Many South Africans can picture the friendly face of the old man behind the affectionate “Yebo gogo” catchphrase.
That explains why many were rocked by the sad news of the passing of Nigerian professor Bankole ‘Kole’ Omotoso, who had become the popular face behind many of Vodacom’s adverts in the early 2000s.
He became one of the most recognisable faces with his smile seen on billboards and television.
The family shared a statement confirming his death.
We are mourning the loss of our father, husband and grandfather Prof. Bankole “Kole” Omotoso, who passed away after a long period of illness in Johannesburg on July 19th 2023.
Born in Akure, Nigeria in 1943, he pursued his secondary education at King’s College in Lagos. He subsequently graduated from the University of Ibadan in 1969 and was awarded a PhD in Arabic Literature from the University of Edinburgh and the American University in Cairo in 1972.
He returned to Nigeria together with his wife and our late mother, Marguerita Rice, where he was a lecturer at the University Of Ibadan’s Department for Arabic and Islamic Studies before taking up a teaching position at the University of Ife’s Drama Department.
During this time three children were born – Akin and Pelayo in Ibadan and Ife and Yewande in Bridgetown, Barbados, Marguerita’s home country, where the family spent a year.
Omotoso’s extensive work, in particular the 1988 publication of ‘Just Before Dawn’, often put him in conflict with belligerent powers. From 1989 he was forced to work mostly outside of Nigeria and, in the interest of reuniting the family, in 1992 the Omotoso’s relocated to Cape Town where Kole Omotoso held professor positions at the English Department of the University of the Western Cape and the Drama Department of the University of Stellenbosch.
Though he left Akure at an early age, his Yoruba heritage greatly influenced his view on the world and his work. A couple of years before his passing, he realised his dream of building a homestead there, designed by Yewande. Here he was able to live and work with his wife Bukky and her children, Taiwo and Olamiposi, from 2016 until his return to South Africa in 2019 for medical treatment. He kept up a weekly column in the Sunday Guardian and worked with the Elizade University.
Author, Playwright, Teacher, Critic, Actor, Colleague, Mentor, Friend, Prof Kole Omotoso lived a rich life with meaning and purpose. A born scholar, he never missed an opportunity to engage in new topics. An astute socio-political critic, his criticality never got in the way of his belief in humanity.