It was one surreal day, around 4pm or so, and I was out on
our street for a reason I can’t really remember now, I was pretty young then.
Then as I got to the maisuya end of our busy street, I noticed this huge and
electrified crowd thronging after a slowly-moving convoy. At the center was a
white limousine and from the sun roof, was a man full of charming smiles,
waving to the frenzied crowd, he looked very smart, handsome and he was also
wearing white, all white, the hat too was white. It was quite a dazzling
spectacle. The limo was headed towards the city stadium where he had a show. I
had just set my eyes on Africa’s greatest magician, ‘Professor Peller’. And
Abiyamo would never see him again. But for a young African child who was also
seeing a limousine for the very first time or so, it was truly a magical moment
for me. He performed and left my state leaving incredible tales of outstanding
feats. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a piece on Nigeria’s most famous magician,
Professor Peller. For about thirty years, Peller held the world’s most populous
black nation spellbound with millions gasping at the whisk of his wand. I hope
you find this magical.
BIRTH AND EARLY DAYS
Here, Peller is shown with the love of his life and
assistant magician, Alhaja Silifat.
He was born in 1941 at Iseyin and he was named Moshood
Folorunsho Abiola. He would later pick on the stage name of ‘Professor Peller’,
an appellation that has stuck to him like a second skin.
HIS MAGICAL PERFORMANCES AND EXPLOITS
When Professor Peller was alive, he was the most brilliant
magician in all of Africa. I am not too sure if the record has been broken.
Even in death, Peller remains the greatest of all. He performed not only before
princes but also held kings spellbound with his magic. Here is how Femi
Oyebode, a Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Birmingham described
Peller and one of his shows in 1972 at the George V Stadium in Lagos (that is
the old name of the Onikan Stadium):
My last ever visit to the stadium was to see Professor
Peller, a magician, and said to be a member of the Magic Circle take on the
last of our traditional magicians whose name now escapes me (itself a
significant fact). Professor Peller was dressed in black tails, a top hat, a
wand in one hand, black shoes and well-cut hair. He was a perfect picture of
debonair gentleman and was assisted by an attractive young woman. He flicked
his white handkerchief and a white dove flew out. He pulled at his cuff links
and flowers bloomed under his command. He was confident, majestic. He was suave
and graceful. He levitated his assistant. He cut her in two without drawing
blood. He locked her in a cupboard, chained up several times over yet she
disappeared! It was a masterly performance. The crowd clapped, hooped. We were
seduced against our better judgment. We wished desperately that the traditional
magician would enthrall and endear us to his magic, the mysteries of African
magic. We were disappointed or shall I say that I was disappointed. When he
came on stage dressed only in a loincloth of indeterminate color, you could
hear the audience gasp aloud. Was this African magic? This crude, little thin
man who seemed recently woken from the dead? He swallowed a stone and turned
his backside to us, slipping his loincloth to one side and excreted the stone.
Awfulness and shame. He submitted his abdomen to a sharp sword to be sliced
open. But by now, the absence of razzmatazz and of finesse had turned us
against him. The crowd poured through the gates. That was how disgusted we
were. You can say that at George V stadium, in early adulthood I lost two of my
childhood dreams.
A master at his craft and a consummate entertainer, he cast
a most powerful spell on the following African leaders, right in their
presidential palaces:
-The late President Gnassingbe Eyadema of Togo (Eyadema
later died after spending 38 years in power, he was the longest-serving ruler
in Africa when he died in 2005 (see his picture below). His son, Faure, is
currently the President of Togo).
The late President Eyadema of Togo, one of the last
strongmen in Africa, also witnessed the magic of Peller.
-The late President Samuel Kanyon Doe of Liberia (see
picture below). There is an interesting story behind his performance for the
late strongman of Monrovia. There was a time Peller had a performance in
Liberia in the 1970s and the crowd was just too massive. The Liberian
government drafted security forces to the venue of the act to control the
surging crowd. One of those responsible for maintaining security that day at
Peller’s performance was a young man called Samuel Doe. So when Doe became
President, he summoned Peller, Nigeria’s finest magician to come perform for
him. Such was the stellar performance of Peller. Doe said he was busy
controlling the surging crowd and he could not witness the even properly as at
that time when he was a junior soldier.
