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The citation that preceded the announcement of Taiwo Ajai-Lycett as the recipient of the “Industry Merit Award” at the eighth Africa Magic Viewers Choice Award (AMVCA) on Saturday, May 14, 2022, read like a who-is-who in Nigeria and rightfully so.
As soon as her name was called, the 81-year old actress danced slowly to the stage while thunderous applause rang from her colleagues in the movie industry who all stood in respect. Her speech when she received the award was delivered with regalia. She spoke passionately of home and her wish to die in Nigeria. She thanked the cast of Tinsel, the longest-running Africa Magic series that brought her back to Nigeria from the UK where she lived for more than 60 years.
The Eko Hotel hall went quiet as she took centre-stage and spoke with her head held high in dignity while the hall soaked in everything said. When she was done, applause rang louder again in a show of appreciation to the acting amazon whose career spanning more than 40 years began when a lot of those in the hall were not even born.
Born on February 3, 1941, as the first child of a set of twin girls in colonial Lagos, Nigeria, Ajai-Lycett had her education at Mt Carmel Convent School, Lagos, before proceeding to Methodist Girls’ High School also in Lagos. While in secondary school, however, she got pregnant at the age of 15 and became a mother at 16. She had to drop out of school and according to her, was treated as a maid in the house.
Her father forced her to marry Adebanji Adefolaju, the man responsible for the pregnancy, but he died in a train accident in 1957, the year she gave birth. She enrolled in evening classes before finally getting a job as an assistant teacher at St. Paul’s Catholic School at Costain, in the Ojo area of Lagos
“Back then, you couldn’t work as a teacher without a Grade II qualification, I wrote the qualification exam and passed but my father refused to pay. He said he couldn’t foot the bills only for me to go and get pregnant again. Nobody trusted me,” She told The Nation in a 2019 interview.
Out of blues, she got a letter from David Akinduro, a mutual friend who lived in the UK. In the letter, he told her he was aware of her predicament and without mincing words, told her he wanted to marry her if she was willing to come to the UK. She was 18 then.
“I dissected my situation noting that my father didn’t wish to educate me, and I stood the risk of getting pregnant for someone else, again, which was what everyone expected of me.
“I went to my mother and showed her the letter. She went to my father and showed him the letter and my father refused. I told them I wasn’t going to stay back and serve as a maid in my father’s house. I wrote back to my suitor that I would marry him and live with him in England. So, I processed my passport and travelled to meet him in the UK.”
The marriage however was rife with domestic violence. While he went to school, she worked and took courses at Christine Shaw School of Beauty Science in London, where she received a certificate in cosmetology. At the completion of her husband’s academic programme, she left the house one day and dropped a note explaining why she did not want to continue the marriage.
It was in 1966 that she had her first acting opportunity. She had gone to a rehearsal of a play by Wole Soyinka, The Lion and the Jewel, a two-act comedy directed by William Gaskill at the Royal Court Theatre in London. After being given an opportunity, her artistic flair was discovered thereby signalling the beginning of what would be an illustrious career. Although she was still working in the corporate world, encouragement from directors and invitations from producers urged her to pursue acting as a second choice.
In 1968, she met Thomas Lycett who at the time was working with Shell Corporation, one of the prominent oil companies headquartered in the UK, and the two got married. By then, her acting career was in full swing and in 1972, she made the decision to leave her corporate career and face acting.
She joined the Traverse Theatre Group for the Edinburgh Festival. She was later in a string of television and stage shows. “In 1973, she was in Amadu Maddy’s play ‘Life Everlasting’ at the Africa Centre, London, and later in the year, she was in Peter Nichols’ ‘The National Health’ during the Festival of British Theatre. In 1976, she played the lead role in Yemi Ajibade’s ‘Parcel Post’ at the Royal Court Theatre. While in England, she also featured in the British sitcom, ‘Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em.’”
1971 was when she started to entertain the idea of returning to Nigeria and her husband also encouraged her to.
She said: “I came to rebuild, because I believe in the industry and how it should be structured. By the time I came back to Nigeria, I had become notable. I was known in the acting world and business.”
In 1975, she was invited to join the staff of Africa Magazine published by Raph Uwechue. She later became the pioneer editor of Africa Woman magazine.
Following her return to Nigeria, she began to appear in movies as she shuffled between the two countries. In 1993, her husband of 25 years, Lycett died. After his death, she began to spend more time in Nigeria and even built a private school with a hostel in Egbe, in Ikotun, a Lagos suburb.
In 2006, Ajai-Lycett was attacked in the house, robbed and raped. According to her, the attack was orchestrated by her staff who wanted to take over the school and accused her of being high-handed.
The traumatic incident did not end her drive. For someone who had endured teenage pregnancy, domestic abuse and the death of her husband after 25 years of marriage, this was one of a series of unfortunate incidents she has gone through and came out stronger.
After the incident, she shut down the school and left Egbe. The same year, she was conferred with the award of the Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON) by President Olusegun Obasanjo for her outstanding contribution to the movie industry.
She has appeared in high profile movies and theatre production in Nigeria among which are Oloibiri, Dazzling Mirage, The Inheritors and Hear Word.
The production of Tinsels brought her back to Nigeria again as she admitted on stage at the AMVCA and it has been worth the return. The series which began airing in 2008 also received a special AMVCA recognition award.
The 81-year-old actor is home now inspiring younger colleagues and showing on screen the definition of being an award-winning actor. She deserves all the applause she is getting now as it is long overdue.
Joke Silva, another legendary Nollywood actor, described Ajai-Lycett as a legend while presenting the AMVCA Industry Merit Award to Ajai-Lycett on Saturday, May 14, 2022.
The post Taiwo Ajai-Lycett – How 81-year Old Actress Captured The Heart Of Thousands On The AMVCA Stage appeared first on Nigerian Entertainment Today.
Source: TheNet
