Tunde Kelani: The Man Exceeds the Frame

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Toyin Falola

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Oct 11, 2019, 2:17:48 PM10/11/19
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Tunde Kelani: The Man Exceeds the Frame

Toyin Falola

Professor of History

Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities

University Distinguished Teaching Professor

 

The extraordinary announcement, coming from the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, that ace filmmaker Kelani will now be based there as a Fellow is heartwarming. The news reveals the warmth and uniqueness of the University's boundless imaginations and the humanistic vision of its Vice-Chancellor, Professor Kolawole Salako. This news of a deserving appointment follows on the heels of Kelani receiving the prestigious Léopold Sédar Senghor Prize for African Cultural Creativity and Impact in July, 2019 at the annual TOFAC event at Babcock University. In that same month, he was also inducted into the American Oscars—the Academy of Motion Picture, Arts and Sciences. All of these accolades are well-deserved. Kelani has spent his career putting things—people, ideas, cultures, traditions, and ideologies—inside the cinematographic frame. It is a most exciting thing to see him too bursting out of every frame with all these multiple achievements that celebrate him. Ìrókò!

Ìrókò Olúwéré!

Ọ̀rọ̀ bàm̀bà ní í gbénú Ìrókò.

Igi t'ọ́mọ aráyé ń gbóṣùbà rẹ̀!

Kokoko lára.

Àjífẹnu kíkò pè.

Ọba igi lóko!

Ọ̀rọ̀ hùnnùhùnnù ní í gbénú igi tó le koko.

Kò bojú wẹ̀hìn

Káyé ó tẹ́ńbẹ́lù ẹ̀ rí.

Igi tí í dá jìnnìjìnnì s'ọ́mọ́ ojo láyà!

Olúwéré ni baba igi lóko.

 

Tunde Kelani, popularly referred to as TK, is to Nollywood, the Nigerian/African movie and entertainment industry, what Wole Soyinka is to literature. These are people of greatness that have crept out from underneath the ancient Olumo Rock. To be widely acknowledged as the most respected filmmaker in Nigeria, or anywhere, against the tormenting odds of uncontrolled piracy, bad economy, sanctions due to political differences and unsupportive leadership, is no little feat to achieve. Kelani has consistently positioned himself as a cultural ambassador, socio-political commentator, and future-oriented creative icon with his filmic productions, and other engagements, all of which are conscience-driven.

TK, a world-class storyteller and director of so many films, hails from Abeokuta in Ogun State. From a cultural viewpoint, Kelani is a cultural educator and an advocate whose works have become a narrative of success and hard-work. From his early works such as The Dilemma of Reverend Father Michael which was co-produced by the movie veteran Adebayo Faleti, who was himself the author of the Yoruba play, Idaamu Paadi Mukailu, Kelani has been a steady yet prolific writer, photographer, cinematographer, and movie producer. In his repertoire of works, Anikura, Iya Ni Wura, Iwa, O Le Ku, Saworo Ide, etc., Kelani has been an advocate of culture, pushing the Yoruba culture to the frontiers of knowledge. He has taken upon himself the duty of an historian to capture, preserve, refract and re/present the African cultural heritage through the lens of his camera. Ìrókò!

Èèyàn bí Ìrókò!

Ìrókò bí èèyàn!

Igi tígí í wárí fún!

Túndé Kèlánì.

Adúmádéyín.

Ọ̀fọwọ́-àrà-gbé-kámẹ̀rá-mú-fíìmù yááyì!

Gíwá, ọba onísinnimá!

Tọ́jú-tẹ̀yìn ni dùndún fi í ríran:

Tọ́jú-tẹ̀yìn ní bàtá fí í fọhùn.

 

Èèkánnà ọmọ Kélání,

Irun orí ọmọ Kèlání,

Àtáǹpàkò ọmọ Kèlání -

Gbogbo ara ọmọ Kèlání

Ní í gbé fíìmú àrà jáde!

 

 

After so many productions and cinematography voyages, Kelani’s company, Mainframe Film and Television Productions (established in 1992) has produced some of the most outstanding movies in Nigeria and Africa while also offering services and technical support to other outfits. Tunde Kelani’s productions include documentaries on different subjects. Many of Kelani’s works are a mixture of tradition and modernity as the movies adapt the language of modern technology and traditional materials such as language, oral poetry, myths, legends, and folktales, and aesthetic and ornamental endowments of the Yoruba orality and knowledge system. At the front burner of productions like Campus Queen and Arugba is the message to embrace modernity into traditional culture in order to sustain the latter and benefit from the former. 

