Nigeria actress’ delightful plans for Kenya

By Joe Ombuor

Famous Nollywood actress Clarion Chukwurah is the perfect example of how talent can flourish if discovered and nourished early.

She represents how parental indifference to early signs of their children’s natural endowment can ruin an otherwise promising career.

In a revealing chat with The Standard, Chukwurah, who has been visiting Kenya, says she intends to collaborate with local actors and producers to make movies.

She also spoke on the secrets behind Nigeria’s movie industry success.

Clarion Chukwurah speaks during the interview. [PHOTOS: EVANS HABIL/STANDARD]

"I have found Nairobi ideal for making movies, given the city’s open spaces compared to overcrowded Lagos. Nairobi National Park is only minutes away from the city centre," she says.

The actress, who met budding Kenyan actors during her tour to grace a cultural and fundraising initiative by the Association of Nigerian Women in Kenya (ANWIK) said her Jade Productions Company would embark on her ambitious plan in the new year.

"Kenyans can make great actors and actresses just like their Nollywood counterparts. All they need is to take film as a profession and not a pastime or hobby," she said.

"Nollywood stars are well trained in film, theatre and speech making. They go to University to study just that and make acting a lifelong commitment," she said.

"That is what makes them stand out as the best in Africa," added Chukwurah, who urged upcoming Kenyan actors and actresses to look at acting as a career, like law, medicine or engineering.

Stumbling block

A mother of two sons, she said actors and actresses must be ready to start humbly with little remuneration, even without any pay until they break even.

Chukwurah advised parents not to be a stumbling block to their children’s talent and gave an account of her own life to illustrate how parents can be a hindrance to potential illustrious careers.

Things have not always been easy.

"I was five, an age when most children are blank about the world when I told my father that I wanted to be an actor when I grew up. He stared at me in disbelief without uttering a word, assuming that it was the usual child prattle that deserved no reaction from a parent," she reminisces.

Six years later, her father died. Her mother wanted her to be a lawyer and talking of becoming an actress was to her an affront to which she would react with raw and astonishing anger.

Once in high school, away from home and her mother’s eyes, her talent quickly burgeoned.

She was 14 when she first took the stage as a trainee actress. From then, all systems were set for her future career.

"Later, at the University of Ile Ife where I did my undergraduate Bachelor of Arts degree in speech making, I was an actress in the academic community," added Chukwurah. When she later joined the University of Ibadan, her teachers talked to her mother to mollify her. By the age of 18, she was starring in a local soap opera.

She took to advertising, and made good money to assist her family.

Best actress

"About the same time, I was voted Africa’s best actress of the year at the African Film Festivals in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. I was headed for the skies in my chosen career," she added.

Some of her teachers included the celebrated Prof Wole Soyinka and Ola Rotimi.

She has since starred in movies such as Money Power, Days of Bondage and Mirror in the Sun.

A passionate supporter of the less fortunate in society, Ms Chukwurah is the brains behind Clarioin Chukwurah initiative that supports the less privileged women and children in health and education sectors in Nigeria and neighboring Cameroon.

"That explains why I readily accepted the ANWIK invitation to come to Kenya. I found it irresistible when they mentioned the welfare of helpless breast cancer victims in their host country among their priorities as an association," she says.

She said she would do her best to promote Kenyan talent.

"(Prime Minister Raila) Odinga met with a cross section of Nigerian film stars in Lagos recently and asked us to help promote the industry in Kenya," she recalls.