‘Half Of A Yellow Sun’ director and filmmaker, Biyi Bandele, has been buried.
The 54-year-old was buried on Friday September 23, at the Ebony Vaults, Ikoyi, Lagos.
Fellow filmmaker, Tunde Kelani, posted photos from the burial ceremony on Instagram.
“Biyi Bandele goes home. The writer, poet, screenwriter, director and photographer today after a brief ceremony. May his soul rest in peace,” Tunde wrote.
Born on October 13, 1967 in Kafanchan, Southern Kaduna to parents from Abeokuta, Ogun State, Bandele was studying dramatic arts at the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University), Ile Ife, when he won the BBC Playwriting Competition, and thereafter relocated to England where he had a flourishing career as a writer.
He co-directed Blood Sisters, a four-part Netflix Original series by EbonyLife Films.
Bandele is survived by his son Korede and daughter Temi.
He was the author of several novels, beginning with The Man Who Came in From the Back of Beyond (1991), as well as writing stage plays, before turning his focus to filmmaking.
His directorial debut was in 2013 with Half of a Yellow Sun, based on the 2006 novel of the same name by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
Bandele was born to Yoruba parents in Kafanchan, Kaduna State, Nigeria, in 1967. His father Solomon Bandele-Thomas was a veteran of the Burma Campaign in World War II, while Nigeria was still part of the British Empire.
He spent the first 18 years of his life in the north-central part of the country, later moving to Lagos, then in 1987 he studied drama at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, having already begun work on his first novel.
The filmmaker won the International Student Playscript competition of 1989 with an unpublished play, Rain,[6] before claiming the 1990 British Council Lagos Award for a collection of poems.
He moved to London in 1990, at the age of 22, armed with the manuscripts of two novels.[4] His books were published, and he was given a commission by the Royal Court Theatre.
In 1992, he was awarded an Arts Council of Great Britain writers bursary to continue his writing.