2 – Early Life

Veteran Actor, Orlando Martins was not attracted to the glamour & glory of the movie world because it was one sure way to get national and global recognition. He became an actor by accident and was not initially lured by the wide cinema screens

He left Nigeria in 1917 at the age of 18 to avenge the atrocities metted out to his grandmother in Cameron by the invading German troops during the First World War. This is how he began a daredevil adventure into the unknown and how hunger and starvation threatened him. These situations pushed him unconsciously into a mission that was to last for almost half a century. Destiny dished out many roles to him, driving him from coast to coast as he cruised around the world, like an adventurer in search of virgin lands to conquer.

He took off from Lagos, Nigeria in 1917 as a deck boy on a ship bound to Liverpool, United Kingdom. He was dumped with half the crew at Sierra Leone. He became a plantation worker in a suburb of Freetown. He later joined the merchant Navy and from then he worked in a circus coiling a huge snake around his neck to make ends meet. He also turned to gambling and slept in the streets of London. The irony of fate is that this same man later in his life had the opportunity to wine and dine with English Royalty, Governors, Premiers, Presidents and Millionaires around the world. Such were few of the numerous roles Orlando Martins was destined to play on the stage of life.

Born at 22 Okesuna Street, Lagos state, Nigeria on the 8th December 1899 to one of the elite families of the then Victorian Lagos. His father was the late Mr Emmanuel Akinola Martins and his mother was Madam Paula Idowu Soares. His father was born in Abeokuta and he knew his paternal grandparents.

His paternal grandfather was a wood seller who lived to a ripe old age of 120 years. He was a freed Portuguese slave who told his great grandchildren, including Orlando, the story of his slavery days. “Papai” as he was popularly called was very humorous and very particular about his great grandchildren’s behaviour. He kept tortoises as pets. Orlando recalls how they used to tease him by smoking brown papers and cigarettes and messing around with his tortoises. If he got hold of us, he would give us a taste of his whip which he fondly called “Pamatora”.

Orlando used to live with his mother at his father’s Okesuna street house in the heart of Lagos. When his dad realised he was getting too pampered, he whisked him off to his dad younger sister at Abeokuta, Ogun state where his grandmother was also living

“Soon after my arrival in Abeokuta, my aunty did not disguise her wickedness”, recalls Orlando. “I was being frequently accused of wetting the mats at night and snoring in my sleep. For each offence, I was wakened from my sleep with thorough whipping”. Orlando used to walk many miles on rocks and bushes to nearby villages selling Grandma’s hand woven textiles. Returning home every night after a day’s sale posed the biggest threats to his life. With lanterns in his hand, he had to spot and avoid snakes and other poisonous reptiles from biting him.

When he found life unbearable, Orlando smuggled a letter to his mother in Lagos, narrating his ordeals in the hands of his aunty. His mother had heeded his passionate appeal and went to Abeokuta to pick him up. Already depressed with worry and immersed in his thoughts, Orlando walked past his mother on the way without recognising her until she shouted, “Alhandu come here. Here I am, your mother”. Orlando who is the only male among her six children, ran to her and flung his arms around her sobbing bitterly.

For fear of apprehension by aunty and grandmother, mother and son hatched a plan to board the train at different entrances of two different carriages of the train at Lafenwa Railway station. Orlando’s mother sat in the front carriage of the train whilst Orlando hid himself under the seat of the back carriage. The station master whistled and the train moved and within hours they had arrived at Ifo station. Whilst they were here, Orlando came out of his hiding and went to sit with his mother. They arrived in Lagos on the same day.

Orlando’s dad died at the age of 67 and his mum died at age 86. He was already overseas when he received the news of his father’s death. However, pressure on his life overseas made it impossible for him to return home until 20 years later.

Orlando Martins had no clear cut religious direction from his parents. His father was an Anglican, a prominent member of the Christ Church Cathedral Lagos while his mother was a devout Roman Catholic.  But young Orlando was baptised at the Roman Catholic Church as Emmanuel to the displeasure and against the wishes of his father. This was possible as he was then living with his mother.

Orlando’s father worked as an Officer in the Marine Department of the PWD. His mother was a petty trader and laundry woman who used all her earnings to provide and look after her children.

There is history behind Orlando’s real African name. At birth and before his baptism, he was named Alhandu. In Yoruba society of which Orlando belongs, men prefer their first child to be a male one so that he can carry on with the family name. This is because the female child when married adopts the husband’s family name.

Orlando’s paternal grandmother was a Tapa woman from Bida in the northern part of Nigeria where there is a very strong Muslim influence and Orlando’s father visited the North on his holidays and had friends and family members in the Muslim community. When Orlando was born, his father sent for all his Muslim friends and family members to come and rejoice with him. Having realised that Orlando’s father’s dream of having a baby boy eventually came true, he was named ALHANDU which is the shortened form of Arabic for Alhamdu-Li-Lai, meaning “THANK GOD. He has got his wishes fulfilled.

As a student who was fond of Latin during his time at Eko Boys High School, Lagos, his mates nicknamed him “Orlando Frigado” which had been shortened into Orlando and for which he was best known and addressed by. “But my father often resented this name, saying that he had no son called Orlando” he recalls.

The bond of affinity and love between Orlando and his mother can be best appreciated if one knows the burden she had borne for him. Orlando’s father did not care much for him as he a lot of other commitments. His mother this took over all the responsibilities of feeding, clothing and school expenses up till when Orlando left high school for overseas. Before leaving the country, Orlando worked two jobs. First job was a daily job at the French produce company and second job was selling candles, matches, tinned sardine, cigarettes etc. to raise additional funds to assist his mother.

Orlando received his primary education in Abeokuta when he was living with his Aunty and Grandmother. On arrival in Lagos, he finished his elementary school at the St Peter’s School, Faji from where he proceeded to Eko Boys’ High School for his higher education. During this time, he was under the guardianship of Rev W.B Uba and the then Vice Principal of the school, Mr Amos Delo Dosunmu.

Orlando enjoyed his high school days. He recalls playing truancy and sneaking out with other school mates. Whenever they got caught, the principal usually ordered them to be put on the bench before giving them some lashes of the cane plus one for “Kaiser” …. the principal’s slogan in those days of Kaiser’s war.

He left Eko Boys High school in 1916 and took up job as a book-keeper with a French produce company under a manager, Mr Peregrino. Elements of his job included recording entries in the books of accounts and collecting workers’ wages from a bank along the Marina in Lagos. The bank usually paid money in florin coins packed in a green bag containing £200 (two hundred pounds). The heavy sacks of coins were usually carried on the head from the bank by a labourer while Orlando followed him behind on a bicycle with a police whistle which he was ordered to blow if the labourer attempted to escape with the money.