Last year, Adewale Oleolo took Bariga area of Lagos State by surprise, with his first one-man act titled Gbe se (lift your leg). Aside from performance, he engages in bead making and monogramming to support himself financially. Currently, he is learning how to sew clothes. In this conversation at White House, a creative centre in Bariga, Lagos, Oleolo tells Udemma Chukwuma how art saved his life after incarceration
The art of Adewale Oleolo, better known as Don Dudu, his stage name, focuses on incarceration. Most times his legs and hands are chained while performing, to depict the untold stories and experiences of those behind bars. He was once incarcerated for 18 months.
“It was not as if I committed a crime,” he explained. “It was just that I was stubborn – and my school authorities didn’t particularly like that. So, one thing led to the other and I found myself in jail,” answered the actor.
For Dudu, focusing on incarceration has become a form of advocacy, which is why he chains himself when performing. As an undergraduate at the University of Lagos, his world came crashing. “I was incarcerated where I was studying Chemical Engineering. Coming out of incarceration after 18 months, my mind was everywhere. There was no support and I was not coming out to commit a crime. I am not ashamed to tell people and those around me that I have been incarcerated for 18 months. One can get carried away in school as a youth.”
How did Dudu discover that he could do a one-man show? “I was starved of theatre performance opportunities for a year because I was at loggerheads with the company I was with. I was like a problem child to them, and everybody left me. One day I woke up and asked myself: if nobody employs you, would you just stay like that – jobless? My true life experience on campus ran through my mind. I tried to perform it. I got stuck” – another dead end. But again, after some weeks, I asked myself: can’t you write your script? So, out of that debris, that pit into which my life had crashed, I was able to gradually, with art, get to where I am today. Art saved me.”
His first experience as a solo artist, Don Dudu said: “It was the most exhilarating, and most terrifying performance, I must confess. Now, nobody was employing me. I had written this script. I had started rehashing. I called a friend of mine who organised the site-specific. We had a plan not to tell anybody that I was going to perform on my own. On the day of the performance last year, the whole of Bariga artistes, everybody – my friends, teacher – everybody was there. They wanted to watch this one-man performance.”
Trying to interpret, narrate and act a story he wrote himself, spanning different characters was no child’s play – and the putative solo artist trembled. “When I saw the crowd I froze! I wasn’t expecting such a crowd. I think this was the real explosion in my career. After this, I haven’t been to any audition from which I wasn’t selected. I became more easily accepted. Besides, I don’t think there is anybody putting up a one-man show in Bariga – playing different roles at the same time.”
His first performance, themed Gbe se, he revealed, “is a journey of a man, a chronicle of a man, true life experience with our justice system. Because if you go out there to the police station, not everybody in the prison is a criminal, and once you don’t have someone and you get to the court, you are going to be detained. It’s a crazy system. Then there is this stigmatisation that comes with it when you are freed from prison.”
To Dudu, living in Bariga influenced him to become an artist. “Bariga theatre has the strongest presence in Lagos, just as Lagos holds theatre by the throat in the country. I started theatre performance in January 2017. I have been a theatre artist for just three years – and this is so shocking to many people.”
Recalling his first play, it was in his secondary school days, as a science student. His school represented Lagos State in a French competition in the former Bendel State (now Edo and Delta states). After that, Dudu never acted until 2017 when the opportunity presented itself. “After I did a lot of odd jobs, the least I could fall back on was art,” he said, “I made this top that I’m wearing,” he added, touching the green round-neck shirt he was wearing. “I design, and I am learning to sew clothes. I started with bead making.”
Dudu has done over one hundred performances; including known plays such as the Lion and the Jewel, and King Babu by Wole Soyinka. “I have played so many prominent roles.”
What is Dudu’s dream job? “My dream job would be to perform a script written by me, a one-man show to the height I want to take it.” What height would that be? “The height of advocacy: to turn the eyes of the world into the prison world, by bringing out some of the rot and mess. To show people what they are not exposed to but which, nevertheless, are going on in the prison system. For instance, most people in the prison are not yet convicted, there is no guilty or not guilty verdict, they are on awaiting trial. Over seventy per cent of the people, for whatever excuse, are waiting for trial – the rot, the food, the inhuman condition prisoners live in prison, all sorts!”
How does he intend to achieve his set goals, since he has no sponsorship? “I think advocacy is like a rolling stone and after a while, it gathers dust, storm and people will notice. And more so, getting to that level does not mean you can’t make a new meaning. The day you decide to make new meaning out of your life, is a new foundation.
“I did one performance at the bus stop, guess” he quipped, “who could identify with it? – the area boys at the bus stop” came his excited reply, “because it was a prison story! I took the same play to Ebute, one of the deadliest areas in Bariga, the people that identify with it there were also the area boys.”
With his performance, does Dudu plan to change the mindset of the area boys – or just passing a message to them? “I think it is more of changing the mindset of both the government and the area boys – with more stress on the government side. Nobody talks about what goes on the prison cells. How many people visit the prison? A lot of people don’t know what is going on there. My play is not about me. I have been there. I have seen the rot but I was able to start from zero when I came out and built my life. It is not rosy for me, it can be better. But I have raised myself to a certain level. People look at me: this one wey don go prison before; he was supposed to be a Chemical Engineer. After incarceration, I had no formal training in theatre. I didn’t go to university for creative art. But I learnt from friends. The only link, though, was that I could draw when I was small. Even then, my parents directed that budding talent towards technical drawing, because they wanted me to study science. But see where I am today!”
What is Dudu working on now, and how is he sustaining himself?
“I am working on so many projects now. Only a lazy artist would starve. I started with bead making before acting came by accident. I was given a chance, and I took the opportunity, and here I am today.”
Leave a Reply