THE MAN, HIS ART AND MANY FIRSTS
By Bukola Lasisi
Babalari Babatunde Williams ,the theatre titan was a man who experienced extraordinary highs and devastating lows. As a professional method actor, Williams reigned for more than four decades on stage and screen, delivering indelible performances. Whether in Village Headmaster, Ripples or Mirror in The Sun, Williams charmed audiences and viewers with his delightful performances in soaps, sitcoms and on-stage in the 70s and 80s. Over the course of his illustrious life, he was undoubtedly a man of many firsts. He was the forerunner in many things.
Chief Williams was the first actor to perform on top of the 1,200 feet high Zuma Rock in Abuja FCT. Where he performed alone, a poem by soldier-poet, Mamman Jiya Vatsa, The Bird That Sings In The Rain. No Nigerian actor has equaled that feat till date. He also starred in Nigeria’s first homemade video called The Witch Doctor. With his deeply rooted love for native, artistic forms, Lari Williams was the first to have the Egun Lapampa, a dreaded Lagos Island masquerade, in his play, Awero, on stage. He was also the inaugural president of the Actors’ Guild of Nigeria (AGN). In addition to these many firsts, Williams was also the first artiste to be endorsed by two consecutive Nigerian presidents: Member of the Order of the Federal Republic (MFR) from late President Musa Yar Adua in 2008, and a Lifetime Achievement Award, from President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan in 2013.
Born in 1940 to Mr. Tao Williams from Lagos Island Local Council and Mrs. Elizabeth Williams who was from Yala in Cross Rivers State, Lari attended St. Paul Breadfruit school and CMS Grammar School in Lagos. He then proceeded to London School of Journalism where he read journalism. However, it was while in the school of journalism that he developed a deep passion for acting. He went to Morley College, Mountview Theatre School in London and then University of Iowa in the U.S. A and Stratford E15 Acting School, England where he eventually became a professional actor. During his stay in England, the consummate professional created a group named Calabash Artists. The group employed artistes such as Taiwo Ajai Lycet, Olu Jacobs, Taiwo Jegede and Femi Fatoba. They were all based in London. That was when Uncle Lari produced his first full-length play titled Kolanut Junction.
In 1977 when Williams was 37, the government invited him back home to participate in the FESTAC 77 festival held in Lagos that year. FESTAC ’77, also known as the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture (the first was in Dakar, 1966), was a major international festival held in Lagos, Nigeria, from 15 January 1977 to 12 February 1977. The month-long event celebrated African culture and showcased to the world African music, fine art, literature, drama, dance and religion. About 16,000 participants, representing 56 African nations and countries of the African Diaspora, performed at the event. FESTAC ’77 unfolded as a complex, glorious and excessive culmination of a half-century of transatlantic and Pan-Africanist cultural-political gatherings. Lari returned to Nigeria that year, performed at FESTAC as a musical poet and has remained in Nigeria ever since because of his love and hope for the country.
Apart from having a career spanning over five decades in the arts world, Chief Williams also experimented with politics. If Fela Anikulapo Kuti had won the 1983 election as the presidential candidate of Movement of the People (MOP), Lari Williams would have been the vice president because he was interestingly, Fela’s running mate. But of course, for Federal Electoral Commission (FEDECO), MOP was never registered.
Therefore, it suffices to say that Mr. Williams’ career as a politician never really started.
Chief Lari was also a passionate teacher. During his lifetime, Williams also taught Theatre Arts in three Nigerian universities – University of Lagos (UNILAG), Lagos State University (LASU), and University of Calabar (UNICAL). He also taught arts at the National Theatre. He delighted in training and mentoring young and upcoming artistes. He was a rare gift that kept giving.
Despite all of this heights scaled by chief Lari, it is saddening that his latter years, say those who know, was filled with heartache and disappointment. Even though for a while before his death, he was no longer seen on screen, his relevance in the arts world never faded off as younger colleagues often went to him for advice and counsel.
On more than one occasion, he called out the government for neglecting its artistes rather than do otherwise. Again in 2015, his health deteriorated. He was also suffering from cataract. At some point, few years before his death, it was reported that Uncle Lari was homeless and slept in his office for a long time. Of course, his relocation from Lagos to Ikom (his maternal home town) shows how difficult life had become for someone who lived a greater part of his life in the metropolis.
Lari Williams who was a true gem in the Nigerian movie and art industry, founded Lari Williams Playhouse and much later the Academy of Dramatic Art and Music (ADAM). Lari is married with children, he ran a weekly column ‘Stage and Screen’ in the Vanguard Newspaper for close to three decades. He has over the years used the column to campaign a viable and sustainable entertainment industry.
Lari is of the opinion that at both federal and state levels, the Nigerian government should be actively involved in the welfare and affairs of its artiste.
The professional body Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN) which the late actor belonged spoke of his professionalism, calling Williams’s death “a colossal loss to Africa’s creative industry’’
In an interview with News Agency of Nigeria shortly after Chief Lari died, Femi, the first son of Uncle Lari said his father was quite a determined perfectionist who never compromised the profession; he lived and died loving the theatre instead of financial gains.
He was also a published author. Some of his work include Kolanut Junction, Black Current, Heartlines and Storm Baby.
The loss of a Nollywood icon is never easy, however, in certain cases, a star’s passing comes long before it was their time to go. A celebrated stage and screen actor, playwright, poet, an accomplished columnist and a teacher, Babalari Babatunde Williams widely known as Lari Williams gave up the ghost in his home in Ikom, Cross River State, Nigeria on Sunday, February 27, 2022 at age 81.
Picture credit- Internet
