Prologue
The very first time I set my eyes on Ben Tọmọloju, I was convinced I had run into a Bohemian soul mate. The look on his face, the pencil in his hair and the improvised “belt” that held up his trousers told me this may just be one of those that are in my league of models. If in looks he was very unconventional, his ideas were original and fresh. He wrote from the very temple of creative convictions. His use of English compelled a quick visit to the English dictionary. His critique of Mirror in the Sun directed by Lola Fani-Kayode still rings fresh in my mind. I suspected a Marxist reading of a highly bourgeoisie production that held the nation in the jugular. Years after, I soon came to a tentative conclusion that Ben Tomoloju’s sensibility lies elsewhere. His support for the oppressed stems from his pedigree.
Now fast forward to this year of lockdown, Papi Ben, as his numerous admirers call him, is releasing ideas previously locked up and songs, stories and conversations are coming out of his creative storehouse. Below is an excerpt of an ongoing interview
The interview
Let me introduce you to Benson Ọmọwafọla Tomoloju. That last name in a literary translation would mean “it is the child’s that predominate in all matters.” With a name like that, you are sure that intergenerational matters will be a concern of his.
Our conversation started about two months ago and it is still ongoing. The target is to ask 100 questions.
You appear very deep in a form of spirituality but you are not known to throw this in people’s faces. How do you balance the spiritual with the secular? What spiritual influences have conditioned your art sir?
BenT: What you have said is that I ‘appear very deep in a form of spirituality.’ Indeed, the statement is apt. I am not deep in any form of spirituality. I only ‘appear’. But the appearance is not anything like window dressing. It breathes life. There are some aspects of it that I would not like to touch here because it comes straight from my childhood. Nevertheless, I can readily say that the foundation of my spiritual growth is the Zionic Church of the Ilaje territory in Ondo State. I think I was about three years old when my paternal grandmother took me to join her for a worship at the Orere-ara Branch. I simply fancied the young Kerubus (Cherubims), their prim- and-proper white, quasi-military uniform and stylised marching. It was a rather brief experience, after which at age nine, I carved and danced in town with my own masquerade. After these, I had a long Protestant orientation, baptism and confirmation from the primary right through to the secondary school days. That was a whole span of about fourteen years, I mean right up to the age of eighteen, considering that I started my primary school education at age six. Somewhere along the line, however, I began to get liberal about Christianity and progressively more adventurous in autochthonous spiritual motivation. Perhaps due to my burgeoning artistic talent, I felt the need very often to meditate. I sometimes experienced flights (this was part of what I said I didn’t want to disclose.) even in the classroom during the lessons. I tended to live in two worlds even during the lessons; the world under the tutor and the world of my imagination. I don’t know how it happened, but I was taking notes, responding to questions without disconnecting with the world of the imagination. Let me just digress a bit. There were only two teachers who married these two worlds for me during their classes. They were my literature tutors. One of them was Ebenezer Babatope Ojo – now a lawyer – and the other was the globally renowned poet laureate and scholar-critic, now Distinguished Professor Niyi Osundare. They were both Masters in charge of the Drama Society at Christ’s School, Ado-Ekiti. They brought the two forces – spiritual and intellectual – together, with the latter dominated by an instinctually rebellious creative energy that only the former could tame. I mean that I needed spiritual equilibrium to control potentially intractable bohemianism that was taking over my teenage life. And this was to the extent that my Christian life almost became perfunctory, something you did to please a system rather than out of real faith. Rather, I went on personal quests, trying for instance to consciously enter into what I referred to as the moment of sinlessness. I resisted persuasions from peer groups and declared, ‘I am a natural high’, if you know what that means. I settled for the lesser evil. At school, I was a boy of switching moods – sociable bass guitarist of the School Band, introvert now, extrovert another time, hardly aggressive, but dangerous to aggressors, a protector to juniors and suspect to disciplinarians. A mixed bag of inscrutable popular schoolboy. It was all an adventure. Later on, after my high school days, I took a bit of an interest in metaphysics – the Lobsang Rampa stuff, later a bit of experiments. God Almighty, no one told me when I beat a retreat. I was the one who was later counselling people around me, ‘Don’t go into any mystical rubbish.’ I returned to meditation, where I started, bold reflections and dreams in my creative process. I love quietude when writing, creating drama or composing songs; not just quietude, but solitude. They allow me to connect easily with and tap from the cosmic Will. I believe so much that there is a will that drives creativity, because sometimes when I go back to read any of my old works, I ask myself, ‘Did I write this?’ from a point of a marvel. Aristotle calls that Will the Supreme Entelechy. I later admitted unequivocally that He is God. I think, all this while, I was in search of that Source, through the rough ride of life, through the life of junkies, campus ideologues and militants and youthful escapades until I resolved in full maturation that this Source is ‘the heart of purity’ as the line goes in one of my plays, THIS PROVERB. When you read these plays, the spiritual cognitions manifest in skimpy phrases here and there without sermonising. Yes, I am a creative individual with a secular orientation. But if one of the spiritual hallmarks of my creativity had been matters like ‘moments of sinlessness’ ( which doesn’t mean I am a saint), meditations and connection with the Supreme Creative Will. It would be most unforgivable not to publicly acknowledge Him and serve in His Court to prove genuine one’s divine connection with Him, in spite of one’s mortal frailties. Thus, in a decisive moment, I asked myself, ‘WHAT HAS JESUS DONE WRONG. MENTION ONE.’ I searched the Bible. I found none. I returned to the Church of my kindergarten days, not Zion this time, but Celestial – and it could have been any other – shuttling between two worlds……. I love my God
Let us leave the spiritual a while and focus on the secular. You all are aware that papi Ben has no problem getting involved with some apparatus of State especially in the area of culture abi?
