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It was one surreal day, around 4:00 pm 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’smost 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
He was born in 1941 at Iseyin, Oyo State 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 Samuel Kanyon Doe of Liberia 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 former President of Benin Republic, Mathieu Kerekou was
also one of those who patronized Peller
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.
Copperfield is presently the greatest magician on earth and
the first person to make one billion dollars from magic.
-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. Here are few more magic clips on
YouTube just to let you know they do not conjure any evil spirit or demon, it
is nothing but sheer trickery.
LOVE, ROMANCE AND MARRIAGE
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. 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 f amily doctors at the
Ajayi Memorial Hospitaland 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 kind 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
HIS DEATH
Yes, Peller was assassinated. It was on fateful day on the 2
nd of August 1997. Interestingly, he was killed the same day that Fela
Anikulapo-Ransome Kuti also died. Peller was attacked at his residence
in 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.
Mention the name Peller and the next thing that comes to
mind is magic. But when he died that fateful 2 nd 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. You
love magic? Enjoy these!
ABRACADABRA! The more you look…the less you see.
Thanks a lot for your time.
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