Renegade Theatre

Met this hunter and his dogs on a lonely Ikenne road. When I asked him what he hunted, he said 'from rabbits upwards'. Thursday Nov 16 2006

Starting today and until the 22nd, Black Lives, Black Words, presents the world premiere of the stage play, "The Emancipation of Yankee Oluwale", based on the true story of David Oluwale who stowed away on a ship heading to the UK from Nigeria in 1949. It started well but soon he began to face persecution from the Police in the city of Leeds and a system designed to fail people who looked and moved like him. Written by Wole Oguntokun and directed by Harry Waters Jr. Tickets available on www.blacklivesblackwords.org

My friend, Wálé, and other stories... 11 years ago, I wanted to renew my Visa to the U.K. and didn’t have enough in my bank account. The British are peculiar in one thing - show them you have enough funds going and coming into your account and they’ll let you visit...maybe. It matters little if it’s yours or borrowed. If others trust you enough to leave money in your hands, that’s something. So I called Walexy - Wale, I need a Million Naira (about 7,000 then) for about... a week to show the British High Commission. I’ll leave my car as collateral. I’d just bought this SUV, an X-Terra, my pride. Wálé said okay without a fuss and that he’d wire the money. My heart leapt. I then asked, What about the collateral? Where do I drop the car? He answered, Forget that. Our friendship is the collateral. I see meaningless relationships everywhere now, fickle friendships that change camps at the drop of a pen or in line with what Twitter and Facebook command. So-and-so was dragged, we hear base minds cackle. Shifting sands. God grant us the kind of friends that will say Let our friendship be the collateral.

WS received the Europe Theatre Special Prize in Rome (Dec 2017) @laspapi moderated the conversation with the Professor at the reception the next day in the same building Benito Mussolini gave his famous speeches.