Yemi Ajibade
| Yemi Ajibade | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Adeyemi Olanrewaju Goodman Ajibade 28 July 1929 Ìlá Òràngún, Osun State, Nigeria |
| Died | 24 January 2013 (aged 83) London, UK |
| Nationality | Nigerian |
| Occupation | Playwright, actor and director |
| Notable work |
Parcel Post Waiting for Hannibal |
Yemi Ajibade (28 July 1929 – 24 January 2013), also credited as Yemi Goodman Ajibade or Ade-Yemi Ajibade, was a Nigerian playwright, actor and director who, after settling in England in the 1950s, made significant contributions to the British theatre and the canon of Black drama. In a career that spanned half a century, he directed and wrote several successful plays, as well as acting in a wide range of drama for television, stage, radio and film.
Adeyemi Olanrewaju Goodman Ajibade was born a royal prince of the house of Ọ̀ràngún from Ìlá Òràngún,Osun State, in the south-west of Nigeria. He attended Abeokuta Grammar School, and later pursued studies in London, at Kennington College of Law and Commerce (1955), at The Actors' Workshop (1960), and from 1966 to 1968 at the London School of Film Technique (now the London Film School), where he was a contemporary of filmmaker Horace Ové (who has recalled that they were the only two black students in the school at the time).
From early in his stay in the UK, Ajibade acted in radio drama for the BBC African Service. As producer Fiona Ledger recalled in 2007: "It was back in 1960 that the late BBC producer John Stockbridge was asked by the Head of the African Service to devise some kind of drama for African listeners. He came up with a series, a soap opera set in London. No copy survives, but" Yemi Ajibade "took the role of a social worker, moving around England and settling quarrels."
Continuing to develop his acting career, he was hailed in 1963 as "one of the most promising actors from West Africa". Alongside performers who included Yulisa Amadu Maddy, Leslie Palmer, Eddie Tagoe, Karene Wallace, Basil Wanzira, and Elvania Zirimu, among others, Ajibade featured in a production of Lindsay Barrett's Blackblast! filmed in 1973 for a special edition of the BBC arts and entertainment programme Full House devoted to the work of West Indian writers, artists, musicians and film-makers.
...
Wikipedia