Jahman Anikulapo – Cultural Bridge Builder Honoured as NAL Honourary Fellow
Jerry Adesewo
The spotlight at the 27th Convocation and Awards Ceremony of the Nigerian Academy of Letters (NAL), held on August 14, 2025, at the University of Lagos, fell on one of Nigeria’s most enduring cultural voices — Jahman Oladejo Anikulapo — as he was conferred the title of Honourary Fellow of the Academy.
For many in Nigeria’s literary, theatrical, and cultural space, this honour was not a surprise. Anikulapo’s decades-long career as a journalist, festival curator, arts advocate, and multimedia documentarist has consistently shaped the country’s creative discourse. From his editorial days at The Guardian on Saturday to his central role in the Committee for Relevant Art (CORA), the Lagos Book and Art Festival (LABAF), and Arterial Network Nigeria, he has built cultural bridges between academia and grassroots art communities — the proverbial “town and gown.”
The National Association of Nigerian Theatre Arts Practitioners (NANTAP) was quick to laud Anikulapo’s recognition. Its President, Makinde Adeniran, described the honour as “a symbolic testament to the immense contributions of theatre to scholarship and social development.”
“Jahman is not only a Fellow of Theatre Arts and UNESCO Defender of Cultural Rights,” Adeniran said, “he is a living archive of Nigeria’s post-1990s cultural history. His work has helped sustain functional creative alliances in diverse contexts within and outside Nigeria.”
Anikulapo was honoured alongside other distinguished figures in the arts, including Professor Gbemisola Adeoti (Fellow), Alhaji Wasee Kareem (Award of Excellence in Humanistic Practice), Professor Ameh Dennis Akoh (Regular Fellow), Professor Benedict Binebai (Member), Laolu Oguniyi (Award of Excellence in Humanistic Practice) and Emem Isong (Award of Excellence in Humanistic Practice).
Also celebrated was Professor Sunday Enesi Ododo, former General Manager of the National Theatre, Lagos, who emerged as NAL Vice President.
Yet, in this constellation of honourees, Anikulapo’s investiture stood out — not just for his body of work, but for the ethos he represents. For over 30 years, he has been an unrelenting advocate for using the arts as both mirror and tool: a mirror to reflect society’s struggles and triumphs, and a tool to interrogate, inspire, and mobilise for change.
Under his stewardship, cultural platforms like LABAF have evolved into living institutions, drawing writers, artists, scholars, and the public into conversations that transcend genre and medium. In a sector often marked by fragmentation, Anikulapo’s genius has been in forging connections — between literature and theatre, scholarship and street art, Nigeria and the wider world.
The NAL recognition, therefore, is more than a personal achievement; it is an acknowledgement of the role of cultural activism in national development. As NANTAP’s Adeniran charged all the honourees, “Keep expanding the frontiers of knowledge and consolidating the impact of theatre as an irrepressible voice of the downtrodden and an uncompromising moral compass of society.”
For Anikulapo, whose work continues to thrive at the intersection of creativity and community, this Fellowship cements his status not only as a chronicler of Nigeria’s cultural story but as one of its principal authors.