Highly respected and captivating actor Yemi Solade was born and bred in Surulere, Lagos. He attended St. Thomas Aquinnas Primary School and Birch Freeman Secondary School, both in Surulere, before travelling out of the country for his A levels but never got to finish up. He came back to Nigeria and continued his education in Oyo State College of Arts and Science OSCAS to prepare for Jamb.
The talented actor who was supposed to study Law at OAU effected his change of course to Theatre Arts through the help of Professor Wole Soyinka at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife.
He started his acting career during his school days, after his education, he went into academia during his national youth service NYSC. He taught at the University of Maiduguri and at Ramat Polytechnic and later moved to Kaduna Polytechnic where he taught general studies, communication skills and literature.
Yemi Solade is one of the rare actors with 3 Masters’ degrees. In Public Administration, Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Leicester and another in International Relations. During his stay in the North, he experienced the northern riot that almost took his life. He lost his first marriage to a Shua Arab lady due to religious differences. He returned home back to Lagos to settle down after the riot and decided to join the movie industry fully and featured in a movie titled “Ojunu” insight. His journey into the movie industry was a very difficult one because of competition but with determination and hard work, he made it through. In this 60th birthday interview with City People team, he talked about his journey into the industry, the many challenges he has faced and why he is perceived as an arrogant and proud man in the industry. Below are excerpts from the interview.
Can you take us through your career journey and accomplishment?
I was born here in Lagos at Lagos Island maternity. I grew up in Surulere, along Adeniran Ogunsanya, along Ogunlana Drive. Back then, houses didn’t have barricades like what we have now. It was a communal thing. I went to primary school in Surulere, so am a Surulere boy by all parameter, because I was raised in Surulere until I left secondary school.
It was trending in those days to travel abroad for A-levels, I tried the A-Level. It didn’t work, some colleagues had issues and I got affected. So I came back home. Back home I had to prepare myself for the Almighty Jamb. So I went to Oscas. Oyo State College of Arts and Science where I prepared myself for Jamb and I got admission into the faculty of Law in Ife. After four weeks I switched over to Theatre Arts because I wanted Professor Wole Soyinka to lecture me, and we effected the change without telling my parents because it was a taboo those days, to say you want to study Theatre Arts. Out of rascality, I switched from Law to drama and I was able to pull through. My family didn’t know until I had one year left on the programme, trust Nigerian family, they didn’t find it funny at all. I love my family and I won’t blame anybody for the criticism. We all know that back in the days, we had only four professions that were noble to parents Medicine, Law, Engineering and Accountancy. But we thank God today, that professionals in that field want to be part of Nollywood. I had my degree completed from the department of Theatre Arts under Professor Wole Soyinka, went to serve in Maiduguri. Mind you, I started acting as a young buy during Festac 77. I knew from day one, I was cut out for entertainment from the beginning. I have been dancing. At a point, I was a dance champion in Lagos State, 3 years in a row, I represented Africa in world dance competitions in Spain. As a young buy from Surulere, I tried a whole lot of things, the space was so small and I was not scared of anything. Everybody knew one another because we have communal living. So after Ife, it was Maiduguri. I started feeling a need to impact my environment while I was serving and teaching at Ramat Polytechnic in the North East. I was hoping I will end up in NTA, I didn’t know NTA will never advertise for actors, they needed engineers, but the Soyinka of this world led me into a television station.
I recall acting a role called Bala, it was a lead role in a Sunday half-hour programme that gave me what one will call an edge. I was trying to settle in Maiduguri then get married to a Shohuarab, because I love the fact that my wife must be beautiful physically, but the experiment only went halfway, I lost the marriage as a result of religion. I refused to be Islamized, So I moved on. I started teaching at the University of Maiduguri. After 2 years, I left Maiduguri for Kaduna, because I still wanted to feel the Northern space because most of my life has been spent in Lagos. I wanted to do sojourning so I landed in Kaduna. I picked up a job with Kaduna Polytechnic. The energy I had will always want to propel one to do lots of things. In all, I have never left acting, so I found myself in Kaduna music and drama society founded by the Deputy British High Commission in Kaduna. I imposed myself as the Assistant Director being only Professional amongst them. So we did a few shows that I directed and acted while I was teaching. When I was going to Kaduna, I excused myself and went to Leicester where I did a programme in Sociology and Anthropology for 18 months. I did it because I was in a teaching line, so I felt I needed to upgrade myself. I was a little bit restless and I felt I needed to do more for myself. I had lots of energy, and the environment was okay for me to do all these. And again, that notion about people in Theatre Arts not mentally capable, like the saying that if you are not doing well you will end up in the Military, did not sit down well with me. I was like coming from my background with the energy and pace and the environment was enabling to do all sorts. I had to read and read. So that is all about school. When Zangon Katab riot came up in the early ’90s, I knew time was up for me to leave, because I was lucky not to have been killed then. I began to feel a need to return home. I met one of the great names in the country. Alhaji Isa Keita, I taught two of his children in Kaduna Poly, who said that I should go back to the South especially when the crisis was becoming rampant, so I returned to Lagos in 1993.
