Tomi Falade, a Nigerian journalist and writer who serves as the Life Editor at Independent Newspapers Limited has etched her name as a versatile writer covering arts, culture, entertainment, fashion, lifestyle, social media, and women’s issues. Tomi is the author of two books, OLOBUN: Matriarch Of Ondo, Mother Of Legacy and Dates From Hell. Her writing style is known for capturing human experiences and translating them into captivating narratives. With over a thousand stories and articles to her credit, Tomi’s work reflects her commitment to delivering compelling stories. Here is an excerpt from an interview with Tomi Falade from one of our contributors as she speaks on her literary journey to produce Olobun, a true African story.
You’re a seasoned journalist who has also established herself as a writer. How would you describe your work in creative writing?
I like to describe my work as reality literature. People who know my work know that my writing is inspired by real life events. My two books reflect that and my other works in the offing also reflect that. My brand is reality literature. I’m inspired by things that have happened in real life and I find the story in them and tell it. That’s basically the brand.
It was gathered that your writing skills came from your university days. Could you talk more about your background in writing?
Well, it started foundationally as a child. As a child, I always liked stories. In fact, I remember that my birthdays always fell during school holidays and normally as a child, when it’s time for your birthday your parents would probably buy you a cake or pack gifts bags for you to take to school to distribute. But because my birthdays always fell during the holidays, I never had that opportunity. My mother would come to me and ask what I wanted for my birthday, just to make it special.
I would always ask for a storybook. That was always my answer. Every year, year in, year out.
And she would buy all kinds of storybooks for me, as young as I was. From the Enid Blyton books of those days to later on, Mills and Boons, Harlequin novels; Pacesetter series, and African Literature. I was just always interested in stories. There was barely any relevant Nigerian literature at the time that I didn’t get to read. I might not have internalised all of them, but I did read a lot of them. That was my introduction to literature and storytelling. Of course, in my mother’s room too, there were lots of books. She had a whole double door wardrobe filled with books. Growing up, I wanted to do theatre arts because I loved the art of storytelling and you know the art of presenting it on stage. Instead, I gained admission to study English at the Olabisi Onabanjo University, and even though it was not exactly what I was looking for, it led me to where I am today. I studied English and majored in literature. Of course, while I was a student at the University, my love for theatre became more obvious and I fell in with the stage craft all over again. I started writing even though I wasn’t taking it seriously, I was just writing. I knew what I was writing for was the stage which was what birthed the story of Olobun.
It looks like the first draft of Olobun came about while you were in school. Are there other drafts on the shelf?
Olobun was one of my major projects from school and yes, I have a number of stories like it that I never finished. For example, I have a lot of short plays that I wrote that I never got around to finishing but Olobun was the one that was just really striking to me. From the moment I heard about the story, I fell in love. I used to hear my father talk of Ile Oluji whenever he was talking about Ondo or while he was talking to his friends or whenever he was speaking our language at the time. My paternal grandmother is from Ondo State so whenever he was talking with her, they always made reference to Ile Oluji and I used to be a bit curious about the story about this Ile Oluji. When I came across the story of Ondo, how it was created and how Ile Oluji was the place where an Alaafin’s wife died and that was why it was called Ile Oluji (Ile ti Olu sun si ti ko ji mo), I became a bit more fascinated and that was how I started discovering the story. In fact, I was so fascinated by the story that I did my final project on a dance in Ondo State.
Olobun was written 15 years ago. Yeah, there are more but none of them is as impactful as Olobun.
For this year’s BON Awards Book Reading event, Olobun was selected as the theme book for this year’s reading, which took place at Ikeja Senior High School. What does this mean to you as the Author of the selected book?
Well, first, I’m so excited that this year’s BON Awards is happening in Lagos to start with. There’s no state like Lagos, if we are being honest. The normal tradition for the Best of Nollywood Awards every year is that besides all the nominees unveiling, there’s always a book reading where they bring actors and a few government officials, top people in government of the host state of that year’s award. Last year, they read to students from different primary schools across Kwara states.
But this year, for Lagos, it just had to be special. Instead of bringing students and pupils together, we took it to a school.
It was so beautiful to see. The kids we read to at Ikeja High School love the book so much. It shows that reading is still a big deal in Nigerian schools contrary to what anybody thinks. Yes, it’s a beautiful thing that Best of Nollywood is coming to recognise stories that matter and bring it to the face of the young people that are going to be the leaders of tomorrow.
When I first wrote Olobun, I didn’t know it would come this far. I wrote as someone who was trying my hands at something that I thought I could do. But when I saw the Wife of the Deputy Governor, Mrs. Oluremi Hamzat read my book along with actors like Keppy Ekpeyong and Omowunmi Dada, people that I have watched on the screen for a long time, I was so proud of myself. I was proud that I created something worthy of their voice. The truth is you would feel the pulse of the play from their voices and ad-libs, they brought so much life to the characters. At some point, it was no longer like we were reading it. It felt like we were acting in a script. It felt so beautiful to see Keppy Ekpeyong, Omowunmi Dada and more importantly, the wife of the Deputy Governor reading the book and enjoying it. For any creator, that’s one of the most important things that can happen with your creative work. That people truly experience it and enjoy it.