The ability of Kelani to seamlessly blend tradition and modernity, both at the production and preoccupation level, has marked him out amongst his peers as a forerunner and maestro of the industry. Although he has been acknowledged as the bridge between the old and new Nollywood, and in fact, as a pioneer figure of New Nollywood, like Laaroye, he has on several occasions denied being a part of what has been popularly perceived as Nollywood. It is not strange that he is still an “outsider” in Nollywood, as the depth of his oeuvre defies the unsophisticated productions that still characterize much of Nollywood. For Kelani, culture is not static and antique; it evolves and in its evolution are the resolutions to the present predicaments bedeviling our society. Hence, whenever Kelani makes bold commentaries on the socio-political existence of the nation, he proffers (local) solutions. Ìrókò!

Túndé to mójú kámẹ́rà,

Tí í pe kámẹ́rà rán níṣẹ̀.

Bó sùn,

Kámẹ́rà rẹ̀ kò ní yàyàkuyà.

Bó yaju, bó ń naju lẹ́nu isẹ,

Kò sí nínú oníyàkuyà.

 

TK had a very rich cultural background that has greatly influenced his career. This illustrious background and his technical education in film production culminated in the brilliant consistency that defines the legacy of his works. In the development and production of cinema and films (and entertainment) in Nigeria, TK is a leading figure. His career continues to add to the bulging growth of this sector. His contributions to our emerging national identity and culture are immense and indispensable. Down to his personality, TK is always dressed in African traditional attire, especially Adire, which is indigenous to his hometown, Abeokuta, where he had his childhood experiences that inspire and further shape his creativity as a film producer and director. His education at the London Film School and Western Nigeria Television has equipped this talented man with unique techniques and knowledge in film-making and directing. The TV programs Arambada and Tunmigbe were also supported by Kelani as part of his burgeoning career in cinematography. Ìrókò!

Ọ̀kunrin mẹ́ta tí í fọwọ́ àrá gbé fíìmù àrà jáde.

Yóò máa jọ'ra wọn ni:

Òṣùpá ò lè ẹ jọ̀' ràwọ̀ ní sánmọ̀.

Afọ́gbọ́n inú kọ́gbọ́n jọ fáyé.

Adúmádéyín tí wọn ń jowú rẹ̀ nígbà gbogbo.

 

Kelani’s knowledge in film making and cinematography, and his love for superb literature, have sparked the adaptations of literary works into movies that widened the horizon of the Nigerian literary space. TK’s collaboration with writers and artists across genres has generated a new hybrid of film productions that has deepened Nollywood’s focus and professionalism. For example, Dazzling Mirage, a novel by Olayinka Egbokhare, was adapted into a movie by Kelani’s Mainframe Productions, and that production has helped to create more awareness in the Nigerian space about sickle cell anemia and its effects. With many other adaptations like O le ku, The White Handkerchief, Campus Queen and Maami, Kelani has pushed forward significant socio-political and economic preoccupations projected by the artists, but in a more relatable manner through his audio-visual filmic productions. The coalescing of traditional and cultural values with high technological dexterity in his movies has launched the director-cum-cinematographer to the limelight in the world. Kelani’s works and films also have cultural and political ideologies which have traced the historical and political growth of the nation, Nigeria.

In recognition of his illustrious contributions to the society and achievement as an artist, TK has been recognized both nationally and internationally with many awards and recognitions that span so many years or films and works of his career. These include:

  • Africa Magic Viewer’s Choice (AMVCA) Industry Merit Award in 2018;
  • Léopold Sédar Senghor Prize for African Cultural Creativity and Impact, 2019;
  • Member of the Emmy Awards International Jury in 2015;
  • Elected to vote in the Directors Category of the Board of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2019; and
  • Nigeria Merit Award Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014.

These awards and recognitions are particularly due to Kelani’s inimitable craft and contributions to the advancement of the Nigerian filmmaking industry, and cultural values distilled in his works. As part of his intellectual contribution to the industry, he established the Mainframe Film and Media Institute to educate and train artists in professional cinematography, editing, directing, scriptwriting, etc. within the advanced theory and art of filmmaking. This institute has been established to promote cultural values and also improve the socio-economic output of the nation. With the Mainframe Film and Media Institute, TK has further established himself as a visionary leader with the aim to impact the society and the younger generation more. The Institute becomes a symbol to pass on his legacy and brilliancy to as many as possible, an orientation that is most lacking in Nigerian society.

