Adesewa Mama Eko Ogunde occupies an important place in the history of Nigerian travelling theatre. Although she is frequently remembered as one of the wives of Hubert Ogunde, the celebrated dramatist, musician, actor and theatre organiser, Adesewa built a distinct identity within the theatrical company associated with his name.
She was an actress, an early collaborator in Ogunde’s professional theatrical project and the manager of the Ogunde Theatre at the time of her death in 1970. Her career provides an important example of the contribution women made to the growth of commercial theatre in Nigeria during the middle decades of the twentieth century.
Travelling theatre required far more than talented performers and memorable scripts. Companies had to transport actors, musicians, costumes, instruments, scenery and stage equipment from one town to another. Performances had to be advertised, rehearsals organised and members accommodated during long journeys. As a performer and manager, Adesewa stood at the centre of this demanding theatrical system.
Adesewa Mama Eko Ogunde and the Beginnings of a Theatre Company
Adesewa appears in historical accounts under different spellings, including Adesewa and Adeshewa. She was also known as Clementina before becoming widely recognised as Mrs Adesewa Ogunde and, later, Mama Eko.
Her relationship with Hubert Ogunde began during a formative period in the development of his theatrical career. In 1945, Ogunde established the African Music Research Party, an organisation created as his work moved beyond performances connected with churches and towards a professional company supported by paying audiences.
In September 1946, Hubert Ogunde and Clementina applied for passports and visas to travel to Britain. Their applications were initially refused, a decision that attracted public attention and newspaper criticism. They eventually received the necessary documents in 1947 and travelled to Britain.
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The journey placed Adesewa beside Ogunde during an important period of professional development. In London, Ogunde studied theatrical movement and dance while observing performance methods that would later influence the visual presentation of his productions.
Adesewa’s participation in the journey demonstrates her early involvement in the developing theatrical organisation. She was present as the company was expanding its ambitions, refining its performance style and seeking opportunities beyond Nigeria.
From the African Music Research Party to Ogunde Theatre
The organisation associated with Hubert Ogunde changed considerably during its long history. It began as the African Music Research Party in 1945 and became the Ogunde Theatre Party after the 1947 journey to Britain. By 1960, the company was known as the Ogunde Theatre.
These changes reflected the organisation’s development from an emerging dramatic group into a major professional travelling theatre company. Its productions combined music, dance, dramatic action, political commentary, religious subjects and Yoruba cultural traditions.
The company travelled extensively across Nigeria, performing before audiences in towns and cities. It also appeared elsewhere in West Africa and later undertook international tours.
Ogunde’s theatre grew from a much older performance heritage. Yoruba theatrical traditions, particularly the Alarinjo travelling performance tradition, had existed for generations before the establishment of the company. Ogunde’s achievement was to reshape elements of these traditions within a modern commercial organisation that relied on ticket sales, publicity, touring schedules and regular performances.
The company was also closely connected with family life. Hubert Ogunde’s wives and children participated in productions and helped sustain the organisation. Some appeared on stage, while others supported the company’s administration and touring activities.
Adesewa eventually became one of its most important organisers.
Actress, Performer and Mama Eko
Adesewa was not merely an administrator working behind the stage. She was also an actress who performed with the company and became one of its recognised female figures.
A complete record of all her theatrical appearances has not been preserved in one published catalogue. However, historical accounts identify her as a prominent performer within the Ogunde organisation.
Her public identity became closely connected with the name Mama Eko. The Ogunde Theatre presented a production titled Mama Eko in 1968, and later accounts associated Adesewa’s popular name with her prominent role in the production.
“Eko” is the Yoruba name for Lagos, the city that became a major centre of Nigerian theatre, journalism, popular music and entertainment. The title Mama Eko therefore carried strong cultural meaning and became the name by which Adesewa was remembered among audiences and within the Ogunde theatrical tradition.
Her work was particularly significant at a time when professional stage careers were not always regarded as respectable occupations for women. Travelling performers often faced social prejudice, while women working in public entertainment encountered additional criticism.
Despite these pressures, Adesewa developed a career that placed her within one of Nigeria’s most successful theatrical organisations. She performed before audiences, participated in touring productions and assumed managerial responsibility within the company.
Managing the Ogunde Theatre
Adesewa’s most important documented responsibility was her position as manager of the Ogunde Theatre. Contemporary accounts sometimes used the period term “manageress”, but her responsibility was that of a manager within a large travelling organisation.
Managing such a company demanded discipline, planning and constant attention. The troupe had to move actors, dancers, musicians, costumes, musical instruments, scenery and other stage materials between performance locations.
Rehearsals had to be arranged, members prepared for journeys and performances promoted to local audiences. Transport and accommodation also had to be coordinated, particularly during extended tours.
The company’s schedule could involve travelling long distances by road before preparing a stage and performing before an audience that same day or evening. Any breakdown in communication, transport or organisation could threaten a production.
Adesewa’s managerial title reflected her responsibility within this demanding system. She helped keep the company functioning between performances and supported the practical organisation that allowed its artistic work to continue.
Her position also challenges the traditional presentation of Nigerian theatre history as the story of a few celebrated male playwrights and company leaders. Successful travelling theatre was a collective achievement.
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Playwrights and directors depended on actors, dancers, musicians, drivers, costume workers, organisers and managers. Adesewa represented the professional and administrative labour that remained essential even when it received less public recognition.
International Travel and the 1969 Tour
By the end of the 1960s, the Ogunde Theatre had established an international reputation. In 1969, the company travelled with a large troupe to Britain and continental Europe, presenting a production titled Oh Ogunde.
