City People Visits Theatre Icon, Iya 2D In IBADAN

• Revealed How She Got Her Nickname

As part of activities marking the  28 years celebration  of City People, officials of this oldest surviving celebrity Magazine visited veteran actress, Mama Mistura Asunmo who is popularly called Iya 2D at her Ibadan home. She lives outside Ibadan.

The team took the opportunity to interview Iya 2D and got her to share her experiences with us  as a veteran actress. Mama Mistura Asunmo is a great actress who is still relevant in the Movie industry. She still goes to location regularly. During the interview she revealed how she got the name Iya 2D.

Who is Mistura Asunmo, we asked her. “Mistura Asunmo is a woma who was born in Ibadan to the family of Asunmo. My father’s name is Olaniyi Asunmo. I started my Elementary School at Chief Agbaje Memorial School  in the Ayeye area of Ibadan. I also went to Gbonjuwere Secondary Modern School. I could not proceed with my education, because many people didn’t believe in female education in those days. I started Stage play on 15th July, 1959. I joined Oshinlalu cultural party acting group at Agree Adodo. As time went on, I saw that Oshinlalu cultural party didn’t travel often and what I wanted was to be traveling from one place to another. So I went to join Olubukun Group. Olubukun too was not fully into stage play so I went to join I-Show Pepper. When I joined I-Show Pepper we were always travelling. With the traveling theatre that we did back then, we can go on theater tour that will last us almost a year, before coming back home.”

“After a while, I went to meet my late boss, Ojo Oladipo. I was with him till his death. I was one of those that did the first Yoruba film in Nigeria called Ajayi Ogun. I acted as the wife of Ojo Oladipo. Honorable Odun Abayomi’s wife. In the second film in Nigeria called  “Ija Ominira”, I acted as “Iyalode Otun”. After then, I decided to start up a small scale business (selling food) at Lagos garage in Iwo Park, Ibadan. One day, while doing my food business, Baba Wande came to meet me and requested that I should come and help him act in a 13 episode movie and I reluctantly accepted the offer then. That’s when we produced Ika Lomo Ejo. The film made me popular that time to the extent that I could not continue with my food selling business then. That was how I started going from one film production to another production. From the movie, Ika Lomo Ejo, they invited Iya Rainbow and I to a production in Abeokuta.

In the movie, we went to the farm on one particular day, and we met Odunlade Adekola and some people on our way our back to the place we were staying. Odunlade started grumbling that where they are is very far and we asked him what is the real issue. He said they were going to a place and it seems too far for them. So I said, Kini 2D e gan?  He replied that I’m not saying 2D, I’m only saying this place is far. That’s how the name Iya 2D over took Ika Lomo Ejo. That’s how I became Iya 2D.

–Sola Abiodun