NABILA Lester-Ajayi is an American filmmaker who came to Nigeria for greener pastures in her career. Full of life and verve, she was seen at Nike Art Gallery in Lagos, the day she came to shoot a documentary of the arts gallery. She met and married her husband two days after she arrived in the country. The gentleman is Joseph Ajayi. She spoke to Sunday Sun about who she is, her husband and lots more. Excerpts:
By Christy Anyanwu
Nigerians believe America is the ultimate hub of entertainment. Why did you come to Lagos for a job?
I moved here all by myself in 2015 having been invited to Nigeria by a Nigerian media firm in Abuja to direct and produce a film. I had a wonderful time and I learnt about Nollywood, a multi billion-dollar industry here in Nigeria. At that time, I was living in Los Angeles and I attended a film school in Hollywood. I have lived in Hollywood for 9 years. I just got a spiritual unction to work in Nigeria. I was really dealing with racism in Hollywood and it’s difficult to get movies made with black people. It’s not even an opinion, it’s a fact. I wanted to try a new market and that’s why I came to Nigeria. I actually got into the plane and at first, I was scared. I was still living with my parents but something told me to go and my parents were really scared because they have not been to Nigeria before. The plane took me to Canada, Adisa-Ababa, then Lagos.
How was it when you landed into Lagos?
I started working with a multi-media company. I knew one person in Lagos, which is my employer and a friend I had met in school. Actually, he really just picked me from the airport, dropped me where I stay at Lekki Phase 1 that afternoon and he left. He left me in a huge house. I didn’t know where to get food or do anything. Anyway, I started working as he had many projects going on. I learnt quickly on the job about how Nigerian media system works. He had a high profile client. I have met a lot of amazing artistes and artists. I met very successful people, very powerful people and that kind of gave me a sense of confidence and also created a network for me.
How did you become Mrs. Ajayi in just a short while in Nigeria?
Two days after I arrived Nigeria , I met my husband and we had a wedding. I was filming a wedding, a high society wedding and my company was hired to do wedding video for the couple at Victoria Island. I had never been to a Nigerian wedding.
That day, they had beautiful clothes and headgears on and it was a traditional wedding. He stood up and something just told me this is your husband. I walked straight over to him and I tapped him on the arm and he looked at me. He said, “yes, how may I help you?” You look beautiful, I told him. I didn’t ask how are you, I didn’t ask him his name. I just said you are beautiful, I mean your spirit, who you are is beautiful and we just hit it from then on. He took on the immediate role of being, my personal bodyguard. I was literally in Nigeria by myself, no friend, no family and no emotional support at all.
Do you like your decision; you barely met each other and you are now a couple?
Yes. He immediately became my friend, my protector, he became my bodyguard, he became essentially like my big way into Nigeria. I never even understood how to go grocery shopping.
In America, you go to a store, buy what you want and leave. I didn’t understand how to go to the market and I really didn’t know what food to buy. At the wedding, they ate pounded yam and I wondered what it was? My parents are Americans, my grand parents are Americans, my great grandparents are Americans, and I’m not like African-American at all.
What do you have in common with him?
My husband is completely different from me. I have travelled all over the world; I come from a multi-racial, multi-ethnic and multi-religious family of liberals.
Our women are feminists and progressives. We are not Christians, we are not Moslems, and we are not anything. I was raised by my mother and I was her only child literally. But my husband hasn’t left Nigeria except when he went to Ghana for two weeks. He’s not a world traveller, he’s Christian, he’s conservative, he comes from a big family and he grew up in the church with his brothers and sisters, with his parents who loved him and have been married for years. We have completely different backgrounds. He’s very organized, he’s very clean, I’m a mess, and I’m artistic. It was really a meeting of the minds. We had to really humble ourselves to really understand and respect each other. He became what I always needed in life. I never was protected in life. I never had a father figure, I never had a brother and I never had an uncle to protect me. I never had any man in my life to protect me so he became what I always needed. Also, I brought to him focus, I brought to him a new way of thinking; I brought him laughter and fun. He’s passionate and he met a woman who is also passionate.
American women generally are very loud, we are very emotional unlike many Nigerian women who naturally hold back a bit. So, I bring the passion and the fun to him. He’s a Christian and I tell him that it’s not the only way. God comes in every form, whether you are Moslem or Jewish and he was like “what?”.
So, you go to church with him now?
No, I don’t go to church. I don’t like church, it doesn’t work for me.
Then what do you now like?
I like just praying silently by myself, taking a walk in a beautiful place and just being grateful.
Do you like Nigerian food?
I don’t like pepper. It makes my stomach hurt so much.
Do you cook for your husband at all?
I have a housekeeper. She cooks everything for him. When I cook for my husband, I cook American stuff. I want to learn how to make Nigerian food, the efo riro, for instance, when I get the chance. I will call his sisters to teach me.
What do you like about Nigerians?
I think Nigerian people are harmonious, incredibly intelligent, loving, family-oriented, hard working, compassionate, especially when it comes to the family and they respect each other. They are fantastic. I’m getting used to Nigeria as a country.
Where is your husband from?
He is from Lagos.