I went back to my former department in Ife, thinking I could work, considering the fact that I have always been academia. When I got to Ife, I met with Professor Ola Rotimi, May His Soul continue to rest in peace. He was teaching in Ife. He made me his Artistic Director in his Theatre Company. I did like three months and I didn’t really want to stay in Ife. I felt I should just give myself 100 percent to Theatre and acting. I now had to come back fully to Lagos and a lot has been happening. The likes of RMD, Sola Fosudo dominated the industry. So I began to move to the National Theatre to get my own space. It was not that easy, because we are talking about competition. And for a few of them who know what I could do, and my antecedent, they were like oh, this guy is around. Whether because of competition, I just couldn’t break in so easily at that point, so I had to go back and queue. And the experiment led me to start acting in Yoruba language. I was thinking I will join my contemporaries coming from Theatre World because we had known each other while I was in school. Back then we used to have Nigeria University Theatre Arts Festival in those days. I don’t know if it still obtains today. So we knew one another from there and these were boys running things when I got back to Lagos. I was a little bit frustrated and was like what will I do now, so it was Muritala Sule, a writer who was working with NTA that came up with a story and wanted us to experiment with it. We sat down and discussed it over the table. We began to call people on board like Bimbo Manuel. I had studied the home video as it were and guys like Yinka Quadri, Ogogo were the hunks. I saw Alade Aromire, may his soul rest in peace.
I didn’t know actors like them existed because I was coming from the Wole Soyinka tree, and them coming from Hubert Ogunde tree, so I would say Nollywood is a confluence like Lokoja for me, and I needed to embrace these guys if I really wanted to be part of what I was seeing. So after we shot my first movie “Oju Inu” (Insight) it was backed technically by Wale who was in NTA then. We filmed on the Island, 1004 to be precise, and filming on that axis was like you have gone to film abroad. They were filming on the Mainland, Ebuta Meta, Surulere and Festac, we took the giant strides filming in V.I. We were the first to premiere a movie at Muson Center. Everybody was surprised and it will amaze you that the movie never saw the light of the day. I didn’t have any financial input, so till date, I never knew what transpired between him and Wole Coker.
I played the sub lead, Bimbo Manuel played lead with the late Bimpe Adekola who was the heroine of the Yoruba movie industry back then. That was it, for me, I just wanted the home movie break and I got one and that was how I began to know my colleagues like Yinka Quadri and others and they began to invite me for other movie productions, and Tv appearances came up. Wale Adenuga was just starting his Tv journey and I was part of every one of his productions from Papa Ajasco, to Super Story, This Life and Odd World. Every other thing began to happen so fast and I think what I brought to the table was a bit different in movies shot in the Yoruba language.
I love to call it Yoruba/English movies because we don’t speak core Yoruba, and most times, it is mixed with the English language. I knew from day one, that there was a space I needed to fill in the industry. I am not trying to praise myself in any way or downgrade anybody in the industry
I don’t think anybody in the industry had the kind of formal education I had except for someone like Sola Fosudo, and I was like we need to inject what we know from our own background. I’m not tribalistic, but let me stick with my people, so I began to feel comfortable. There’s nothing like English movie, everything is Nigerian movies, but that definition has come to stay. It can’t be wiped away. In all, I didn’t like what I was encountering, there was so much nepotic tendencies because of my complexion they felt I should be Igbo. Well, I did a few works there. I wasn’t really accepted at a point and I even heard someone speaking Igbo to me, so I began to inscribe my name on my fez caps. Fine, I came out of the womb of an Akwa Ibom woman. My mum is from Oron in Akwa Ibom and my dad is Egba in Ogun State. Interestingly, my dad also came out of an Efik woman. My wife too is Efik but came out of the womb of a Swiss Woman. So most times I just ask myself jokingly, if I am really a Yoruba boy. I have so much of this Calabar blood inside of me. I even have a Calabar name “Etieme” and some of my aunts still call me by that name. I lost the language when my grandma died in 1986. But for all I care, I am an Egba man. I began to enjoy my relationship with everybody and getting nice roles for myself with good media reviews and I was like Oh, Oh the eagle has landed.
