Oseloka Osadebe, Member of Pioneering Nigerian Art Movement ‘Zaria Rebels’ Dies at 89

Yinka Olatunbosun

Professor Oseloka Osadebe, a pioneer member of the famous Zaria Art Society also known as Zaria Rebels, died on Wednesday, December 27, in Jackson Mississippi, United States of America, where he had been based since 1998. 

This sad news was disclosed in a a statement issued on behalf of the Osadebe family by his nephew Nn’emeka Maduegbuna confirming the death. 

Osadebe, who had been a United States resident since 1965, returned  to Nigeria for the first time in 2018 to present a retrospective exhibition of rare works he created from 1960 to 2014. 

The exhibition titled ‘Inner Light’, held at the National Museum, Onikan, Lagos, received rave reviews.

Born in 1934, he was an outstanding artist, playwright, theatre director and teacher. Osadebe grew up in Onitsha, Anambra State, and from an early age, distinguished himself as a brilliant draughtsman, eventually earning acceptance into the prestigious Nigerian College of Arts, Science and Technology, Zaria. 

Buoyed by the intellectual energy at the institution, he joined a group of dynamic students who were seeking to express a fresh perspective on classical art – a perspective which embraced their rich African traditions. Those  forward-thinking art students, of whom only Demas Nwoko, Bruce Onobrakpeya and Okechukwu Odita are still alive, formed the Zaria Arts Society. They  became known by the popular name ‘Zaria Rebels’, and the members would become the fathers of the contemporary art movement in Nigeria.

Osadebe graduated from Zaria in 1962 with painting and sculpture as his specialisation. He proceeded to teach art at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka from 1962 to 1965, during which period he featured prominently in the  Nigerian art scenes of the decade. Thereafter, he left  the country on an Aggrey Fellowship for African Students to pursue graduate studies in the United States.

He graduated with a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Art Institute of Chicago in 1967 and he received a second master’s degree in 1973 from the Goodman School of Drama, Chicago, specialising in scene design, lighting and directing. 

He completed his doctoral work at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois in 1981, specialising in Western and African theatre and drama and spent years teaching theatre and set design at numerous universities, including Spelman College, Jackson State University, Northeastern Illinois University, Tougaloo College, and Central State University.

Osadebe retired in 2007 and spent the last 16 years of his life on his passion for visual art at his studio in Jackson, Mississippi. 

Details of his burial will be released in due time.