Yemi Ajibade (28 July 1929Africa Who's Who, London: Africa Journal Ltd, for Africa Books, 1981, p. 82.Later sources give his birth year as 1933. – 24 January 2013Yemi Ajibade at Aveleyman.), usually credited as Yemi Goodman Ajibade or Ade-Yemi Ajibade, was a Nigerian playwright, actor and director who, after settling in England in the 1950s, made significant contributions to the British theatre and the canon of Black drama. As an actor he is well-known for Dirty Pretty Things (2002), The Exorcist: The Beginning (2004) and Danger Man (1964). In a career that spanned half a century, he directed and wrote several successful plays, as well as acting in a wide range of drama for television, stage, radio and film.
Biography and education Adeyemi Olanrewaju Goodman Ajibade was born into the royal house of Ọ̀ràngún from Ìlá Òràngún, Osun State, in the south-west of Nigeria. He attended Abeokuta Grammar School – where he developed an interest in theatre – and later pursued studies in London, at Kennington College of Law and Commerce (1955), at The Actors' Workshop (1960), and from 1966 to 1968 at the London School of Film Technique (now the London Film School), where he was a contemporary of filmmaker Horace Ové (who has recalled that they were the only two black students in the school at the time).Josanne Leonard, interview with Horace Ové, 5 October 2007, Caribbean 360.
Career and works From early in his stay in the UK, Ajibade acted in radio drama for the BBC African Service. As producer Fiona Ledger recalled in 2007: "It was back in 1960 that the late BBC producer John Stockbridge was asked by the Head of the African Service to devise some kind of drama for African listeners. He came up with a series, a soap opera set in London. No copy survives, but Yemi Ajibade took the role of a social worker, moving around England and settling quarrels."Fiona Ledger, "History of African Performance", BBC World Service, African Performance 2007.
As his acting career developed, he was hailed in 1963 as "one of the most promising actors from West Africa". Alongside performers who included Yulisa Amadu Maddy, Leslie Palmer, Eddie Tagoe, Karene Wallace, Basil Wanzira, and Elvania Zirimu, among others, Ajibade featured in a production of Lindsay Barrett's Blackblast! filmed in 1973 for a special edition of the BBC Two arts and entertainment programme Full House devoted to the work of West Indian writers, artists, musicians and film-makers.Cast and credits, Full House (03/02/73), BFI.Full House 03/02/73, BFI."Full House" , Radio Times, Issue 2569, 1 February 1973, p. 15.
Ajibade's acting portfolio would eventually encompass roles in television series such as Armchair Theatre (starring in 1963 in The Chocolate Tree by Andrew Sinclair, together with Earl Cameron and Peter McEnery),Leonard White, Armchair Theatre: The Lost Years, Kelly Publications, 2003, p. 103. Danger Man (1965), Dixon of Dock Green (1968), Douglas Botting's The Black Safari (1972), The Fosters (1976), Prisoners of Conscience (1981), and Silent Witness (1996), and work on the stage – for instance, in "Plays Umbrella", a season of five specially commissioned new plays, at Riverside Studios (in association with Drum Arts Centre, London) in August 1980,"Plays Umbrella", Riverside Studios, August 1980. Peter Gill, "Scrape Off the Black", 15 March 2012. and Nicholas Wright's plays One Fine DayCast list in Nicholas Wright, Five Plays, Nick Hern Books, 2000, p. 81. (1980 at Riverside Studios) and The Custom of the Country (1983 at The Pit, Barbican Centre),Cast list in Nicholas Wright, The Custom of the Country, RSC Playtexts, London: Methuen, 1983, p. 26.Cast list in Nicholas Wright, Five Plays, London: Nick Hern Books, 2000, p. 149. and in Lorraine Hansberry's Les Blancs (Royal Exchange Theatre, 2001)Les Blancs, UK Theatre Web. – as well as film appearances including in Terence Fisher's The Devil Rides Out (1968), Monte Hellman's Shatter (1974),Brad Stevens, Monte Hellman: His Life and Films, Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2003, p. 96. Hanif Kureshi's London Kills Me (1991),Credits – London Kills Me", in Kenneth C. Kaleta, Hanif Kureishi: Postcolonial Storyteller, University of Texas Press, 1998, p. 275. Skin (1995, written by Sarah Kane),"Skin (1995)", IMDb. Dirty Pretty Things (2002), Exorcist: The Beginning (2004) and Flawless with Demi Moore and Michael Caine (2007).Yemi Ajibade page at IMDb.
In 1966 Ajibade led a delegation of British, West Indian and African members to the World Festival of Black Arts in Dakar, Senegal, directing a production of Obi Egbuna's play Wind Versus Polygamy; at the 2nd World Black Arts Festival in Lagos in 1977 Ajibade was supervisor of Drama Events. In 1975 he was appointed as a tutor by the Inner London Education Authority, and he also became artistic director of the Keskidee Centre in north London, where he directed a production of Wole Soyinka's The Swamp Dwellers (13–23 March 1975)."Swamp Dweller's, The - By Wole Soyinka", National Theatre, Black Plays Archive.
