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Popular, award-winning British-Nigerian actor David Oyelowo has shared a hilarious story about his time at a boarding school in Nigeria, revealing that he pretended not to understand Yoruba while secretly listening to everything around him.
Speaking during an interview, Oyelowo said he spoke Yoruba fluently as a child but decided to hide it when he attended boarding school in Nigeria as a teenager.
According to him, his foreign accent made many of his classmates assume he could not understand the language, and he used that misconception to his advantage.
“It was like being the invisible man,” the actor said, explaining that students freely spoke around him in Yoruba, unaware that he understood every word.
Oyelowo recalled overhearing conversations about himself, including girls discussing their feelings for him. He said some would pretend not to like him while saying the exact opposite in Yoruba.
The actor jokingly revealed that the situation even led him to date twins at the same time, a confession that left the interviewer stunned and laughing.
He also admitted to hearing classmates gossip and sometimes speak negatively about him in the dormitory, but said he had the discipline to keep his secret throughout his two years at the school.
The biggest surprise came on his final day. Oyelowo said he went around speaking Yoruba to everyone before leaving, leaving his classmates shocked after discovering that he had understood their conversations all along.
“Their faces,” he recalled with laughter, describing the priceless reactions he received after finally revealing the truth.
