BY CHUKS NWANNE
LATER this
evening, the enigmatic playwright, actor and folk music artiste, Jimi Solanke,
will go live on stage in a concert at the EniObanke Arts Centre, GRA, Ikeja,
Lagos. The gig, which will also feature other notable artiste is organised to
mark Solanke’s 70th birthday anniversary. For sure, with his
baritone voice and traditional gaits, Solanke would surely sing out his heart
today, to thank God for seeing him through the years.
“I’m so much afraid of God now; when I look
at all the challenges I’ve overcome in my life, I know that God truly loves
me,” he said in a telephone chat.
For many, attaining 70 calls for a big
celebration, but to Solanke, it is a time for deep reflection.
“Just recently, I listened to a work we did
in 2004 for BBC and I discovered that
most of the people I worked with on that production are today, dead. You talk
about people like the palm wine guitarist, Alaba Pedro, saxophonist Maliki
Showman … and I called my wife immediately and said to her, ‘let us pray.’ It
is not by my powers that I’m still alive; it’s been a very long journey,” he
said.
At his age, nothing changes for Solanke,
who has promised to give his best today on stage.
“Nothing actually changed; I still do a
lot of things I used to do. Maybe because I’m used to using all my body in
performance, I don’t feel anything. I still sit down with the younger
generation and I still remember time and dates. However, within me, I know that
old age has set in,” he said in that husky voice.
Having live for 70 years on earth, the
veteran artiste has learnt a lot about life, which he now shares with the
youths.
“Life has taught me to be hardworking, to
be Godly and to be trusting. In the last 40 years of our marriage, we’ve not
had any quarrel because we’ve learnt to trust.”
To the energetic performer, contentment
should be the watchword for every youngman.
“You must be contented with whatever you
have,” he charged. “The truth is that contentment forms the basis of life; once
you are contented, other things will come.”
If given the opportunity to relive his
life, the
Ipara Remo-born artiste, said, “I will like to come back in form of Jimi Solanke. I have no single
regret about my life because I see the hand of God in it.”
However, if there’s any regret in Solanke’s
life, it has to do with starting his career late.
“I have a feeling that I started
performing late; I would have loved it if I had started out much earlier than I
did.”
THOUGH naturally talented, Solanke wormed himself to the hearts of many
through his various children programmes, especially Storyland, which used to be very prominent on government and
private television stations in Nigeria. A lonely child, many had tipped young
Jimi to become an engineer, but he ended up a great performer.
“I am sure it is destiny because as a child, I was technically oriented
and so my intention was to become an engineer. Then, I used to repair,
dismantle and assemble objects. I used to do movies using candles and have
other children watch while I played the role of a narrator. I never knew, I
could end up a performing artiste.”
Along the line, Solanke’s uncle, who owned a casting company then,
appointed him assistant technical officer, as a way of helping him develop what
was believed to be his calling. Just as it looked like the coast was clear, the
arts came calling.
“Whenever I got home then and I saw my hands soiled in oil and gum, I
would just shake my head and put off. Meanwhile, I was getting more popular
with a variety show on the radio then and the personage that was accompanying
it was also soothing. At that point, I would do anything to avoid going to one
paper printing press that would merely soil my hands. It wasn’t long before I
started dodging work.”
With his tricks, young Jimi got reported to his uncle, who insisted he
must conform to his wishes or leave his home.
“Of course, I left and ended up in my friends’ house. There and then, my
vision for theatre arts became clearer and the liberty his (uncle’s) order
provided linked me up with the likes of Tunji Oyelana, Yomi Obileye, Yewande
Akinbo and other top artistes. Within the shortest period of time, I started
singing and getting recorded by Roy Chicago, Rex Williams, having credit as a
songwriter. I later got involved in drama,” he recalled.
As a performing artiste, Solanke pays more attention to children, who
were part of his programmes on TV.
“I
got drawn to them, especially when I travelled to America. The Europeans, by
their own standard, put a lot of beneficial inputs into their kiddies
programmes unlike what we have in Nigeria. It was with this notion that I took
off with Storyland and others. The
intention was to replay any part of this nation with the deep knowledge of that
part. We tried to make it culturally, educationally and morally rich.”
His driving force on focusing on the Kids, he clearly stated this way: “I believe the future of any nation is in the
hands of her youths and if these youths are not well managed when they were
kids, that particular nation may be living a bleak future for.”
To Solanke, the popularity of the show is
not unconnected with the story telling approach and the ability to draw graphical
illustration to accompany the story.
“We had recorded two episodes in Jos, at the Plateau Radio Television
(PRTV), and when we all came back to watch the two episodes, everyone had
agreed that the programme was good and was already on air. It was when those
people got back to Lagos that they spoke about it and they had to call me back
to come and start the programmes there. I enjoyed doing it because children
everywhere appreciated my cultural interactions in their life.”
Though not a rosy experience, the passion for the arts kept Solanke
going all these years.
