LAGOS—Frontline novelist, playwright and filmmaker, Biyi Bandele, is dead. He died last Sunday, at the age of 54.
Bandele’s daughter, Temi, announced this sad news on her Facebook page yesterday. She wrote: “I am heartbroken to share the sudden and unexpected death on Sunday, August 7, in Lagos of my father, Biyi Bandele. Biyi was a prodigiously talented writer and film-maker as well as a loyal friend and beloved father.
“I lost a father and a friend. He was a dedicated artist with strong passion for life and a string of successes in his writing and filmmaking career.”
Temi, however, described her late father as “a storyteller to his bones, with an unblinking perspective, singular voice and wisdom, which spoke boldly through all of his art, in poetry, novels, plays and on screen.
“His legacy will live on through his work. He was taken from us much too soon. We ask everyone to please respect the privacy of his family and friends as we grieve his loss,” she added.
Bandele’s yet to be released work, “Elesin Oba, the King’s Horseman (2022), an adaptation of Professor Wole Soyinka’s classic drama, “Death and The King’s Horseman,” which he was directing for EbonyLifeFilms before his demise is slated to be screened at the Toronto International Film Festival, TIFF, in September, this year.
