Throwback Interview: Kate Henshaw – Forty, Fearless & Free

 

Pulled from the February 2012 edition of tw Magazine.

Story by: Tolu Orekoya

‘The more you are motivated by love, the more fearless and free your action will be.’
-Dalai Lama XIV

It has been an eventful year for stage and screen actress, Kate Henshaw. She turned forty. She decided to go natural and now sports her unrelaxed hair in bouncy twists thanks to a TW article she read (“It’s all because of you, Aunty,” she later says affectionately to the Editor-In Chief, Adesuwa Onyenokwe). She is even more in tune with her body, her already trim figure taking on lithe and taut lines sculpted through hard work at the gym. Her activism has flourished in a new dimension, thanks to the Occupy Nigeria protests. And, she happened to get a divorce. Still, at her core Kate remains the same: a sassy, down-to-earth, unafraid-to-be-herself woman.

THE D WORD

“Kate Henshaw Divorces Husband!!” headlines screamed. Just before the end of 2011, Nigerian gossip pages and websites exploded with the unexpected news that, after 12 years of marriage and one child, Kate and her husband Roderick Nuttal were splitting. Just three months before, Kate and her now ex had been seen dancing together at her star-studded 40th birthday party where nothing seemed amiss. Almost immediately the news broke, rumours began swirling on the internet, with blogs pointing accusatory fingers at them both for engaging in extra-marital affairs.

She made the difficult decision to make the announcement, knowing that innuendo was sure to follow and could dog her for months. Kate was guarded but determined to face the onslaught head on. “I wasn’t afraid. That stint of being in the press constantly for weeks, it’s not as if I have not experienced it before. But this really hit me. I was kind of prepared for it—I knew it was going to come even though the marriage had ended before people had even got wind of it. So I was prepared, mentally. Not that it didn’t hurt, [those stories] linking me with close friends and all that.”

She is very careful not to cast aspersions or blame about what triggered the end of her marriage, but is honest and open was about the fact that it is indeed over. It was a mutual decision to end the relationship, one made before she even celebrated her birthday, according to Kate. “I started to notice that it was not like it was,” Kate said about how they both came to the conclusion, “and for me instead of just managing—I am not one to just manage—there was no need to stay. And he too had come to that place. But we both vowed to take care of Gabrielle, our daughter.”

Still, there was harsh analysis of her behaviour during the marriage’s waning months. Longstanding friendships with male friends were especially vulnerable to scrutiny, as benign images of hanging out with married friends became secret rendezvous, and her openly affectionate manner—which she had generally always expressed towards both her male and female friends—now became fodder for the grist mill. She shook her head as she laughed off the rumours, pointing out she was (and still is) friends with many men and women, as well as their significant others. The split was very amicable and Rod, whom she calls a gentleman, attended her 40th birthday party. Kate has had time to mull over her marriage and she is clear that she had no regrets. “My daughter, each time I look at her, I’m like ‘we did something right’. I know that I was not doing ‘star’ at home…I was a homemaker.” “Being married does not define who I am,” she says in reference to the idea of her being a failure because of the split. “I am an individual in my own right. I am Kate.”

While she bore the scrutiny well and tried to get on with her life being as normal as possible, she hoped to swiftly fade from the headlines. “I actually prayed to God and I said, ‘I want this thing to end with last year I want to start this New Year with a new page,’ and that is exactly what happened.” Something else came to the fore that would forever alter the country, Kate included.

VERY BRAVE MUMMY
1st January, 2012. Nigerians were blindsided by the news that the petrol prices at the pump had more than doubled. The announcement was presented as a fait accompli, and it shook the country, causing a nationwide furore that kick-started a national strike, protests and a movement that saw Nigerians from all walks of life unified and taking to the streets. By the second day Kate was at the fore of the Ikoyi protests, which convened at Falomo Roundabout. “Every morning, once we park the car, she turned into somebody else,” said Alloy her personal assistant-slash-chauffeur. There was a sincere tone of admiration and a hint of awe in his voice, as he recalled the fervour she displayed at the rallies.
Kate has had a longstanding history with activism. She is immensely passionate, so it is no surprise that her sense of justice was easily aroused by what she saw as “oppression” of Nigerians. As a former victim of abuse in a relationship, she has been extremely vocal in her support for Project Alert, an NGO dedicated to assisting victims of domestic violence. “I’ve never ‘hidden my mouth’ about things that bother me, that are unjust…I guess I’ve found a way to speak out.” For the multiple-award winning actress, it was the right time to ask hard questions about her self-identity, what impact she could impart and how much she was willing to sacrifice for something she so deeply believed in. “This is Kate Henshaw. Do you want to be [just an] actress? What else are you doing? How are you going to touch lives? Someone said to me, ‘you make a living by what you get and you make a life by what you give,’ so I want to give.” “At the risk of your life?” Adesuwa asks. “At the risk of my life, yes,” she answers unhesitatingly.

Getting involved in the protests was not an easy decision for her to make. She knew she was running the very real risk of getting arrested, jailed or even worse. As a well-known public figure she was an easy target and Nigeria’s dark history with illegal detentions made at the dead of night was not something she could ignore easily. The actress also knew that she had to consider her ex-husband’s opinion because of their daughter. Thankfully, he supported her decision. Still, she was haunted by nightmares and berated by friends for not thinking of her position as a mother with a young child. “It’s because of my daughter I am doing it,” was her unequivocal response. Kate’s 11-year-old daughter also asked her why she felt she had to protest. “So it can be better for you in the future,” Kate told her, “so that it can be better for every child in Nigeria.” Her daughter replied, “I’ll make you a t-shirt mummy that says VBM—very brave mummy.”

