My father wasn’t a cultist – Ogunde’s daughter

There have been widespread believe that Late Hubert Ogunde, a foremost and one of the pioneer Yoruba actors was a cultist during his lifetime, considering the nature of movies and play he staged in his days; but recent interview conducted by Punch Newspaper with one of his daughter, Dayo Ogunde, the duaghter debunked claims that his late father was a cultist.
Read her response below:
But people said he (Hubert Ogunde) belonged to some of the secret societies he portrayed in his movies?

Dayo’s Response:

He did not belong to any secret society. People erroneously believe he did. When he died, those who attended his funeral saw that his body was taken to church and that the church elders were the ones who buried him. If he belonged to any secret society, his body would have been taken away for burial by the members and we would not have been able to bury him the way we did.

After his burial, I returned to school. Some teachers told me that they wanted to come to the burial of my father but that they were afraid because they heard that about 11 people were to be buried along with him.

They said they feared being taken as part of the 11 persons. I was amused with such belief about my father. His lying-in-state at the National Theatre and his house in Alagomeji and hometown, Ososa, was witnessed by many people. No part of his body was cut off. Those dressed in traditional attire on the day of his burial were his children, grandchildren and members of the National Troupe. They dressed the way they did to honour my dad. There was nothing secretive about the life of my dad.

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