TOLU OYE IS
MEJI MEJI MAMA
INTERVIEW BY ELYON
The zoom call began with a flurry of activity as we hurried to settle in, narrowly avoiding a late start.
Tolu Oye, Meji Meji Mama herself, finally appeared and got situated.
Right away, it was clear she’s a talker, something we were very excited about.
“Heads up, I’m a yapper,” she warned.
She asked for the time, I told her, “It’s 11:00am in Los Angeles”.
She finds this confusing being its already 7:00pm in Lagos. I give her a little meridian history telling her how LA is basically the latest timezone in the world and everyone else gets to the future before us.
She was excited when I shared her brand’s Coachella spottings. Feeling humbled that the brand is now an entity of its own. But this was only the beginning of multiple great things for the Meji Meji brand in 2025.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARK ODUMUYIWA
On her Easter pop-up, Oye reflected on the turnout:
“I’m always in awe when I see people really love the brand. It felt really amazing honestly. Just seeing the trajectory of the brand and seeing where we’re at. We’ll be embarking on our fifth year in June. Before, when I started the brand, it was really centered around me. But I’ve now been able to create a world that is just the world of Meji Meji and people are now gravitating into that world. I’m forever grateful, I’m forever blessed, and I’m just happy that God chose me to field this talent because He could have chose anybody but He chose me.”
When asked what’s keeping her going:
“I’m in the process of moving and I have to create what my space looks like. [I’ve been] playing around with colors, I just painted my room a burnt orange. I can show you…”
She gave a virtual tour of her burnt orange masterpiece and her studio.
“Change isn’t easy. At first when I moved I was not excited. I had to leave my studio that I’ve had for five years. But everything happens for a reason. Now that I’m in this space I kinda feel happy and I feel at peace.”
Oye reflected on growing up in the Midwest:
“I left Lagos at the age of five and we relocated to Columbus, Ohio. For the longest, I really hated the idea of being African. It was like a constant reminder that you’re ‘black,’ but not only are you black, you’re African. At that time it was the bottom of the barrel. When you envision that greasy Vaseline kid, that was me. I had an identity crisis. My mom is a cosmetologist, she was working in a braid store, and I was always doing intricate braid styles. I decided I didn’t want to be reminded [of my ethnicity] because of all the ridicule I got for being African. So I went through my whole relaxer journey… That era was from a place of wanting to belong. That’s how I’d say the Midwest shaped me.”
Returning to Lagos shifted her perspective:
“I went back to Lagos for the first time since I left, when I was 12. I thought it was lit even though my parents had their own reasons for not feeling the same way. I started traveling back on my own at 16. I came back for a family wedding, and at the time I owned a beauty brand, OYE GREEN, and was doing research on shea butter. Going back to Nigeria made me gain an appreciation for my African culture since I was no longer an adolescent. I felt love for my culture — everything I had against it, I wanted to debunk. I made a vow to myself that I want to make sure any work I do, that I am able to share my story and my heritage in that form. That’s kind of what commenced the ideas behind Meji Meji.”
The rest of the story lives in print.
read the full interview in CTRL+ALT+SYNC issue 01
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Creative Direction & interview by Elyon
Photography by Mark Odumuyiwa
Styling by Meji Meji
Art Direction by Taoheed Bayo
Production by CTRL+ALT+SYNC Magazine
