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People die. However, the understanding
of this finality to human sojourn on the planet never was able to
remove the sense of panic or loss that usually accompany the passage of
an acquaintance. It is worse when it happens to a close friend or
associate. Or to an artiste whom you spend most of your growing up
years adulating.

Every epoch has significant milestones
and, for a certain category of Nigerians, especially those from the
southwest part of Nigeria who are now in their late 30s to early
forties, that defining aspect of their youth was the exciting musical
rivalry between Sikiru Ayinde Barrister and Kola ‘Kollington’ Ayinla –
who were locked in love-hate battle for supremacy as the authentic
voice of Fuji, a music genre both claimed to have invented.

His greatest fan

I was always a Barrister fan, partly
because he was a more accomplished singer (Ayinla has a racier band)
and also because he came to my attention way before Ayinla did. Of
course, they initially struggled in the wake of the larger image of two
older giants in Yoruba music, King Sunny Ade and Ebenezer Obey, who
branded their own music juju music.

As opposite to Juju, Fuji is more
traditional Yoruba in conception and rendition and probably hacks back
to older forms of performers of Agidigbo, sakara, gudugudu, juju and
Apala music. With its percussion loaded with dundun (Ayinla settled for
the harsher (and harder) bata) talking drums, agogo (gong) and sekere
(beaded calabash), Fuji draws its listeners to waist wriggling and feet
shuffling dances that will amaze anyone raised on western music.

Barrister dominates his band though;
his voice cutting through the layers of the beat to deliver in message
in sometimes high-pitched tone. Most of his fans love his song; a mix
of evocative and pithy Yoruba sayings, wise sayings and sometimes
ribald. He was also a believer in using the medium of his song to teach
and his songs are usually laced with stories drawn from local lore or
tales that would be familiar to readers of Arabian Nights tales.
Barrister was a master story teller, a modern day griot with the gift
of a dynamic band behind him.

Rendition for Omowura

In some ways, Barrister’s music is a
more grounded version of the fare served by Ebenezer Obey, whom he
takes as his mentor. Ayinla was closer to Sunny Ade. But it was a mark
of the vibrancy of these two men that they gradually eclipsed their
mentors, as Fuji music became the dominant music form in Yorubaland,
with Sunny Ade (and occasionally Shina Peters) still holding the fort
for Juju music. Incidentally, Fuji music and Ayinde came onto theirs
after an earlier struggle with the older Apala music. In fact, the
earliest promoter (inadvertently it must be said) of Barrister was one
of the most popular Apala musicians, the late Ayinla Omowura. The eegun
Magaji (big masquerade) would denigrate the upstart fuji artiste in his
songs and warn him to stay in the shadows. Ayinla’s death, at the hands
of one of his band boys thrust Barrister into one his earliest
controversies as he was accused of being behind it.

His soulful rendition about Ayinla’s
death – and his plea of innocence – won Barrister more fans. It is also
an album that fans of the recently deceased musician should listen to
when they feel moved to mourn their idol.

From its ajiwere days, when Barrister
performed as an itinerant musician who entertains people during the
music month of Ramadan, the music evolved in scope and depth to draw in
from several traditions, including samba and reggae. Perhaps one of the
strengths of Fuji was its inifite adaptability and power to inject
other music forms in its growth. Younger Fuji artistes now rap and
freestyle to attract younger listeners, thus assuring that the music
form would survive for longer.

Fuji soldiers

Barrister, along with Kollington were
former soldiers and both embarked on their career after their
demoblisation. They were both civil war veterans, stories of which
found their way into Barrister’s songs. Name any human emotion and
experience, and barrister probably sang about it in his evocative ways.

Love, marriage ( and the imperative of
family planning), poverty, tribulations, democracy and good governance
– and death. He also drew on his deep knowledge of the Koran to enrich
his music, reciting verses from the muslim holy book to underpin the
message of his song. He was accepted ny all nevertheless as his fans,
Muslims, Christians and traditional religionists embraced the messanger
along with this message.

His music ran into a little difficulty
after a brief falling out with his lead drummer, Oyadolu in the 1980s.
After flirting with another Ibadan musician, Sawaba Iyanda, during
which that gained a little limelight, Barrister reunited with Oyadolu
and the music continued. Until death did them apart.

One of Barrister’s prayers was that the calabash decorator might
die, but that his products do not perish. Barrister is now sadly
departed. His songs lives on in our hearts and our ipods. May Alhaji
Agba meet the favour of his maker.