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Emmanuel Olakunle Filani (born 8 September 1957) is a Nigerian educator and artist. His works are closely identified with the school of thought named Onaism, an art movement that is based on the fusion of the designs, ornamentation and motifs found in traditional Yoruba carvings and textiles with modern art pieces such as drawings and paintings. [1] Filani is also a lecturer and an administrator – he was a provost of the Federal College of Education, Osiele, Abeokuta.
Filani was born 8 September 1957 to a polygamous family, [2] his father Jacob Ogunmoroti Filani was a native of Ikole-Ekiti in Ekiti State, he was a civil servant who worked in the municipal government council while his mother was a teacher. [3] His father died in 1975 when Filani was 17 years old. Due to his father's job, the family lived in various towns when he was a young child. He completed his primary education at Bishop Akinyele Primary School, Ibadan (1967-1969) and St Peter's Primary School, Ikole (1969). He attended Doherty Memorial Grammar School in Ijero Ekiti with his brother, fellow artist Tolu Filani. While in Form 2, the school provided a classroom for students inclined towards artistic activities and subsequently hired an arts teacher to manage the class. [2] He finished secondary education in 1974 and briefly worked for two years as a clerk at the Lafarge Cement plant in Ewekoro. From 1976-1980, he studied at Obafemi Awolowo University where he earned a degree in Fine Arts. At Ife, he was taught by some faculty staff that included Babatunde Lawal, Munio Makuchi, Agbo Folarin and Rowland Abiodun. It was at the university he met some of his fellow artists such as Moyo Okediji and Moyo Ogundipe; together they later went on to form the Ona art movement in the late 1980s. He also developed an interest in petro-polystyrene experimentation at Ife. He obtained a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Benin, as part of his fulfilment for the completion of the degree, he staged an academic exhibition entitled 'A Trip to Wonderland'. He also developed skills in contrast composition and printmaking. Filani later earned a doctoral degree in Visual Arts from University of Ibadan in 2002.
Filani was a corps member at Kano Teacher's College between 1980 and 1981. He started his career as an art teacher in St Louis School, Owo in 1981. On completion of his M.F.A. studies, he joined the arts faculty of Adeyemi College of Education, Ondo, in 1985. He rose through the ranks to become head of department before leaving the college in 1992 to establish the new arts department in the Federal College of Education, Akoka, Lagos. At Adeyemi College, Filani was involved with the formation of Ona Group. Ona is an artistic concept is focused on re-adaptation and re-interpretation of traditional materials and methods that will culminate in the aesthetic high point of contemporary Yoruba art and design. [2] He had two solo exhibitions during this period – "Coming on Strong", an exhibition of prints, paintings and drawings in August 1989 and "Salute to Patience" in 1991. Between 1992 and 1997, some of his works were shown in group exhibitions in Lagos, including "Best of Ife" in 1993, "On and On" in 1993, "Harvest of Sensation" in 1991 and "Legacy", an exhibition in honor of Irein Wangboje, in 1996. He had a solo exhibition in 1997 named "Patterns of Ona".
He was at a time the dean of the School of Technical Education and Provost, Federal College of Education, Osiele-Abeokuta.
Filani's paintings fall under four categories: figurative expression, landscapes, partially dissected works and completely dissected compositions. [4] A common feature of some of his paintings is the use of decorative linear drawings and patterns.
Filani married Celestina Omigie in 1988. They attend the Mountain of Fire and Miracles church. [2]
Ibadan is the capital and most populous city of Oyo State, in Nigeria. It is the third-largest city by population in Nigeria after Lagos and Kano, with a total population of 3,649,000 as of 2021, and over 6 million people within its metropolitan area. It is the country's largest city by geographical area. At the time of Nigeria's independence in 1960, Ibadan was the largest and most populous city in the country, and the second most populous in Africa behind Cairo. Ibadan is ranked the second fastest growing city on the African continent according to the UN Human settlements research program (2022), It is also ranked third in West Africa in the tech startups index. Ibadan joined the UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities in 2016.
Yorubaland is the homeland and cultural region of the Yoruba people in West Africa. It spans the modern-day countries of Nigeria, Togo and Benin, and covers a total land area of 142,114 km2 or about 60% of the land area of Ghana. Of this land area, 106,016 km2 (74.6%) lies within Nigeria, 18.9% in Benin, and the remaining 6.5% is in Togo. Prior to European colonization, a portion of this area was known as Yoruba country. The geo-cultural space contains an estimated 55 million people, the majority of this population being ethnic Yorubas.
Ekiti State is a state in southwestern Nigeria, bordered to the north by Kwara State, to the northeast by Kogi State, to the south and southeast by Ondo State, and to the west by Osun State. Named for the Ekiti people—the Yoruba subgroup that make up the majority of the state's population—Ekiti State was formed from a part of Ondo State in 1996 and has its capital as the city of Ado-Ekiti.
