About three weeks ago, 27-year old
Olajumoke Orisaguna
was a complete unknown on the streets of Lagos, hawking bread. A loaf
of bread is about N100, and even with a full tray such as she carried in
her first public embrace of fame, her whole ware for a day may not be
more than N3,000, with daily profit between N300-N700.
She had
trained as a hair stylist, got married but had to leave her husband and a
daughter back home in Ire, Osun state, to ‘hustle’ as it were in Lagos.
The life of a bread seller in Lagos is easily imaginable: exposure to
the elements, to sundry abuse, including the possibility of being raped
by unruly artisans and bachelors, who will offer to buy bread and
something else along with it, if the hawker is willing.
This was Olajumoke Orisaguna’s reality until she ran into
TY Bello and
Tinie Tempah and her life changed. Today, she has been enrolled as a model. Her story has appeared in all newspapers, on
CNN, Huffington Post, and virtually everywhere online.
Two companies:
StanbicIBTC and
PayPorte
have made her their brand ambassador. The former even awarded her two
daughters scholarships up to university level. Her face has appeared on
the cover of magazines. She is now a student at Poise Finishing School,
an intern with two beauty salons, and a motivational speaker, even if
she reportedly can’t speak English.
When she went to the office of
the National Identity Management Commission to get an identity card,
NIMC also cashed in on her new found fame to use her to promote the
agency:
“Olajumoke knows she needs to NIMC. She walked into a NIMC centre yesterday unsolicited. Olajumoke is smart. Be like her.” This must be the most saccharine endorsement of Olajumoke so far.
To
crown it all, a construction company has given her a luxury apartment
in Lagos. From hawking bread in Agege, she is now within weeks, the
darling of corporate Nigeria, the poster girl for corporate social
responsibility, a landlady, and a role model. She had probably never
seen the inside of an aircraft, but a few days ago, she was on a flight
to Abuja to give a speech!
Olajumoke and her husband
Mrs
Orisaguna is Nigeria’s Cinderella. Hers is a sudden, unplanned,
unexpected, unprepared for grass to grace, rags to riches story, a kind
of
I–just-dey-waka-my-own-jeje-luck-come-jam-me-tale. It
doesn’t happen everyday. It is the kind of accident that many Nigerians
seek: accidental fame and fortune. It is perhaps the magical,
miraculous, I-don’t believe-it-but-it-is-true quality of this story that
has captured the public imagination.
Olajumoke was hawking her
bread innocently in Sabo, when she stumbled upon a photo session by that
gifted mother of twins, artist and photographer, TY Bello, working on a
series of shots for the international hip hop star, Tinie Tempah.
Olajumoke
We
have been told that Olajumoke Orisaguna ‘photobombed’ herself into the
activity. I guess she just happened to walk by trying to sell bread, and
TY Bello who is a spirit in action when she is at work, had a brain
wave and took her picture. Enormously creative, T Y Bello thinks on her
feet. When she has that her big camera in her hands, she is an agile,
inventive artist.
Her camera is a weapon for interpreting space
and reality, and for discovering new meanings. It must have occurred to
her that asking the international musician to pose with a bread seller
would give the picture a much deeper meaning, inherent in the open
contrasts and auto-suggestions. It is that split second decision that
has turned Jumoke Orisaguna into a superstar.
The shot was
brilliant, the result was impressive with people asking: ‘Who is that
girl? She will make a good model.’ TY Bello took on the challenge, and
became Olajumoke Orisaguna’s promoter, mentor, adviser, godmother, and
supporter, taking her to new heights
within three weeks.
Nobody is talking about Tempah, the main subject of the photo shoot;
the focus is on the wanderer who walked onto the set, the bread seller
who has taken the bread of the show, the
waka-pass who became
the star. I understand Tempah is quite happy; don’t be surprised then if
he composes a special song soon, titled ‘The Bread Seller!’ or
‘Photobombed’ or simply ‘Olajumoke.’
Olajumoke signs with Few Models Management Nigeria.
The
Olajumoke Orisaguna story is a perfect demonstration of the witchcraft
quality of photography and that single shot that has changed a life may
well be one of TY Bello’s most remarkable efforts in her chosen genre.