Kelani is arguably one of the greatest pioneers of the filmmaking industry in Nigeria and Africa whose person and works have been the subject of many doctoral theses and books. The 71-year old filmmaker is celebrated nationally and internationally for his grand narratives about African culture and art. The man Kelani and his art will continually spark admiration and intellectual discourses on the political, cultural and philosophical productions of the Nigerian space both in the literary universe and film industry.

The appointment at the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta will provide him a unique opportunity to contribute to the diffusion of creativity, the linkages of sciences, technology and culture, and the training of future leaders in a dynamic world in an age of expanding possibilities. T-K's tentacles will spread beyond his current reach. When it rains, it pours. Ojo Ibukun de! Ire wole!! Ìrókò!!!

Kò séégun tó lára lẹ́ṣẹ̀ bíi Lébe.

Ta ni m'ojú fíìmù bí Túndé Kèlánì,

Gíwá tó jọba wọn?

Ìtákùn tó ṣe é dìmọ́ gòkè.

Ìrókò, ọba igi lóko!

 

Are we surprised of the man TK has been able to make of himself? We will not be surprised when we also think of the noble lineage of the man which shows he is not only greatness born, but also greatness made. TK belongs to the Kúlódò lineage through whom a whole oral poetic form, Esa (the Privileged) became part of the rich Yoruba cultural heritage. It will therefore be befitting to end this piece with the praise of this living legend:

The illustrious Onígbórí scion of Kúlódò

Scion of Kúlódò Awùsí Ẹ̀yọ̀

Scion of the hunchback that praises the king

Scion of the lineage deep in the way of knowledge

 

Babátúndé, you are the scion of Kúlódò Awùbi

The abundant water that splits into creeks -

From Aàsà, to Ẹkọrọ, to Dòbòdè

And Afúnlẹ́lẹ́, the clean brook of queens

 

The dance of yesterday is not enough

The whips of yesterday pain no more

Bring us the dancing and whipping masquerades again

It is our father’s rite we are doing

 

Invoke the spirit of Arúkú,

The cadaver in the cloth called ẹ̀kú

Invoke the spirit of Ológbojò,

Custodian of eight hundred masquerades.

Ìrókò!

 

 

 

 

Toyin Falola

Department of History

The University of Texas at Austin

104 Inner Campus Drive

Austin, TX 78712-0220, USA

 

Michael Vickers

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Oct 11, 2019, 4:22:00 PM10/11/19
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Oloruntoyin, 
Prodigious and Prolific.
Wonderful. Wonderful.
From strength to Ever new, 
Ever greater strengths and accomplishments. 
This is excellent, profoundly good news. 
Many many congratulations to 
Tunde Kelani. 

Baba m

From Aàsà, toẸkọrọ, to Dòbòdè

Bayo Omolola

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Oct 11, 2019, 4:22:00 PM10/11/19
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Congratulation on the fellowship position! You really deserve it! More great accomplishments!


Bayo Omolola, Ph.D
Lecturer
Director, Fulbright-Hays Intensive Advanced Yoruba Group Project Abroad
President. American Association of Teachers of Yoruba
College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Arts and Sciences
Locke Hall, Room 308
2441 Sixth Street, NW
Washington, DC 20059
Phone: 202-806-5075


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Harrow, Kenneth

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Oct 11, 2019, 4:36:38 PM10/11/19
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very happy to hear the news about TK. to make movies these days often requires some stable income. i hope TK will continue to give us he wonderful work for many years to come
ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

har...@msu.edu

From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Michael Vickers <mvic...@mvickers.plus.com>
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Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Tunde Kelani: The Man Exceeds the Frame
 
