He latches on humorously to my slip about his age. “I thank you very much. You know why you made a mistake? I don’t look 70, not so? They’ve been telling me. You said 60, go ahead. I believe you. It’s great,” he says before the start of the highlife birthday concert organised for him last November at the Yoruba Tennis Club, Onikan, Lagos.
“I’m fulfilled that I have attained that age even though I had thought I might not last till now. Not for any reason but for the fact that in this period, the lifespan in my part of the world is diminishing from year to year because of the problems that have refused to be solved by those who are governing us. And that’s a shame. I feel fulfilled and I’m grateful to God that I’m 70. I have no illness; I have a back problem, that’s all,” he adds.
Home is best
Forced to remain in the UK in 1995 after a performance because goons of the late Sani Abacha were after him, and restricted to brief visits after the demise of the dictator, Uncle Tunji, as most people call him, “missed everything about Nigeria” because, “no matter how poor my country is, home is best.”
Performing at EMUKAY, a restaurant/cultural centre on Camberwell Road, South East London however helps him overcome his nostalgia. “Some people call that place Lagos, they say ‘L’ Eko yi’ (This Lagos) because that’s the only place anywhere in the world where you find somebody singing so much highlife, entertaining the people in the way they will remember home and promoting Nigerian culture.”
Though it is assumed that he and his wife, Kike founded EMUKAY, Oyelana explains, “I didn’t establish EMUKAY; my wife started EMUKAY Restaurant to survive. She studied Physical and Health Education at the University of Ibadan but abroad you can’t be guaranteed of having jobs to do. She did it here before; she established a dress making industry which collapsed because we couldn’t return to Nigeria in 1995. She re-employed herself in England and that’s why she started EMUKAY.
“As a retired artist, as a retired teacher of music and actor–you can never retire as an actor-but as a retired government worker, sort of, I needed to do something. I’m not earning any salary by performing there; nobody pays to come into EMUKAY to listen to good highlife music. She has created a spot where I can make sure that highlife does not die.”
Didactic art
Satire and instruction are vital components of all Oyelana’s compositions (‘Double Face’, aka ‘Enia bi aparo’, ‘Gudu morning sir’, ‘Guguru Perere’ etc) and he has no apologies for that. “Any art form that has nothing to inform or educate people about it is not good art form. An art form should be entertaining, refreshing, educative and informative. If one of these elements is missing in any art form, forget it. It’s just a mess, a joke.”
‘Double Face,’ which warns against relying on friends, is one of the most popular and enduring songs of Uncle Tunji, and he retains his view on the subject. “Don’t you know that’s what people want of you? When you progress, they envy you; they want to pull you down. You cannot trust human beings entirely. You know what ‘Aparo’ (patridge) means? ‘Aparo’ has only one dress, ‘aso aparo maa npon ni’ (it’s feathers are always dirty). That’s the way a human being is.”
He also stresses his love for instruction in ‘Omugo,’ one of the songs he did in UK, which is “To tell people to respect elders, to give respect to whom respect is due. That’s a simple element in a society. If you respect yourself, you will respect others. If you don’t respect yourself, of course you won’t respect anybody else.”
His latest efforts, he discloses are, “‘Aduke’ and ‘Abeni’, songs from highlife veterans like Ambrose Campbell and Adeolu Akinsanya that I put together. The little part about it that belongs in the Diaspora is ‘Home my Home’ that ends the song because I miss home and I want others like me to think of home wherever they maybe all the time.”
Not my will
The acknowledged pioneer of the one-man band trend in highlife music reveals what informed the move: “There were occasions when I could pay the band boys and I will take them to such occasions. There were occasions when I even took them but I couldn’t pay because of the kind of proximity between me and the celebrant. But the thing is that I’m still able to promote proper arts on these instruments, not promote the effect of technology which in most cases is what is happening now. Technology is replacing ability and I won’t like that happening to me. I use such instruments but I still enforce my ability on the instruments.”
Does the former artist-in-residence in music at the Department of Theatre Arts, University of Ibadan, miss the university and the stage?
“I do. I have been a theatre man all my life but situation made me get away. When I got back from exile, I was not properly treated in UI. One particular Registrar was giving me a lot of problem because I kept wanting to go and see my family who were still in England then. He just kept haunting me all over the place wanting to know why I should… I quickly retired myself from university employment and that’s OK for me. It’s better for me because today, I don’t only meet more people to educate through my music, in fact some people still come to me in England, they want to know how to do the theory of music and I take them through. I’ve worked with universities in England too. I worked with the English Department of the University of Leeds to do some productions; I’ve worked with Femi Osofisan at the Northampton University to do some productions, I’ve done some workshops all over Britain.”
Enduring legacy
Uncle Tunji warns about the fate of highlife music, though he is happy his colleagues are holding the fort. “Highlife must not die. If it does, it would not have rewarded the effort of Hubert Ogunde, Victor Olaiya, Chris Ajilo, the late Zeal Onyia, Sam Akpabot, Adeolu Akinsanya; all highlife veterans who did a lot for the music. They left a legacy for us which must not perish.”
Like some musicians of his generation, Uncle Tunji’s heart bleeds over happenings in Nigeria’s entertainment industry, especially when he watches “TV and sees these young kids, trying to copy Americans and all that. It’s not good for us. We have our own culture, let them (follow) it.
“When you emulate them, you will never sell there and you are ruining your chances in your country too. Go and learn from the music of the past, take lessons from them and keep creating in that vein of informing, educating and entertaining.”
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