Veteran Yoruba actor Lere Paimo has said he began his acting career in 1958, four years before his colleague, Pete Edochie.
Paimo made the claim during an interview with actor Kunle Afod, posted on YouTube. He was responding to Edochie’s claim that he started acting in 1962 at the age of 15.
According to Paimo, he was already active in acting before Edochie entered the profession.
The claim followed Edochie’s challenge to actors who say they started their careers before him to come forward and prove it.
“I started acting in 1958. I met Hubert Ogunde, who was senior to me and others, and there were big movies produced back then,” Paimo said.
Edochie had recently pointed to his 1962 performance in William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice as proof of how long he has been involved in acting.
Paimo, however, said the history of Yoruba travelling theatre also showed that indigenous Nigerian theatre came before English-language film productions. He specifically referred to late theatre legend Hubert Ogunde and the earlier Yoruba travelling-theatre tradition.