The late President Samuel Doe of Liberia.
-The former President of Benin Republic, Mathieu Kerekou was
also one of those who patronized Peller (see picture below).
Another patron of Peller, the former President of Benin
Republic, Mathieu Kerekou.
Apart from the Presidents mentioned above, Peller also
reigned supreme in Nigeria. It was like there was no other conjurer in the
land. Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the late Premier of the Western Region was one of
those he used to entertain regularly.
-Peller was a prolific magician with many shows, some of
which were the Invisible General, the Escaping Box, Changing Dresses and the
Zigzag. One thing with Peller’s performances is that they were executed with
maximum finesse and excellence. He was thorough and professional. Perhaps, if
not for death, he might have even eclipsed David Copperfield of the USA in
fame.
-While growing up, he was nicknamed Moshood Olori Pupa
(Moshood the Red-Headed Boy).
-One of his classical performances included putting his wife
in a ‘magical coffin’ and severing the same coffin into two halves with a
‘magic coffin’. There is no spirit at work here, watch how the trick is done
here:
When Peller was performing, there was really no Internet as
we have it today, so it was quite easy to fool people in their millions. Now,
YouTube is spoiling the show for many magicians except the most ingenious of
them.
LOVE, ROMANCE AND MARRIAGE
Professor Peller and Lady Peller in 1980, they performed
together as a husband-wife team of magicians and entertainers.
He was described as a very romantic man. His most prominent
wife, Alhaja Silifat, fell in love with him while she was still in the
secondary school. She confessed that she had always admired him and his
performances even before then and each time she watched him perform, her heart
fluttered with affection for the fine magician with tribal marks.
The late ‘professor’ of magic.
In 1967, Iseyin Grammar School in Oyo State became the place
where Peller planted the seed of love even if he was there to perform but was
carried away by the ravishing young beauty in the crowd called Silifat. Hear
her: “I am sure he musthave been attracted to me because of my beauty. So, he
just whispered to me: ‘Baby, you are beautiful.’ And I said, ‘Thank you.’ He
didn’t ask me out that day. For quite a long time, we were friends.” For a
couple of years more, they continued dating and Lady Peller said after two
years, she said yes to his advances. They got married in 1971 and they already
had a child by then.
For a man who was a showstopper at any events, it is no
surprise that not a few women fell for the enchanting spell of Nigeria’s most
famous magician. He was a man of many women and married many of them. However,
the best known of these ladies, with whom he performed his magic tricks is
Alhaja Silifat Adeboyin Peller (see picture). The whole of Nigeria knew her as
Lady Peller and she is most famous for the act in which she was ‘sliced’ into
pieces by Peller and had a hard time putting her back. Now 66 years of age with
her husband gone and not remarrying, she is tending to her grandchildren while
reminiscing over the glittering wonders of an empire of magic that once held
sway. Lady Peller was born in Kishi, Oyo State where her father was the Chief
Imam and had five children for him, while also raising many other
step-children.
However, unknown to many, their rosy marriage later had a
deep crack to the extent that they were not staying together anymore. When
Peller was killed at his Onipanu residence, he was in Lagos State for a
function while Lady Peller was living at the GRA, Ikeja. Although they were not
officially separated as they still saw regularly, Peller checked on her in
Ikeja but met her absence. As at that time, they had already reconciled and
were even planning on coming back together before Peller was prematurely
silenced by the assassin’s bullets.
