An Interview with Patti Boulaye
The British-Nigerian Actress, Playwright and Charity Organizer
Oct 6, 2009
Patti Boulaye literally stumbled into stardom and has been involved in stage, film, television, politics and music, and recently established a charity building health centres in Africa.
Biography of Patti Boulaye
Boulaye was born Patricia Ngozi Ebigwei (she changed her name to Boulaye in 1975 after meeting actress Evelyn 'Boo' Laye) in Nigeria in 1954. The last of eight children in a Catholic, high-achieving family, her father was a politician from the Igbo tribe who fled the country when a bloody civil war targeted them.
"I saw something on television a while ago and suddenly I was four and a half and I was just reliving, again, a terror ... seeing an explosion and seeing a body running down the road with no head, because the head has been cut off. Planes coming and bombing..."
Boulaye's family survived and at 16 she joined her sister in Britain and enrolled in a drama school.
Acting and Political Career
Boulaye's ambition of becoming a nun ended when, on a sight-seeing day trip to London in 1968 she joined what she thought was a queue for tourist attraction Madame Toussaud's, but it turned out to be the audition line for the rock musical Hair.
Surprised and unprepared, Boulaye sang Sound of Music from the film of the same name in the audition to the bewilderment of the producers. But her naivete and soprano voice got her a part and thus began her performance career.
After Hair, Boulaye appeared in various shows including Jesus Christ: Superstar and a starring role in The Black Mikado for which she was described as "a heart-stoppingly beautiful Yum Yum... Patricia Ebigwei's version of "The Sun Whose Rays..." is...the performance against which all others must now be judged." (Terry Lane, The Black Mikado 1975, oakapplepress.com)
Boulaye also hosted The Patti Boulaye Show and in Nigeria became the face of Lux soap TV adverts and starred in Bisi, Daughter of the River, one of the most successful films in the country.
In 2005, Boulaye staged Sun Dance, a play celebrating African culture through music and dance that she had written and produced.
Boulaye briefly entered British politics and controversially ran for office with the Conservative Party: "Black people totally hated me for saying I was a Tory. The BBC didn't want to touch me for many years. But I just thought: 'Hey. God has his plans.'"
Boulaye's Faith and Music
As a singer, Boulaye has released various Christian albums, the foremost being In His Kingdom which she described as “a combination of my spiritual journey, thoughts, emotions and experiences, from my terrible childhood experiences during the Biafran war to the present time. In this recording I have followed my heart and found the place my faith comes from.”
Her faith is something she is always eager to express to the chagrin of the British press. “When I started in the business I knew nothing and so I became very reliant on the Lord to guide me. A lot of people don’t know that because when I started you just couldn’t talk about things like that. I used to say it and they would say 'we can’t print that Patti' and I’ll say 'why not? That’s part of me'.”
She brought her faith to the fore when she led a mass Gospel Choir of a record-breaking 5,000 down Pall Mall for the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Parade in 2002 singing Celebrate Good news, a song she had written for the occasion.
Support for Africa Charity
Apart from performing, Boulaye's other passion is campaigning for better awareness of HIV/AIDS in West Africa. She founded Support for Africa in 2001 following a visit to Nigeria where she held babies suffering from AIDS.
She was drawn to one small boy named Victor: “I thought he had malnutrition. He was only one and I’d never seen a baby with AIDS before. We tried to save him but we couldn’t. Then we just thought we’d continue what we’d started.”
Boulaye then organised the 'Reaching out for Africa' concert later that year with guest appearances by singers Sir Cliff Richard and Gabrielle and 3000 gospel singers. In 2007 she organised 'Football Reaching Out for Africa' and enlisted the help of Premiership footballers including Didier Drogba to raise money for the charity.
So far Support for Africa has built four clinics: two in Nigeria, one in Ivory Coast and one in Cameroon.
“Nigeria has the largest population in Africa with 256 dialects and the message just isn’t getting across. There are some stupid ideas like witch-doctors who say you have to purify your blood by sleeping with virgins. This mostly happens in villages because the villagers are only getting second-hand information. We’re setting up centres in rural settings so they get the information in a way they understand from their own people.”
'Make Poverty History is Harmful to Africa'
Boulaye, who is devoted to her Hungarian husband Stephen Komlosy and two adult children Aret and Sebastian, is outspoken about her devotion to Africa.
“Make Poverty History is what made up my mind because it did more harm to Africa than good. The whole thing was to fluff up people’s egos, and guess who suffers - little children in Africa. We can’t patronize Africa anymore. The Africans have to learn to help themselves.”
She believes the problem with most African countries is corruption. “The solution for Africa will be its women; that’s from my experience of the women I’ve encountered through the clinic. It’ll take the strength of a woman to say: 'Sorry, I’m not taking your bribe'.”
Boulaye attributes her strength of character to her mother’s influence and God’s guidance. “People ask me 'What if there isn’t a God?' And I say to them when I get to the other side and there isn’t a God, at least I’ve had a rule by which I lived my life which gave me hope, dignity pride. I would like to be remembered as a true child of God and a true child of Africa.”
Sources:
- Patti Boulaye: 'God Took Away my Career with a lot of Help from the Tories', The Independent, September 23, 2007
- supportforafrica.org
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