Ebrohimie Road: A Museum of Memory

Ebrohimie Road: A Museum of Memory is a documentary film written, produced, and directed by Kola Tubosun, and shot by Tunde Kelani, about the eponymous location at the University of Ibadan where Nigerian writer/playwright and Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka lived and worked between 1967 and 1972. It was from there that Soyinka was arrested in 1967 after visiting the breakaway Biafra that was engaged in a civil war with Nigeria, and it was there to which he returned in 1969 after his release, before leaving for a voluntary exile a few years later. The film premiered in Nigeria in July 2024 as part of activities to mark Soyinka's 90th birthday, and has continued to screen in venues in the United States, United Kingdom, and elsewhere.

Synopsis
According to the film writer and director, himself an alumnus of the University of Ibadan, the idea for the documentary came from his first contact with the bungalow at the university many years after his time in the institution. Discovering numerous stories connected to the location and their larger significance for the Nigerian literary, academic, political, and social history moved him to seek a chance to tell the story on the big screen. The work was supported by Open Society Foundations and Sterling Bank (Nigeria)

Subjects interviewed in the film include Wole Soyinka himself, colleagues and students like Femi Euba, Niyi Osundare, Femi Osofisan, Dan Izevbaye, Remi Raji; family members like Chief Mrs. Olayide Soyinka (his ex-wife) Omofolabo Ajayi-Soyinka (sister), Olaokun Soyinka (son), Moremi Soyinka-Onijala (daughter), Peyibomi Soyinka-Airewele (daughter), Ilemakin Soyinka (son); other witnesses like Joop Berkhout, Alabi Ogundepo, Kitibi Oyawoye, and others.

The film depended on archival footage, photographs, reminiscences of "central and peripheral characters", and newspaper clippings to recreate the story of the bungalow on Ebrohimie Road and the events that make it an important historical site.

Reception
Mosunmola Adeojo says "this film transcends mere documentation to become a poetic exploration of memory, family, and the enduring marks we leave on the spaces we inhabit..." standing "as a powerful meditation on the intertwining of space, memory, and identity

According to Nigerian critic Dami Ajayi, "Ebrohimie Road attempts to restore the house on the road to Mr Soyinka's home. A portrait of Soyinka's many lives as a man, father, artist, scholar, and activist is slowly recreated. It succeeds in reaffirming the force of Soyinka's conviction, creativity, eloquence, and the fullness of his life."

Gbubemi Atimomo says it highlights "how we celebrate and maintain sites and artefacts related to our accomplished national figures, preserve and document our history for posterity, conserve our environment, fight for one’s rights and the rights of others, the importance of family, and living a life of conviction."

"The film's biggest achievement," according to Toni Kan, "lies in the way it humanises Wole Soyinka by shining a bright light on the Nobel laureate’s private life away from his books. As the film unspools, we meet his very accomplished daughters, sons, sister and ex-wife, who had always taken a back seat to his prodigious literary achievements and larger than life stature."

Festivals
Ebrohimie Road: A Museum of Memory is an official selection at the Documentaries Without Borders International Film Festival 2025