Peller left a message for her to check on him as he was not
feeling well and was rushed to Ibadan for treatment. Lady Peller was furious as
to why he was taken to Ibadan since they had family doctors at the Ajayi
Memorial Hospital and the EKO Hospital in Lagos but upon getting to Ibadan, she
was simply told that Peller was dead. She fainted immediately only to wake up
to a bucket of water and intense fanning by family members. She said: “It was a
great shock and I had never seen that kind of things. I don’t ever wish to go
through that land of thing again.” While he was alive, he also taught her some
magic and ensured she got some training in Michigan, USA. Little wonder they
always performed together and as far as she is concerned, her religion is not
against the brand of magic she performed with her late husband because
according to her, ‘it was not fetish’. She still remembers the very good old
days and says she will not remarry and will still marry him over and over
again, rounding off: They only want to enjoy what Professor Peller was enjoying
for several years. But they can’t have it.”
DID HE ACTUALLY CUT HIS WIFE INTO TWO?
No. I will not call magic a lie but I will describe it as a
well-oiled pack of grandiose dramatization, outright deception, fantastic misdirection
and uncanny slyness. There is nothing spiritual about magic, it is nothing but
an agglomeration of well-practised tricks. However, if done well, an excellent
magician can actually ‘create something out of nothing’ or make the ‘possible
from the impossible’ (even if that will look like he or she is going against
the established laws of Newtonian physics, it is all an illusion) in a very
fluid and convincing manner (in that case, I will call many Nigerian
politicians magicians). So what happened that fateful day when Professor Peller
allegedly ‘sliced’ his wife into two but could not put her back together and
she almost ‘died’?
It was at the National Theatre in Iganmu, Lagos and the
Lagos State Governor, Alhaji Lateef Jakande was present at the occasion to
represent Chief Obafemi Awolowo. The event started as planned but then the
Peller team decided to throw in a suspense-filled event, as their usual
practice when they have events following one another every evening. The essence
was to create so much suspense so that they will draw in even more crowd by the
next day. So for day one, the idea was to create an illusion that he ran into
trouble while sawing his wife in half. But then, the next step involved
‘reviving’ her. After the ‘cutting’, which was obviously done with a lot of
dramatic effects, the crowd went into a frenzy and began to shout ‘We want Lady
Peller!’, ‘Give us Lady Peller!’. Later in 2012, the 66-year-old Lady Peller
was interviewed and asked about the incident and she insisted that Peller
actually cut her into two and she even sustained some light injuries. If you
really want to clear your mind on this, just watch the video below. Even in
hemicorporectomy in surgery where the entire half of a human is severed,
survival rate is very low. Enjoy this video and see how magicians ‘cut’ people
into halves:
FAMILY AND CHILDREN
He was a wonderful father and some of his children are as
follows:
-TOYIN
-SABURI (aka Pastor Kayode Abiola): Now a pastor, he was
born in October 1960 and practised magic like his late father. He gained some
degree of prominence before squandering the profits on women, cars and
ultimately, drugs. Peller tried his best to assist Kayode when he was alive, he
fought with him, took him to court, all to no avail. He later became a changed
man after the demise of his father and the dwindling of his own magic firm,
which he named Fantastic Young Peller.
-NIKE: Probably the most well-known of the Peller children,
Nike Peller is a popular face in the Nigerian movie industry where she featured
in many Yoruba flicks. On the 20th of November, 2010, she was made a
traditional chief and was conferred upon the title ‘Yeye Agbasaga’ (the
Custodian and Promoter of Culture) of Erin Osun, near Osogbo, Osun State.
Nike Peller
-SAHEED (aka Zeeto): A lawyer (he practised in England) and
also keen on sustaining the magic world created by their late father. In July
2013, he made his sister, Nike, disappear and reappear before an audience in
Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
Zeeto and his sister, Nike.
-SHINA: Handsome and suave, he is always in the news for his
partying lifestyle, love for cars.
HIS DEATH
Yes, Peller was assassinated. It was on fateful day on the
2nd of August 1997. Interestingly, he was killed the same day that Fela
Anikulapo-Ransome Kuti also died. Peller was attacked at his residence while
observing his evening prayers at Onipanu, Lagos State and he was fatally shot
by unknown gunmen. Nigeria and all kinds of unsolved murders, brutal killings
and blood-curdling assassinations.
