Renowned playwright, actor, dramatist and cultural activist, Prof. Akinwunmi Isola, has died.
Family sources revealed that the respected literary luminary passed away this morning in Ibadan at the age of 79.
The Professor of Yoruba language, has been sick for over two years before he passed on this morning.
Professor Ishola, father of four, known for ‘O Le Ku’, a novel that was adopted into a movie by Mainframe Productions, attended the University of Ibadan where he bagged a Bachelor’s degree in French. He earned a Master’s in Yoruba Literature from the University of Lagos after which he became a lecturer at Obafemi Awolowo University.
Before his demise, the professor said in an interview that Nollywood should stop aping foreign standards.
According to him: “They know what to do and it is to stop aping foreign standards. I once presented a paper on Nollywood sometimes ago at the Obafemi Awolowo University, entitled, In whose image and which talks about Nigerian Cinemas, movies and others.My argument is that the movies should be in our own image, in terms of language, costumes, make-up among others. Our women are the most guilty in this anomaly of aping foreign standards through their dresses and hairstyles.”