ALL ABOUT CREATIVE MAJESTY

Creative Majesty is principally a drama group. We are focused on all aspects of the Performing Arts.
Creative Majesty is dedicated to dramatic production on stage and on the screen. The group is not an association but it is the unity of artists for the advancement of the creative arts.

We are determined to take the Nigerian performing arts to the stage and the screen so that it can be seen in any part of the world. We are also interested in Arts Festival in any part of the world. call us at anytime: 08033766549

PICTURES FROM THE SET OF STOLEN TREASURE

ON THE SET OF STOLEN TREASURE BY FEMI LASODE

AJAGUNLA: AN EPIC PLAY

It has been 40 years since the Nigerian theatre colossus Chief Duro Ladipo died in his prime. But his wife and children, financed by the Lagos State Government marked the anniversary with a command performance of Ajagun Nla (the Great Warrior) at the National Theatre in Lagos, Nigeria.

Ajagun Nla is one of the unpublished and unproduced (perhaps too, unfinished) plays written by late Duro Ladipo. It was acted by a cast of 87 including some of Duro Ladipo’s children.

Ajagun Nla was directed by Nigeria’s first professor of dance – Prof. Bakare Ojo Rasaki who camped for rehearsals with his cast of 87 in Osogbo, late Ladipo’s home town, ahead of the command performances which began in Lagos, moved to Ibadan, Oyo State, and rounded off in Osogbo, Osun State.

Ajagun Nla ran through a simple plot laced with grand betrayal meshed in a web of lies and distrust. It told a story of how battles are won or lost on the bed of naivete and the walkway of deceitSet in the historic old Oyo empire, Ajagun Nla opened on stage with Fulani herdsmen invading Oyo and killing indigenes – an allusion to current agitation in Nigeria.

The Alaafin of Oyo then summoned the empire’s strongest warrior, Ajagun Nla and commanded him to rout the Fulani herdsmen.

To carry out the king’s order, Ajagun Nla summoned his warlords; Olugbon, Aresa and Onikoyi. With these four herding their soldiers against the invaders, the Fulani herdsmen knew they were doomed.

Rather than scamper or surrender, they bribed a Yoruba man handsomely to betray his fatherland by sowing discord among the warlords. The mole did just that.

Ajagun Nla lost his warlords to betrayal and death. He was alone; his ranks broken, his arsenal emptied and his will to fight heavily dissipated. The performance lasted two hours. It was captivating till the end.

At the end, the message was: No house or people divided can stand, let alone win a war (against poverty, injustice, inequality, neocolonialism, insurgency, terrorism and corruption as in Nigeria’s present dilemma).

The cast and crew camped at the Centre for Black Culture and International Understanding, Osogbo.

Ajagun Nla … Reflecting On History For Better Society

 

Ajagunla is play written by the General Coordinator of Creative Majesty, Ladepo Duro Ladipo and staged at the National Arts Theatre.

IT was Williams Wordsworth, the late English poet who said, ‘life is divided into three terms — that which was, which is, and which will be. Let us learn from the past to profit by the present, and from the present, to live better in the future”. Ladepo Duro-Ladipo might be acting on this truism, when he revisits one of his father’s works, Ajagun Nla, and putting itup for theatrical performance. It is also for people of other climes to know about the struggles of the Yoruba.

It captures some of the events that happened in the 16th and 17th centuries, and tells how the Ibariba terrorized and humiliated the Yoruba in its territorial expansion and possibly to impose its government on them. When they realise what they would face if they lose their independence, Yoruba warriors, under the generalissimo of Ajagun Nla, fight them back, and defeat them and take back what belongs to them.

With this victory, the people had peace and good governance. But while the peace lasts, the Ibariba re-strategise and attack the Yoruba again; this time they use internal forces to upset a well-fortified army.

The play shows that till date the Yoruba have not been able to recover from that assault, but that instead the defeat created rancour and discord that has continued to tear the Yoruba nation apart.

At the epicentre of the whole crisis is Ajagun Nla, who despite the traumatizing challenges he faces at home, manages to stabilise the polity and assigns different responsibilities to his lieutenants. Ajagun Nla’s dynamic leadership calls for emulation, not only among the Yoruba people, but also any group that wants lasting good success.

The 98-page play published last year by Back-To-Mbari publishers depicts Ajagun Nla as an epitome of a good leader, whose qualities such as selfless service to his nation, team spirit and gallantry helped his subordinates to fight and conquer their archenemy, the Ibariba.