The tour included appearances in Britain and Italy. Adesewa participated in this important period of international performance and remained a central figure within the company.
Overseas appearances carried considerable cultural significance for Nigerian travelling theatre companies. They allowed performers to present Nigerian music, dance, drama and cultural traditions to audiences outside West Africa.
The tours also demonstrated that an African travelling company could organise large productions for international stages while maintaining a theatrical identity rooted in Nigerian experience.
For Adesewa, the journey represented another stage in a professional life that had already included the earlier British visit of 1947. More than two decades after that first journey, she was still travelling with the organisation and helping it operate on a much larger scale.
She returned to Nigeria and continued her responsibilities as a performer and manager. Within a year, however, the company suffered a devastating tragedy.
The Fatal Journey to Ilesha
On 2 September 1970, members of the Ogunde Theatre were travelling to Ilesha for a performance when their vehicle was involved in an accident near Sagamu.
Adesewa died in the accident.
Her death brought an abrupt end to a career that had developed alongside the growth of modern Nigerian travelling theatre. She died while carrying out the work that had defined much of her adult life, travelling with the company to another performance.
The loss was both a family tragedy and an organisational crisis. The Ogunde Theatre had lost an actress and the person responsible for its management.
A travelling company with scheduled performances could not continue without administrative leadership. Tours, rehearsals, transportation and productions still had to be organised if the theatre was to survive.
Following Adesewa’s death, the company underwent a major reorganisation. Ibisomi Ogunde subsequently assumed the managerial position. The succession demonstrated the importance of the office Adesewa had occupied and the need for another senior member of the organisation to continue her work.
The company survived the tragedy and continued its theatrical activities, but Adesewa’s death remained an important moment in the history of the Ogunde family and theatre.
Adesewa’s Place in Nigerian Theatre History
Adesewa’s legacy should not be reduced to her marriage to Hubert Ogunde. Marriage placed her within the Ogunde family, but her historical importance came from her participation in the theatre.
She accompanied Ogunde during an early period of international ambition. She performed as an actress, became publicly associated with the name Mama Eko and managed a company that helped transform professional theatre in Nigeria.
The broader Ogunde theatrical tradition later contributed to the movement of Yoruba travelling theatre into television and cinema. Hubert Ogunde eventually became a filmmaker, while other practitioners from the travelling theatre tradition carried performers, stories and production methods into Nigerian screen culture.
Adesewa belonged to the earlier theatrical institution from which many of these later developments emerged. Her contribution was made within the world of touring productions, live audiences and road journeys that connected performers with communities across Nigeria.
Her life also illustrates how cultural institutions are built through collective labour. Public memory often concentrates on a famous playwright, director or company founder. The contributions of managers, performers and organisers may gradually disappear from popular accounts.
Remembering Adesewa restores one of those essential workers to the centre of the story.
Preserving the Ogunde Heritage
The Ogunde Living History Museum in Ososa preserves objects and information connected with Hubert Ogunde, his family and the theatre company.
The museum’s collections include touring vehicles, costumes, recordings, stage materials, film effects, photographs, personal belongings and information about the Ogunde family.
These materials are important to the preservation of Nigerian cultural history. Theatre history does not survive only through published plays and biographies. It can also be found in programmes, newspaper advertisements, passports, photographs, recordings, costumes, correspondence and tour documents.
Further study of such records may reveal more about Adesewa’s performances, travels and managerial responsibilities. They may also help later generations understand how Nigerian travelling theatre companies functioned during the years before television and cinema became dominant forms of popular entertainment.
Preserving these materials ensures that the contributions of performers and organisers such as Mama Eko are not lost.
Conclusion
Adesewa Mama Eko Ogunde was an actress, an early collaborator and the manager of the Ogunde Theatre at the time of her death. Her professional life unfolded within one of the most influential organisations in modern Nigerian theatre.
She participated in the company’s international ambitions, performed before audiences and helped manage the complex movement of a travelling theatrical organisation. Her death near Sagamu on 2 September 1970 ended a career that had taken her from Nigerian stages to performances and professional experiences abroad.
The appointment of Ibisomi Ogunde as manager after the accident showed how necessary Adesewa’s role had been to the organisation.
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Mama Eko was not simply standing beside a famous theatre pioneer. She was working within the institution, appearing before its audiences and helping to keep the Ogunde Theatre moving.
Author’s Note
The story of Adesewa “Mama Eko” Ogunde reminds us that Nigerian travelling theatre was built through the combined work of performers, musicians, organisers and managers. Her career demonstrates that women were active participants in the development of modern Nigerian performance, even when their contributions received less public attention. Remembering Mama Eko allows us to see the Ogunde Theatre not only as the achievement of one celebrated man, but as a cultural institution sustained by the discipline, creativity and labour of an entire company.
References
Barber, Karin. The Generation of Plays: Yoruba Popular Life in Theater. Indiana University Press, 2003.
Clark, Ebun. Hubert Ogunde: The Making of Nigerian Theatre. Oxford University Press, 1979.
Igili, Ogochukwu Jennifer. Political Theatre in Nigeria: Faces, Phases and Contending Forces. University of Amsterdam research repository.
Ìbíyẹmí, Ayọ̀délé. “Hubert Ogunde.” The Republic, 7 March 2022.
Nwakunor, Gregory Austin. “Hubert Ogunde: A Centenary Birthday Dance for the Doyen of Theatre.” The Guardian Nigeria, 10 July 2016.
Ogunde Living History Museum. “Biography: Hubert Ogunde’s Story.”
Ogunde Living History Museum. “Article on Ogunde.”