Chief Daniel Olorunfẹmi Fágúnwà MBE, popularly known as D. O. Fágúnwà, was a Nigerian author of Yorùbá heritage who pioneered the Yorùbá language novel.
Nigeria has 774 local government areas (LGAs), each administered by a local government council consisting of a chairman, who is the chief executive, and other elected members, who are referred to as councillors. Each LGA is further subdivided into a minimum of ten and a maximum of twenty wards. A ward is administered to by a councillor, who reports directly to the LGA chairman. The councillors fall under the legislative arm of the local government, the third tier of government in Nigeria, below the state governments and the federal government.
Odinigwe Benedict Chukwukadibia Enwonwu MBE, better known as Ben Enwonwu, was a Nigerian painter and sculptor. Arguably the most influential African artist of the 20th century, his pioneering career opened the way for the postcolonial proliferation and increased visibility of modern African art. He was one of the first African artists to win critical acclaim, having exhibited in august exhibition spaces in Europe and the United States and listed in international directories of contemporary art. Since 1950, Enwonwu was celebrated as "Africa's Greatest Artist" by the international media and his fame was used to enlist support for Black Nationalists movement all over the world. The Enwonwu crater on the planet Mercury is named in his honour.
Christopher Uchefuna Okeke, also known as Uche Okeke, was an illustrator, painter, sculptor, and teacher. He was an art and aesthetic theorist, seminal to Nigerian modernism.
Jacob Festus Adeniyi Ajayi, commonly known as J. F. Ade Ajayi, was a Nigerian historian and a member of the Ibadan school, a group of scholars interested in introducing African perspectives to African history and focusing on the internal historical forces that shaped African lives. Ade Ajayi favours the use of historical continuity more often than focusing on events only as powerful agents of change that can move the basic foundations of cultures and mould them into new ones. Instead, he sees many critical events in African life, sometimes as weathering episodes which still leave some parts of the core of Africans intact. He also employs a less passionate style in his works, especially in his early writings, using subtle criticism of controversial issues of the times.
Abeokuta is the capital city of Ogun State in southwest Nigeria. It is situated on the east bank of the Ogun River, near a group of rocky outcrops in a wooded savanna; 77 kilometres (48 mi) north of Lagos by railway, or 130 kilometres (81 mi) by water. As of 2006, Abeokuta and the surrounding area had a population of 449,088.
The Yoruba people are a West African ethnic group who mainly inhabit parts of Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. The areas of these countries primarily inhabited by the Yoruba are often collectively referred to as Yorubaland. The Yoruba constitute more than 52 million people in Africa, are over a million outside the continent, and bear further representation among members of the African diaspora. The vast majority of the Yoruba population is today within the country of Nigeria, where they make up 21% of the country's population according to CIA estimations, making them one of the largest ethnic groups in Africa. Most Yoruba people speak the Yoruba language, which is the Niger-Congo language with the largest number of native or L1 speakers.
Elijah Kolawole Ogunmola was a Nigerian dramatist, actor, mime, director, and playwright. Ogunmola is also regarded as one of the most brilliant actors in Africa in the 1950s and ’60s.
Moyo Okediji is an art historian, painter and artist whose works contains a number of icons and signifiers of the deep aspects of Yoruba culture. He was part of Ona, an art movement at Obafemi Awolowo University.
Abayomi Adebayo Barber was a Nigerian contemporary artist who was the mentor of the Abayomi Barber Art School in Lagos, Nigeria. He is an important modern art figure in Nigeria but less well known in the Western World. He is best known for the application of naturalism and surrealism methods in his art works. Some of his signature works include life sized busts of former Nigerian president, Murtala Mohammed and the former Oba of Ile-Ife, Adesoji Aderemi, another famous work is an oil painting of Shehu Shagari.
Mosunmola FilaniListen is a Nigerian film and voice actress.
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The Ekiti people are one of the largest historical subgroups of the larger Yoruba people of West Africa, located in Nigeria. They are classified as a Central Yoruba group, alongside the Ijesha, Igbomina, Yagba and Ifes. Ekiti State is populated exclusively by Ekiti people; however, it is but a segment of the historic territorial domain of Ekiti-speaking groups, which historically included towns in Ondo State such as Akure, Ilara-Mokin, Ijare, and Igbara-oke. Ogbagi, Irun, Ese, Oyin, Igasi, Afin and Eriti in the Akoko region, as well as some towns in Kwara State, are also culturally Ekiti, although belong in other states today.
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Chief Muraina Oyelami is a Nigerian painter and drummer of Yoruba descent. He was among the first generation of artists to come out of the Osogbo School of Art in the 1960s. He was a drummer and actor with the theatre company of Duro Ladipo. He taught traditional music and dance at Obafemi Awolowo University from 1976 to 1987. As a musician, he trained in the dùndún and the Batá drum. He was the chief of his hometown Iragbiji.
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