Veteran Ambassador Olusegun Olusola Dies At 77
Friday, June 22, 2012Omoba
Segun
Olusola, one of Nigeria’s best known culture aficionados, broadcasters, patron
of the arts and diplomats, has died. Mr. Olusola died earlier, Thursday June
21, 2012. A versatile and pioneering figure in Nigeria’s theatre, he was also
an extraordinary broadcaster, gallery owner, and an engaged culture activist. A
family friend told SaharaReporters that Mr. Olusola had passed on after “a
brief illness.”
Born March 18, 1935, Mr. Olusola’s influence was
felt in various sectors of Nigerian and African cultural practices. Most
Nigerians know him as the brain behind one of the most enduring television
drama programs in Nigerian history. However, his influence and role touched
many other areas of the arts and culture industry.
Mr. Olusola, who earned several chieftaincy titles,
worked as an actor, playwright, and was a founding member of “Players of the
Dawn,” an amateur outfit that dominated the theater scene until the end of the
1950’s decade. The influence and dominance of “Players of the Dawn” was only
eclipsed with the establishment in 1960 of “Masks,” a more professional theatre
troupe founded by future Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka.
Mr. Olusola had a reputation as one of Africa’s
leading art connoisseurs. Thanks to his cultural enterprise, his family
gallery, Ajibulu-Moniya Gallery, was transformed into one of Nigeria’s
magnificent commercial galleries, which is open to the public.
Mr. Olusola’s resume as a brilliant broadcaster
began in 1959 when he became one of Africa’s pioneering television broadcasters
with the debut of television transmission in Nigeria at the WNTV, Ibadan.
Venturing into diplomacy, Mr. Olusola became
Nigeria’s longest-serving ambassador to Ethiopia, representing his country in
Addis Ababa from 1987 to 1993. Given his background in the arts, it was no
surprise that his diplomatic career was marked by the deployment of the tools
of arts and culture to pursue the goals of deepening relations between Nigeria
and Ethiopia.
Mr. Olusola was also a well known philanthropist
and humanitarian. Using his intimate knowledge of refugee issues in Africa, he
established the African Refugees Foundation in 1993, shortly after the end of
his diplomatic service, to help ameliorate the condition of refugees in various
African nations.
Mr. Olusola is survived by his wife, Beatrice
Fehintola Olusola, his children – Ms. Aderonke Ajibulu-Moniya, Mr. Jimi Olusola
III, Ms. Toyin Laditi, Mr. Sabitu Olusola, Ms. Toyin Adejumo, Mr. Samuel
Olusola – and his immediate younger sister, Mrs. Biodun Kehinde.
A family source stated that burial arrangement will
soon be announced by the family.
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