By Temi Joshua
Adewale whose real name is Adewale Akinnuoye- Agbaje is a British actor, and former fashion model.
He was born on 22nd August, 1967 in Islington, London, to Nigerian parent of Yoruba origin who were students in the United Kingdom.
At six weeks old, Adewale’s biological parent gave him up to a white working – class family in Tilbury, Essex.
Afterwards, Adewale lived with his foster parent at certain points as his foster parent had at least ten African children living with them including his two sisters.
Adewale’s foster father who is a lorry driver, struggled to support the family financially.
Everything seems like ups and downs for Adewale at his early stage of life.
Adewale did not enjoy some of the benefits he could learn from his biological parent like mother tongue language, cultural values and others. He grew up learning English language and other things from the white people.
At age 8, his biological parent brought him back to Nigeria.
His parent decision to bring him back to Nigeria brought struggle and hardship into his life.
Unfortunately, Adewale find it very hard to speak his mother tongue language, Yoruba as he wasn’t brought up in Yoruba speaking land neither do his biological parent communicated with him in his mother tongue language.
Mother tongue language is the language which a child starts hearing after being born and the language learned as a child ( usually from their parents).
Since Adewale’s ability to speak Yoruba language proved abortive, his biological parent banned him from speaking English.
As his parent thought he would not be able to keep the culture of their land alive.
His parent want him to speak Yoruba language by force despite not teaching him how to speak the Language or even exposing him to the culture of Yoruba land at his early age.
His parent returned him back to Tilbury, United Kingdom, where he was raised in, as Adewale failed to speak his mother tongue language, Yoruba.
This led Adewale to almost commit suicide because of his brief exposure to Nigeria that left him struggling to reconcile his heritage with the distinctly British culture and environment he was raised in.
Adewale faced a cultural identity crisis and this made him joined a local skinhead gang in order to escape racial persecution at their hands.
Since then, Adewale lived with his foster parent in United Kingdom and continued his lifestyle in British instead of Yoruba culture.
He went to King’s College London to study Law degree before coming to terms with his background and turning his life around.
Till his parent’s death, Adewale continued living in the United Kingdom and excelling in his acting career.
He has starred in several Hollywood movies including Congo (1995), G.I. Joe: The Rise Of Cobra (2009), Thor: The Dark World (2013), Annie (2014), Suicide Squad (2016) and others.
Probably, Adewale could not speak Yoruba language that is why he did not return to Nigeria, his origin.
In conclusion, if you born a child in a foreign land and even in Nigeria, make sure you exposure your child to his native language and culture. A child might find it hard to speak his or her native language if not exposed to it at his or her early stage of life.
See more photos of Actor Adewale below…
