Idowu Philips, the ace actress better known as Mama Rainbow, has revealed how the late Hubert Ogunde encouraged her to quit nursing to pursue theatre.
Mama Rainbow had juggled her nursing career at the Infectious Disease Hospital in Yaba and the General Hospital in Lagos with performances for the Osumare Theatre Group.
In a recent interview with Feels Right News TV, the 83-year-old screen icon said Ogunde’s advice came after he attended a performance of the dance drama ‘Rabiatu,’ which she and her late husband had produced.
“Baba Ogunde and three of his wives came there,” Mama Rainbow recalled.
“He said, ‘Is it not Idowu that did Rabiatu? You said you don’t want to leave nursing. Go and leave nursing and be doing theatre. You know how to do it.’ His wives greeted me and embraced me, and that was it.”
She said Ogunde’s words convinced her to resign from her nursing job in 1986, despite resistance from her patients, who pleaded with her to stay.
Mama Rainbow also spoke of Ogunde’s support following her husband’s death, noting that he had confronted her about wearing widow’s clothing during her visits to him.
“I decided that I wanted to leave nursing work and wrote my resignation letter. All the patients I took care of said they couldn’t accept that Idowu was leaving,” she added.
“He called me one day and said, ‘Idowu, you just not come here with this cloth you’re wearing’; he told me to remove it and told people to tear it. It was his wife who gave me another cloth to wear. Since then, I stopped wearing the cloth.”
Born October 16, 1942, in Ijebu Ode, Ogun state, Mama Rainbow began acting in the 1970s and has since become a treasured figure in Nollywood.
In October 2025, she marked 60 years on stage, celebrating the milestone with a photo shoot and a planned tour across three countries.
Ogunde, who died in April 1990, was a Nigerian actor, playwright, theatre manager, and musician who founded the first contemporary professional theatrical company in Nigeria, the African Music Research Party, in 1945. He changed the name to Ogunde Theater Party in 1947 and Ogunde Concert Party in 1950.
