Chief James Afolabi Afolayan MON, MFR popularly known as Jagua was born 4th July 1946 in Iludun-Oro kwara state Nigeria.
He managed on his own to finish secondary education but his journey into entertainment started when he was just 8years old in his paternal hometown Iludun-Oro where he formed the Iludun-Oro Jolly Mambo. It was a singing group.
The young Afolabi then go about adding spice to social gatherings by singing.. Yes he was a singer and a great dancer too.
He did this for some years until he met the doyen of Nigeria theatre, the iconic Hubert Ogunde.
James Afolabi learnt that Chief Ogunde and his group will be performing in Esie so he made plans to be there, saved up some money from selling bush meat
James Afolabi whose family was mainly into buying and selling expressed his desire to go fully into music to his family and they never objected despite the fact that such professions was seen as mainly for the “never do well” in those days.
Afolabi said he never knew baba Ogungbe was also into acting. He said he admired his stage presence.
Afolabi said for him as a young person it was divine whenever baba graced the stage.
Afolabi Afolayan also trained under Akinsola Ogungbe before he teamed up with his friend Ishola Ogunsola aka Isho Pepper to form the Afolayan Ogunsola Theatre group in 1964.
The performances was rendered in Yoruba language.
Besides other productions, I remember they did “Iyawo alalubosa”together…back then, it was quite popular.
Besides music, ‘Folabi( like his friends and family calls him)was known to be the fun guy at every gathering.
It was Elyzar who gave him the stage name Jagua and advised him to act in pidgin English as that will cut across every tribe and make them more widely accessible.
Jagua also called Elyzar Grace on stage. That was how Jagua play Group was born.
They had their first major television show in 1968 with RKTV Kaduna.
Jagua and Grace got married in 1970. Grace was juggling marriage and the group while still in school.
you don’t have to send your children to bed because you want to watch Jagua…it is actually a family programme and many children look up to it.
Keep resting legend 🕊️
