Folagade Banks gained wide recognition when she adopted the character of a moralistic Yoruba mother, Mama Deola, in her sketches.
In the competitive field of Nigerian content creators, Mama Deola stands out with her signature brown rope, headdress, peculiar shoes and unique accent. This comical character combines humour with cultural insight, making Folagade’s narrative uniquely engaging and relatable.
In addition to performing sketches and his famous Mama Deola character, Folagade is also an event presenter and actor who has appeared in several film productions.
Some may have wondered how he came up with such a unique character as Mama Deola, who entertains while evoking a strong sense of nostalgia.
In an exclusive interview with Industryhe, she revealed how she created the character of Mama Deola by overcoming challenges and negativity.
He narrated, “I created the character of Mama Deola during my final year of school based on conversations I had with friends. One afternoon, we were chatting in my room and I found out that we all had a similar upbringing. Our parents did a lot of similar things while raising us. They had a WhatsApp room where they communicated. It was something like, “So your mom and dad do this.” That means it was content that people could relate to. I said, “Okay, I was going to give it a try.”
“If I wanted to add a little bit of comedy, I might do it with the moms, because the dads are more laid back when they do their actions. They’re less dramatic, but the moms are more surprising. Before I started, I didn’t want to wear costumes because I didn’t want to be one of those guys who dresses up for the role. You can see that the way I make my content now, I don’t do too much with that.”
Article page with challenges for promoting financial support
The creator of the sketch briefly recalled the challenges he faced as a student while creating the character of Mummy Deola and how he overcame them.
She said, “I was on a tight schedule because I was finishing my final year project in school. So, the challenges I faced were time and my busy schedule. From the first video I posted for the character of Mama Deola, people loved it; it was great and blogs reposted it.
After overcoming the challenges of balancing her senior project with sketch performance, another obstacle arose.
Every content creator, entrepreneur, and influencer has to deal with negative comments or reviews. People handle offensive comments differently: they respond, delete comments, block problematic people, or ignore them.
Folagade has shared how he handles these recurring challenges as a sketch creator.
She said, “I bless the Lord for the kind of fans I have because I hardly see any negative comments. I don’t have any hostile fans. All my fans are positive people and they say positive things because they see my content comes from a vast place of love for motherhood.
“I don’t see any negative comments, if I see them, I don’t notice them. Imagine I have 10,000 beautiful comments and only one horrible one. How will I notice it? All I see is the love that people give me,” she added.
Source of livelihood
During the interview, the creator of the sketch admitted that the character of Mama Deola pays his bills, which has had a positive impact on his life.
The actor said, “I have achieved a lot of things that might require work on a normal day. But since I am an actor playing the character of Mama Deola, I get to work with big brands and meet wonderful 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 sketch artist, also mentioned how the character of Mama Deola took him abroad three times and opened many doors for him.
However, she believes she would have been successful in the role of Mama Deola even without adopting a female character.
Unique style of content creation
Taking a look at the content creation industry, many sketch creators have fallen into the trap of going around in circles and offering the same content. However, a creator, entrepreneur, and influencer stands out by offering decent, educational, and entertaining content.
In a nutshell, she said, “I want them to look at Mama Deola’s character and remember a woman they encountered on the street, at the secretariat, at the market, at the church and at the mosque. That could set me apart from a lot of content creators. Most people sexualise women; you will see women who dress like 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.”
Furthermore, when speaking about how he chooses topics for his skits, the talented content creator revealed that he is very intentional in selecting content that will leave a lasting impact.
“I deliberately select my topics; if you look closely at my content, you’ll notice that I love to get a message across. I don’t want to create content that people will just laugh at and pass by.
“Instead, I want to create content that you watch and that conveys a message. I leave out sexual themes. I only say things that kids can watch and that they enjoy watching. Things that will make a family happy. Sometimes, I curate my content based on personal experiences. Current trends may be topics that people are talking about, but I am selective. I don’t follow all trends. I use some that align with Mama Deola’s brand and other inspirations, like what a friend tells me,” she added.
UK content creators earn more
While Folagade believes that the content creation industry is thriving and lucrative, he feels that Nigerian creators would be even more excited if the issue of monetization was addressed.
Revealing how lucrative it is, he said, “It is lucrative, but it won't be lucrative at first. You have to invest your time, invest your money and put a lot of effort into it before it starts being lucrative.”
Folagade noted that his UK counterparts earn significantly more from videos posted on TikTok, a social media platform, encouraging brands to appreciate the efforts of content creators.
He said: “It shouldn’t be necessary to do live streaming on other platforms like TikTok before making money. Many of us have a lot of views on TikTok and we don’t make a cent, but our colleagues in the UK are making a lot of money from videos with fewer views in Nigeria – we should be able to make a lot of money from our videos.
“Brands pay well, but they should value content creators more for their efforts in telling their brand story. Nigerians will be happier if we can do more for the content creation industry.
