Nigerian Actor, Linda Osifo sits with Chude Jideonwo, host of #WithChude, on a recent episode of the show to discuss why she wanted to bleach her skin many years ago, why she left Canada and returned to Nigeria when others were doing the opposite, and how she handled the ‘fake life’ attacks when she showed off a home she bought.
Linda speaks about returning to Nigeria from Canada. “In 2012, I had just graduated from the university with my psychology degree and I was like ‘what next?’. Do I want to explore my career path as a psychologist? At that stage, I was working, not as a psychologist but in the field, I was working with special needs individuals, so I was able to learn about the different kinds of mental disorders. And I thought to myself, ‘okay, I don’t think I want to be living on this, I love it but I don’t think I want to do it’. At that period, I had an option, ‘pursue passion or pursue money’ or a form of arrangement and everything accounted in a place like that. My reality was that I didn’t think it I loved it so much to go through the next four years, a decade, a lifetime to it.
“I had to do what I love, and I had to start searching for it and it was so easy for me. Because unknown to me, at that stage, I was already doing everything I loved. I was in entertainment, I had two beauty pageants in which I had successfully come up as first runner, and second runner among about 14 countries. And I had hosted an award show, which was like the first annual in Canada. I was an authority level in my church as a youth leader, youth organizer for events and all other things that give you joy unknowingly, and I was already modelling but with no pay.” She spoke about asking her mum what she saw her doing, that was how she found her answer. “I got invited to Lagos to host a show and the show didn’t hold. But it gave me an opportunity to explore Nigeria”. And this led to her choice to wait instead of going back.
Linda also shared why she had to leave Nigeria at a very young age, “At a particular time, Benin was extremely unsafe. The experience I had with Benin was so traumatic, we are talking of armed robbery, that was my life. It left such traumatic psychological experience, this was why my parents took us out of Nigeria because they didn’t want us to die.”
On the issues she faced after she moved back, she shared, “I had an issue with it because it was more like you had to fit into society’ especially when you are doing made for Nigerians; you had to be a Nigerian. I had that challenge, but I think all I needed was time, time to sink into the environment just like any immigrant. After 5 years, you start blending in. It was tough, but it was also good because most times I went for auditions, I did stand out.”
Speaking further on why she wanted to bleach her skin, it was because she didn’t want to be called a monkey, “It happened. I always feel that those who get bullied don’t get bullied by outsiders, it is from within. I tried (to bleach). And I made a statement that the positive aspect of moving to Nigeria was seeing individuals who look just like me. I didn’t have that for a long time, I was in an environment where I had multicultural friends from Hungary, Jamaica, India, and Ghana. I was never able to relate to more of my kind easily. So, when I got here it made me appreciate more of myself. This is one of the blessings of being back home for me.”
Watch the excerpt, here.