BenT: This is a mega question, but I will be as brief as possible. I am very cautious about the phrase ‘apparatus of state’ because of its ambiguity. Let’s just say the MDAs and even the FG at certain points. As far back as September 1985, I was a member of the Special Panel on the National Theatre. That was four months after I crossed over from being the Reviews Editor of the Democrat Weekly to assume duty as the pioneer Arts Editor of The Guardian. Ben Murray-Bruce and I were the youngest members of the Panel. We deliberated on the recommendations of the Bayo Oduneye Panel on Film and Theatre. This set the basis for the enhancement of the corporate profile of the Nigerian Film Corporation, which was subsequently headquartered in Jos, the refurbishment of the National Theatre and projections for the establishment of the National Troupe of Nigeria. Please note that at no point did I place my involvement in MDA activities as priority over my career as a journalist. I think some of the reasons I was being invited to serve on the various panels, committees and other bodies were the opinions and strategic propositions articulated in my writings, which, with every sense of modesty, I believe the authorities considered to be well-informed. That way, I started getting invited to make inputs to policy matters. They also knew that I was a dye-in-the-wool artiste – actor, singer, playwright and theatre director. They see me in Kakaaki shows on NTA stations, LTV 8, NTA Abeokuta and OGTV. Talk about a passionate stakeholder and culture activist. I don’t think they could ignore that kind of individual whether it was myself or any other person.. You know, at certain levels, my advice was sought or inputs solicited informally.
Next, the plan to establish the National Troupe began with the Ososa experiment in 1986. This is one of such instances when I was unapologetically committed (not partisan) because the establishment of the National Troupe would upgrade the public profile and (possibly) the fortune of my profession and fellow artistes. Mind you, I did not allow and could not have allowed my commitment to obliterate the ethics of my profession as a journalist, which was why I was requested to establish NANTAP and I did, even as I knew that it could end up as a pressure group. I also brought my very able junior colleagues in arts journalism together and established the Arts Writers Organisation of Nigeria (AWON). That’s the activism side which I think was related to without hostility because the Federal Sole Administrator for Culture – the only one to have been so appointed, Col. Tunde Akogun was an urbane and sagacious personality. He personally invited me to join the Federal Government Delegation to Morocco with the Ogunde led Nucleus of the National Troupe. The advantage for me as a journalist and member of the delegation was that I was able to monitor the development of the project, the history and with a bank of information at a very close range.
The following year, Professor Wole Soyinka nominated Kakaaki to present JERO’S METAMORPHOSIS and JANKARIWO in Italy for the celebration of his Nobel and Agip Prizes. 1988, I was a member of the Committee to prepare the Implementation Plan for the Cultural Policy for Nigeria. That was what any activist or journalist definitely loved to be involved in because it provided lots of insider information and enhanced authoritativeness. Same year, I was again on another Federal Government Delegation to the USA, Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago. The delegation was led by General Yakubu Gowon. I was invited as representative of the print-media while the late Chief Jimmy Atte represented the electronic. Personally, I think our selection must have been due to cognate experience in coverage of the culture sector and, to some extent, seniority. In 1989, I helped to establish NANTAP, AWON and also heeded the call of my highly respected younger colleagues like Jahman Anikulapo, Toyin Akinoso. Sola Osofisan, Kole Ade-Odutola, etc. to establish the Coalition of Nigerian Artists (CONA), which we implemented to a certain point. At about the same time, I pitched my tent with the Onyekas, Charly Boys Okorojis of PMAN, with my able deputy, Jahman Anikulapo and reporter, Lanre Adebayo to push for a new and favourable copyright regime. So, my journalism derived it’s spirit from my activism which for whatever reason will not subvert the will of the people, the populist front. That is also how it is with my politics. In 1990, I was selected by the then USIS to represent Nigeria in the Young African Leaders Program in the USA. Thereafter, I returned to Nigeria, staged MUJUMUJE with an expanded Kakaaki, before I was appointed by the Military President Babangida as a Member of the Governing Board of the National Commission for Museums and Monuments. That was where I persuaded the Board that a retrenchment exercise being planned by management be halted, and it was so halted. Thereafter, I was invited by an influential PS on the possibility of my becoming the Chief Press Secretary to an Interim Contraption. I declined.
THE LESSON I LEARNT IS, IT DOESN’T HELP YOUR INTEGRITY TO BE A SUCKER. THAT’S WHY I REMAIN STEADFAST TO THE DICTATES OF WHAT I BELIEVE IS GOOD CONSCIENCE. After my resignation from the regular practice in 1993, another phase of my interaction with the MDAs began, as consultant and resource person.
Epilogue
This is an ongoing interview. I cannot promise how long it will take to get to the core of issues that make Ben T who he is and who he is becoming. What I know is that December 6 2020 is the date set aside for the public presentation of one of his old plays This Proverb.
In this play written long before the ọpa aṣẹ of the Oba of Lagos was stolen from the palace and a London-based Lagosian, plotting to relieve him of the throne carries the mirror of life imitating art even though imperfectly. In it too the words used by George Floyd “I can’t breathe” shows up as one of the lines in the play.