“Then, I would leave Ife to Lagos and in two to three days we had not
recorded two episodes. It was time, mental and energy consuming, but I managed
to survive. You have to keep on reading and thinking, not just the ordinary
way, but in the most outstanding and creative way. This, as you would agree
with me, does not come very cheap.”
Meeting Mrs. Solanke
I
met her when I came back from America. As soon as I returned, I started having
shows here and there. My first show was a children’s show at the University of
Lagos and Lagos Television Station (LTV 8). People came and it was that show
that we transported into Family Face
until NTA asked me to come and do a workshop, which actually made me popular.
Before then, I was still working at the department of dramatic arts when
suddenly, I ran into her. Somehow, I was very angry at talking or having an
affair with her, but she was different. I had a lot of them coming to visit me
in my house, but the first day she got there, she showed her uniqueness, all
the leftover plates that other girls used, she washed without showing any hard
feeling. I was surprised that a young lady like her could do all that; she
didn’t even eat out of what she cooked. She cleaned the whole living room and
the entire house.
When she was coming the second time, she insisted on stocking the house
with necessary foodstuff and the like. As far as she believed, we were wasting
all our money on irrelevant things. She was not only furious about her findings
in my kitchen; she was disappointed. She only found cartons of beer, empty
crates of soft drinks and containers. There was nothing inside.
The Saturday after, she forced me to the market, bought some foodstuff
and cooked soup and food for us to eat. She doesn’t eat outside, that was her
reason; and so, we went to the market and before I could mention Jack Robinson,
we had bought stove, gas cooker and even fridge, which only cost about N13,000
in those days. I am talking about 1983. From then on, my house took a new
shape, it became a place where I could come back to eat, have clean and already
boiled water to drink; my life generally took a better turn. I thought this was
getting serious and was actually helpless; that was how I got trapped. It was
like caging a lion; she was so special. Even when other girls were inviting her
out to the club, she would not listen; eventually she was the one that stayed.
Jimi Solanke… The man, the Father
BY TAIWO SOLANKE
How and where do I
start to reflect on the enigma called Baba Agba, or as I fondly call him ‘my
aburo’? My dad’s relationship with me, for as long as I can remember has been
that of an older protective brother, always there with a listening ear, words
of advice and encouragement! I can say on behalf of my siblings and myself that
he’s the first best friend we all have; there’s never a dull moment around him.
He’s not one to impose his beliefs or opinions on his children, though he
involves/exposes them to his craft, his teachings are more about the benefits
of hard work, dedication, being and staying principled and most of all enjoying
and loving whatever you do!
I believe I have the coolest dad in the world, as attested to by all my friends who
consider ‘my aburo’ their dad or uncle, till date. A lot of my friends remember times shared
with him, case in point, I remember a day a few of my friends ran into him at
the Students Union Building, University of Ibadan, as we sat down he asked what
we would like to drink. I ordered an alcoholic beverage whilst my friends were
asking for soda, my dad looked at them and said, ‘ok what, so only my son
drinks alcohol? I don’t believe you people.’ He tells a joke and by the end of
the evening, everybody had his brand of alcohol; he has a knack for making
everyone around him comfortable.
I remember another incident back in my
college days (some 20 something years ago) I ran into my dad on campus; he had
come to see some of his friends at the Theatre department, on seeing me at the
department he asked what I was doing there because I was not a theatre arts
major. I told him I was there for rehearsals for a production I was playing a
lead role in. First, the look that greeted me back was surprise, then it slowly
turned to pride, then he went around letting everybody know ‘my son is playing
a lead in a production on the same stage we founded, I am a proud father.’
‘My aburo’ is one of the most intense human
beings I’ve ever come across in my entire life. This ‘intenseness’ stems from
his very passionate love for life and everything he believes in, some of his
attributes, I admire the most are his passion for giving. Jimi will gladly give
the shirt off his back without batting an eyelid. He’s very selfless, very
principled and uncompromising (sometimes to the point of rigidness), there have
been so many situations where his principles could have been compromised by
accepting a position, or influencing a decision with huge financial gains, without
as much as a second thought ‘my aburo’ turns them all down much to my chagrin.
And when I ask him why, he answers in his booming baritone ‘Taiiiwoo, I want to be able to live with
myself in peace, sleep well at night and not have nightmares, or have people
rain curses on my head everyday.’
Jimi Solanke has touched so many lives
with his gifts and talents, especially children, hence his
moniker Baba Ewe. Every day, I hear people I’ve
never met before say at the mention of my dad’s name… “Oh, I remember that man from Storyland,
I never used to miss that programme” or “some of my best childhood memories
were the stories from Storyland,”
these are people I run into here in the US. Every time I hear these comments,
I’m humbled, because to me, he is just my father. I have since learnt to appreciate
him the more, value his accomplishments the more, respect his gifts and talents
the more, while understanding that I have a treasure that I can learn
so much from at my
disposal.
In conclusion, being Jimi
Solanke's son has been a blessing in so many ways, it has open doors of
opportunities, but most importantly, I've learnt how to be the best man, father
and husband, I can be from the best dad in the world.
Happy 70th Birthday ‘my aburo!’
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