Duro Ladipo (18 December 1926 – 11 March 1978), a Nigerian theater pioneer, was a highly renowned Yoruba dramatist who came from postcolonial Africa.
His plays, which he wrote entirely in Yoruba, captured the symbolic spirit of Yoruba mythology and were eventually adapted for the screen, television, and photography. His most well-known production, Ọba kò so (The King did not Hang), is a dramatization of the traditional Yoruba story of how Ṣango became the Orisha of Thunder.
It was praised internationally at the inaugural Commonwealth Arts Festival in 1965 and went on tour throughout Europe, earning comparisons between Ladipọ and Karajan from Berlin critic Ulli Beier. Typically, Ladipo performed in his own plays.
