In 1982 when Oluwashina Akanbi Peters, met Clarion Chukwura, Sir Shina Peters as he was popularly called, was already making waves in the Nigerian music industry. He was, as he describes himself, ‘the founder and pioneer’ of Afro juju music in Nigeria.
In 1982, SSP had already released three albums, three years in a row, Way to Freedom (1980), Freedom (Senwele) (1981) and Money Power (1982).
However the Afro juju’s rise to fame was fraught with challenges. As a young boy he rebelled against his parents and turned his back on education, claiming that he wanted to become a musician. Not in agreement with his decision, his parents gave him an ultimate, return to school or risk homelessness. He chose the latter and left home. He revealed in a 2018 interview on his 60th birthday,
‘I woke up at 2 a.m one day and I told them (my parents) I was not going to school; that all I wanted to do was play music. But because of my decision not to go to school, my parents woke up everybody in the house that night including the landlord…’
When SSP left home, he had nowhere left to go but the streets. He recalls that he once lived with a prostitute who when she saw him roaming the streets, took him in.
‘When I left home, I went to Temiogbe Motel, Oshodi. I can remember, a prostitute then called me and I was living with her. She would lay her wrapper on the floor for me to sleep on. For weeks, I was with her. So, it happened that the woman kept her money under the pillow but she forgot it was under the pillow and she now said I took the money.’
Peters’ passion for music drove him to becoming an apprentice under Chief Ebenezer Obey.
‘I also served as a house boy to Ebenezer Obey. Things changed for the better for me when I met Ebenezer Obey. I used to go to his place to clean his clothes and shoes. Whenever he was not at home, I would play his guitar.’
Peters’ soon joined General Prince Adekunle’s band, where he formed an alliance with Segun Adewale. The duo formed the Shina Adewale and the Superstars International band and that was how SSP’s career started. However the band soon went moribund with Peters and Adewale going their separate ways in 1980.
Way to Freedom, Shina Peters’ debut solo album was released the same year.
In 1982, Clarion Chukwura, was studying Acting and Speech in the Department of Dramatic Arts in Obafemi Awolowo University (then University of Ife) under Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka.
Born in Lagos, the actress moved to Ibadan to pursue a career in acting at fourteen. Clarion who discovered her passion for acting at an early age, was supported by her father in her interests. She however lost her dad when she was about eleven years of age.
‘I was born in Lagos and remained there till when I was 11 years old. From the age of 11 to 14, I stayed in Aba and Onitsha. I came to Ibadan when I was 14 and lived there till the age of 19. However, I lost my father at the age of 11.
This incident completely shattered me. My father was the centre of my life and when he died, everything just fell apart. That was the beginning of a different chapter of my life.’
In 1982, the understudy was cast in Money Power, a movie by veteran filmmaker Ola Balogun. Young Clarion only got cast in the role of ‘Yemi’ in Money Power, after her performance as ‘Moji’ in Camwood on the Leaves, a play written by her professor, Wole Soyinka. Unknown to Clarion, Ola Balogun was in the audience and was taken by the young actor’s showmanship.
The role of Yemi had earlier been cast to a different actress, but by a stroke of fate, Ola Balogun shuffled the cards and Clarion ended up with the role that would change her life forever. In 1982, Clarion was an impressionable aspiring actress of 18, just crossing the corridors of adulthood.
In 1982, on the set of Money Power, the movie, the paths of Clara Nneka Chukwura and Oluwashina Akanbi Peters, then 25, would cross.
SSP was cast alongside Clara in the movie and this would be the beginning of a whirlwind romance between the two.
This relationship would lead to the birth of their son, Clarence Abiodun Peters. Clarence was born in 1983, to his 19-year-old actress mother and his 26-year-old afro juju father. The co-stars were unmarried then and continued to remain so. The relationship between Peters and Clarion would end just as quickly as it began.
At the time of the whirlwind romance between Peters and Clarion, Sammie Ayoka, who Peters will eventually marry, was already in the picture. In 1982, Shina Peters and Sammie Ayoka celebrated their traditional marriage and eventually had their court wedding in 1995.
Shina Peters and Sammie Peters
In 1983, Shina Peters was only six years shy of the Ace (Afro Juju Series 1) album with his band Sir Shina Peters and His International Band. The album that would go double platinum, usher Shina Peters into the hall of fame of Nigerian artists and seal Afro Juju as a genre of music to reckon with.
He would also release Shinamania (Afro Juju Series 2) in 1990, which would win him the AfroJuju musician of the year award and draw millions of fans to him.
In 1983, Clarion already won the Best Actress award in Burkina Faso at the Panafrican Film and Television Festival in 1982 and was a year away from featuring in Mirror in the Sun. Mirror in the Sun is the soap opera that would crown the actress a Nollywood sweetheart and bring her from stage plays and small movies, onto the Big screen.
Shortly after the birth of her son in 1983, Clarion joined the University of Ibadan Performing Company and also became a part of Tunji Oyelana’s band “The Kenneries” as a back-up vocalist, leaving Clarence with her mother.
Clarion will feature in the Nollywood blockbuster “Egg of Life” alongside Nkeru Sylvanus and Georgina Onuoha. Over the course of her career, she would appear in more than 200 movies like, Caught in the Act, Fiery Force, Yemoja, Forbidden Choice, Glamour Girls and several other movies. The iconic actress has won several awards in the course of her remarkable career, including the Afro-Hollywood Best Actress Award for her role in Glamour Girls in 1997.
The actress became a United Nations Special Peace Ambassador in 2007, for her humanitarian efforts in Nigeria, Cameroon and Kenya.
After her relationship with Peters ended in ‘83, Clarion got married to Tunde Abiola, younger brother to philanthropist politician, MKO Abiola. The marriage ended in 2003.
She later got married to popular socialite Femi Oduneye, in 2004. That marriage was also short lived, as the couple got separated in 2006.
In 2016, Clarion then 51, got married to her third husband and current husband, Anthony Boyd in the United States. Safe to say that actress didn’t let a few heartbreaks stop her from getting her happy ever ending.
It is no surprise that Clarence Abiodun Peters, who was primarily raised by his mother, an actress and who is also the son of a musician, will take to entertainment. At barely seven years old, Clarence was already featuring in movies like Amin Orun, Jokotade by Sola Sobawale, Family Circles among others.
Clarence, unlike his parents, would take his art behind the scenes and become a video director, cinematographer and filmmaker. He studied cinematography in City Varsity in South Africa and upon his return to Nigeria, co-founded and became the CEO of CAPital Hill Records, a record label that represents acts like iLLBliss, Tha Suspect, Chidinma and others.
He is also the CEO of CAPital Dreams Picture, a motion picture production company.
It is no secret that Clarence is one of the most sought after video directors in Nigeria. He has directed music videos for some of the biggest and the best names in the Nigerian music industry – Wizkid, Banky W, 9ice, P-Square, Choc Boys, 2 Baba, Naeto C, Mode 9, Goldie Harvey, Sound Sultan and a host of others.
Clarence, like his parents, has several awards to his name. In 2010, he won the Headies award for Best Music Director for his work in “Finest” by Knight House (featuring Sauce Kid and Teeto).
In 2012, he also won the Nigeria Music Video Award for Best Cinematography for Chidinma’s Kedike. He won the MTV Africa Music Awards in 2014 for Best Video among several others.
Source: NET
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