.

It’s the tragedy of the corruption in the judiciary that  Olu Olagoke, explored in the Incorruptible Judge.

The classic work, The Incorruptible Judge’ (1962), warns that, ‘If the citadel of justice is corrupt, the body politic will be completely rotten and collapsed…’

The retired Professor of English and English Literature and former Dean of Faculty of Arts,  passed away earlier today Saturday, 29th October,2022 at his Ayegbaju Ekiti, country home at the ripe age of 88.

His death is a big loss to literature and the theatre in Africa.