How I created ‘Mama Deola’ character, surmounted challenges – Folagade Banks

Folagade Banks gained widespread recognition when he adopted the character of a self-righteous Yoruba mother, Mama Deola, in his skits.

In Nigeria’s competitive field of content creators, Mama Deola stands out with her signature brown rope, head tie, quirky shoes, and unique accent. This comedic character blends humour with cultural insights, making Folagade’s storytelling uniquely engaging and relatable.

Beyond skit-making and his famous Mama Deola persona, Folagade is also an event host and an actor who has appeared in some movie productions.

Some may have wondered how he conceived such a unique character as Mama Deola, who entertains while evoking a strong sense of nostalgia.

In an exclusive interview with industryhe revealed how he created Mama Deola’s character by surpassing challenges and negativity.

He narrated, “I created the Mama Deola character during my final year of school based on conversations I had with friends. One afternoon, we were gisting in my room, and I discovered we all had similar upbringings. Our parents did a lot of similar things while raising us. They had a WhatsApp room where they communicated. It was like, “So your mum and dad do this.” That means it was relatable content. I said, “Ok, I was going to try it.”

“If I wanted to chip a little comedy into it, I am going to be able to do that with the mums because dads are quieter when doing their actions. They are less dramatic, but mothers are more surprising. Before I started, I didn’t want to use costumes because I didn’t want to be one of those guys who dressed the part. You can see that as I do my content now, I don’t do too much with it.”

Challenges

The skit maker briefly recalled the challenges he faced as a student in building the Mummy Deola character and how he overcame them.

He said, “I had a tight schedule because I was wrapping up my final-year project in school. So, the challenges I faced were timing and my tight schedule. From the first video I dropped for Mama Deola’s character, people loved it; it was a blast, and blogs reposted it.

After overcoming the challenges of balancing his final-year project with skit-making, another hurdle arose.

Every content creator, entrepreneur, and influencer must deal with negative comments or criticism. People handle offensive remarks differently by responding, deleting comments, blocking troublesome individuals, or ignoring them.

Folagade has shared how he manages these recurring challenges as a skit-maker.

He said, “I bless the Lord for the kind of fans I have because I hardly see negative comments. I don’t have hostile fans. All my fans are positive people and say positive things because they see that my content comes from a vast place of love for motherhood.

“I don’t see negative comments; if I see any, I don’t notice them. Imagine me having 10,000 beautiful comments and just one awful comment. How will I notice it? All I see is the love people bring to me,” he added.

Source of livelihood

During the interview, the skit maker admitted that Mama Deola’s character pays his bills, which has positively impacted his life.

The actor said, “I have achieved many things that might take work on a typical day. But because I am an actor playing the mama Deola character, I get to work with big brands and meet tremendous and beautiful personalities. It has given me a source of livelihood and income, helped my personality, and built my portfolio.

Folagade, a geographer before becoming a skit maker, further mentioned how Mama Deola’s character has taken him abroad three times and opened numerous doors for him.

However, he believes that he would have been successful at the Mama Deola role even without adopting a female persona.

Unique content creation style

Peeping into the content creation industry, many skit makers have fallen prey to going in circles and delivering the same content creator, entrepreneur, and influencer , however, distinguishes himself by sticking to decent, educative, yet funny content.

He briefly said, “I want you to see the Mama Deola character and remember a woman once encountered on the street, secretariat, market church, and mosque. That might set me aside from a lot of content creators. Most people sexualise ladies; you will see ladies wearing this, trying to look attractive, trying to sell their bodies, all because they want viewers to watch their content, which is something I will never do. You can still be decent and funny.”

More so, when discussing how he chooses the topics for his skits, the talented content creator revealed that he is highly intentional in selecting content that will leave a lasting impact.

“I deliberately pick my topics; if you watch my content well, you will notice that I love conveying a message. I don’t want to create content people will laugh about and move on from.

“Instead, I want to create content you will watch, and a message is passed across to you. I leave sexual topics out of it. I only say things children can watch and derive joy from watching. Stuff that will make a family happy. Sometimes, I pick my content based on personal experiences. Current trends may be topics people talk about, but I am selective. I don’t follow all the trends. I will use a few that align with Mama Deola’s brand and other inspirations, like what a friend tells me,” he added.

UK content creators earning more

While Folagade believes the content creation industry is thriving and lucrative, he feels Nigerian creators would be even more enthusiastic if the issue of monetisation were addressed.

Revealing how lucrative it is, he said, “It is lucrative, but initially, it won’t be lucrative. You have to invest your time, invest your money, and put a lot of effort into it before it starts being lucrative.”

Folagade pointed out that their UK counterparts earn significantly more from videos posted on TikTok, a social media platform, encouraging brands to appreciate content creators’ efforts.

He said, “You shouldn’t have to go live on other platforms like TikTok before earning. Many of us have many views on TikTok and are not earning a dime, but our counterparts in the UK are earning a lot of money on videos with fewer views in Nigeria; we should be allowed to earn well on our videos.

“Brands pay well, but they should appreciate content creators more for their efforts to tell their brand story. Nigerians will be happier if we can do more for the content creation industry.