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Gbemi Tijani

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Oct 11, 2019, 7:28:59 PM10/11/19
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Congratulations to the hugely patriotic icon of film making,B abs TK as the connoisseur who knows his onions enormously.Congratulations to you and all your boosters across decades including the affable truly blossoming ubiquitous Baba TF. @ U .of Texas at Austin.Thanks for your infectious fertile and fecund profiling of an expert who s dynamic ,afrocultural, and nonetheless global.
Professor  Toyin Falola s style of reviewing teachers of teachers like TK is uncommonly unique.Where are you then when Mongo Beti was struggling with linguistic feudalism meted on us by prolonged neocolonialism and our own phobia to Overhaul the curricula left by the European's in different parts of The Black world.yet.
I also love all the poetic totems with which you describe the versatility of the globally acknowledged Tunde Kelani .Each metaphor you deployed from your wealth of orality--especially for TK as Iroko in Cinematography buoyed me and asked me how much lines of Oriki Omo Ajeji,Oriki Omo ARemu can i recall with impeccable tonality of the lyrics?
I m also attracted with your multisectoral research in indigenous African  health care.Are your works  on Medicinal African herbs ready? Felicitations on your career as an academic leader  and congruous travail  in books of diverse cultural advancement themes.Literature duly provoked by your intellectual activities be it history or film making will keep cracking,charging and challenging both town and gown.
Gbemi Tijani MST
@Bymst2bymst


On Oct 11, 2019 9:36 PM, "Harrow, Kenneth" <har...@msu.edu> wrote:
very happy to hear the news about TK. to make movies these days often requires some stable income. i hope TK will continue to give us he wonderful work for many years to come
ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

har...@msu.edu


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Pamela Smith

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Oct 12, 2019, 10:37:33 AM10/12/19
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CONGRATULATIONS, TK!

Just the beginning of a most deserving last few months list of accolades, years in the making. In God’s time (the BEST time), I suppose. No-one could have said it better than TF.

A ku orire!

Oye a m’ori o!

 

Olubunmi

(Prof Pam Smith)

tunde jaiyeoba

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Oct 12, 2019, 2:20:57 PM10/12/19
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Congratulations to Baba TK, "iwin" (is that extra-terrestrial being?) of camera, old and new Nollywood and the Global film industry. The Baba is so soft spoken and gentle. In fact when I met him with "Igi iwe" (literature tree or king of books?} Prof TF,  I only recognised him with his trademark Adire textile wear. 

Congratulations to both Baba TK and Baba TF !!! The medals shall continue to rise in number and significance, so happy !!!


Babatunde JAIYEOBA











E. Babatunde JAIYEOBA PhD
Professor of Architecture
Department of Architecture
Faculty of Environmental Design and Management
Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria

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OLAYINKA AGBETUYI

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Oct 12, 2019, 2:20:57 PM10/12/19
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If not Tunde Kelani, then who?

Congratulations on a lifetime in filmic excellence!

OAA





Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.


-------- Original message --------
From: Pamela Smith <pamel...@unomaha.edu>
Date: 12/10/2019 15:48 (GMT+00:00)
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - RE: Tunde Kelani: The Man Exceeds the Frame

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CONGRATULATIONS, TK!

Just the beginning of a most deserving last few months list of accolades, years in the making. In God’s time (the BEST time), I suppose. No-one could have said it better than TF.

A ku orire!

Oye a m’ori o!

 

Olubunmi

(Prof Pam Smith)

 

From: Toyin Falola <toyin...@austin.utexas.edu>

Sent: Friday, October 11, 2019 1:14 PM
To: dialogue <USAAfric...@googlegroups.com>; Yoruba Affairs <yoruba...@googlegroups.com>

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Adeshina Afolayan

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Oct 13, 2019, 9:37:56 AM10/13/19
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This brilliant eulogy, for me, inspires awe and sadness almost simultaneously. TK deserves all we can ever shower on him in terms of honor and accolades. He has paid his dues and is still paying them. He has singularly (re)defined the structure and direction of filmmaking in Nigeria, and in doing so, he made himself a pioneer and a template. You become a successful person to the extent that you have inspired another generation to reconstruct and deconstruct your achievement as a direction for future endeavor. That is what TK has done for Nollywood and the culture industry in Nigeria. TK is not only an ìrókò, but a giant cultural, cinematic and entertainment institution in his very essence. 

Yet, TK is 71 now, and he has reached the old age of old age. In any sane society, this is one institution that would have become institutionalized in all his various dimensions. Yet, the Nigerian society has barely noticed this ìrókò. It takes a University of Technology to recognize what other conventional universities, and especially humanities Faculties and Institutes of African Studies ought to have realized a long time ago: that this is one institution we cannot afford to not take notice of! We can almost predict, from the hypocritical posthumous treatment of greatness in Nigeria, what will happen when TK passes into the Great Beyond: the state will make great noises; the high and mighty will make a show of visiting his home and family; great honors will flow in his name; and one or two edifices in Ogun state will probably be named in his honor (keyword: probably).  

