How I was disowned by my father, rejected by mum at 8 — Olajumoke George

The journey of a veteran actress, Olajumoke George, would surely evoke emotions from anyone who reads about her troubled path in life. From being rejected by her father and later her mum to living from hand to mouth for many years; from losing her son and suffering marriage break up twice, the mother of two has indeed weathered through life’s storm that shaped her life. George said she’s proud of the woman she has become, despite the many challenges she confronted. She shares the story of her life in this revealing interview with SEGUN ADEBAYO.

It has been a long time coming for you as an actress. What was that thing that prepared you for this career?

Nothing prepares anyone in life for anything but God. He’s the rock and foundation upon which my life and everything about me is built. My dedication and passion, love and drive for the profession have kept me on the game till date.

 

You have been in the game for God knows when and you are still here. How did you become an actress?

I have always been a fan of acting from my childhood days, but there is woman, who actually inspired my love the television back then. Though she doesn’t know me and I have not even met her in person. Her name is Madam Anike Agbaje Williams. I have always seen her as my role model. I loved seeing her coming on screen as a newscaster. Also, when I was eight years old, there was this friend of my father, who came to ask my father to release me for a stage play they usually had at the end of the year. There was a girl of my age who had been playing the role before me, but that year, she fell sick and could not make it. So, it occurred to my father’s friend to use me for the role. my father asked if I could do it and I said yes. The man told my father what he had seen in me at that age. So, my father said he could have me. To the glory of God, I did very well and everybody enjoyed it. Even before then, watching that woman really inspired me, so when I finally got on that stage at the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) I felt really proud of myself. That was how my career started from that point. It continued to up till when I got into secondary school. I joined the cultural drama group in my school. While in school, there was this big uncle in our area that we called uncle Akwa. He encouraged me to keep pushing on with my love for stage drama. But he was not happy because my parents disapprove of it, and at that time, my father had disowned me.

 

At what age did your dad disown you, and what did you do wrong?

I am a product of a broken marriage. my father disowned me because I was fighting his battle for him and he couldn’t understand how.

 

What kind of battle did you fight for your dad?

As young as I was then, my stepmum used to send me to different herbalists to get love portion for her. It continued till I got to class two.

 

What did she do with the love portion you used to get for her?

She would put it in my father’s food. I was the one who would cook the same food that had been laced with the love portion. So, one day, I said I was not going to run such errands for her again, and that was how my problem started.

 

How did you summon such courage at that time?

We were brought up in a strict military home, so I have been a very brave person. I think I got that from my father actually. So one day, I walked up to my stepmother with a terrifying feeling, and told her that I was getting scared of what she had been doing to my father. She asked me what did I think she was doing? I said she should stop sending me to herbalists to get all manner of love portions. She got angry and threatened to report me to my father for daring to speak up to her. When my father came, she told him a different story entirely.

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What did she tell him?

You seem to be pretty interested in this gist…

 

People might learn one or two lessons from your story

Anyway, she told my father that I was rude to her and that I don’t listen to her instructions again. She cooked up a blatant lie that I could not even understand. Immediately, I went on my knees and started begging her to stop telling lies against me. I tried to explain myself, but my father got mad and asked me to get out of the house. I held on to his knees pleading for mercy. Suddenly, he shoved me away and went into his room to get his gun.

 

So, he was a military person?

He retired as a medical doctor in the military. He was a lieutenant colonel in the Nigerian Army before he retired. Then, we lived right behind Joyce B in Ibadan. my father pursued me with his gun from our house to that popular filling station at Ring Road bare-footed. He ran after me and went back when I got to the main road. I ran to my paternal mother’s house to hide. My father came there and dragged his mum and me on the floor. It was at that point that I realised that he had truly disowned me.

 

Where was your mum while this was happening?

My mother had divorced my father at that time. So, I went to her when there was no place to go but I was shocked when my mum said she would not take me to her house. I asked her why, and she said I chose to stay with my father against her wish at the age of six when she wanted to leave my father’s house. My mum insisted that she would not have me back in her house. That was how I started squatting from one house to another because I didn’t want to become a drop-out.

 

So where did you go afterwards?

I went to the house of my classmate, who was the daughter of the popular Baba Akande Ede. After sometime, Uncle Akwa enrolled me with the Laolu Oguniyi theatre group. I was attending rehearsals for a couple of months, though the founder of the group was not always available I kept going. So, one day, I decided to pay my mum a visit. On my way to her house after the rehearsals, a car parked beside me and the man who drove the car asked me where I was going. He said he had known me since my first stage play on NTA some years before then. He said he would like to meet my parents. So, I took him to my mum. When we got to my mum, he told her that he would like to mentor me in acting. That same man is Comrade Victor Ashaolu. I was under his tutelage for 11 years.

