By Eric Elezuo Photos: Funmi Ilebalayo
In a bid to preserve African culture and bring to the fore the power of African herbs, Kudirat Morenikeji Ogunro, popularly known as Kudi Alagbo, has launched a book titled: “Kudi Alagbo” in Lagos.
The book, which chronicles the fast rising actress’ strides in her chosen fields of endeavour, was an attempt into the world of African beauty in relation to natural healing and sustenance of health.
Double as film maker, producer, brand ambassador and brand influencer, Kudi Alagbo, whose brand is already speaking volumes on itself, was overtly cheerful as the event unfolded at the Golfview hotel, GRA, Ikeja, personally welcoming guests to the ceremony.
Kicking off with a heartfelt opening prayer by popular actress, Foluke Daramola, the event dovetailed into a carnival of some sort the master compere, Baba T leading guests into the healthiest of interaction and networking, and at the same time, providing rib cracking jokes to ease the moments.
Among celebrated personalities that graced the occasion with the presence were Nollywood actors, especially in the Yoruba genre, and notable Marketers in the film industry.
Kudi Alagbo, who has her hands in many pies, is also the Chief Executive Officer of Shemmyhair in addition to her acting profession and entrepreneurship in popular traditional medicine products.
Speaking about herself in the short piece, KÚDÍ ALÁGBO: AN Ẹ̀GBÁ WARRIOR WITH HERBAL POWERS, the showbiz expert, said she was inspired by a sober self-reflection.
The book described Alagbo’s efforts as a “humble attempt to document and distill for public consumption some of the intriguing and challenging episodes of the private life of the eponymous autobiographer that are worth sharing so far.”
A must read for all and sundry, the book’s “highlights are as enlightening, entertaining and inspiring as they are informative of her personal struggle for a self-rebirth seemingly since the day of her maternal birth some decades ago.”
KÚDÍ ALÁGBO, she maintained, is a rapid chronicle of her birth into herbs; her teenage challenges hawking herbs on Lagos streets in West Africa for daily survival until she walked blind-mindedly into a human hawk’s nest in the infamous slum city of Mushin where she birthed her daughter – her only child as at the day of documenting this her autobiography.
It also documented her ‘prodigal’ wandering away from the herbs, wandering deep into a wilder wilderness; getting lost intentionally from family and friends, and getting found unintentionally in a new nest of family and friends in Nollywood where she grew wings as an actress, movie producer, brand ambassador and brand influencer as well as her incidental rediscovery of her herbal roots and routes during the COVID-19 lockdown days of year 2020, her rebirth and her return to her herbal life and herbal mission.
Kudi Alagbo, both as a book and as a person, are fun to be with, each revealing a quantum leap into the world of learning, experience and root orientation.
She is roundly talented as her artistic prowess has proved, and of course, with this latest entry into the bookshelves.