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English As She Spoke (NEW!)


Coming Soon

"The quintessence of the performing artist, Segun Sofowote has been privileged to ventilate his extensive skills in Radio, Television, Stage, Film and in Publications."
-- The MUSON Festival 1998 Brochure. 

Segun Sofowote, seasoned ace broadcaster, dramatist, writer, musician, elocutionist and art critic, was born in September 1939 into the household of Mr. G. O. Sofowote, a distinguished teacher of teachers from Irolu-Remo, in Ogun State, Nigeria. His writing career began in his school magazine of which as editor he was to become the first student ever to pen the editorial in the then eighty-year history of Methodist Boys’ High School, Lagos where his essay-writing brought him into wider prominence in a national competition.
Long tagged the Sammy Davis Jr of our climes by a national daily in recognition of the range of his versatility in the theatre, television, radio, literary expression and live entertainment, this intractably mobile soul has for long been leaving a trail of excellence along his many paths and become an enduring entity in various departments of creative activity and the life and soul of an unending string of adroitly accomplished acts and productions. | Read More



And now Segun Sofowote turns to language. Spoken language. His new book, rather sarcastically title ENGLISH AS SHE SPOKE, has the sub-title: A Non-native Speaker’s Speech Companion.
Coming after his last book of folktales redesigned in cast and scenarios together with details of continuity which only an accomplished dramatist can contrive, ENGLISH AS SHE SPOKE (EASIS by its acronym) is sure to raise a query as to what compatibility there is between the two genres of literature, a question that is accentuated by the obvious proud Africanism of the earlier work and the apparent assimilative orientation of ENGLISH AS SHE SPOKE. | Read more...

"Retold Retouched, Three Tales of the Tortoise" is the first collection in a series of folk stories. The earliest in the series, incidentally included in the present collection, was written in the early eighties. In a public speech on African literature a few years later, the author in part made a reference to the tortoise as an icon which the African should not have to disown in his imagery and his adoption of the English language:
"A children's quiz program on television which I chanced on at the beginning of this week drove the point home. ‘Complete this expression,’ the quiz master, a lady, called out to one of the two little girls in the contest: ‘As cunning as –?’ Contrary to my doubts, the child sorted out the meaning of the word 'cunning' within the ten seconds she had to answer the question and as if to convince me personally that she understood the word, supplied what I thought was a resoundingly apt simile. ‘As cunning as a tortoise,’ she answered just before her time was up. ‘As a tortoise?’ rejoined the quiz master, a dilemma registering on her sympathetic face... | Read More