In the Great Beyond, TK is immune to honor and recognition. What he needs now is the opportunities to impart his boundless cultural and cinematic knowledge. Even if you have not heard him speak about this, it is easy to know what kind of man TK is. He spends all his monies and all of himself in knowledge production. He lives a spartan life as a mean to an end of waking us all to our cultural and national realities. His cinematographic lens are meant for defamiliarizing what we have grown used to. I have met TK, and I have heard him speak. He is emblematic of a volcano that is seeking an outlet to explode. He has a small frame, and hence his passion shakes the frame with barely controllable enthusiasm when he speaks about the cinema and entertainment and his several Yorùbá projects. He barely is able to contain his zeal. Yet Nigeria is a space of denial and of excesses. It is a space that denies genuine creativity and generates obscene excesses. It is a space that pushes creativity into criminality. Yet TK is paying the price for singular creative righteousness. And we are not seeing it. 

He needs more than awards. He needs more than accolades. He needs spaces within which to sow the seeds of creativity that allows the generation of alternatives. TK's being is screaming for opportunities to impact us all. We have all seen TK's films; but there are many more things he is capable of, even at old age. I wonder have many projects have been placed on hold because of institutional incapacities. I wonder what constitutes "regrets" for TK. 

When I last heard him speak, he jokingly alluded to his indebtedness, and how his own fear is not that of Boko Karam or criminals. Rather, he feared that those he owes will not kidnap him soon. We all laughed. But that narrative sums how Nigeria is pushing TK to the grave in order to celebrate him. It tells of how even higher education dynamics have failed TK and his desire to make the culture industry in Nigeria better at not only telling our own stories ourselves, but at portraying, imaging and reimaging our postcolonial predicament.

Maybe the Federal University of Africulture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB) will now force us all to listen, and to act.   


Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone

Emeagwali, Gloria (History)

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Oct 13, 2019, 1:31:28 PM10/13/19
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At 97, Professor John Goodenough- Professor of Mechanical Engineering 
and  Materials Science continues to work at the University of Texas. He is a recipient of
the 2019  Nobel Chemistry Prize. He  worked at Oxford University   in the 1970s and  early 80s and joined U. of Texas in 1986.

His battery related research continues.

Ageism  has no place in the world of excellence.




Professor Gloria Emeagwali
History Department, Central Connecticut State University
 


From: 'Adeshina Afolayan' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, October 13, 2019 9:29 AM
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>; Yoruba Affairs <yoruba...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - RE: Tunde Kelani: The Man Exceeds the Frame
 

Please be cautious: **External Email**

Emeagwali, Gloria (History)

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Oct 13, 2019, 1:31:40 PM10/13/19
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  • Léopold Sédar Senghor Prize for African Cultural Creativity and Impact, 2019
  • Member of the Emmy Awards International Jury in 2015
  • Elected to vote in the Directors Category of the Board of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2019
  • Nigeria Merit Award Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014
  • Africa Magic Viewer’s Choice (AMVCA) Industry Merit Award in 201

  • (Source: Toyin Falola)

Hearty congrats to the great film maker and pioneer, Tunde Kelani for his remarkable achievements in the cinematic world. I also applaud  FUA and its Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Salako for inviting  the great film maker to his campus to share his  knowledge,  essentially as  a Fellow and Distinguished Film Maker-  in - Residence. This is a   wonderful precedent. 
As the second most prolific film producer in the World, film making is indeed one of  Nigeria's  outstanding contributions to world cinema, whether in  celluloid or  post-celluloid digital formats, and the name of Tumde Kelani is preeminent among the  outstanding pioneers.
Congrats!
,

Professor Gloria Emeagwali
History Department, Central Connecticut State University
                  

 


From: 'Bayo Omolola' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Friday, October 11, 2019 3:03 PM
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Congratulation on the fellowship position! You really deserve it! More great accomplishments!

OLAYINKA AGBETUYI

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Oct 13, 2019, 1:32:44 PM10/13/19
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Thanks so much for this eulogy.  Irs obscene how the intellectually great in Nigeria have to like Obierika that Achebe creation sacrifice life and limb, their very being in pursuit of creativity.

