Oyindamola Olaleye 
Veteran Nollywood actor Yemi Solade has stirred conversations online after boldly claiming he started acting before legendary actor Pete Edochie.
Speaking during his appearance on the show Father’s Path with Tope, Solade reflected on his nearly five-decade-long journey in the Nigerian film industry and addressed long-standing debates about the origins of Nollywood. “I’m senior to Pete Edochie. I started acting before him, though he’s older than me. I was 17 in 1977 when I represented Nigeria as the youngest actor,” Yemi Solade revealed. “I’ve done 48 years in the industry, and I’m still standing,” He added.
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Solade used the opportunity to challenge the widespread narrative that the Yoruba film industry played only a secondary role in Nollywood’s birth. According to him, many of the foundational names and works in the Nigerian cinematic space were Yoruba despite not being properly documented.
He name-dropped industry trailblazers like Hubert Ogunde, Baba Sala, Ade Afolayan (father of Kunle Afolayan), and filmmaker Dr. Ola Balogun, stating that the Yoruba sector had been producing films on celluloid long before the term “Nollywood” became popular. “The first Nigerian home video came from Ade Ajiboye a.k.a. Big Abass. Then we had the likes of Muyideen Alade Aromire experimenting with camcorders just recording our stage dramas and putting them on cassettes for shops to sell,”he explained.
Solade lamented that the lack of media savvy and record-keeping within the Yoruba sector allowed other regions in the industry to dominate the narrative.
“My people in the Yoruba setting didn’t document anything. That’s why others just stepped in to say they started Nollywood,” he said. “But when people like us are still around, we’ll set the record straight.”
Solade’s revelations have reignited conversations around who really started Nollywood and what histories may have been erased or overshadowed in the digital era.
