EFS Professor Onookome Okome has received another international award, again in recognition of his ground-breaking scholarship on West African popular culture. The Society of Nigeria Theatre Artists (SONTA) has just nominated Professor Okome for one of its highest awards, the Life Membership Award. Later this month Professor Okome will travel to the Society's annual conference, this year at Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, Northern Nigeria, to receive the Award. Professor Jonathan Haynes, of Long Island University, notes: "Onookome Okome … made the move to the study of the videos early and decisively, becoming the most ubiquitous academic interpreter of the Nigerian video phenomenon."
Just back from sabbatical, spent in Germany and Nigerial and funded through an Alexander von Humboldt Research Award, Ono has just submitted one book on Nollywood cinema to the publishers, and is now writing a second one. "This recognition means a lot to me," he says, "and I plan to honor it. For the time in my career as a University teacher, I am going to be honored by my peers and in Nigeria. It is rare to achieve this in Nigeria. Very rare. What more can I ask for?"
While at the SONTA conference to receive his award, Ono will also present the keynote address entitled "Why Teach Nollywood?". It's a paper that he hopes will jump-start further debate about the phenomenon he believes to be -- and everyday, others are coming to agree with him -- the world's most vibrant, and most genuinely popular, film industry.