Upon her return to the country after a stint at the United Nations, Bolanle Austen-Peters knew exactly what she wanted to do with her life. She wanted to engage fully her passion for the arts and she wasted no time in setting to work and the result in the movies, theatre, fashion, food, art and literary sector is there for everyone to see.
An example for many a woman who may have felt the weight of the glass ceiling in the country, Bolanle Austen-Peters has shown that passion and sheer determination will not only shatter the said ceiling but also take the woman or anybody for that matter to enviable heights.
She told The Guardian in a recent interview that “there is gender inequality in Nigeria to an extent, but there is also pressure on men and men also go through a lot of inequalities as well, because it is not only women that suffer these things.” Indeed, the founder of Terra Kulture in 2003, Bolanle Austen-Peters Productions (BAP) in 2013 and producer of several stage musicals and a movie, couldn’t have been more apt as being a woman did not stop her from embarking on her great journey with arts.
Beginning with Saro: The Musical, her company has since produced and taken Wakaa: The Musical to the London West End, the first Nigerian musical to be staged there and also staged Fela and the Kalakuta Queens at home. Then there is the award winning 93 Days movie. But perhaps, one thing that will probably serve as an endearing legacy to the lawyer and businesswoman is her partnership with Lagos State to build theatres in its five divisions after completing the Terra Kulture Arena where there has been a stage production since the doors were thrown open in March of 2017.
Bet you didn’t know that if she had had her way from the onset she would have been a dancer or writer and not a lawyer