Nigerian actress Stella Damasus has revealed that her surname, “Damasus,” is not her family’s original last name.
Speaking on Channels Television, Damasus explained that her family changed their surname from “Ojukwu” to “Damasus” during the Biafran War to avoid being targeted for their Igbo heritage.
“Damasus is my grandfather’s first name; it’s a Greek name. My original surname was Ojukwu, but that changed during the Biafran war where my people were attacked in Asaba. They changed the name before I was even born, so I was born into the name Damascus, and when I asked why, that was the reason I was given, and there’s nothing I could do,” she said.
Addressing years of fans mispronouncing her name as “Damascus,” she added, “Over the years, I corrected the pronunciation so many times in other interviews that I thought people had caught on by then, but I was shocked. People still think it’s Damascus and not Damasus, but I understand why people stayed true to that name because that’s what they got used to and didn’t get bothered to change it.”
