This
light skinned actress needs not much introduction. She is a well known for the
several controversies trailing her in Nigeria entertainment industry. Aside her
controversial side, Shan gorge is also a hard working mother of two boys, with
over 20 movies to her production credit. She has surely come a long way. And
now she is poised to premier her new movie entitled, Finding Goodluck.
But once upon a time,
this sultry and sexy looking actress was just a village girl who spent most of
her time on the farm, fetching water from the village stream or running errands
for elders. “I grew up in Ediba, Abi Local Government Area of Cross River State,
a very wonderful village,” she says going down memory lane. “I had my entire
primary and secondary education in that village. We had no electricity or pipe
borne water but I’ll tell you what, it was so much fun; those who did not grow
up in the village definitely missed a lot. It was exciting, I was a bit of a
tomboy; climbing mango trees, going to the farm, fishing and swimming; it was a
great experience.”
However, at just age
five, when most kids begin to develop retentive memories, her British dad who
was an expatriate working in Nigeria died and so Shan, an only daughter, was
raised single handedly by her mum who did all she could so that her little
daughter could get the best out of life. Recalling her years in Ediba, Shan
says laughing softly: “When I was a kid, I wanted to be a lawyer because I
thought that would help me correct the ills in the society. In my childish
mind, I saw things that I felt were wrong and I felt that if I read a lot of
books and became a lawyer, I would be able to correct the wrong things going on
around me when I grew up. However, I ended up behind the camera.”
As a child growing up,
Shan had her own fair share of pranks. Her favourite was plucking mangoes from
a tree that had a charm or juju tied around it. She laughs gaily as she
recounts the experience: “I and my friends used to pluck mangoes from a tree
that had a talisman tied around it to scare away people. We were not supposed
to go near the tree or even pick the mangoes that fell on the ground. However,
we believed that we could neutralize the effect of the talisman by packing a
lot of sand and telling the tree, ‘if you can count this sand we are pouring on
you grain by grain, then you can do to us the harm you were sent to do.’ And
then we took off the talisman, climbed the tree and plucked our mangoes. When
we came down we tied it back and fled; that was very daring.” But like the
popular saying goes, every day for the thief, one day for the owner. Judgment
day finally came and Shan was caught while her friends escaped! However, for
Shan, life in the village was sheer bliss and peaceful.
Despite losing her dad at
age five, she never felt his absence because in the typical African setting
where she grew up, she had many uncles and aunties who stood in for her father.
“This is Africa, no matter how bad it is, you always had a father figure
around,” she volunteers.
What was it like growing
up under a protective mum? “My mum thought me humility and never to believe
that I am too much and get carried away. She taught me to always be down to
earth. Those years were fun-filled. We went to school in the morning and headed
to the farm after school to work and only came back home in the evening to
listen to folk tales before going to sleep. Sometimes, we would go to nearby villages
on Sundays to watch TV at the homes of those who could afford vehicle batteries
to run their television sets. That was when the desire to act began to grow in
me,” the actress recalls.
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