INTERESTING THINGS ABOUT PROFESSOR PELLER
-He bore the same names (Moshood Abiola) with another
popular Nigerian and winner of the 1993 presidential elections, Bashorun
Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola.
-Professor Peller was a member of the International
Brotherhood of Magicians, an association for some of the very best of magicians
on earth. Here is the Magician’s Oath: “As a magician I promise never to reveal
the secret of any illusion to a non-magician, unless that one swears to uphold
the Magician’s Oath in turn. I promise never to perform any illusion for any
non-magician without first practicing the effect until I can perform it well
enough to maintain the illusion of magic.”
-Right from their childhood, Peller and Baba Sala, popular
Nigerian comedian, were best of friends. While making his movies, Baba Sala
would include some of Peller’s magical performances.
-During the reign of Peller as the most powerful and
influential magician that ever walked the Nigerian soil, there was this tale of
bitter and intense rivalry with another magician and herbal medical
practitioner from Osun State named Aladokun. Their rivalry was not just
superficial, it also had traces of a clash of principles. Aladokun represented
the typical African traditional magic while Peller was carrying the flag of the
‘foreign’ and Orient-trained magician. The intense competition brought about by
their fights led to even more spectacular displays of magic and illusions. At
the end, Peller prevailed, just like Tesla over Edison in the War of the
Currents. His wife also stated that the rumour that Peller was once swallowed
by Aladokun was false.
-Peller was good friends with the late Obafemi Awolowo, his
son, Wole and Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, all of whom enjoyed his shows and gave him
tremendous support.
-Professor’s Peller house at the junction of No. 11 Bode
Thomas Road and Abe Street in Onipanu, Lagos now belongs to a parish of the
Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG). When the house was put up for sale,
many of the prospective buyers ran away when they learnt it belonged to the
late magician. Nigerians are funny sha…lol! When he was alive, his house was a
well-known destination and schoolchildren thronged to see the massive picture
he put in front of the house, it was Peller in all the glory of the
paraphernalia of his magic.
-Although he is the undisputed legend of magic in Nigeria,
Professor Peller was said to be a devout Muslim who did not miss any of his
Islamic obligations. Here is what his widow said in an interview with the
Nigerian Compass in April 2012: “The Professor Peller you knew in public was
not the same Eerson at home, especially whenever e was praying. On Fridays, all
he enjoyed doing was praising God. He never missednis five daily prayers.
Whenever he wanted to pray, he would just wear either an agbada or jalabia and
nothing else. Whenever he was praying, he was always very serious, showing
utmost piety. In fact, before he got married to me, he told me that he never
observed his Subhi prayer at home; he would always go to the mosque wherever he
was. At least, we livea together for about 27 years, and I don’t know of any
day he missed his five daily prayers. “Oh, yes! If he was not praying, they wouldn’t
kill him like that. Ask anybody, if he was not praying, he wouldn’t have been
killed just like that. No, no!” She also said that Peller made a mistake when
he revealed in an interview with journalists that the only time he was without
any magic was when he was praying. His widow believe that his enemies exploited
this.
-An extremely confident man, Peller told the African
Guardian (Guardian Magazines) in an interview in 1988, that ‘there is nothing
like failure. I am the last of the world’s great magicians’.
LEGACY
Without a doubt, the late Peller popularized the art of
magic in Nigeria and polished it to such an extent that not even his children
have been able to duplicate. He unarguably remains Nigeria’s greatest magician.
After conquering Nigeria with his conjuring skills, he went international and
received global acclaim. Mention the name Peller and the next thing that comes
to mind is magic. But when he died that fateful 2nd of August, it seemed magic
in Nigeria died with him. Will there arise another conjurer even far more
impressive than Peller in the land? Time will tell.
ABRACADABRA! The more you look…the less you see.
Source: Abiyamo
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