07/02/2025
Moses Olaiya Adejumo (Baba Sala): The Grand Living Legend of Nigerian Theatre - Soile Oluwaseun
It is not in doubt that the Nigerian Film Industry, with all its glitz and glamour today, takes its root from the Yoruba Travelling Theatre movement of the 60s, 70s and the early 80s. Veteran actors of that era included the likes of Hubert Ogunde, Moses Adejumo Olaiya (Baba Sala), Adeyemi Afolayan (Ade Love), Duro Ladipo, Kola Ogunmola, Ishola Ogunmola (Isho Pepe), Oyin Adejobi, Lere Paimo (Eda Onile Ola) and so many others. It is true that Hubert Ogunde is known for his tragic films and plays like Jaiyesimi, Aiye and Aropin Nโteniyan to mention just a few and Ade Afolayan is famous for his love films but the Awada Kerikeri group are renowned for their comic films and plays. Undoubtedly, the history of comedy, TV drama and stage play in Nigeria cannot be told without mentioning the contributions of Moses Olaiya Adejumo popularly known as Baba Sala.
Moses Adejumo Olaiya is an accomplished entertainer, theatre artiste, film maker and ingenuous creator of the popular comic character, Baba Sala, who bestrode the Nigerian performance stage like a theatrical colossus for close to three decades (mid 60s to early 90s). He made waves on stage, radio, television and cinema particularly among Yoruba audience who never got weary of his comical expressions and personality. His performance cut across different ethnic groups, for instance an Ibo or a Hausa man watching him could laugh off his head even though he couldnโt understand what he is saying, but from merely seeing the way he gesticulates, he is forced to laugh. As a phenomenon in those days, Baba Salaโs productions were always box office successes because of their creative plots, enthralling humour and clowning of the central dramatic character around who the stories were woven.
Before he introduced comedy into the society, there had only been court jesters found in palaces to entertain and make kings laugh. It can rightly be said that he was born a clown. He is a man born to make people laugh and he has never failed in that respect. Everything he wears, does and says provokes one thing: laughter, rib-cracking laughter. โIn those days, people came to watch us at the National Theatre with analgesics tablets in their bags and pockets in readiness for a laughing session which would result in headache. People would laugh until their heads ache and they become tired. I have always wanted people to laugh and if I am on stage and people are not laughing, I will not be happy at all,โ He once recalled.
Baba Sala can easily be recognized as a comedian by seeing him dressed on stage. His usual outfit is made up of a riot of Western and African modes, a heavy padded garment with an antiquated, war-veteran coat. His entire neck is masked by an outrageously big bow-tie made of cardboard and on his wrist rests a big wrist clock of all time in place of a wristwatch. His face was always adorned by signboard-like spectacles that are about ten times the size of normal sunglasses. He has grey hairs and in his mouth could be seen a long antique pipe. He cuts the ideal image of Harlequin in multi-colours dresses.
Incidentally, not many know that he started out in life as a civil servant, a sanitary inspector. This he combined with a part-time teaching work and the daily thrift collection popularly called Ajo among the Yorubas. In the late evenings, he would transform from a thrift collector into a highlife musician. In 1964, he led a group known as the Federal Rhythm Dandies, which was the band through which Baba Sala launched himself into stardom. The band was known for its quality juju music which was always on hand at different social gatherings. Interestingly, among his bandโs men was Sunday Adegeye, better known as King Sunny Ade, who was his lead guitarist. Sunny Ade later left to become a music maestro and king of Juju music in Nigeria.
Moses Olaiya became a full-time professional theatre comedian in 1969 after he disbanded his Moses Olaiya Concert Party and came up with the more lasting Moses Olaiya International Alawada Theatre Limited, which travelled extensively round Nigerian towns and cities. He had played a vital role in uplifting the image of indigenous Nigerian cinema in and outside the African continent. For example, he has produced films that had been shown in countries like Benin Republic, Burkina Faso, Germany, Belgium and the United States. He has also gone on foreign tours such as the one to Britain in 1981. These, together with many brilliantly produced performances, had contributed immensely to his popularity as a first-rate artiste.
The advent of the first television station in Nigeria, The Western Nigeria Television (WNTV) equally impacted on the career of this maestro of hilarious comedy, for he was given a one-year contract of drama sketches at the station based on the directive of the then legendary Premier of the Western Region, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, who had at some occasions witnessed the enriching performances of Baba Sala. In those good old days, at 7pm every Wednesday night on NTA Ibadan, many people in Ibadan and all its surrounding towns and villages in the South West usually would rush home to watch his Alawada Comedy Show. It is on record that he virtually wrote all his plays in which more often than not he was the lead character.
The Alawada Group has staged 43 plays, waxed records and appeared in well over 520 television plays. According to him, โWe do over 52 scripts per year and we did that for ten years.โ He has added a new dimension to stage shows with the introduction of film inserts. Prominent among his films are Orun Mooru (Itโs Hot Yonder), Aare Agbaye (the World President) and Mosebolatan (I thought wealth had finished), Agba Man, Obe โGbona (Hot Soup), Return Match, Diamond, and Ana Gomina (Governorโs In-Law). Before the introduction of films into his comedy life, he featured on television about twice a week until the mid-90s.
Moses Olaiya Adejumo picked the first award for his film Mosebolatanin in which he played the lead role, in the Performing Art Awards Night (1986 edition) organized by the Nigerian Television Authority and the Concord Press of Nigeria. Mosebolatan knocked out two rival nominations at the award night- Ogun Ajaiye by the Ojo Ladipo Theatre Group and Kanakana by Adejumo (Beton Films). The Punch of Monday June 9, 1986 described Mosebolatan as โone film that combines tradition with comedy and is presented with a touch of professionalism.โThe Guardian of Sunday, June 22, 1986 also described the films as โdecidedly epic in every other aspect save duration: its humour, casting, continuity, dramatization, costumes, artistic finesse, photography and much less so, magical realization.โ
Before becoming a giant in Yoruba Cinema, Baba Sala was inspired by various things and people. He explains that he gets inspiration and ideas for making people laugh everywhere. For example, by listening to two people quarreling and sifting out funny utterances from them, which he would later develop; from newspapers, stories and scenarios and sometimes, his ideas come in his dreams. Another source of inspiration is the childhood tales of the tortoise which his mother used to tell him. The tortoise, as we know him in tales, is like Baba Salaโs character. He is comical and witty, believing he is the wisest creature on earth. The great comedian of our time is also inspired by events around him. An event like the death of Chief Obafemi Awolowo inspired him to write a comic version of the life of the late political leader.
October 21, 2014