THE ISSUES AT HAND
Kate was front and centre at the Lekki Plaza Toll gates protests on the 17th of December, 2011, as well as the week-long protests in January dubbed Occupy Nigeria. “These [occurrences] were the last straws that broke the camel’s back. People are hungry, they are jobless, people can barely feed themselves, they are barely getting paid and then [the government] tells them that the little they can manage, they are going to make it harder?” The actress says about why so many people felt moved to protest. “Every morning that I woke I felt that I was doing the right thing. I had to speak…even if I didn’t speak, I had to help.” Kate witnessed the protests bring out the best in people. Food and drink (which the welfare committee made sure to direct to the less privileged), generators, trucks and paraphernalia were all donated with no hesitation and people stayed back and cleaned up the protest grounds after each day. These protests were not about rich or poor—Kate emphasised that the needs of all Nigerians (healthcare, power, education, good governance) went far beyond economic boundaries. “First of all, I am a Nigerian and I desire all these things for my country,” she said emphatically.
During the course of the interview, our conversation veered towards the negative reports of a ‘carnival-like atmosphere’ at the rallies, with the rousing performances by various artists, , and some more affluent protesters bringing expensive drinks. While there were some elements of extravagance that were quickly quashed to focus on the big picture, for Kate it was making sure there was effective communication to people at all levels, not just the well-educated. “…for the rest of the people, this English you are talking, it is ‘big grammar’ to them. You have to attract them, speak to them in different languages—someone spoke in pidgin, I spoke in my own language [Efik], others in Yoruba, Igbo—then you play music to help them relax. Then, you give them more talk!” she explained. Fela’s music was especially popular as his revolutionary stance resonated with the mood of the crowds protesting.

Outside the protests the star became an even more avid consumer of the news, listening to commentary, poring over the SuRE P documents and the 2012 national budget, even taking copious notes to gain better understanding of what the government was trying to achieve. She dissected and digested a lot of the information, then put her research and her oratory skills to good use, speaking at the rallies and doing her best to communicate what she had learned. Nelson Mandela continues to be a massive inspiration for the actress, for his example on endurance, good governance and selflessness.

Her involvement was not about grandstanding, or about touting an ‘I was at Occupy Nigeria’ card. Kate is in this for the long haul, determined to finish this fight as a Nigerian and as a woman. “I met so many people during this occupy thing, and one of them said to me, ‘The revolutionary spirit of a nation is determined by the political awareness of its women,’ and it made sense,” said the star. “Women are always the ones that mediate but they are also the catalyst for change! I cannot sit at home! I will go and protest! I am a woman. So? Does it make me less of a human being?”

BATTLES LOST AND WON
The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) eventually negotiated a lower price point for petrol, a compromise that left a sour taste in many mouths, including Kate’s. However, she chooses to dwell on the successes instead, and to focus on getting women to be more politically aware. “The fact that a lot of people are aware and are keyed into it, not only about fuel subsidy, not only about the nation, but also our young girls—what is a priority for you? As a Nigerian woman what do you think your quota is to help your environment, to help people around you, the next woman even?”

Going forward, Kate hopes to join other like-minded activists to start to fight for the necessities to move the country forward. “I am really agitating for us to get the basics. We need the basics in this country! At least let us have light to drive down the costs of manufacturing, the cost of production, purchasing power. How can we not have electricity 24 hours a day?” And she believes that the greatest dividend of the protests is that Nigerians have found their voice and can begin to demand accountability and transparency from the highest circles of power down to the local governments. For the presidency and the government, there are tough times ahead as Kate sees it.

Like many, she makes no bones about her displeasure with the Subsidy Programme (SuRE P). “SURE, is a roll on,” she says, with a touch of humour. The mistrust of government is quite palpable and she voices the frustrations of many Nigerians who are caught in SuRE P’s catch-22, with no easy resolution to the situation in sight. For the actress, it all comes back to accountability of governance “They have to listen to us! It is enough! Government has to be transparent…it is OUR money.”

A timeline with concrete deadlines was one of the solutions Kate offered to the problem of SuRE, and targets showing progress would give people hope. Another solution was paring down government positions and making them simultaneously less attractive as an employer as well as more answerable for their actions. She points to the housing scandal in the UK (where members of parliament were forced to resign for misappropriating funds) as a prime example of how it can be done. “People have to continue speaking. We as Nigerians we forget too easily, we need a constant reminder. We can have everything we want and need in this country.” And her final words are full of hope and resolve. “Change, has come.”

* * *
The Dalai Lama XIV quote at the beginning, encompasses what it means to be Kate in the here and now. During the interview Adesuwa posed a question about the role that love played in her decisions at this crucial point in her life. My take? At forty, she has had to make some difficult decisions, but her reactions come from the heart. She loves her country enough to fight for it, she loves her daughter and struggles for her future, and she knows and loves herself to understand that her marriage was over. The result has been a woman fearless in her resolve to fight for what she believes in, and secure in knowledge that love gives her that ultimate freedom: to define herself exactly as she wants to—bouncy twists, and all.

Image Credit: Moussa Moussa