Late Omotoso
Foremost Nigeria author, writer and professor of English, Kole Omotoso, has died at 80 in Cape Town, South Africa.
He had lived in Centurion, Gauteng, South Africa for many years.
Mr Omotoso’s family in statement confirming his death, on Wednesday said, “Our beloved father and husband moved on from this plane on Wednesday 19th late afternoon. We are sharing this with his close and much-loved community and will share more as we gather ourselves.
“Thank you for your care and love and support.”
The renowned intellectual was born on April 21, 1943, in Akure, Ondo State, South West, Nigeria.
After visiting professorships in English at the University of Stirling and the National University of Lesotho and a spell at the Talawa Theatre Company, London, he became a professor of English at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa (1991–2000).
He was a professor in the Drama Department at Stellenbosch University in South Africa.
His works in fiction include, The Edifice (1971); The Combat (1972; Penguin Classics, 2008, ISBN 978-0143185536)
Miracles (short stories) (1973); Fela’s Choice (1974); Sacrifice (1974, 1978); The Scales (1976); To Borrow a Wandering Leaf (1978); Memories of Our Recent Boom (1982), and Just Before Dawn, a controversial book that reportedly made him to leave the country for South Africa, where he continued his professional career till he died.
His non-fictional books include The Form of the African Novel (1979 etc.); The Theatrical Into Theatre: a study of the Drama and Theatre of the English-speaking Caribbean (1982); Season of Migration to the South: Africa’s crises reconsidered (1994); Achebe or Soyinka? A Study in Contrasts (1995), and Woza Africa (1997).
His works in drama are The Curse (1976) and Shadows in the Horizon (1977).