Apart from the war, the play highlights some of the forgotten Yoruba culture like matchmaking (alarina), belief in the oracle (Ifa), moral chastity, discipline, rewarding good deeds among others.

However, the old culture of using women as gift item to reward good deeds is condemnable. The play projects this, when Onikoyi gives her daughter, Omolola, already betrothed to Kode, to Ajagun-Nla for his gallantry in the war. Though an aspect of the then Yoruba history, the playwright should have given this aspect another dimension – show the anger of the deprived.

Why Duro-Ladipo intends not to raise emotions with Ibariba’s assault, he hopes to use the play to call on Yoruba leaders to reflect on the common history of the people with the aim of drawing from the various happenings, antics and the unity that existed to unite the people and chart a way forward. Although he adds some fictional elements to fill what was missing in the earlier story by his late father in terms of form, content and dramaturgy, the play serves as a thermostat to regulate the actions and inaction of the Yoruba people with the aim of creating a better society.

Portraying other themes apart from leadership and governance, the play dives into culture and belief. It brings out that Esu, (Yoruba god of mischief), tagged as the Devil/Lucifer by Christians and the early Europeans, is really not so. Rather, he is a benevolent god, a messenger of Olorun (the Almighty). Here, the play projects him as a god who takes offence whenever his words are not obeyed. Esu shows this when he cleverly uses an enemy to thwart the orderliness and good governance of the nation. Esu is instrumental to the warriors coming together to fight and defeat the Ibariba and Esu gets annoyed when his advice through Ifa oracle (divination) is ignored and the Ifa priest openly slighted.

While the book makes a good read for those interested in Yoruba politics, Duro-Ladipo would be advised, perhaps in consequent edition, to correct the syntax, sentence construction and punctuations. For instance he says ‘to fight a course,’ whereas it should be ‘to fight a cause.’ Also, the cognomen of the gods should be properly looked into with the aim of using the right word to represent the personality of the gods. Referring to Irumole as a god is not proper; these creatures are fairies.

Misgivings like this need to be put in order because, as a play, any group, irrespective of tribe, could perform it, and in so doing would assimilate everything in the book to be the truth.

With Ajagun Nla, Duro Ladipo returns to stage

Lagosians savour an engaging play as the Lagos State Government hosts the performance of Duro Ladipo’s Ajagun Nla at the National Theatre, AKEEM LASISI writes

Culled from Punch Newspapers

The old glory of the theatre was enacted on Friday when Ajagun Nla (Great warrior), a play written by the late Duro Ladipo, was staged in Lagos. The large crowd that saw the play, the inspiring delivery of it and the excitement the audience exuded showed that the place of the Thespian art is still secure in the country’s entertainment arena.

Interestingly, the personalities and institutions involved in the staging of the socio-political play are also symbolic. It was organised by the family of the legendary dramatist, Duro Ladipo, famed for his Sango recreation exploits, to mark the 40 thanniversary of his (Ladipo’s) death. Although, like versatile comedian, Gbenga Adeboye, he died at the age of 45, the story of the development of the theatre in Nigeria cannot be complete without allocating an ample portion to him in itWhile the play featured some members of the Duro Ladipo family, alongside other good talents such as Segun Adefila, it was directed by Rasak Ojo-Bakare, dramatist, dancer and a former Director-General of the Abuja Carnival, who earned accolades for the effort. But the collaboration was cemented by the Lagos State Government that sponsored the performance, with Duro Ladipo’s own Oya (widow, Abiodun Duro-Ladipo), commending the Ambode administration for the intervention. Now, with the venue being the same constant though somehow embattled (infrastructure-wise) National Theatre, Lagos, the success of Ajagun Nla seems to indicate that a dependable way to bring theatre back to the centre of recreation is through quality collaborations.

But the making of the play should not rob it of its independent artistic entity.  It is the story of the invasion of Yoruba town by Fulani herdsmen. The people have to swiftly prepare for a war to stop them. Unfortunately, neither the Ifa oracle (Adefila) consulted, nor the advice of other elders, could stop the in-fighting among the natives. This is depite the fact that they invited a great warrior – Ajagun Nla – from Ila Orangun (played by Wole Duro-Ladipo) to help them. Some of the elders who fuelled the crisis are Olugbon, Onikoyi and Aresa, respectively played by Muyideen Laala, Kenny Ayeni and Yomi Duro-Ladipo, who ignored the message of Ifa. Unfortunately, there was the notorious Esu (Ayo Ogunsina) in town, who never failed to generate more confusion.