Among Ajibade's best known works as a playwright is Parcel Post, which had 29 performances by the English Stage Company at the Royal Court Theatre in 1976–77, directed by Donald Howarth, with a cast including Rudolph Walker, Christopher Asante,"Parcel Post by Yemi Ajibade", Black Plays Archive, National Theatre. and Taiwo Ajai (who has said that her own acting career started by chance "when she stumbled across Yemi Ajibade on a production")."Nigeria: CORA Celebrates Taiwo Ajayi-Lycett @ 70", BHR, 2012. Ajibade's subsequent plays included Fingers Only (originally entitled Lagos, Yes Lagos when it was broadcast by the BBC in 1971 and published in Nine African Plays for Radio in 1973), which in its 1982 production for the Black Theatre Co-operative (now NitroBeat) was directed by Mustapha Matura at The Factory Theatre, Battersea Arts Centre,"Fingers Only", Black Plays Archive, National Theatre."Records relating to 'Fingers Only'" held at Future Histories – Black Performance and Carnival Archive, The National Archives. and Albany Empire. Waiting for Hannibal opened in June 1986 at the Drill Hall, followed by a national tour,"Waiting For Hannibal, 1986, By Yemi Ajibade. National Tour." Nitro Archive, 14 October 1986. with Burt Caesar and Ajibade directing a cast that included Judith Jacobs, Wilbert Johnson and others;"Waiting For Hannibal", Black Plays Archive, National Theatre. and A Long Way From Home was produced by Nicolas Kent at the Tricycle Theatre in 1991, with Ajibade himself heading the cast."Tricycle Theatre (1991), A Long Way From Home" , Theatre – TRPW.org."A Long Way From Home", Black Plays Archive, National Theatre.
Ajibade also worked in Ibadan during the late 1970s,"My Happiest Moment In Acting" – interview with Olu Jacobs, Naijarules.com, 13 December 2006. as a writer and director (1976–79) with the Unibadan Masques, the University of Ibadan's School of Drama acting company.Review of Ade-Yemi Ajibade, Fingers Only and A Man Names Mokai and Parcel Post and Behind the Mountain (Ibadan: Y-Book Drama series, 2001), in Ernest Nneji Emenyonu (ed.), New Directions in African Literature: A Review, 25; p. 161."Post Dra 310", Dra 310.
In February 2008, at an All-Star Gala held at Theatre Royal Stratford East on the 10th anniversary of Tiata Fahodzi, Ajibade was honoured as a leader of British-African theatre, alongside Taiwo Ajai-Lycett, Dotun Adebayo, Dona Croll, Femi Oguns, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Hugh Quarshie and others."All African Stars Gala", 2008 , Tiata Fahodzi."Tiata Fahodzi", Naija Konnections, Volume 5, Issue 1, February 2008.
Personal life Ajibade was married to actor and poet Ebony White. They had two daughters, Adenrele and Mimi. From a previous relationship, he had another daughter, Marigold. He had several siblings, including sisters Arinade Victoria, Layo, Janet, Bolanle and Fadeke, and a brother, Sunday. He died in the UK on 13 January 2013 at the age of 83.
Plays
Award (unproduced) Behind the Mountain – first produced: Unibadan Masques, 1977 Fingers Only – first produced: The Factory, Battersea Arts Centre, London (Black Theatre Co-operative, directed by Mustapha Matura), 1982. As Lagos, Yes Lagos, BBC Radio, 1971. A Long Way from Home – first produced: Tricycle Theatre, London (directed by Nicolas Kent), 1991 Mokai – first produced: Unibadan Masques, 1979 Parcel Post – first produced: Royal Court Theatre, London, 16 March 1976 Waiting for Hannibal – first produced: Drill Hall, London (Black Theatre Co-operative, directed by Ajibade with Burt Caesar), 1986 Para Ginto (black version of Peer Gynt) – Tricycle Theatre, 1995
Bibliography Fingers Only and A Man Names Mokai. Ibadan: Y-Book Drama series, 2001, 142 pp. Parcel Post and Behind the Mountain. Ibadan: Y-Book Drama series, 2001, 147 pp. Gwyneth Henderson and Cosmo Pieterse (eds), Nine African Plays for Radio (includes "Lagos, Yes Lagos" by Yemi Ajibade), Heinemann Educational Books, AWS, 127, 1973.
Partial filmography
1962: The Sword in the Web (TV Series) - Jean 1963: Suspense (TV Series) - Joshua 1963: Armchair Theatre (TV Series) - Jacob Jones 1964: Festival (TV Series) - Aide to Lichee 1964: Espionage (TV Series) - Sergeant 1965: The Wednesday Play (TV Series) - Rebel soldier / Man in pub 1965: Danger Man (TV Series) - Barman 1966: The Witches - Mark (uncredited) 1967: Theatre 625 (TV Series) - Tsilla Mamadou 1967: Thirty-Minute Theatre (TV Series) - Observer 1968: 30 Is a Dangerous Age, Cynthia - New Lodger (uncredited) 1968: The Devil Rides Out - African (uncredited) 1968: Dixon of Dock Green (TV Series) - Roger Bunda 1969: The Power Game (TV Series) - Premier of Malta 1970: Carry On Up the Jungle 1972: The Black Safari (TV Movie) 1973: Full House (TV Series) - Black Blast! cast member 1974: Shatter - Ansabi M'Goya / Dabula M'Goya 1976: Shades of Greene (TV Series) - 1st Head boy 1976: The Fosters (TV Series) - Mr. Fuller 1981: Prisoners of Conscience (TV Series) - Walter Sisulu 1987: Truckers (TV Series) - Watchman 1989: Behaving Badly (TV Mini-Series) - Church Elder 1991: Smack and Thistle (TV Movie) - Pedro 1991: London Kills Me - Tramp 1993: Rwendo (Short) 1995: Skin (Short) - Neville 2002: Dirty Pretty Things - Mini Cab Driver (as Ade-Yemi Ajibade) 2004: Exorcist: The Beginning - Turkana Shaman 2007: Silent Witness (TV Series) - Samson Moyo 2007: Flawless - Guinean Negotiatior (final film role)
References
External links
Yemi Ajibade at Dollee.com WorldCat. Records of the Black Theatre Co-operative – Nitro Theatre Company, The National Archives. "Yemi Ajibade", Black Plays Archive, National Theatre. Yemi Ajibade actor credits, Filmography at Cineplex.