By Patricia Uyeh,

Speaking at the August occasion of the Annual Conference of Heritage Adoption Support and Advocacy Group (HASAAG), which had the Vice President’s wife, Mrs Dolapo Osinbajo in attendance, veteran actress, Joke Silva-Jacobs disclosed that she was an adopted child.

According to kemiashefonlovehaven, Joke was living in a foster home of the Red Cross in Yaba, Lagos, and she recalled that her foster parent was Mrs. Desalu.

She said;

“Everybody would be calling me whenever my adopted mum (Dr. Silva)came with cakes and a lot of things during her visit. I went to YWCA Nursery, which was not too far from the Silva’s home in Yaba. I also have memories of moving in with them when they moved to Glover Road in Ikoyi.

“I remember reading newspapers to my Dad in our sitting room and pronouncing Brig-General Aguiyi Ironsi, the then Nigeria Head Of State, Agolo Iresi! My father could not stop laughing at my hilarious interpretation of the newspaper.

“Also I remember making them proud, when performing at St. Saviour School. My parents would be standing and were congratulated by other parent too for my acting skills. My parents were so excited that this child was incredibly talented.”

She continued:
“I have memories of going to Holy Child College Lagos because my parents insisted on me going to Holy Child because that is where Julie Coker, Pearce Olusola and Ibidun Allison went and they believed with all my performing talent skills, that is the kind of school I should go to too.

“I remembered going out with my cousin and we met a big cousin She introduced me as ‘my cousin’s daughter and this is Dr Silva’s daughter.’ Then, the older cousin was like, ‘Dr. Silva ke? Se Doctor Silva bimo ni? (meaning does Dr. Silva have a child?) . Did Dr Silva ever has a child?”

“I was so confused and when I got home I told my mum, ‘I met this lady that says you never had a child.’ My mum froze and she said, ‘don’t mind them, they are used to rubbish talk.’

“But I got to know years later when I wanted to travel and was looking for my passport where my mum kept it. Since she was not around, I opened the box in her absence and I saw my adoption papers. I never discussed it with my mum because I felt it was something that would hurt her, that was why, it was kept secret from me.”

Speaking about her foster mum, Dr Silva, she said:

“Amazing Parents But I had incredible memories of my amazing parents for allowing me to do my A Level in England and going to one of the best schools in Bournemouth (a seaside resort on the southern coast of England) coming back after my A level with two of them having an argument on what I was going to do because I had failed my A level having done it for the third time then.

“I had done it thrice because I changed from science to Arts— I didn’t do well at all.
My father said, ‘Joke, go back and do your A levels again and my Mom said, let this girl go and do the drama.’ They came into middle ground, and as you can see I am still in drama today.”

Photo credit : Instagram @ajokesilva