I recall how WS on the eve of the award of the Nobel was struggling to put a permanent roof over his head.

This is in a country awash with stupendous wealth concentrated in the hands of a few;  this in a country where the culture of endowments such as Carnegie's is alien.

I can recall how on the endowment of a professorial Chair by His Majesty Oba Sikiru Adetona, Awujale of Ijebu Ode (Toto!) I called on other traditional rules to follow the pioneer gesture of His Majesty.


We again call on those blessed with abundance in Nigeria to kindle the embers of intellectual endowments in Nigeria even if the federal government will play its part and make such endowments deductible from the tax burden of their prodigious estates.

OAA.



Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.


-------- Original message --------
From: 'Adeshina Afolayan' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Date: 13/10/2019 14:42 (GMT+00:00)
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - RE: Tunde Kelani: The Man Exceedsthe  Frame

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This brilliant eulogy, for me, inspires awe and sadness almost simultaneously. TK deserves all we can ever shower on him in terms of honor and accolades. He has paid his dues and is still paying them. He has singularly (re)defined the structure and direction of filmmaking in Nigeria, and in doing so, he made himself a pioneer and a template. You become a successful person to the extent that you have inspired another generation to reconstruct and deconstruct your achievement as a direction for future endeavor. That is what TK has done for Nollywood and the culture industry in Nigeria. TK is not only an ìrókò, but a giant cultural, cinematic and entertainment institution in his very essence. 

Yet, TK is 71 now, and he has reached the old age of old age. In any sane society, this is one institution that would have become institutionalized in all his various dimensions. Yet, the Nigerian society has barely noticed this ìrókò. It takes a University of Technology to recognize what other conventional universities, and especially humanities Faculties and Institutes of African Studies ought to have realized a long time ago: that this is one institution we cannot afford to not take notice of! We can almost predict, from the hypocritical posthumous treatment of greatness in Nigeria, what will happen when TK passes into the Great Beyond: the state will make great noises; the high and mighty will make a show of visiting his home and family; great honors will flow in his name; and one or two edifices in Ogun state will probably be named in his honor (keyword: probably).  

In the Great Beyond, TK is immune to honor and recognition. What he needs now is the opportunities to impart his boundless cultural and cinematic knowledge. Even if you have not heard him speak about this, it is easy to know what kind of man TK is. He spends all his monies and all of himself in knowledge production. He lives a spartan life as a mean to an end of waking us all to our cultural and national realities. His cinematographic lens are meant for defamiliarizing what we have grown used to. I have met TK, and I have heard him speak. He is emblematic of a volcano that is seeking an outlet to explode. He has a small frame, and hence his passion shakes the frame with barely controllable enthusiasm when he speaks about the cinema and entertainment and his several Yorùbá projects. He barely is able to contain his zeal. Yet Nigeria is a space of denial and of excesses. It is a space that denies genuine creativity and generates obscene excesses. It is a space that pushes creativity into criminality. Yet TK is paying the price for singular creative righteousness. And we are not seeing it. 

He needs more than awards. He needs more than accolades. He needs spaces within which to sow the seeds of creativity that allows the generation of alternatives. TK's being is screaming for opportunities to impact us all. We have all seen TK's films; but there are many more things he is capable of, even at old age. I wonder have many projects have been placed on hold because of institutional incapacities. I wonder what constitutes "regrets" for TK. 

When I last heard him speak, he jokingly alluded to his indebtedness, and how his own fear is not that of Boko Karam or criminals. Rather, he feared that those he owes will not kidnap him soon. We all laughed. But that narrative sums how Nigeria is pushing TK to the grave in order to celebrate him. It tells of how even higher education dynamics have failed TK and his desire to make the culture industry in Nigeria better at not only telling our own stories ourselves, but at portraying, imaging and reimaging our postcolonial predicament.

Maybe the Federal University of Africulture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB) will now force us all to listen, and to act.   


Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone

On Saturday, October 12, 2019, 5:39 PM, OLAYINKA AGBETUYI <yagb...@hotmail.com> wrote:

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Michael Afolayan

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Oct 13, 2019, 3:18:32 PM10/13/19
to dialogue, Yoruba Affairs, Toyin Falola
Ojogbon TF: You put the right peg in the right hole. TK is a proven icon in our public space, an unsung hero with greatness written all over him. Thanks to FUNAAB, and thanks to you for blowing the trumpet of this genius. With his current achievements - left, right, and center, the last word on his soaring career, fame and relevance is yet to be written. Congratulations, TK. Let the music play on!

