HUBERT OGUNDE - WHO IS HE?

HUBERT OGUNDE – WHO IS HE?

Hubert Ogunde was born in 1916 in the village of Ososa four miles from ijebu-Ode in western state of Nigeria. He worked as a teacher before joining the Nigeria Police Force. He later left the police force to join the theatre world with his first play titled: “THE GARDEN OF EDEN” and later followed by “THE THRONE OF GOD” in 1944. These plays launched him into active theatrical productions.

His play The Garden of Eden and The Throne of God were commissioned by the church of the Lord Cherubim and Seraphim based in Lagos Nigeria. The performance was in aid of the church building fund but later grew into a big theatrical venture for him. The huge success of the foregoing productions spurred Ogunde on to writing more operas until he decided to leave, quite unlike his contemporaries, his amateur status as an artist and turn professional. By this act Ogunde began the rise of modern professional theatre in Nigeria: a movement in which he remains the supreme artist and father figure.

The Tiger’s Empire in which the Africa Music Research party presented by Ogunde and others. The Tiger’s Empire was a play that launched ”Ogunde theatre as a  contemporary professional theatre company in Nigeria on Monday, 4^th March 1946. The advertisement for the play was a result of Ogunde’s call for “paid actresses.” This call for artist gave female actress the opportunity to act for the first time in Yoruba theatre in Nigeria.

The feat of Ogunde’s small beginning inspired him to launch another play on 6th and 13th May 1946 at the Glover Hall; that was Mr. Devil’s Money. This play won good commentaries and applause from people including Major Anthony Syer and many others.  The former seeing a rehearsal of this play was quite overwhelmed by the theatrical competence of the group and expressed his admiration and enthusiasm in a colorful letter to the Daily Service.

 

The rush to see the play was so great that tickets were sold on the black market and some criminals even printed counterfeit tickets an occasion that prompted

Ogunde to issue this stern warning:

Some criminals are now in the habit of printing counterfeit tickets for our plays and hav e succeeded in the selling of a large number on two occasions and also in our latest play Mr. Devil’s Money staged at the Glover Hall. This is to warn all printers against such tickets and our patrols against buying tickets that do not bear the official stamp of my party and my own signature.

                        Hubert Ogunde

                        Managing Director

                        The Africa Music Research Party

                        88, Cemetery Road

                        Ebute Metta   

From 1944, when Ogunde began his theatrical career to 1946, he had not toured with his plays except occasionally to Abeokuta. His lack of capital was the stumbling block. His fame was such that people in the provinces refused to be left out any longer and began to petition him to tour with his plays. Ogunde therefore, inserted an announcement in the press:

            ‘The Africa Music Research Party Lagos in response to popular request by letters, telegrams and personal  calls from the provinces, now tour the western Yoruba  area to stage our famous play by Hubert Ogunde A. R. Music.

The tour which took the group to Illaro, Abeokuta, Ibadan, Ijebu-Ode, Ososa and Sagamu, lasted only a week, between August 2 to August 10, 1946.  But with it the Ogunde theatre became like its masked counterpart., the Alarinjo , a travelling theatre.

At this time in Lagos there was a public outcry had been going on for a year over the growth of a social evil which was entering into the Lagos society and corroding it. This evil was popularly known as the “Aso Ebi craze, a craze which required both men and women to buy the most expensive materials for social gatherings.  The rule was that when someone wants to celebrate a marriage or a funeral obsequies, she choose a piece of cloth to wear on the occasion and approaches relatives and friends to buy the same stuff to wear with him or her as uniform on that day. The number of people who wear the uniform will depend on your popularity and social connections. This explains why Aduke had to kiss a thousand lovers all because of ‘Aso Ebi.’

This craze of course, bred intensive competition with celebrants trying to outshine one another. Ogunde decided to make his first social satirical comment by writing a play designed to expose the vulgarity and contentiousness of the craze. He called the play Human Parasites: a tragedy in two acts commenting that ‘Aso Ebi’ is a social evil……. Aduke who kissed and keyed a thousand lover for the sake of Aso Ebi……. What happened when boys refused to keyed is better seen than described:

The portrayal of this menace will no doubt help in no less degree to show ‘Aso Ebi’ and the psychological effect of such a show cannot fail to prove beneficial. We urge our playwrights to put more show portraying the social and political problems of our time for the education of the masses.

After performing Human Parasites Ogunde took his company on tour, this was a month tour to Northern Nigeria where he staged Hunger and Strike on his first and only night in Jos for half an hour.  After the show a police constable entered the stage and got him and his team arrested. On the way to the station three of the arrested persons were mercilessly beaten by the police who were alleged to have inflicted wounds on. The outcome of the court case which follow was that Ogunde and his two other members of the party were found guilty on the charges against them and were fined N250.00K.

This aroused the West African Pilot in an editorial headed. JOS A EUROPEAN  RESERVES? Commented that: Ogunde had performed in severall towns in Nigeria without let or hindrance.  It urge the Nigerian Government to institute an enquiry into the social conditions prevailing in Jos, stating that, the people of this country cannot tolerate any brand of South Africanism in Nigeria.

The net result of this press coverage was that it pushed Ogunde more into national prominence and this helped to a  great extent in popularized his theatre. Instead of being just the darling of the Yoruba people he became a national hero.  He finished a highly eventful year with a tour of the western area from October 31 to December 11 that same year.

Ogunde wrote and performed many other plays which include Bread and Bullets, Black Forest etc. Which he took around the nation commenting on social issues bedeviling the Nigerian people. Gladly enough, he uses his theatrical works to propagate social messages and finding solutions to them. This is in fact one purpose of drama which cannot be disputed in anyway and by anybody or both. Drama was seen by Ogunde as a vehicle of thought hence he moved this vehicle to places.

Hubert Ogunde lived a fulfilled life and died at 74 years old (1916-1990) his works have survived years after his death that led me to say he still speaks.  He is a voice that the movie industry can never forget in a hurry.

Eguriase S. M. Okaka

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