Actor and director Antar Laniyan has shared the unusual story behind his name, tracing it back to the strange events around his birth.
He said the story was first told to him by his mother, who explained that he remained in her womb far longer than expected.
Relatives were worried at the time because the delay had no clear medical reason.
According to him, his mother was later told to eat a creature known in Yoruba as Anta, said to be smaller than a crocodile but shaped like a lizard.
Not long after she followed the advice, he was born.
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The actor said this experience influenced his mother’s choice of name for him.
He added that the name later took its present form when he entered primary school and decided to adjust its spelling after classmates teased him.
Laniyan said the story made him value what mothers go through before bringing their children into the world.
He said that many people do not know the weight of these experiences until they hear how they were born.
The Osogbo-born actor began his career in 1981.
He said:
“I overstayed in my mother’s womb; I stayed 18 months, according to her.
“She was advised to eat Anta lizard, and after eating it, I was born within an hour. So my mother didn’t see anything wrong with adding that thing to my name.
“When I got to primary school and my friends were playing with the name, I added an R to make it Antar.
“There’s a story behind it, and I like telling it at times because I want every individual to know the importance of having a mother: a good mother, a great one.
“The kind of things that our mother passed through before they gave birth to us individually, we do not know because we were not there. But when a mother goes into telling you how you came to be, you will weep for yourself.”
A graduate of Theatre Arts from the University of Ibadan, he has appeared in many well-known films and has directed major works, including the first episode of Wale Adenuga’s Super Story in 2000.
