17th December, 2010
Popularly referred to as Bondage (Ide) Twins because of their lead role in the late  Yekini Ajileye plays, Taiwo Hassan and Kehinde Hussein Osuolale recently drew the  crème de la crème to Osogbo, Osun State at a memorable wedding party held at their  alma mater, St. Charles Grammar School, Osogbo. MOYO FABIYI reviews the one-in-town  wedding
About three or four decades ago, residents of Abomibode compound, Ibokun Road,  Osogbo in the Osun State capital woke up one morning and beheld a set of twins, both  boys, who were born at dawn on that day. The strange twins not only resembled each  other, they were terrifyingly deformed.
Mr and Mrs. Osuolale, their parents, and other members of the family were astonished  at the look of the twins, but they saw nothing then.
As they got older, their deformity intensified to the level that today, very few  really know the age of the Bondage Twins. While their mother, Mrs. Mariam Osuolale  told P.M.NEWS at their family house on Ibokun road, almost adjacent the late Susan  Wenger a.k.a. Aduni Olorisa’s house, that the twins were born less than 30 years  ago. But many indigenes of Osogbo hold a contrary view. They recollected that the  twins were born almost 40 years ago.
However, their petite, dwarfish stature does not help matters. Since they acted the  role of Ibeji Ide meaning Bondage Twins in Ajileye’s popular play, Ide, Taiwo and  Kehinde Osuolale have always been referred to as ‘boys’. The twins did not allow  their looks to rob them of western education. They attended St. Andrew’s Primary  School, Oke Baale Osogbo and proceeded to St. Charles Grammar School, Oke Aiyepe,  Osogbo, where they obtained their Senior Secondary School Certificate in 2005. They  plan to further their education at a later date. But their major occupation for now  is acting.
Immediately the play, Ide, brought them into limelight, Taiwo and Kehinde Osuolale  also starred in other Ajileye films like, Koto Aye, Aye Abiyamo, Alaga Kansu and  Eran Iya Osogbo among others. They are planning to release their own films soon.
But people did not just welcome the peculiar Osogbo twins (as they are called at  times). It was gathered from some elderly people in Osogbo that at one time, the  twins deformity and physique became so horrible that the twins were abandoned in the  bush. But those who abandoned the twins in the bush met the weird kids when they got back to the family home at Abomibode compound.
It was alleged that the incident shook the family home of the Osuolales so much that  some residents moved out as were afraid of staying under the same roof with the  strange twins.
They then nick-named them Omo Iyanu, meaning awesome kids, while others preferred to  call the twins as Eemo Omo meaning ‘terrible kids’
Their mother, however, debunked such claims. Mrs. Osuolale gave kudos to the late  Alhaji Ajileye who encouraged the family not to throw away the twins. Taiwo and  Kehinde Osuolale believed they could not thank the late Yoruba film actor/producer  enough because their lives changed for the better immediately he discovered them.  Mrs. Osuolale said when words were not enough to dissuade the family from throwing  away the twins, the late Alhaji Ajileye put his words into action by offering them  roles in his films; which instantly turned them into celebrities. The set-back the  death of Ajileye brought to their acting career was short-lived as God used another  film maker, Dagunro, to continue where the late Ajileye stopped.
When Taiwo and Kehinde Osuolale tied the nuptial knots with their heart throbs at a  well attended party recently, they merely formalized an already flourishing  relationship. Kehinde had already fathered a baby boy, Abdullahi, now three years  old through Morohunmubo, a native of Gbongan also in Osun State. In fact, as at the  day of the historic wedding, Mubo was already expecting another baby. Abdullahi is  Kehinde’s carbon copy except that it is crystal clear that he is not deformed.
In the same vein, Taiwo’s wife Folake is also nursing a baby girl. Folake is from  Ibadan, Oyo State. Both ladies said they met their husbands at a film location and  fell in love with them.
They said their love for Taiwo and Kehinde Osuolale was an unconditional one.
In a chat with P.M.NEWS, at their family compound, Morohunmubo Kehinde Osuolale said  she belonged to the Bomodeoku Theatre Group and they met on location at the shooting of a film titled Ona la. She described her husband as God-fearing and a loving man. Mubo said her parents did not oppose his marriage to Kehinde Osuolale.
The memorable marriage Osogbo recently hosted a wedding many people in the town will find difficult to forget easily. Many theatre practitioners, especially from the Yoruba genre of Nollywood were at the playground of St. Charles Grammar School, Osogbo to honour the Ajileye Twins. They turned out in their numbers from far and near. Guests include the scion of Ajileye family, Wale Ajileye, the surviving wife of the late Alhaji Yekinni Ajileye, Alhaja Sherifat Ajileye, a.k.a. Oyiboyi, all of them in aso ebi attire specially chosen for the occasion.
Other guests at the event include Mrs. Felicia Isola, popularly called Egeremiti;  Mrs. Iyabode Adenopo, a.k.a. Obiriaye and the leader of the women in the theatre  industry. The late Pa Osuolale, father of the twins, was represented by one of his  younger brothers, Mr. Dauda Osuolale.
Delivering his sermon, popular Islamic cleric, Sheik Buhari Ibn Musa a.k.a. Alhaji  Buhari Omo Musa, from Ilorin, Kwara State, commended the parents of the twins who  refused all temptations to throw them away at infancy. He also praised the courage  of their mother, Mrs. Mariam Osuolale, who did not engage in begging for alms like  some unbelievers are wont to do. “Some infidels will carry their twins to the market  place to beg for alms,†the Islamic cleric remarked.
“But all of you are gathered here to honour them. I am also here from Ilorin because  of the wedding. They are special and they have achieved what many able bodied men  have not achieved,†he remarked.
The famous Islamic scholar related the anecdote of a man who felt contented having  impregnated his wife and embarked on a journey overseas. But to his uttermost  disappointment, the man returned from his overseas trip after his wife had put to  bed. The baby was an albino and the man rejected both baby and mother. In tears, the  woman left pleading her innocence to her husband’s infidelity charge.
The man, according to the Islamic cleric married again and within a short while  became pregnant. He was very happy until the day the woman delivered a set of  triplets. Then bewilderment set in as the three babies were albinos. The man’s  earlier claim that there was no genealogy of albino in his family could not be  sustained. He was too ashamed to repeat the claim.
Alhaji Buhari concluded his story by asserting that the albino babies could be  traceable to the man’s fourth generation which he did not know. After he repeated  that nobody has the power to un-make what God has made. Sheik Buhari then blessed  Taiwo and Kehinde, their wives and children.
Guests were later treated to fuji music by prominent fuji musician, Dr. Saheed Osupa  and his group. The twins not only danced to fuji music, they collected the  microphone from Saheed Osupa to display their dexterity in fuji music.
The marriage boosted their popularity as film producers have continued to storm  their Ibokun road family compound with posh cars and sports utility vehicles (SUVs)  to convey them to film locations.
