Veteran Yoruba actor, Abdulganiu Olayeni, popularly known as Alapinni Oosa, tells Muzhng about his experiences in taking the role of a herbalist in movies and his life journey so far
You’ve been acting for a while now. What motivated you to take up a career in acting?
It is passion; the passion for the job got me there because when I watched our fathers on television back then, the likes of Duro Ladipo, Kola Ogunmola and others, I started developing an interest in it. I didn’t know how I got into acting; I just saw myself doing it but I suffered because I started from scratch. I learnt from my predecessors. I worked very hard, from one village to another before I returned to Lagos.
For how long have you been acting now?
Looking back at where I started, I must have spent about 48 years in this industry.
What was the first movie you featured in?
(Laughs)… I can’t remember the first movie I acted in; even from when they started recording on VHS (Video Home System), I can’t count or estimate the number of movies I have featured in. It’s like trying to count the number of days an Aboki (Hausa man) has spent in Sabongeri (a place where they gather in a non-indigenous state).
The one I can remember very well is the one I was cast as Alapinni, and it was a TV programme, not a movie because I remember when I left my boss and we went on a tour and I came back to Lagos; that was early 1984 or 85 or so.
At some point, I had challenges. I was sick for about a year. It happened when I went to a town to anchor a programme as a Master of Ceremony but the programme was that of the elders (in traditional practice). So, I said many things, I was loose with some words and when I left the stage, my body changed.
What caused it?
Well, we didn’t know what caused it; we only knew when I regained my health because when I left the event that day, the kind of sleep that I had was one that I had not experienced before. It was in an Ijebu town and I was there for three months for treatment. I wouldn’t like to mention the name of the town. My wife later traced me to the place with one of the boys under my tutelage. He and my wife came there looking for me and that was when I asked them to go and look for a vehicle to take me out of the place because I could die if I stayed there for one more night.
The day after that, my child who was four years old and living with my mum in Agege died. By the time I got home, it was the picture of that child that I picked up and was staring at and at that time, they had not even told me that my child was dead. The wife that gave birth to that child left me on the sick bed. It was my second wife that stayed with me. The other wife left with everything such that I had to beg for a mat from my landlady. It was close to a year before I could get back on my feet and many things were lost in that period. Later, I lost my first child in the house. He died in the house and we never knew till the next day that he was buried. In everything, I give thanks to God.
What’s the meaning of Alapinni that became your nickname?
As I said earlier, Alapinni is a big title in Oyo kingdom, that’s in the palace of Alaafin of Oyo. Also, among the masquerades, it’s a big position and it’s a big traditional name.
In most of your movies, you played the role of a herbalist. Why do you always take up that role?
It has become a trend lately that actors are seen making requests from their fans, urging them to buy them cars or the like. What will you say to that?
There is nothing much I can say to that than the fact that they have seen that they have worked a great deal and they have not been able to get the benefits of that work they have done. So, they want to use that profession to request their needs from their fans and those who really love them out there. A son had called me to say that they needed to talk about how to get me a car. This was after they bought a car for my friend – Lalude. I responded to him and there are people rising up to that need. I have told him that what I’m asking for is not sickness, I need the appreciation now, physically, not in a negative form and I am grateful to those that have been responding to that request.
