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Featuring in Fela and the Kalakuta Queens showed me I’ve matured –Mawuyon

Mawuyon Ogun is a versatile actress, singer and dancer. She is the producer of ‘The Actor’s Life with Mawuyon’, an interactive talk show. In this interview with Tony Okuyeme, she talks about her career, challenges and regrets. She also shares her experience featuring in the musical, ‘Fela and the Kalakuta Queens

As a child, did you really set out to become an actor or a dancer? Why?

No, because my parents, especially my dad, always wanted me to be a lawyer. Father said I would make a good lawyer because of my not being afraid to ask questions, or question some things. Of all his children I am the most outspoken, so he felt that I was going to be the lawyer in the house. When I was a kid, he kept calling me lawyer, until I became an artiste, a theatre artiste.

What were the challenges growing, especially because of your interest in art?

I didn’t know then that there was something that is called being an artiste, growing up as a child. It was law thing that my father kept talking about. But when I finally decided to be an artiste, of course there were challenges. It is not every day you have a child who just wakes up and says she wants to be an actor and so on. It doesn’t come easy, especially when you have parents who do not belong in that terrain, who have had nothing to do with that line of work or profession. My father, especially, did not see it as a profession; as far as he was concerned, it could as well have been prostitution. Until he got convinced after watching several times performing on stage. Then, it began to look like a viable thing. I thank God that I didn’t give in to these challenges; by His grace I am where I am today.

Which came first, singing, acting or dancing?

I’d say, singing came first because singing was a natural thing. My mother was a good singer, so I got that from my mother. That was where I was discovered before I was introduced to the theatre. Professionally, dancing came first; but naturally, singing came first. And then it was from dancing that I graduated into being an actor. It was as a dancer in one of the productions that I discovered that I could actually act, learn lines and deliver them. So, the director gave me an opportunity to act. That was how my acting career started. Then when it was time to go to school, I had the option of studying either Mass Communication or Theatre Arts, but I decided that I want an arm of the theatre that is not too focused on it. So, I went to study music.

You have featured in so many popular stage plays. Which of them would you say is your favourite, and your most challenging?

I would say all. I love all my jobs, because each of them plays a different demand on you, and brings to you a new character, a new discovery. So, you can’t say which one is your favourite, because they are all in different phases, different experiences. I would say is my most challenging yet is ‘Aruku Shanka’, in which I got my first major job as an acttor. It was a Nigerian-German exchange programme. The play was directed by Felix Okolo. I had just been discovered, and you will think I would be given a role that would make do one or three short scenes. But in ‘Aruku Shanka’, I played the role of the narrator, who is the only one talking on the stage for almost 90 minutes. And because I am a dancer, I was singing, acting and dancing. It has been my most challenging role or character yet, because I was doing all of that, and we were touring 10 Nigerian universities. I was a green horn then, and going to Theatre Arts and Dramatic Arts departments in schools to perform was challenging. My director, Felix Okolo, pushed me and gave me all the encouragement that I needed. I am looking to doing another job that would push me like ‘Aruku Shanka’ did because it was a travelling theatre, and on the road the director was writing scripts, correcting scripts. So, I would say ‘Aruku Shanka’ has been my most challenging job yet.

What was it like growing up in “a man’s world”?

This world belongs to all of us – man and woman. But if you are referring to the theatre, I would say that you have to own your space, your own. I remember one of my mentors told me that in the space of life, nobody gives you any opportunity. Create opportunity yourself and use it. That is what will create space for you. But if you are just out there ranting that you are supposed to have a space, nobody listens to rants. People like action; they want to see you do something. So, growing up in a man’s world is about owning your space, being the CEO, the Chief Commanding Officer of your own destiny. That is the only way you can survive in a man’s world, whatever that means.

Tell us about how you became so good in Yoruba chant (Ewi)…

I am not yet versed in Ewi. I will say that I took a natural liking to the Yoruba language, and spending 10 years of my life in Ibadan, studying music technology at The Polytechnich Ibadan, and with purposeful and intentional decision to stay among the locals in Apete, Ibadan, informed my liking the language more, because I was living with the locals. I was speaking their language, I was eating their food, and, of course, learning from them. And there were some courses in my HND programmes, were you have to do Yoruba. So, Yoruba is a language I love. I remember my composition class, my lecturer then tell us that for you to be a good composer, the first thing you should do when that any thought, any idea that comes to you, is to ask yourself: What language do I think with? And if I answer myself truthfully, I think in English and Yoruba. I think those two are my first languages. If I think in English and it is not working, I go to Yoruba, and Yoruba explains it more with all the different adjectives. That is why I said I am not yet versed in Ewi. Mine is, you tell me what you want me to talk about, I research into it, and come out with a chant for it. Also, there is this richness about expressing yourself in Yoruba. I have come to appreciate the beauty in Yoruba language. Although these days, I have been telling people that I want to start being associated with my language, Egun, the Badagry language.

Tell your experience featuring in Fela and the Kalakuta Queens…

The play, Fela and the Kalakuta Queens, was a production that showed me that I have matured as an artiste. That was were the chant thing came in again. Mrs Austen Peters wanted me to play the role of Fela’s mother. When I read the script the first time, there was the role of Fela’s mother, but when I read the revised script, it was no longer there. Instead, there were gods. She then said I should play the role of Oya, but that all the lines of Oya should be delivered as chant. So, I had to research into who Oya was and the relationship that existed between her and Fela. I literally had to create something. For instance, what would Oya tell Fela? I had to juxtapose the Fela as we know him, his ideology, and how it relates to all those deities. I then came up with the chant for Oya in ‘Fela and the Kalakuta Queens’. The experience is such that the characters I played were like cameos, because I had to play double, and even triple roles as the show went on. For instance, I was in the band, as a singer; I had to open the show, as Oya; at a time, I had to take the roles of some of the ladies who were majorly dancers. We had to make actors out of these dancers. So, in terms of experience, Fela and the Kalakuta Queens, for me, was rounded one because my initial role was Oya, but I ended up playing different roles, doing different things at different times on the project. Also, ‘Fela and the Kalakuta Queens’, as I said, showed me that I have matured as an artiste.

What were the challenges?

No challenges as such; no peculiar challenges.

Any regrets?

No regrets at all. If I come back to this world a 100 times, the 100 times I want to be a theatre artiste.

How do you unwind?

I love to sleep, I love to cook. Being in the kitchen helps me to relax, despite all the running around, the heat, and everything. Also, I love music, and I love to play my favourite game – Farm Heroes.

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