AYINLA OMOWURA

 

AYINLA OMOWURA:  Life and times of an Apala Legend

By Festus Adedayo

This type of work is gratifying - very gratifying; the kind of work that reinforces Nigeria as an exceedingly literate country replete with diverse intelligentsia, including adroit wordsmiths and chroniclers.

Ayinla Omowura was a hero and icon to millions especially in south-western Nigeria, despite his patent shortcomings comprehensively documented in this ground -breaking work. The fact is that we need superb biographies like this, and not only for record and scholarly purposes.

If I may digress a bit, a while back a colleague of mine patently lamented "the lack of books focusing on Nigerian icons and heroes.... I particularly hate the fact that many years after his death there is no book coming out on Sam Akpabot, flamboyant world-class musician and sports enthusiast ". I had the pleasure of pointing out to this gentleman that world-class works have been published on Akpabot, including the book written by Godwin Sadoh. The gentleman was shocked to learn this, and lamented that "more had to be done to publicise such works and make them available to mainstream readers"

He has a point. It is not enough just for some newspapers to touch on, review such books. A distinct effort must be made by the powers that be to ensure that such pertinent books are purchased by virtually all libraries across the land, and in as many schools and colleges and universities as possible...

A recent case in point (2020) is the excellent book on the late Abba Kyari put together by Magnus Onyibe. A repository of record purposes, without a doubt. But I squirm when so many educated people (who love to read) say they have never read, or even seen the book. So much more has to be done to make such "deliciously Nigerian" books available to much more people.

Also, by the way, this particular book on Ayinla is quite hefty, over 500 pages. Not many people on our shores will find it easy to go through the tome; but this is not necessarily negative. It just means that we should also focus on abbreviated versions of important books. From abroad we might mention 2 or 3 icons here: Charles Dickens, Winston Churchill, or even David Beckham. Scores of books have been published on these individuals, and though many of them are hefty, there are many other abbreviated or shorter versions published too. We can do that here in Africa too. Certainly most readers would appreciate a much shorter version of a book on Ayinla Omowura, the protagonist here.

But all the same, this book is superb in its own right. No doubt it is a labour of love on the part of the writer... they say every journalist should have at least one good book in him, and Festus Adedayo exceeds all expectations here, with elan and expertise. This is simply one of the greatest books ever put together on an African musician (it might even be the greatest). But that is the province and conjecture of pundits, not your simple reviewer here....hmmm.

- 'Eric'