RMD, Sola Sobowale and Funke Akindele were among the stars who filled Glover Memorial Hall on Wednesday, ahead of Friday's funeral service.
Nollywood said its first public goodbye to Olu Jacobs on Wednesday, 30 September, filling Glover Memorial Hall on Lagos Island for a night of tributes and a service of songs for the man the industry called the Lion of Lufodo.
Jacobs died on 16 September, aged 84. The evening was the opening event in the funeral programme his family announced, and it drew names from every generation of the industry: Richard Mofe-Damijo, Sola Sobowale, Funke Akindele, Jide Kosoko, Adebayo Salami (Oga Bello), Saka, Desmond Elliot, Ejike Asiegbu, Keppy Ekpenyong and Norbert Young, alongside Minister of Arts, Culture, Tourism and the Creative Economy Hannatu Musawa. His widow, Joke Silva, attended with their sons Gbenga and Olusoji, known as Soji.
Opening the tributes, Soji remembered a father who kept the screen separate from the family home. "I didn't really watch his films back then. For me, he was simply dad," he said. "We were very close because he was magnetic and genuine in his movement."
Sola Sobowale, emotional as she recalled how he championed her early on, remembered Jacobs telling fellow actors, "Have you seen Sola Sobowale? She is a great actor."
Richard Mofe-Damijo recalled a lesson Jacobs taught him about the importance of every actor and every line in a production:
"There are no small actors, and there are no small lines. But if you are not mindful of the small lines, you will become a small actor."
Norbert Young traced part of his own career to the discipline Jacobs showed on the television series The Third Eye. "He loved to talk back then, and I loved to listen," Young said. Hilda Dokubo and Kate Henshaw spoke of how he supported colleagues on set, and singer Yinka Davies performed a rendition.
The tributes doubled as a reminder of the ground Jacobs covered. He trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, worked in British theatre and television, then came home to help build what became Nollywood. With Joke Silva he co-founded the Lufodo Group and the Lufodo Academy of Performing Arts, and in 2011 he received the national honour of Member of the Order of the Federal Republic.
Guests were asked to dress in shades of blue for Wednesday's ceremony, which began at 4 p.m. The funeral service follows on Friday, 2 October, at 10 a.m. at This Present House, Freedom Way, Lekki Phase 1, with shades of green as the dress code, before a private burial.
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