Orisabunmi: Nollywood’s pioneer priestess who created a special character
The name Folake Aremu may not ring a bell. But you’ll travel far to see a Nigerian not familiar with Orisabunmi. It’s one of those TV characters that end up being so successful they become the actor’s on and off screen identity.
Orisabunmi, who passed on in her Ibadan residence, Oyo state, on Tuesday January 5, 2021, was a super-successful actor with a career that spanned more than 40 years. She made her name as a character actor in theater and stage plays and in Nollywood after starring as Orisabunmi in ‘Arelu’ – a TV drama that shut down markets and made the streets deserted in the 1980s.
Her TV roles made her a household name and endeared millions to her. Her character was widely received in many Yoruba homes as a harbinger of peace and “people genuinely thought Orisabunmi could solve their life problems,” Chris Ihidero, a filmmaker, told Neusroom.
Nigerians will remember her for her rare talent and the special character she created, which according to Antar Laniyan, a respected Nollywood actor-director, would be difficult to fill.
Born October 10, 1960, in Ilu Ola, Kwara state where she had primary and secondary education at Eruku Commercial College, she created a special character that many filmmakers told Neusroom would be really difficult to surpass.
Before her acting career beckoned, Orisabunmi had worked as a teacher for two years and as a secretary at Sunny Radio in Ilorin, Kwara State.
When she eventually decided to go into acting as a teenage girl, getting her parents’ consent was the biggest hurdle.
“Although it was so difficult to get my parents’ consent it became crystal clear later that it is what I am meant to do,” she said in an interview with a Nigerian newspaper The Punch in September 2020.
She started her acting sojourn with the Jimoh Aliu Theatre group founded by Chief Jimoh Aliu also known as Aworo, the man who discovered, brought her to prominence and groomed her to become one of Nigeria’s best actresses of all time. Aworo, who died on September 17, 2020, later became her first husband. They divorced more than two decades ago and their union didn’t produce a child.
After debuting as a young actor in ‘Ma Binu Ori’, Orisabunmi rose to fame with her first lead role in ‘Arelu’ where she played the role of a hero against the villain ‘Fadeyi Oloro’, a notorious warlord who terrorised neighbouring communities for many years before he was brought down.
There’s arguably no TV drama in Nigeria right now that attracts the kind of viewership Arelu attracted across the Southwest in the 1980s.
“Lagos used to shut down at 7pm when Arelu was on TV,” Ihidero, the consulting producer of Nigeria’s first animated film, said.
“You could not buy anything from a Yoruba market from 7pm on the weekday when Arelu was on TV. Arelu shut down the market.”
Fadeyi Oloro and Orisabunmi restaged their fierce encounter in ‘Arelu’ at the 85th birthday of Aworo in 2020, bringing back the memories of the early days of TV drama in Nigeria.
Steve Ayorinde, a veteran journalist and former Commissioner of Information and Culture in Lagos, would like to see a remake of the tussle between the duo.
“In this era of remakes, it would be nice to (re)create a modern day version of the perennial tussle between Orisabunmi and Fadeyi Oloro,” he told Neusroom.
Ayorinde says the Orisabunmi and Fadeyi generation gave us classics that shouldn’t be allowed to die.For more than 40 years, Orisabunmi’s special skill of reciting incantations in movies endeared her to Yoruba movie lovers. It was one of the special features that won her the Best Actress of the Year award for six consecutive years from 1986 to 1992.
She grew to learn the panegyrics rendition skills from her family. Her father’s family are masqueraders while her mother’s family are Osun deity adherents.
“I know so much about the two (masquerade and Osun). I lived with my grandmother. That helps me to be grounded in the knowledge of traditional worship and oratory rendition. I was born into it,” she said in the Punch interview.
In death, finding a replacement for Orisabunmi’s role may be almost impossible.
“The kind of character she played has been established by her and it’s going to be really difficult for anyone to say I can surpass her or do better,” Antar Laniyan told Neusroom. “I’m not saying we cannot have potential around, but so far I’ve not seen any.”
Ihidero corroborates Laniyan’s view: “you can’t pick anybody and say such reminds you of Orisabunmi, from the performance point of view, maybe you can find someone, but from an image point of view, from what she represented, there is nobody.”
Ayorinde also believes she won’t necessarily be replaced.
“She was not a stock character because she also played different other characters. She was discovered by the late Jimoh Aliu and I believe the same way that there are several younger Jimoh Alius pulling their own weights and creating beautiful contents and characters now is the same way that we have been seeing young Orisabunmis. It’s a fertile and blessed industry as far as talents are concerned,” he said.
If there are aspects of Orisabunmi’s personality that did not change through her lifetime, it was her astonishing beauty, contagious smile, and her radiating personality.
“When she was alive, she was an ever-smiling woman,” Laniyan said.
Ayorinde said her “flawless beauty, charm and carriage were instrumental in making her a true legend of the Yoruba moviedom.”
Ihidero who revealed that his crush on her is very high and will forever be so, said what has been lost in Orisabunmi “is not just a great actress, but perhaps my greatest crush in the Nigerian movie industry.”
Just like many other TV personalities, Orisabunmi also battled scandals. The biggest that rocked her career came after she left Aliu for another lover in the 1990s. Many reports at that time claimed popular juju singer King Sunny Ade ‘snatched’ her from Aliu after the singer and Orisabunmi played lead roles in the iconic movie ‘Fopomoyo’ in the 1990s. But Aliu constantly debunked the claims before his death. In an interview with The Sun newspaper in 2012, he said Orisabunmi was taken from him by a man he had helped.
“This man came to seek my intervention when, as he claimed, that omo-oniles had taken his land at Egbeda, Lagos. He was the Judas used to snatch her from me,” he said.
The heartbroken Aworo added:
“Only God can judge the man that squeezed the bitter juice into our sweet relationship and turned it sour. I so much trained her to that extent and the loss of such a person must affect me, there is no doubt about that, but I am okay now.”
The duo maintained a cordial relationship despite parting ways more than 20 years before their death.
TRIBUTES
Chris Ihidero
Chris Ihidero said Orisabunmi was a fantastic actress and beautiful woman who for a long time was the queen of the Yoruba screen.
“If you saw Arelu or Koto Orun, there’s a very marked difference between the Orisabunmis and the actors working now. The actors working now do not have the benefit of the cultural height that Arelu, Koto Orun and all of those contents. They don’t have the benefit of their depth,”
He believes none among the present crop of actors can be put beside Orisabunmi from a depth point of view. Ihidero himself a filmmaker said “the kind of content we are making now and the kind of content those guys made are different. Because those guys were deeply rooted in culture.
“I think we do them a disservice because we don’t give them the respect they really deserve.”
Antar Laniyan
Antar Laniyan, who described the late actress as a very nice individual, said she never ignored anyone or their calls.
“When you call she answers promptly. She would not look down on anybody when she was alive”.
“We will miss her talent because her kind of talent is rare. She created a special character that would be difficult for anyone to just say I want to act like Orisabunmi. I want to dance like her.”
Steve Ayorinde
Steve Ayorinde said she was a true thespian who devoted much of her adult life to imparting knowledge and entertaining diverse audiences through the stage, television and film. She was truly outstanding.
“Orisabunmi belonged to the second or third generation of legendary thespians who gave their all to creating and sustaining the craft. Their contributions are indelible, from TV, to film and stage productions, they created great contents that are still in hot demand till today,” he said.
Cover design by: Kume Akpubi
