The news of the death of Oludotun Baiyewu Jacobs, ‘The Lion of LUFODO’, was broken to the world recently through a statement from his family.
In a bizarre, dramatic sequence, there had been repeated reports of his death for several years. At one point, the family was compelled to respond, through pictures and videos, to prove that Olu was still very much around.
Olu in his prime might have seen irony, and perhaps even some mirth, in the premature announcements of his death. He might have been mindful of the experience of Mark Twain, the famous American writer, who, when confronted by journalists in England, in 1897, about newspaper reports that he was dead, responded, ‘The report of my death was an exaggeration’. Over time, the witty one-liner has been transformed into a more quotable ‘The news of my death has been greatly exaggerated’. Obviously, Mark Twain was more amused than annoyed. Perhaps he understood that embedded in the psychology of public adulation of genius and accomplishment was also a secret death wish, a primordial unconscious assurance to the ordinary mortal in his ordinariness that such greatness could not last forever.
It is widely recognised that the Creative Arts are among the greatest natural endowments possessed by Nigeria. Music, Drama and other artistic expressions are part of the lived experience in all the cultural ethnicities of the country. That Afrobeats, for instance, is just now receiving mainstream attention in the rest of the world is not to imply that its richness and its rival genres have not always been around. That Nollywood churns out annually now more films than Hollywood is not a fluke, but a reflection of an innate tendency of Nigerian people to recreate the theatre of their lives before an audience, whether made up of children sitting on grass in a village square, or clustering together to watch drama on the new medium of Television introduced to the country by WNTV since 1959, or laughing over radio plays such as ‘Alao and Shakey-Shakey’. There was an early tradition of Travelling Theatre groups who went on the road to recreate life in various towns and cities, from north to south, east to west.
An ‘early adopter’ who crossed the barriers between Theatre, Radio, Television, and Film was Chief Hubert Ogunde. In Kano, during one of his Travelling Theatre performances, Ogunde would ignite a spark in a young boy in the audience. That boy was born in Abeokuta on 11th July 1942, and he was growing up in Kano. One day he attended a performance by Ogunde’s travelling troupe at the Colonial Hotel.
He was mesmerised. He had found his metier. His name was Oludotun.
He would travel to the United Kingdom to study drama at the elite Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, a high-octane environment which had nurtured and honed the skills of some of the greatest actors in the world.
He soon established a sterling reputation in Theatre, Television and Film in the United Kingdom. He became a notable presence in British television series such as The Professionals. He also took major Theatre roles, including Shakespeare’s plays and Tom Stoppard’s ‘Night and Day’. He played prominent roles in films, including the film adaptation of Frederick Forsyth’s ‘Dogs of War’.
He was a towering, imperious presence who inhabited his roles totally, whether as an African politician, or a red cap Igbo Chief, or a family patriarch in the throes of an early dementia. In real life, he was a genial, courteous figure.
At the height of his international fame, he returned home to Nigeria.
He got married to Ajoke Silva, a diva of Stage and Film in her own right. Together, in almost four decades, they have become one of the most formidable teams in Nigerian Arts. They founded the LUFODO Group, including a LUFODO Academy of Performing Arts (LAPA).
Olu’s entrance into Nollywood mirrored its rapid evolution from infancy to efflorescence. He has appeared in more than one hundred and twenty films. The gravitas and professionalism of his presence have helped to elevate the quality of the content, which had often been an area of challenge.
LUFODO operates Glover Memorial Hall, the iconic monument in central Lagos. Olu’s shadow was hovering in the background recently when Ajoke showed this writer around the modifications to the old structure, as you discussed a pending film project. She was keenly aware of the historicity of the hall, as Olu himself undoubtedly was. Here, in 1903, the first film-show in the land that would be named Nigeria was staged, at the behest of Herbert Macaulay. Here, on a day in 1944, the women of Lagos had packed the hall in a raucous gathering to honour an illiterate market woman named Pelewura.
Olu died on 16th September, at the age of 84. He had been living with Lewy Body Dementia for some years.
Showing remarkable courage and character, his family had not hidden him in a closet. He had enjoyed all the love and support anyone could hope for. It showed, right till the end.
Olu holds the national honour of Member of the Order of Nigeria. He received many awards in his life, including an Industry Merit Award for Acting at the Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards.
The Lion of LUFODO has passed this way and roared his last. He has inspired an industry that is struggling for a front-row seat in the world, so it can reach its full potential and contribute to the nation’s development and prosperity. He has inspired a younger generation to believe they can become whatever they aspire to, without shortcuts or self-doubt. He has left behind a doughty, spirited Amazon in his widow Ajoke, along with a family and an organisation that will assuredly go on to scale new heights to honour his memory.
May the soul of Oludotun Baiyewu Jacobs rest in perfect peace.