Joke Silva Shares Her Love Story

Nollywood actress, Ajoke Silva is sure a leading example to most filmmakers that consistency and doggedness attribute success on the chosen field. Having featured in countless movies and powerful stage performances, Joke Silva is still very much relevant in the industry having kicked off her career in film in the early 1990’s.

Married to veteran actor Olu Jacobs; the couple founded and operate the Lufodo Group covering film production and distribution assets and the Lufodo Academy of Performing Arts, where she is Director of Studies. She is also the pioneering managing director of Malete Film Village, in association with Kwara State University. However, it will interest you that Joke and Olu Jacobs met in 1981 at a rehearsal and got wedded in 1985, showing that love can truly last a lifetime. Cornered at the 100th premiere of Battleground, Joke Silva shares her journey in the industry with MUTIAT ALLI, and her thoughts on marriage break-ups, domestic violence and loving moments with husband.

Was acting something you knew you will end up doing while growing up? I knew from about the age of 10 and my parents supported me from about the ages of 10… (Laughs) In the schools that I went to after my A-Levels, I prayed and asked God for confirmation and when he said Yes, I spoke to my father and he said to take a gap, between A-Levels and this industry you want to work in and see whether it is really what you want. And at that time, I’m talking of the late 70’s and early 80’s. To have a doctor mother and a lawyer father who are both at the top of their professions, saying their child should take a gap here.

You know, it wasn’t common in our time but they allowed me to do that. When they found out that this was what I wanted to do and it was what I enjoyed doing, they said: “well, go to drama school”. At the time you were growing up, there were certain professions that were considered noble like Engineering, Medicine, Accounting and the likes. Did that not bother your parents? Well, I think what bothered them was whether I will make a living out of this profession I wanted to go into. That was the main concern. They knew the talent was there, they nurtured the talent, they encouraged the talent, but I think the idea was to encourage the talent to be a hobby (laughs…) you know, my mother played the piano and it was her hobby.

It was even by accident I discovered she knew how to play the piano. She learnt while growing up… you know, it was something like that for them when it was also what I wanted to do. That’s why they gave me the gap here. It was to see how stressful the industry could be, how uncertain it could be in the sense that you don’t always have work all the time. But unfortunately for them in my gap here I was working right from the beginning to the end. Sometimes I had like three jobs at the same time. So I was working so often and they saw that I liked it so they supported me. While growing, were there circumstances that made you make a detour from acting? After getting married and having 2 children, work had dried up.

I got married in 1985 and my second child was born in 1998. There was very little work and I was bored. So I went back to the university. I did my drama with the drama school then went to the University of Lagos to study English. It was while I was at the university that I now did some more work under Fani Kayode, mind-bending but there was one-time work dried up and I found myself teaching so many students in private schools. I taught in Abbey schools, I taught in Green Woodhouse, I taught in Atlantic Hall and a lot of my students are now in the industry. So many of them. You are one of the celebrities whose marriage have worked and is still working. Unfortunately, we get to hear too many stories of broken homes. Does that not bother you? It doesn’t, not particularly.

I think it’s important to understand when you are getting to that point where you understand that you’ve gotten to the thresh hold. Like sometimes when I counsel young people, I say there is a role that you recognize, that if I push anything further, we’re going to be in trouble. When you hear that, when you feel it, it’s in the eyes, you can’t hide it. Each person, waka! There is also the violence that people don’t associate to domestic violence and that is the emotional violence. Emotional violence is the violence that is so deadly because you don’t see it. It damages the person psychologically; I think the onus is on those who love the person. To let them see it and be aware of it. Marriage is not do or die affair. What is that meal uncle Olu cannot do without? That’s an interesting question. (Laughs out loud) ask him. (Laughs…)