When Oluwashina Akanbi Peters met Clarion Chukwura in 1982, Sir Shina Peters, as he was popularly known, was already making waves in the Nigerian music industry. He was, as he called himself, the “founder and pioneer” of Afro-Juju music in Nigeria. By 1982, SSP had already released three albums three years in a row: Way to Freedom (1980), Freedom (Senwele) (1981) and Money Power (1982).
However, Afro Juju’s path to fame was littered with pitfalls. As a boy, he rebelled against his parents, gave up his education and claimed he wanted to be a musician. His parents did not agree with his decision and gave him one last bit of help, otherwise he would risk becoming homeless when he returned to school. He chose the latter solution and left the house. In an interview on the occasion of his 60th birthday in 2018, he revealed:
“One day I woke up at 2 a.m. and told my parents that I wasn’t going to school; that I just wanted to make music. But because I decided not to go to school, my parents woke up everyone in the house that night, including the landlord…”
When the SSP left his home, all he could do was go out onto the street. He remembers once living with a prostitute who welcomed him when she saw him wandering the streets. “When I left home, I went to Temi Ogbe Motel in Oshodi. I remember a prostitute called me and I was staying with her. He put the bag on the floor so I could sleep. I’ve been with her for weeks. It turned out that the woman had some money under her pillow, but she forgot that it was under the pillow and now said that I took the money.”
Peters’ passion for music led to him becoming an apprentice to conductor Ebenezer Obey.
“I also worked as a servant for Ebenezer Obey. Everything changed for the better when I met Ebenezer Obey. I went to him to clean his clothes and shoes. When he wasn’t home, I played his guitar.”
Peters soon joins General Prince Adekunle’s team, where he forms an alliance with Segun Adewale. The duo was founded by Shina Adewale and the group Superstars International, and this is how SSP’s career began. However, the group quickly declined and Peters and Adewale disbanded in 1980. In the same year, Shiny Peters’ debut solo album, Way to Freedom, was released.
In 1982, Clarion Chukwura studied theater and rhetoric at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts at Obafemi Awolowo University (then University of Ife) under Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka.
The Lagos-born actress moved to Ibadan at the age of fourteen to pursue an acting career. Clarion, who discovered her passion for theater at a young age, was supported in her interests by her father. However, he lost his father when he was about eleven years old.
“I was born in Lagos and stayed there until I was 11 years old. From the age of 11 to 14, I lived in Aba and Onitsha. I came to Ibadan when I was 14 and lived there until I was 19 years old. However, I lost my father at the age of 11.
This event completely shocked me. My father was the center of my life and when he died everything fell apart. It was the beginning of another chapter in my life. In 1982, the understudy played the lead role in the film Money Power directed by veteran director Ola Balogun. Young Clarion was cast as “Yemi” in “Money Power” after playing the role of “Moji” in the play “Camwood on the Leaves” written by her teacher Wole Soyinka. Ola Balogun, unknown to Clarion, was in the audience and was enthusiastic about the young actor’s talent. The role of Yemi had previously been given to another actress, but in a twist of fate, Ola Balogun shuffled the cards and Clarion landed the role that changed her life forever. In 1982, Clarion was an influential and aspiring 18-year-old actress just reaching adulthood.
In 1982, Clara Nneka Chukwura and Oluwashina Akanbi Peters, then 25 years old, met on the set of the film Money Power. SSP starred alongside Clara in the film, and it was the beginning of a whirlwind romance between them.
This union led to the birth of their son Clarence Abiodun Peters. Clarence was born in 1983 to a 19-year-old actress and a 26-year-old Afro-Juju father. The co-stars were not married at the time, and it stayed that way. Peters and Clarion’s relationship will end as quickly as it began. During the turbulent romance between Peters and Clarion, Sammie Ayoka, who would later marry Peters, was already there. In 1982, Shina Peters and Sammie Ayoka celebrated their traditional wedding and in 1995 they officially married.
In 1983, Shina Peters was only six years away from releasing the album Ace (Afro Juju Series 1) with his band Sir Shina Peters and his International Band. The double-platinum album propelled Shina Peters into the Nigerian Artists Hall of Fame and cemented Afro Juju as a musical genre to be reckoned with.
In 1990, he also released Shinamania (Afro Juju Series 2), which earned him the AfroJuju Musician of the Year award and earned him millions of fans. By 1983, Clarion had already won the Best Actress award for Burkina Faso at the 1982 Pan-African Film and Television Festival and was just a year away from appearing in A Mirror in the Sun. Mirror in the Sun is a soap opera that will crown the popular Nollywood actress and take her from stage plays and small films to the big screen. Shortly after the birth of her son in 1983, Clarion joined the University of Ibadan Performing Company and also joined Tunji Oyelan’s band The Kenneries as a backing singer, leaving Clarence to stay with her mother.
Clarion will star alongside Nkeru Sylvanus and Georgina Onuoha in the Nollywood blockbuster “Egg of Life”. Throughout her career, she has appeared in over 200 films including Caught in the Act, Fiery Force, Yemoja, Forbidden Choice, Glamor Girls and many more. Throughout her distinguished career, the legendary actress has won numerous awards, including the Afro-Hollywood Award for Best Actress for her role in Glamor Girls in 1997.
The actress was appointed United Nations Goodwill Envoy for Peace in 2007 for her humanitarian work in Nigeria, Cameroon and Kenya.
After her relationship with Peters ended in 1983, Clarion married Tunde Abiola, the younger brother of politician and philanthropist MKO Abiola.The marriage ended in 2003.
Later in 2004, she married popular personality, Femi Oduney. This marriage was also short-lived as the couple separated in 2006.
In 2016, Clarion, 51, married her third and current husband, Anthony Boyd, in the United States. It’s safe to say that the actress didn’t let a few heartaches stop her from having a happy ending.