MOA







On Friday, October 11, 2019, 7:15:24 PM GMT+1, Toyin Falola <toyin...@austin.utexas.edu> wrote:


Tunde Kelani: The Man Exceeds the Frame

Toyin Falola

Professor of History

Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities

University Distinguished Teaching Professor

 

The extraordinary announcement, coming from the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, that ace filmmaker Kelani will now be based there as a Fellow is heartwarming. The news reveals the warmth and uniqueness of the University's boundless imaginations and the humanistic vision of its Vice-Chancellor, Professor Kolawole Salako. This news of a deserving appointment follows on the heels of Kelani receiving the prestigious Léopold Sédar Senghor Prize for African Cultural Creativity and Impact in July, 2019 at the annual TOFAC event at Babcock University. In that same month, he was also inducted into the American Oscars—the Academy of Motion Picture, Arts and Sciences. All of these accolades are well-deserved. Kelani has spent his career putting things—people, ideas, cultures, traditions, and ideologies—inside the cinematographic frame. It is a most exciting thing to see him too bursting out of every frame with all these multiple achievements that celebrate him. Ìrókò!

  • Léopold Sédar Senghor Prize for African Cultural Creativity and Impact, 2019;
  • Member of the Emmy Awards International Jury in 2015;
  • Elected to vote in the Directors Category of the Board of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2019; and
  • Nigeria Merit Award Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014.

These awards and recognitions are particularly due to Kelani’s inimitable craft and contributions to the advancement of the Nigerian filmmaking industry, and cultural values distilled in his works. As part of his intellectual contribution to the industry, he established the Mainframe Film and Media Institute to educate and train artists in professional cinematography, editing, directing, scriptwriting, etc. within the advanced theory and art of filmmaking. This institute has been established to promote cultural values and also improve the socio-economic output of the nation. With the Mainframe Film and Media Institute, TK has further established himself as a visionary leader with the aim to impact the society and the younger generation more. The Institute becomes a symbol to pass on his legacy and brilliancy to as many as possible, an orientation that is most lacking in Nigerian society.

Kelani is arguably one of the greatest pioneers of the filmmaking industry in Nigeria and Africa whose person and works have been the subject of many doctoral theses and books. The 71-year old filmmaker is celebrated nationally and internationally for his grand narratives about African culture and art. The man Kelani and his art will continually spark admiration and intellectual discourses on the political, cultural and philosophical productions of the Nigerian space both in the literary universe and film industry.

The appointment at the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta will provide him a unique opportunity to contribute to the diffusion of creativity, the linkages of sciences, technology and culture, and the training of future leaders in a dynamic world in an age of expanding possibilities. T-K's tentacles will spread beyond his current reach. When it rains, it pours. Ojo Ibukun de! Ire wole!! Ìrókò!!!

Kò séégun tó lára lẹ́ṣẹ̀ bíi Lébe.

Ta ni m'ojú fíìmù bí Túndé Kèlánì,

Gíwá tó jọba wọn?

Ìtákùn tó ṣe é dìmọ́ gòkè.

Ìrókò, ọba igi lóko!

 

Are we surprised of the man TK has been able to make of himself? We will not be surprised when we also think of the noble lineage of the man which shows he is not only greatness born, but also greatness made. TK belongs to the Kúlódò lineage through whom a whole oral poetic form, Esa (the Privileged) became part of the rich Yoruba cultural heritage. It will therefore be befitting to end this piece with the praise of this living legend:

The illustrious Onígbórí scion of Kúlódò

Scion of Kúlódò Awùsí Ẹ̀yọ̀

Scion of the hunchback that praises the king

Scion of the lineage deep in the way of knowledge

 

Babátúndé, you are the scion of Kúlódò Awùbi

The abundant water that splits into creeks -

From Aàsà, to Ẹkọrọ, to Dòbòdè

And Afúnlẹ́lẹ́, the clean brook of queens

 

The dance of yesterday is not enough

The whips of yesterday pain no more

Bring us the dancing and whipping masquerades again

It is our father’s rite we are doing

 

Invoke the spirit of Arúkú,

The cadaver in the cloth called ẹ̀kú

Invoke the spirit of Ológbojò,

Custodian of eight hundred masquerades.

Ìrókò!

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