Adebowale ‘Debo’ Adedayo is a popular actor, comedian, content creator and activist. He was recently on set of the soon-to-be-released biopic, ‘Awujale’ and spoke to ROTIMI IGE, why it is important to document cultural historical identities, his experience playing the role of a young Awujale, among other topics.
Why do you think it is important to document the history of Awujale?
When we talk of great kings in Nigeria, the Awujale is not just one, he is an embodiment of culture. For men like these, we are not able to fully understand their journey, where they are coming from and what they have been able to do in entirety. It is all about what we see and hear sometimes. So, for me, biopics allow you access them. You are able to get a glimpse of how it is, so yes, I am very excited to be here.
You are playing a major role a version of Awujale in his 30s. Are you not worried?
I am not worried, instead, I am honoured to be playing him. While I am humbled by that fact, I am also very careful about making sure that I represent his younger version definitely – not exactly how he was, but in a way that glorifies that time of his life. While doing my research and talking to the director about his person, especially that age, the director told me that there was a bit of his personality in me because the Awujale is very tough, strict and highly principled. So, I am not worried, I think I am just humbled by the fact that I was considered good enough to be picked.
What traits of yours will you employ to carry out that character in the best way you know how to?
Like I mentioned, research. I also like to bring a new style into every role. You should not be able to see ‘Daddy wa’ in a younger version of Awujale because the characters are very different. For me, I always just want to ensure that I am doing right by the character. And the character that we have here is a younger version of the Awujale that is not a fictional character, he is real.
He is inspired by true life events. So, we are not trying to create drama or what not or make a figment of our imagination, it is a role that is based on how he lived, which factors in stories of his time. What I am simply trying to do is to merge the actor in me with the character. I want to stay with his personality at the time and try to use my natural talents to bring the personality to life.
Tell us about the preparations you made to fit into this character prior to the time you came on set?
Truthfully, the Yoruba genre is very different and yes, though my mother is from Ijebu, my father is from Abeokuta. I am a full-blooded Ogun indigene. But then, the way I speak Yoruba is not the same way Ijebu people speak it. But, glory to God and of course, thanks to the professionalism of the entire crew behind this project. There is a dialogue coach on set, so he guides us. Also, largely because I am playing his younger version, at that time, it wasn’t as if the Yoruba was that deep. This was someone that was preparing to go to school and went abroad at some point before coming back. So that really helped me and I was able to tone it down where the dialogue coach thought that I needed to and heighten it as needed.
Also, I would always go back to research just to understand the person I was asked to portray. I have not had the opportunity to meet with him, but of course, even if I meet with him, there are definitely a number of things he won’t remember because I am playing him in his 30s. But from what I heard and who I spoke to, it’s more or less just trying to ensure that the characters are not conflicting. People who knew him personally at that age should not see me in the film and say that is not Sikiru.
So, I need to be sure that I was able to depict him well and from what I got, Awujale, at that age, was someone that was focused, knew what he wanted and loved his mother so much. There were many high moments between him and his mother. Sometimes, I see myself in the same situation.
Do you think we are doing enough to document history?
I have always been an advocate of documenting our history. One major reason is that if we don’t do it, others will do it for us, and they will do it wrongly. So, we are in the best position to tell our own stories. I have always said that Nigeria has been so blessed. There is no tribe or locality in Nigeria that you are going to pick that you will not find hundreds of thousands of stories.
The stories are inexhaustible and original. At the end of the day, why are we focusing so much on stories that are not real? As dramatists, we always try to bring to life figment of our imagination. But then we have been so blessed with so many original stories that even people all over the world are looking for and have been trying to recreate those stories. So, I am so excited that now we have started to do it by ourselves and we must continue to do so.
This is to ensure that our culture, our tradition is preserved and that the history that we have is not altered.
In your job as an actor, how do you draw the line between spirituality and acting as a lot of people consider these things ritualistic? What is the line for you?
For me, is there a line? I don’t know yet. Maybe I have not been presented with a script like that, or a scenario where I will say ‘Ah, this one pass my power!’. I am a very spiritual person, I may not belong to the school of thought of the most popular religions that we have, but I am highly spiritual. I believe that spiritual controls the physical and anywhere I am, I connect to nature a lot. In fact, when we were doing a scene was at a river side, I immediately connected to the creator and I said prayers. I was praying in my mind. I wasn’t scared. I was praying for blessings and I was feeling some type of way. I strongly believe in God. I believe in love and if you even check the most popular religion, they always preach love.
When I see rain fall, the sun shining and I see different things happening, I know the world is too powerful; the things that happen are too powerful for there not to be a spiritual underline or a supernatural force controlling the activities of men. Sometimes you find out that you are doing some certain things, but you do not have control over it. So, for me as an actor, I believe I am there, I am doing my job; there is no job that does not have hazards. I get there, I get on stage and once I am able to connect to the spiritual, I tell God I am in His hand. Actors are very brave, you just go into a place you don’t even know what is happening there, you just enter, you carry camera and you start to shoot.
What is your takeaway from the Awujale project?
I think it is just a further push from myself. Playing that role helped me see the things he stood for and the decisions he took. Even when it was only him taking decisions, I kept thinking “Yes, I want to be this man. He had a lot of reasons to back down. At a point, they kept going back and forth on something, he told them that if he will accept this thing again, He would do things his way. He didn’t allow anyone rubbish the traditional institution that our fore fathers tried to protect and that we are trying to protect and they had to agree.
Till date, he is still being celebrated. Everyone is still talking about him and from all the people that I spoke to, when you mention Awujale, the first thing they will tell you is he is principled. So, my takeaway will be; that thing that you are doing that people think you are stubborn, so far you believe, don’t live in delusion. If you know that what you are doing doesn’t make sense, you need to stop. But if you are personally convinced that what you are doing is right, you should just continue what you are doing.