What’s your take on the reading culture in Nigeria and also, how do you describe the culture of stage play in Nigeria?
The reading culture is, yes, dwindling. I agree. Absolutely. But that’s not because people are not looking for information. That’s because there’s a lot of things now vying for people’s attention. Back in the day, we didn’t have Netflix or drama or Nollywood, as it were, or even so many stage plays. Back in the day, books were the only way to entertain yourself or lose yourself in a world that is beyond your reality. That’s the truth. Now, there’s so much content out there that is vying for attention. The fact that people are still reading and still enjoying books shows that, yes, the reading culture is not dwindling in the way we think it is. It just means that there’s a lot more information out there. For example, I like books. In fact, I love books so much, but the generation that has come behind us lives on their phones and they have ebooks. A lot of people have asked me that they want Olobun as an ebook so that they can enjoy it on their phones, tablets, and their laptops. It doesn’t necessarily mean that the reading culture is dying. Yes, it’s dwindling because of the number of things I have mentioned. There are movies on Youtube that you can entertain yourself easily. When we read Olobun at the Ikeja State High School, you could see the excitement and enthusiasm from the students. The students genuinely enjoyed the book, the actors genuinely enjoyed the book and read it, and the wife of Lagos State Deputy Governor enjoyed it. That means that the reading culture is not dying as we think it is. I don’t agree that it is dying. People are experiencing entertainment in different ways. I put it to you that 50 years ago if we had this much film content, or Netflix, or Youtube content, they wouldn’t have read as much as they did.
I think we are losing the culture of theatre for a number of reasons. The reasons are quite understandable anyway. Theatre is not easy to put up. You have special effects, CGI, and so many things to make your work as a filmmaker easy but it’s not that easy with stage play. Also, it is capital-intensive and a bit more difficult. If you’re going to put up a good stage work, you need money. That’s why I think it’s suffering or lagging but there are people that are still doing quality theatre, making some profit and keeping the culture alive. I wrote Olobun for the stage, and I hope that it eventually comes to the stage. But I also have to be realistic in knowing that for it to come to the stage, there has to be a lot of capital involved.
When should we expect a stage adaptation of Olobun?
Hopefully next year, depending on if we get investors or sponsors for the production, we’re in talks with a few directors to see if it’s something that can be done. Even if it’s on the smallest scale. We can start with a university, a theatre department of a university. Those are the avenues we’re exploring and we’re hoping that soon we’ll get to see it.
The book holds historical value for African storytelling as a whole. How important do you think this book is for the people of Ondo?
Author, Tomi Falade.
One, it is the preservation of our stories. the preservation of our history and culture. There were a lot of things that I needed to do deep research about Olobun. I had to go online, visit Ondo State Cultural Center itself, and a lot more to get my facts straight. Of course, I took a bit of creative liberties with the story but the core of the story is the reality of what happened as passed on from generation to generation.
Secondly, it is to ensure that our stories are correct. There is one thing that I used to say, “if we don’t start telling our own stories, other people will come and tell our stories to us in the way they think it should be.” They will tell these stories without an understanding that we are not the same kind of people. For example, you can’t expect a man or woman from another culture, faraway from a people, to come into your culture and tell a story right. It’ll be difficult for such a person to understand the relevance of some issues. They will tell the story from their cultural perspective and not a reality of actual possibilities that could have happened. But we who are currently living in the culture might have more information as to what the possibilities can be. This is the importance of us telling our own stories so we can retain the originality. For example, when you go online and search who abolished the killing of twins in Nigeria, all you would find is Mary Slessor, but the killings of twins had stopped in some parts of the country long before Mary Slessor came to Nigeria but no one talks about it because we are not telling our stories.
It would be a shame to us because we are not telling our stories. As generations pass on, this history will die quietly and unfortunately. This is the reason why a story like Olobun is very relevant. It’s a preservation of our stories and our history and our culture and our people. It’s also a way to tell the correct version of our story, and learn from our history. It is a very important one for the culture at the end of the day.
Are you looking at a book tour of local communities in Ondo?
I thought about that, but we don’t have plans in that direction yet. Of course, it is a good one but truthfully, we haven’t planned in that direction yet. We’ll definitely consider it, of course, because the story comes from that community and we have to take it back to the community to present to them that, yes, this is what we have done. It would be good; it’s a very good idea to do it, but we’re not planning anything in that direction yet. But of course, we’ll look into it.
After giving us Dates from Hell, Olobun, should we expect more books from you in future?
Yes, you should expect a lot more. I finished a play earlier in the year, for an anthology. I can’t say much about it yet. The play is done and hopefully we get to see it in 2026. I wrote it in 2024, and I am truly hopeful that it comes to publication next year. It’s a drama too and it has a bit of reference to Olobun. It is like a continuation of the story in a way. But it is also a stand alone story. But beyond that there is a lot more coming. I love writing and I don’t intend to stop writing. As much as my work as a journalist allows me, I will keep writing and keep putting out more content. That’s my goal and that’s my vision.
