Background
Nwazuluwa Onuekwuke Sofola was born on June 22, 1935, in Issele-Uku, Nigeria, to Nwaugbade Okwumabua and Chief Ogana Okwumabua who were Igbo from Issele-Uku, Anochia North Local Government Area, in Delta State.
1500 N Lombardy St, Richmond, VA 23220, USA
Virginia Union University
620 Michigan Ave NE, Washington, DC 20064, USA
Catholic University of America
Oduduwa Road, Ibadan, Nigeria
University of Ibadan
1500 N Lombardy St, Richmond, VA 23220, USA
Virginia Union University
620 Michigan Ave NE, Washington, DC 20064, USA
Catholic University of America
Oduduwa Road, Ibadan, Nigeria
University of Ibadan
Ilorin, Nigeria
University of Ilorin
dramatist educator playwright author
Nwazuluwa Onuekwuke Sofola was born on June 22, 1935, in Issele-Uku, Nigeria, to Nwaugbade Okwumabua and Chief Ogana Okwumabua who were Igbo from Issele-Uku, Anochia North Local Government Area, in Delta State.
Sofola attended Federal Government Primary School in Asaba and the Baptist Girls High School in Agbor all in Delta State. She then received her bachelor's degree from Virginia Union University in 1960 and a master's degree from the Catholic University of America, specializing in drama in 1965.
Sofola obtained her doctorate in tragic theory at the University of Ibadan in 1977.
Sofola returned to Nigeria in 1966 and became a lecturer in the Department of Theatre Arts at the University of Ibadan, Oyo State. She then taught Drama at the University of Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria, where she was appointed Head of Department for the Performing Arts. At the same time, she worked as a playwright and dramatist. Sofola's most frequently performed plays are Wedlock of the Gods (1972) and The Sweet Trap (1977). She died in 1995 at the age of 60.
During her long career, Sofola was also a singer and a dancer.
Sofola was best known as the first published female Nigerian playwright, dramatist and musician. She produced both stage and television plays. She published fifteen plays, including The Deer and The Hunters Pearl (1969), Eclipso and the Fantasia (1990), King Emene (1974), Memories In the Moonlight (1986), Old Wines Are Tasty (1973), The Operators (1973), The Showers (1991) and The Wizard of the Law (1975).
Sofola was the first woman to hold the Chair and Headship of a theatre department as the Head of the Department of the Performing Arts of the University of lIorin. She was a recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship, through which she studied at the State University of New York in Buffalo, New York in 1988. In that same year, she represented Nigeria at the first International Women Playwrights Conference.
In 2002, the National Prize for Creative Writing was named after her. Sofola’s plays are read and performed across Europe, North and South America, and Africa. Her message of fair treatment to all human beings helped shape the work of human rights advocates in Nigeria. She left an indelible mark on contemporary playwrights and the field of social justice.
Sofola married Adeyemi J. Sofola in 1960. The couple had four sons and one daughter.
