90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days is back with its fourth season and viewers are particularly fascinated by one Nigerian-American couple.
The first two seasons of Before the 90 Days featured Angela Deem and Michael Ilesanmi. Angela, a 50-something blonde from Georgia, met Michael, a 30-something from Nigeria, online.
The two began a romance and eventually got engaged. Angela’s outrageous personality and wacky antics entertained viewers and the couple moved on from Before the 90 Days to the most recent season of 90 Day Fiance.
Now, we have Lisa and Usman, another couple with similarities to the 90 Day Fiance fan favorites.
The new Angela and Michael
Angela and Michael aren’t on this season of Before the 90 Days, but an eerily similar couple is. Last week, viewers were introduced to Lisa Hamme, a 50-something American, and her 30-year-old Nigerian boyfriend Usman Umar.
Lisa and Usman share a lot with Angela and Michael, but Usman’s career definitely differentiates the couples- Usman is a rapper who performs under the name “Sojaboy.” Lisa seems entranced by Usman’s “celebrity” and she was charmed when Usman wrote her a song.
However, fans have questioned how famous Usman really is. He only has about 10,000 followers on Instagram, a low number for a “celebrity” in a country of 190 million people. For comparison, 90 Day Fiance season 4 star Anfisa Nava has nearly 600,000 followers. Sojaboy’s music is available on Spotify, but his two available songs combined have fewer than 10,000 plays.
Most curiously, Sojaboy’s twitter account lists him as a “UN Peace Ambassador.” I’ve been dying to figure out what he means by that, but haven’t found any even remotely relevant information.
Apart from his music career, there is a little bit that we know about Usman. He hails from Sokoto, a city in Northwest Nigeria near the Nigeria-Niger border.
Lisa mentioned on Sunday’s episode that Usman is a Muslim whose family takes issue with Lisa’s Christianity. The drama surrounding that conflict will likely feature in future episodes.
On previews for upcoming episodes of the show, Usman notes that Lisa is “70% good”- very reminiscent of Azan Tefou’s “55% attracted” remark back in season 4 of the original 90 Day Fiance. It’s not a good start for the couple, and fans think their relationship may be doomed.
Lisa and Usman are (were?) already married
Lisa and Usman were married in Nigeria at the end of August. On February 11th, Lisa changed her relationship status on FaceBook from “married” to “single.” It’s not clear if there was an issue between Lisa and Usman or if she was just changing her relationship status to keep 90 Day Fiance fans in the dark.
It’s unclear whether Usman ever actually made it to America, but it will surely be addressed in the coming episodes.
90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days airs Sundays at 8/7c on TLC.