 

How old were you at that time?

I was between 15 and 16 years old.

 

You have managed to conquer many battles in life. What do these things make you feel about your parents?

I always tell people that I am a golden fish that has no hiding place and I like telling my story to inspire young ladies, who might be going through a similar problem. When I left secondary school, I gained admission to Osogbo Technical College to study Business Administration, but still I wanted the world to learn more from me, because I had never seen myself as someone who ever had parents. Let me be sincere with you, my parents never existed in my life. If I could go through what I faced in life at that tender age and nobody was there to help me but God, then I don’t think I would be wrong to say I never had parents. My grandmother actually tried for me because she took me to my mum and told her that she was not happy about how I had been sleeping from one house to another. In fact she gave me a room in her house to stay for years. I stayed in that house until I met the father of my first two children.

 

How did he convince you to marry him?

It was another difficult moment in my life. This man promised he would sponsor me to school if I married him. At that time, I had no choice because I wanted to go to school and there was no one to help. So, I gave in to his request. He was a Muslim, while I was coming from a Christian background. The  man would come to our rehearsals to beat me and drive me away from the venue. I went through hell while I was with him and never fulfilled his promise. In the midst of the trouble, I had my first and second child for him. The trouble was so much that I had to move out of his house and left the kids with him. I couldn’t just cope with the beating and humiliation I experienced virtually every day.

 

And you left the kids with him?

Yes. Where would I go with two children? I didn’t have any sense of belonging. It was really hard. I felt like my life was coming to an end. I didn’t even know where to sleep the next day. I don’t know what happened but the second child died. I was told he hit his chest on the ground and never recovered from it. After three years, I met the second man who I had another child for. I would say he was another woman’s husband because when we met, I didn’t know he was married. One thing led to the other and I got pregnant. I am happy that the child is doing fine today. She’s my pride.

 

It means you were never properly married?

No. Who would give my hand out in marriage? Parents that disowned me because I was trying to fight for my father’s life? In those days, we had our rehearsal at the Cultural Centre, Mokola in Ibadan. So, he came there almost daily to beat me and it got to a stage that my colleagues had to fight for me. When I could not stand it anymore, I left, but I did not go with my kids, the children were with his mother.

 

Looking at what you have gone through, would you say life has been fair to you?

Life is beautiful. We are the architects of our lives. It depends on how things work out with our lives. As far as I know, I believe life is beautiful. I think the lesson I learnt from everything I went through is that parents should love their children. I love my children to a fault. They are my best friends. I never wish that they go through what I went through.

 

After all these years, what motivates you to keep doing this job?

I will say acting is my life. I eat, drink, sleep and wake on acting. This is the only thing I love to do.

 

There was a time you were not seen in movies. What went wrong?

If I am right, for 13 years, I was abandoned by movie producers. They chose to ignore. They stopped inviting me for jobs.

 

What was your offence?

My offence was that I chose not to sleep around. I insisted that I was not going to mess up myself with anybody to get a role. Some producers stopped giving me jobs because I didn’t sleep with them. It got to a point that I told them they should pick one person from their camp that would represent them. How many of them do I want to date? I told them to hold a meeting and present one person that could date me instead of dating all of them. They told me to my face that they would not give the role of the person they are sleeping with to me. I thought it was a joke until it went from one year to 13 years.

 

How did you survive for 13 years without acting?

It was one of those moments that God used to open my eyes to another calling I never knew was waiting for me. I met one of the senior staff members of LTV8, who introduced me to broadcasting. I was presenting different programmes for those years that I forgot about acting totally. I was on LTV8, MITV and even on Yotomi TV. I was also on radio stations too. I went to World of Faith Bible Institute and I got my certificate in Theology. I also attended Mount Camel Bible School.

 

Which movie brought you back into the industry?

I never left the industry. They only stopped giving me jobs, but I switched to something bigger and better. I have been back in the movie industry for a couple of years now and I am doing very fine. It was not easy, but those who knew what I could do started bringing jobs. I never felt bad that I didn’t get roles for those years because when I returned, it was never like I left in the first place. I have lost the number of movies I have featured in since I returned.

 

Did you ever forgive your dad?

Yes, we made up before he died in 1995.

 

You were in the Wedding Party movie, how did you get the role?

I was contacted through somebody who knows what I could deliver in terms of interpretation of roles. They got my number and I was invited to their office somewhere in Lagos where I got my script. It remains one of the best movies I have featured in. Wedding Party was the best. Everything about that movie was solid.