LABAF's Play Back on History

History was nicely sold to a gathering mostly made up of students recently at the Freedom Park, Lagos when the organisers of Lagos Book and Art Festival (LABAF) screened a documentary movie on D.O. Fagunwa. Directed by Femi Odugbemi, the documentary movie was based on the writing career of one of the leading fathers of modern literature in indigenous language. Born Daniel Oludotun Fagunwa, this legendary novelist had influenced a generation of writers and thinkers, some of whom were interviewed in the course of the movie production. The special honoree for this edition of LABAF, Professor Niyi Osundare is a famous poet and a Professor of English at the University of New Orleans, USA. A multi-award winning writer, Osundare is a recipient of the prestigious Folon/ Nichols Award for excellence in literary creativity combined with significant contributions to human rights in Africa.

Before his arrival that afternoon, the convener of LABAF and former Sunday Editor, Guardian Newspaper, Mr. Jahman Anikulapo prepped the students for aspects of history with the documentary titled, D.O. Fagunwa: Language, Literature and Literati. The very well-paced movie highlighted through audio-visual narrative techniques the distinct narrative style, structure and symbolism in Fagunwa’s works as perceived by some of his avid readers such as Molara Wood, Prof. Femi Osofisan, Prof. Sola Olorunyomi, Dr. Niyi Osundare and Jimi Solanke as well as some footage of Prof. Wole Soyinka’s discourse on Fagunwa.