But I find around Olajumoke’s sudden transformation from person to
brand, too much capitalist hypocrisy and opportunism.
The brand is
selling like hot cake, but the person needs protection. I feel for her.
I fear for her. There is a sense in which she is a potential victim.
The brand experts now taking her from place to place probably would not
have even patronized her. They don’t eat the kind of bread that she
sold.
Many of them don’t even know what part of Lagos is called
Sabo. They don’t buy their bread from hawkers; they would rather go to
supermarkets or confectionery stores. Before luck smiled on this young
lady, many of those now posing for photos with her would never have
noticed her presence.
Olajumoke becomes a brand ambassador for Payporte.
There
are definitely many of her type, still hawking bread, or some other
items, some even sitting in front of the bank, with a baby strapped to
the back, but they may never be noticed or helped. The same companies
that are using Olajumoke to talk about corporate social responsibility,
are actually joking, they know that this is not CSR; it is brand
exploitation!
And it may not last. There is nothing in Olajumoke’s
background or exposure that has prepared her for the life of glitz
being imposed on her. The skills she has acquired as a bread seller and
hair stylist may not carry her far in the cruel world of modeling.
When this blitz is over, she will need to compete for jobs and
attention, if she must remain a model.
She will have to learn
sooner or later, to survive on her own. She will have to maintain the
luxury apartment that she has been given. She has been taught fancy
dressing, including the magic of make up and those magical colours that
change a dull face into a phallus-teasing one do not come cheap.
She
is at best an art work that other people have created: she has been
made up into a siren, her hitherto dull skin now glows, in one photo,
her hair had a queenly allure, they have given her new clothes, jazzing
her up, to look feminine and sensual, and they have taught her how to
smile in a tempting manner. Wow. That smile!
The sorry part of it
all is that her narrative is quite innocent and hauntingly brief, as is
the case with all overnight sensations. The capitalist hypocrites will
soon find something else to excite them, just as the media will find a
new story.
It
probably would have been much better to help Olajumoke Orisaguna set up
a small-scale business, to take her off the street-life of hawking,
rather than this world of sharks into which she has been thrown. Perhaps
the best that has been done for her is sending her on internship at
beauty salons. She could at least set up a beauty salon of her own and
live happily thereafter.
In a normal society, no young woman
should be on the streets hawking bread in order to survive. In a normal
society, Olajumoke Orisaguna would have been given the opportunity to go
to school, and have a proper career. She is being given, all
within three weeks,
the kind of empowerment that society has denied her and many like her,
but how about all the other Olajumokes who may never ‘photobomb’ their
way to luck?
Her new life is a reminder of what she could have
been but which she could not become because of the kind of society in
which she has found herself. She should never have had to hawk bread to
support her husband and children.
Her husband! Yes, Mr.
Sunday
Orisaguna. I have seen him in the photographs, either carrying their
baby, or just putting up appearance. He looks lost, confused,
overwhelmed, harassed and uncertain. He must be wondering what has
happened or is happening to the woman he married.
There is a clear
difference between Olajumoke, the wife and bread seller, and Olajumoke,
the model and celebrity. While Olajumoke is beginning to wear designer
clothes, her humble husband is still managing his
one-day-me-too-go-jam-luck attires.
His wife has been sent to finishing school. By the time she finishes, I
hope her new persona will not finish her marriage.
Olajumoke is
now learning to speak English, but her husband is a humble, sliding door
installer who probably speaks only Yoruba. In our kind of society,
given the social level and cultural background of the parties involved,
it won’t be long before the demons will begin to crawl out of the woods,
from in-laws who may begin to psycho-analyse Olajumoke, to family
members who will scrutinize her every gesture, and friends with whom she
hawked bread and has now left behind.
Lack of clarity over role
interpretation and the new persona could also confuse the young mother.
She needs a different set of skills to manage new relationships,
especially the new friends coming her way, including those lecherous
uncles who may show up and seek to exploit her innocence.
The
people turning her into a sex symbol should also tarry a while, and
remember that she is a married mother of two. She needs counseling. And
her sliding door installer husband, who has featured in her fairytale so
far as a hanger-on, no matter what happens, should not be made to slide
away.
Sunday Orisaguna should
also be counseled, given new clothes, taught English and sent to
finishing school. He should not be left behind.
