Jimi Solanke is an actor, folk singer, poet and playwright. He has performed before audiences in America and Europe, telling African stories. He told FLORA ONWUDIWE that performing on stage rejuvenates.
You are an accomplished actor, folk singer, poet and playwright. Which among these put more meals on the table for you?
Music which was my first choice in the performing art is now what I love doing most and is profitable.
Did your parents object to it when you opted to study theatre art instead of engineering? How were you able to overcome the challenge?
I had that challenge from the home front. The home front was harassed, when they heard that I was already singing with some bands, a whole son of Chief from Ipara Remo, cousin of Western region Commissioner in England. The son that they are looking up to, to become an Engineer; the commissioner drafted me from Lagos and put me in a printing press, Ibadan, for me to be an assistant to some English Engineers.
I had that opportunity because of the freedom I had when I left school. I was always going to the nightclubs in Ibadan. In fact, that was where I started singing. We were at Iyagokun, the Paradise Hotel in Gbagi, and the Central Hotel in Ibadan. This gave me a lift that I needed just to find a place where I can sing.
That was when my job as an assistant Engineer began to fail, because there are times I will not be able to go to work, and sometimes that I have to go, I will end up sleeping. So, I started staying away from work. And when the news got to my uncle that I was absent from work, he walked up one day, then he had come back from England, and said ‘since you are not going to work again, you can’t stay in my house.’ So I left and found house in Iyagokun, the house of the Commissioner for Western Region in London, Chief M.S. Sowole.
I had that opportunity because of the freedom I had when I left school. I was always going to the nightclubs in Ibadan. In fact, that was where I started singing. We were at Iyagokun, the Paradise Hotel in Gbagi, and the Central Hotel in Ibadan. This gave me a lift that I needed just to find a place where I can sing.
That was when my job as an assistant Engineer began to fail, because there are times I will not be able to go to work, and sometimes that I have to go, I will end up sleeping. So, I started staying away from work. And when the news got to my uncle that I was absent from work, he walked up one day, then he had come back from England, and said ‘since you are not going to work again, you can’t stay in my house.’ So I left and found house in Iyagokun, the house of the Commissioner for Western Region in London, Chief M.S. Sowole.
I started keeping my box in one of the rooms in Independence Hotel. That was how I became a singer in those days.
Were you paid after the concert?
Yes, I was paid. After the concert, I will sing on radio and I will be given contract form. I started earning early. Bands paid me for singing for them and I started enjoying it, I never remembered, whether they agreed with me at home, what could my parents have done, they left me to be in my interest.
You said God has asked you to do what you are doing in life, in what area?
When I was a small boy, I was a very good chorister at the holy Trinity Church Ebute Ero. In my secondary school, Odogbolu Grammar School, I was one of the few voices that the principal asked to be living in his house for morning devotions. We would have good choral renditions. I set up a band we named Koroba, and I started composing songs. Some of the songs I wrote in school were already being recorded, such as “Onilegogoro”, “Ore titan”, “Khaki no be leather”, and some were being played on radio.
Even before I left secondary school, I was popular. When I left school and was sent to go and be apprentice in Ibadan, my mind knew where what I was going to do. It was then that I began to hear the voice, “Go and sing”.
You can imagine in the job that they wanted me to do all my fingers will be soiled with grease, black and dead. I will get home to wash my hands with petrol every day, and I listen to that voice which I am sure was God will be telling me, “go and sing.
Even before I left secondary school, I was popular. When I left school and was sent to go and be apprentice in Ibadan, my mind knew where what I was going to do. It was then that I began to hear the voice, “Go and sing”.
You can imagine in the job that they wanted me to do all my fingers will be soiled with grease, black and dead. I will get home to wash my hands with petrol every day, and I listen to that voice which I am sure was God will be telling me, “go and sing.
Then, at what point did acting come in?
I had the freedom in Ibadan, since I left my uncle’s home. So I was meeting a lot of people, and we started going to West End Restaurant in Ogun Ipa Oyo Ibadan , where Mbari Ibadan was located, owned by Habab Hadad from Lebanon.