As the war unfolded, the kingdom paid dearly for the disunity and backbiting, which is one of the lessons the audience took away – the need to eliminate suspicion and rancour among families and communities. Of course, the director also tactically emphasised the fact that the herdsmen’s threats have always been there. In other words, Ajagun Nla not only echoes the debacles that certain Fulani herdsmen are causing in  Nigeria currently, it also brings to memory Yoruba’s historical sour encounter with the Fulani in Ilorin, during the Afonja’s rebellion that eventually gave the town to the Fulani.

True to his passion and profession, Ojo-Bakare deploys compelling choreography and beautiful costumes to the performance held at the Cinema Hall Two of the National Theatre.

One of the deceased’s children, Ladepo Duro-Ladipo, who promoted the play, had earlier told The Punch that it was important in the sense that it dramatises a story and history that are very relevant to happenings in the country.  According to him, it is also a great service to his father’s memory.

He said, “The motive is, first, to add to the collection of my father’s works in the archives as a research material in the genre of Traditional African Drama. When I was in the theatre school, precisely in the University of Ilorin Performing Arts Department, there were just two published works of Duro Ladipo : Oba Koso and Eda. Meanwhile, he has over 20 plays, most of which are not scripted. I believe it is important to re-visit some of these plays to provide the  fill up the gaps in terms of content, form and dramaturgy.”

Earlier in a statement, the Lagos State Commissioner of Tourism Arts and Culture, Mr. Steve Ayorinde, said the support being given to the Duro Ladipo family is in fulfilment of the government’s commitment to the promotion of arts and culture as veritable vehicle of tourism promotion.

 Similarly, the state government is also committed to celebrating the World Theatre Day on Tuesday, March 27 with stage plays being produced in collaboration with the National Association of Nigerian Theatre Arts Practitioners  and collective artistes from the traditional Yoruba Theatre groupsAccording to the commissioner, while NANTAP is collaborating with the National Theatre of Ghana in staging the popular “Marriage of Anansewa” across three venues including, Freedom Park, University of Lagos and MUSON Centre, with the support of Lagos State, the collective artistes featuring Adebayo salami, Jide Kosoko and Yinka Quadri, among other popular names, will stage Erinlakatabu the Indisputable, a tragi-comedy dance drama at the Terra Kulture Arena in Victoria Island, Lagos.

AJAGUNLA STORMS THE NATIONAL ARTS THEATRE

Late legendary playwright, Duro Ladipo, will have his play on leadership, Ajagun-Nla, performed at a date yet-to-be named. Ajagun-Nla is a historical stage play that dramatises the life of a legendary African war general, Orangun Fagbamila Ajagun-Nla, who fought gallantly to protect the Yoruba people and defend their territorial integrity between the 12th and 14th centuries.

The play sends powerful messages that are still relevant to society today, especially as it relates to the issue of floundering leadership in the country and the quest to find the Ajagun-Nlas of our time to fix things. Embodied in the play are messages of selflessness, patriotism, and sacrifice.

While speaking at a press briefing at the National Theatre, Lagos, last week, Duro Ladipo’s son and General Coordinator of Creative Majesty Ladepo said: “There is no way you can be a patriotic leader without sacrificing; this is what the story is trying to portray. The play was originally written as a script by my father, Duro Ladipo, but it was compiled in book form in 2014, and is now being used as study texts in universities that run theatre programmes here in Nigeria“It is pertinent to note that this play had been performed by Duro Ladipo during his lifetime.” Ladepo Duro-Ladipo also stated that the play serves a variety of purposes, some of which include the recognition of the fundamental key roles of arts and theatre in the society, where freedom of expression and democracy are paramount and where no one holds a monopoly of truth.

He added, “We are using this play as a reflection of what is happening in our society today. To remember and celebrate the heroes past in Nigeria, who have displayed the character traits of the hero of the play, Ajagun- Nla, and to showcase the beauty and aesthetics of not only Yoruba cultural heritage, but the black man all over the world.”

Although preparation for the play has begun in earnest and it promises to be an outstanding one, no date has been fixed for its performance. Ladepo said rehearsals kicked off immediately and the performance will take place during the Easter festivity period. The play has a large cast and will feature Bukky Wright, Yemi Solade, Kola Oyewo, Peter Fatomilola, Joke Muyiwa, Ayo Owebiye, and many others.

Ladepo added that beyond performing the play in Nigeria, “this time around, we want to first of all have it in command performance for some eminent personalities. I also want to use this medium to tell you that we will be preparing the play for the U.K. tour.”