Ebrohimie Road
A Museum of Memory

A small campus bungalow in the University of Ìbàdàn has played an outsized role in the life of one man, one family, one university, and the nation.

It was in this house on Ebrohimie Road where, sometime in 1967, writer Wọlé Ṣóyínká was arrested after having returned home from a visit to Biafra for a personal intervention in the Nigerian Civil War that was just breaking out. — events already recounted in The Man Died (1971), You Must Set Forth at Dawn (2006), and other works. It was there, too, that he returned to from jail when he was released 29 months later, after which he went into exile in 1971. He never returned to Ìbàdàn, choosing to take up a role at the University of Ifẹ̀ in 1976, where he retired in 1985, a year before winning the Nobel Prize in Literature.

This house played host to many friends, family, and associates over the years while he was in solitary confinement, and features in his years of employment with the Ibadan University. And it was in that house where, in October 1969, after his release, he granted a famous interview to a Ṣọlá Ọdúnfá, a journalist from Daily Times to express himself about the war and the events that got him locked up. Parts of the interview are also on YouTube. The portrait from that encounter made it to the cover of Ìbàdàn: The Penkelemes Years (1994).

In Ebrohimie Road: A Museum of Memory, we examine how the personal became the national, through the recollection of central and peripheral characters; how a small campus residence became witness to some of the most significant issues in Nigerian social, political, and literary history, many of which remain unresolved. And how ecological changes contribute to the erosion of history and a sense of place. Through stories, visuals, and historical records, we unearth what makes Ebrohimie Road more than just a campus street or physical location, but a place of history and a museum of memory.

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EBROHIMIE ROAD is in the southeast area of the University of Ibadan. It branches east from Lander Road and runs parallel with Oduduwa Road. Ebrohimie was the town founded in the latter half of the nineteenth century by Olomu (c. 1810-1883), a great trader on the Benin River. It was made famous by Olomu’s son, Chief Nana (1852-1916) who was appointed governor of Benin River (1884-1891) by the British Administration. The strategic location of the town at the mouth of the Benin River leading into Urhobo country and the hinterland of Ethiope and Jameson rivers gave Nana a virtual monopoly of the trade of the area. He later quarrelled with the British and his town was captured on September 25, 1894 - after two previous abortive attempts. Nana was prominent among Nigerian leaders who began by seeking to trade with the British and ended up resisting their political ambitious. (Source: UI Road Network).

Written and Produced by Kọ́lá Túbọ̀sún
Cinematography by Tunde Kelani
Supported with a generous grant by Open Society Foundation, and Sterling Bank Nigeria.
All enquiries to publisher@olongoafrica.com.