Kole Omotoso was born in 1943 into a Yoruba family in Ondo State, Nigeria.
Omotoso was educated at King's College, Lagos, and at the University of Ibadan before completing his PhD thesis on modern Arabic writing at the University of Edinburgh.
In 1972, he returned to Ibadan to lecture on Arabic studies and Drama at the University of Ife. His novel, Just Before Dawn (1988) was controversial for its social and political commentary and led to Omotoso undertaking a number of professorships outside of Nigeria.
Omotoso currently lives in South Africa and writes for several columns, most notably the 'Trouble Travels' column in Nigeria's Sunday Guardian.