There were many great minds in those days: Wole Soyinka, Raphael Opara, Yemi Lijadu, Christopher Okigbo, Ulli Beier, Segun Olusola, amongst others. They were all converging every day at that place they called Mbari Ibadan.
I was caught by the wonderful things of the presence of these great men. They were great, poetry reading, Okigbo and his piano, Soyinka and his Troubadour attitude song and guitar, and I enjoyed going there. More so they will give us Lebanese food and beer; not long after they started introducing us into their play productions, and Ulli Beier owns Institute of African Studies and he brought up the idea of the school of drama, first one in Africa.
In 1963, they wanted the first set of students with little experience or no experience to just come and study drama, so we sat for the examination. Tunji Oyelana, Wale Ogunyemi, Betty Okotie, Yomi Obileye, we were about 27 that passed, and were admitted into school of drama at University of Ibadan, which has now become the Theatre Arts department. Because of the freedom I had on stage as a singer I blended into acting.
When we went through the art, the use of English Language, the presence on stage, mime, I started having more interest in the profession. I told them that I am going to stop at the Ordinary Diploma that is all I want. And that was how I became an actor. The reason why I took interest in acting then, and forego singing, was because my director told me that it is better for you to remain as an actor and forego singing. You are more of an actor than a singer.
There were many great minds in those days: Wole Soyinka, Raphael Opara, Yemi Lijadu, Christopher Okigbo, Ulli Beier, Segun Olusola, amongst others. They were all converging every day at that place they called Mbari Ibadan.
I was caught by the wonderful things of the presence of these great men. They were great, poetry reading, Okigbo and his piano, Soyinka and his Troubadour attitude song and guitar, and I enjoyed going there. More so they will give us Lebanese food and beer; not long after they started introducing us into their play productions, and Ulli Beier owns Institute of African Studies and he brought up the idea of the school of drama, first one in Africa.
In 1963, they wanted the first set of students with little experience or no experience to just come and study drama, so we sat for the examination. Tunji Oyelana, Wale Ogunyemi, Betty Okotie, Yomi Obileye, we were about 27 that passed, and were admitted into school of drama at University of Ibadan, which has now become the Theatre Arts department. Because of the freedom I had on stage as a singer I blended into acting.
When we went through the art, the use of English Language, the presence on stage, mime, I started having more interest in the profession. I told them that I am going to stop at the Ordinary Diploma that is all I want. And that was how I became an actor. The reason why I took interest in acting then, and forego singing, was because my director told me that it is better for you to remain as an actor and forego singing. You are more of an actor than a singer.
In a few months you will be 75 years; does your age affect your pace on stage?
Ah ah, excuse me; I performed recently on stage and the news has spread all over Lagos. And that is the reason why I prefer to be on stage , the reason being it keeps you alive, it adds more to living, it rejuvenates you , when you are a performer you can never be tired of performances , when you have full control of you about performances you may not want to stop.
In England, Kirk Douglas once said that what I’m doing with my wife has kept me alive till 90 and I can’t stop doing it , so what do you want me to be doing now when I am going to be 75 , you want me to be sitting down not to sing and act , even now I am not acting because acting is not what I see these days. I am running away from being called an actor.
In England, Kirk Douglas once said that what I’m doing with my wife has kept me alive till 90 and I can’t stop doing it , so what do you want me to be doing now when I am going to be 75 , you want me to be sitting down not to sing and act , even now I am not acting because acting is not what I see these days. I am running away from being called an actor.
Looking back now, would say your parents were right when they rejected you because they knew that arts will only make you famous and not rich?
Check a lot of people that we call rich men, check the bases of their richness, and find out where their happiness is. Find out whether they will last in life, find out all kinds of ailments that have been bedeviling them.
My parents were not talking about he will not be rich or he will be rich. At the end of the day there is nothing that my age group has done that I have not done. I have houses; I am even building a whole village for my Centre for creative performing arts enhancement.
My parents were not talking about he will not be rich or he will be rich. At the end of the day there is nothing that my age group has done that I have not done. I have houses; I am even building a whole village for my Centre for creative performing arts enhancement.
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