By Christy Anyanwu
Taiwo Ajai-Lycett turned 83 recently. At about the same time, on the Internet, a clip surfaced where she was dancing, rocking hard at the 60th birthday of a Nollywood actress last year.
Encountering Taiwo Ajai-Lycett, the veteran actress, is amazingly full of energy at her age and still fervent in her career.
Speaking with Sunday Sun, she explained the reasons behind her lifestyle choices, the secret of her longevity, staying power and contemporary actresses. Excerpt:
A trending video showed that you are still agile and flexible on the dance floor, what was your favourite music back then?
I love all music. Any music that moves me. I don’t love any music in particular, but music moves me. My taste is eclectic. It’s like asking me which football team I support. I don’t love any football team, but the team that puts up scintillating football, people who play football not just physically, but lyrically, who move very well, because football, to me, is like dancing. It is all in the mind, what you are doing, imagination. You concentrate on the music, you listen to the music. I just like the music. And our music is so interesting that, even if you are dead, you get up and dance. I don’t like any particular music. I love conventional (music). Dancing is the greatest exercise other than swimming. If you do a lot of dancing, it would benefit your health tremendously. Any opportunity I have to dance, I dance.
Where is the energy coming from at 83?
Energy begets energy. If you give energy, you will get more energy back. We are made to move. If you are not moving, all your joints will seize up. The more you are moving, doing activities, not just the body, the mind as well, exceeding your mind, you are strengthening neurons and all of this keeps you alive and alert. You don’t want to be an Olympic champion and you are worried about getting up at 4 O’clock in the morning to go and do exercise. The body is tired, but one must never lose enthusiasm for life.
Is it also the food you eat that keeps you fit like this?
Food is important. You are what you eat. I eat anything. You just eat in moderation. I eat chocolate, biscuits, I don’t drink, I don’t smoke. I eat everything. I eat swallow, everything. I love food. The best thing is to be on the move all the time. I exercise all the time. Before I step out off my bed every morning, I have probably done at least 30 minutes of exercise. You don’t have to go to the gym to be fit. During the day, I’m doing this and that. We age from the feet up. I make sure that my hip reflexes are pliable and my legs are strong. I still suffer from old age arthritis, but you would never know. Why? Because I don’t allow anything to settle on me. I do leg exercises in my bedroom, I keep circulation going; I do lower body, upper body exercises. But, above all, I make sure that I am exercising my legs because your calf is your second heart. If you can keep your heart going and you have good circulation in your body, your skin will look nice, you will be fit and that’s what produces energy. I do exercises where I’m standing, on my toes, I’m squatting. All these exercises, I do repetition of 100 at a time. I’m swimming up and down to make sure my spine is subtle.
Do you still do these exercises at 83?
Yes. The body knows what it wants. The body wants you to move it, otherwise, you stay frozen. That’s why you have hunchback, and carditure of the spine. I work my spine, I work my waist. So, I give my body the workout gentle for my age. Fitness is important. I don’t want to be a walking dead. I give the body the opportunity to do its work. Your digestive system will work properly and your joints will be sufficiently lubricated because you are doing exercises. Your body itself is an engine and it’s so contracted that it knows what to do. At this age, I don’t do too
much so as not to injure myself. I just do within my limit. As I said, the most principal thing is to make sure your circulation is working properly and that’s your heart, pumping the blood up to the head and down to your toes. Above all, I drink a lot of water. After my exercises, I have a flask by my side. I drink hot water. My body is working properly and I drink a lot of water.
If there were reincarnation, what would you change about your personality?
I would like to be able to sing lyrically. I would love to be a singer, but I’m fine as I am. Everything that happens to me, there’s nothing I want to change, actually. Because as I get older those things are what made me who I am today: the good, the bad, the ugly. They have given me insight. We are unconquerable. I’m an overcomer.
As a mother figure in the movie industry, what’s your advice to upcoming actresses?
Don’t believe your own hype. Don’t take yourself too seriously because there’s nothing about you personally, it’s about the message. All of us have a purpose of coming to this world. Find your purpose. When you are in show business, as a woman, you have to be a role model. You must know that people are looking at you and don’t think it’s about you. It’s about the impact you have to make in the lives of other people, not about yourself. With privilege comes responsibility. So, you have to deliver on that responsibility of privilege that people give you that they are looking at you, that they are fond of you. You have to watch yourself. Don’t think, I’m so wonderful. If they are fond of you then you have to deliver on that dedication they have for you. You have to respect them and don’t think you are queen bee. You have to live by example. You have to support your husband properly. You are not subordinate to that man, but you are the pillar to your man and you have to be constantly stable. I am not saying that men are useless, but they don’t have the attributes that we have. So, women should not be wanting to be like men. Look around, most of the people keeping this society going are the little women selling pepper, onions, fish. They are keeping their families, but you, media, only go to interview the female minister or you are fixtated on the wife of the governor. What does the wife of the governor do compared to the women who are in Mushin, Ajegunle, Oshodi, Aba market, everywhere in this country, working their skin off to make sure that their children are educated and are fed? We are not hailing those women and we are concentrating on the celebs, but the people who are actually building the country, suffering and bearing the brunt of the difficulty, insecurity, harsh economy, physical and all that are these women around us. They are our unsung heroes and we don’t see them as important.