Veteran Yoruba actor Lere Paimo has challenged fellow veteran Pete Edochie’s account of when he began his acting career, insisting that he had already established himself in the profession years before the Things Fall Apart star entered the scene.
The 86-year-old actor made the clarification during an interview with actor Kunle Afod, published on YouTube on Monday, where he disclosed that his acting career dates back to 1958.
His claim comes shortly after Edochie stated that he began acting in 1962 at the age of 15, citing his performance in William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice as evidence of his early involvement in theatre.
Paimo, however, maintained that his own career started four years earlier.
“I started acting in 1958. I met Hubert Ogunde, who was senior to me and others, and there were big movies produced back then,” he said.
The veteran actor also used the opportunity to highlight the historical roots of indigenous Nigerian theatre, arguing that Yoruba-language theatre had already established a strong tradition before English-language productions became prominent.
According to Paimo, the works of late theatre icon Hubert Ogunde demonstrated how far Yoruba theatre had developed as a form of entertainment and social education.
“I heard from history that when he (Hubert Ogunde) started in the ’40s, there was nobody before him, and we never heard from history that the English industry, or any movie done in the English language, started before him,” he said.
Paimo added that the absence of documented evidence of earlier English-language productions led him to believe that the Yoruba industry emerged first.
“There was nothing like English-speaking movie production then; Ogunde started by producing movies in the Yoruba language, which he used to educate everyone who watched those movies,” he said.
He, however, declined to make a definitive claim about the seniority of another theatre practitioner, Baba Olumegbon, saying he could only speak from what he knew.
“I don’t know if Baba Olumegbon started before Ogunde, but all I know is that Ogunde was the person I knew who started acting first. Although I have been hearing about him for a long time, I can’t say he was senior to Ogunde,” Paimo said.
Paimo began his career in the Yoruba travelling-theatre tradition and later joined the Oyin Adejobi Theatre Group, founded by veteran theatre practitioner Oyin Adejobi.
He subsequently worked with Duro Ladipo’s Theatre Group, where he portrayed Chief Basa in the stage production Obamoro.
He went on to become one of the major figures in Yoruba theatre and film, earning widespread recognition for his portrayal of Soun Ogunola in the epic production Ogbori Elemosho.
