South
African-based Prof. Kole Omotoso recalls his experiences as a writer
during his 70th birthday celebration in Akure
When Prof. Kole Omotoso was leaving
Nigeria on self exile in the late 1980s, he probably had no idea what
the future looked like. He certainly did not expect his fortunes to be
remarkably transformed within a decade and a few years of his sojourn
abroad.
The celebrated writer, whose novel, Just Before Dawn,
virtually stirred up the hornet’s nest and threw up a controversy that
eventually led to his temporary exit from the country, celebrated his
70th birthday between Friday and Saturday in Akure, capital of Ondo
State.
During a special interactive session
with journalists in Akure, Omotoso had to shed some light on the
controversy that surrounded the publication of Just Before Dawn and his foray into popular culture.
Apart from his departure from the
University of Ibadan, another event that would in due course mark a
turning point in the writer’s career was the publication of Just Before Dawn in 1988.
Often described as a biography of
Nigeria, certain issues raised in the novel had led to Omotoso’s
decision to to proceed on exile in the same year.
Recounting what happened, he said, “After Newswatch
magazine ran some extracts from the novel, we got a call from a former
Military Head of State, Olusegun Obasanjo, saying that he was going to
court and FRA Williams filed a notice saying that the book must be
stopped. The reason they were giving was that there is a part of the
book where I described Obasanjo’s presence in Port Harcourt when the
military coup against Shehu Shagari’s government was being discussed.
“Obasanjo insisted that he didn’t go to
that meeting, but that the people who went to the meeting stopped to see
him in Abeokuta to tell him about it. What I found out was that not
only that he was at the meeting; he was also the one proposed to replace
Shagari. But, if ever Obasanjo has made one decision in his life that
will forever favour him, it was the point he made in that meeting.
“He had told the plotters that he handed
over to Shagari and he didn’t make sense to take over from him. He told
them to look for someone else. Who did they find? It was Buhari, who
had earlier fallen out with Shagari. And that was how he became head of
State. Although I had lawyers, such as the late Gani Fawehinmi and Femi
Falana, who were ready to defend me without collecting any fee from me,
my publishers refused to contest that claim in court. He insisted that
the paragraph must be removed from the book and I should pay
compensation with my own money.
“My immediate reaction to the
controversy was to relocate and hope somehow to be part of the forces
that would dislocate the powers that tie down Nigeria. Eventually I left
the country after I received threats from the Nigerian military and the
then, General Olusegun Obasanjo went to court to stop the publication
of Just before Dawn.”
Ever since, Omotoso has been living and
working in South Africa. Apart from teaching drama and English at the
Stellenbosch University in Cape Town, South Africa, he is best known for
his role in popular advertisement campaigns in that country, especially
by its biggest mobile telecommunications company, Vodacom.
Over the years, Omotoso’s involvement
with the advertising industry in South Africa made him a household name,
courtesy of his role as ‘Yebo Gogo’, the inimitable character seen on
TV ads and billboards in South Africa’s major cities.
Describing how it all started, he said,
“In 1993, I was approached to do an advert on a truck that had just been
introduced in the country. I was pictured repairing an old building on a
parcel of land that my family had always owned and I was saying that I
would transfer the land to my children. When I finished, I put my tools
in the back of the truck and drove it to the sunset. Shot in one of the
most beautiful parts of the country, the advert was broadcast on TV.”
Unfortunately the writer’s first real
taste of fame, through popular culture, outside his home country was
short-lived. The advert was pulled out of the TV on the third day
following complaints from a section of the white population in that
country.
“The advertisers called me on the phone
from Capetown and said, ‘Sorry, the advert has been pulled because the
white Afrikaaners have complained that they are the ones who buy the
trucks, not black people. Second, they don’t want a black man talking
about handing land to his children. Finally, they don’t want the advert
anyway.’ But I didn’t bother because I had been paid, anyway,” he said.
But the advert did eventually open the
door to more opportunities. Early in 1994, Omotoso received a phone call
from the newly established Vodacom asking if he would be interested in
looking at a script.
“I told them to send it to me. The
story was very straight-forward. It was about an old black man sitting
by the side of the road and selling wired windmills. In South Africa,
this is very common. As the old man continued to do that, a well-to-do
young white man came up to him in a red BMW sports car. The young man
got out of the car and said, ‘Yebo Gogo, how much is it?’ and the old
fellow replied ‘100 dollars’. Thinking that the latter wanted to cheat
him, the man returned to his car and wanted to enter, but he realised
that he had locked his car key in the vehicle. So the old fellow brought
out his mobile phone and said, Hello, Vodacom,” he said
By the end of the week, the slogan,
‘Yebo Gogo’ had been echoed all over the country and Omotosho was
suddenly transformed into a cult hero in South Africa. The words
gradually became a part of the local vocabulary until the Vodacom advert
was terminated last December.
By: CHUX OHAI Punch News.