Renowned Yoruba actor Adewale Adeoye, also known by his stage name Adewale Elesho, has claimed that his birthright as an albino person contributed to his rise to fame.
In an interview on Sunday, the Nollywood star revealed to media personality Adedoyin Kukoyi that, back then, having an albino child was not common because the child’s parents were not the same skin tone as him.
He disclosed that numerous people visited him out of curiosity, but that parents occasionally reprimanded their children whenever they went to meet him.
Elesho claims that his mother, a merchant, was upset when he was born because she thought his complexion would lead people to believe that her Lebanese supplier was his father. He told the story.
“I became popular since my birth. The news got everywhere that a white man was born. Some will scold their wards for coming to our house because they had given birth to an albino. Some will even wonder if I’m Chinese. Many people come to look at me out of curiosity.
My birth, too, was a little difficult. My late mother said the day I was born was a day of sorrow for her because she was a dark-complexioned trainer who sold breakable plates that were being supplied to her by the Lebanese.
So when I was born in a hospital in Ibadan, my mother wept for the suspicion that might arise that she had had something with one of the Lebanese. But when my dad came, my mother said he carried me and started jubilating because I look like his grandmother”.
Elesho described how Yekinni Adebola, his older brother, would battle tooth and nail to avoid being branded an albino, and how his brother knew he didn’t take it as a challenge when Yekinni Adebola acknowledged he was one.
Yemi Elesho, a well-known creator of skits who is renowned for his parts in comedic skits, is the son of Adewale.
In 2016, Elesho’s colleague comic Arole introduced him to the world of Instagram skit creation, which sent him on a path to fame and success.
