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All is set for the
Smooth 98.1 FM ‘Love Music Love Life’ concert holding this Friday,
November 12 at the New Expo Centre, Eko Hotel and Suites, Victoria
Island, Lagos.

The show, the first
in a series of concerts planned by the radio station which specialises
in Jazz, Soul and R’n’B music, will feature renowned world class artists
including neo-soul singer, Angie Stone.

Joining Stone for
the concert which starts by 7pm is Cameroonian, Richard Bona, described
as “one of the best bassists on the planet.” Five time Grammy winner and
talented guitarist, Mike Stern, is also performing. Though he wasn’t on
the bill originally, Stern, who has a long collaborative relationship
with Bona, decided to be part of the show because of his friend and the
seriousness of the organisers. He will feature in Bona’s quartet on
Friday.

Jazz saxophonist,
Gerald Albright, will also entertain the audience. He was one of the 10
saxophonists that performed at Bill Clinton’s inauguration as president
of the US.

The four foreign
artists will be joined by a quartet of Nigerian acts including Bez
Idakula and vocalist and songwriter, Tiwa Savage who has sung backing
vocals for artists including Mary J. Blige, Chaka Khan and Kelly
Clarkson. Guitarists, Pure and Simple who featured at the recent MUSON
Jazz concert and percussionist, Iroko, are also on the bill. The widely
travelled Iroko has had stints with Kola Ogunkoya, Lagbaja and Femi
Kuti.

Speaking in an
interview on Tuesday, November 9, head of Smooth FM, Kirk Anthony,
disclosed that the show is to give listeners a unique experience.

“People that listen
to Smooth 98.1FM, they listen to it for a reason, they listen to it
because they enjoy what they hear. What we are doing now is that we are
transporting radio to the stage,” Anthony said. He disclosed that
organisers spent about three months, “to get our acts together purely
for the fact that we want to make sure that when people are coming to
the event, they are going to sit down in a nice atmosphere and have a
really good show. On a Friday evening, you want to sit, relax and have a
good night and I think we can achieve that.”

A new dimension

Getting the artists
to commit to the show, Anthony said, wasn’t too hard because of the
station’s reputation and its seriousness. “When we first contacted them,
they had a sort of grey area in regards to coming to perform in Africa
reason being that they didn’t think things were done perfectly – The I’s
dotted and the T’s crossed. But when we showed them how we conduct
business, they were happy and in actual fact, Richard Bona just brought a
new dimension into it.” The new dimension Bona added was bringing in
Stern. “It’s an amazing thing he is coming to Nigeria. That’s an added
bonus because they saw what we are doing. They saw the organisation and
how we put it together, they felt comfortable and they put that together
almost like a special gift to us,” added Sadiq Ademola, head of
production at the Lagos-based radio station.

Anthony reiterated
that the show, being sponsored by Guaranty Trust Bank with support from
AVIS, UNIC, Arra Vineyard and Eko Hotel and Suites is about satisfying
people. “It’s not about saturating a room with 20 artists, where you
don’t get to sit down and savour what you are listening to. The Eko
Hotel is like a football ground but what we have done is cordon off the
room and have a quarter of the room. We could say let’s pile 5000 people
but no, we want a thousand people so it’s very intimate. Rather than
you being customer number 5000 and sitting at the back with a pair of
binoculars, intimacy is assured here.” The foreign artists are expected
in Nigeria on Thursday morning and will meet with reporters on arrival.
Tickets for the show which come at N15, 000 are available at Eko Hotel,
Jazzhole, News Cafe in Lekki and Brown Cafe in Ikeja GRA.

What comes after this show?

“Without biting the
head off the doll, we have a show planned for next year which is going
to be huge. This one is going to be big but next year we got one coming
up which is going to be huge,” Anthony promised.

The 12th Lagos Book
and Art Festival opens at the Exhibition Hall of the National Theatre,
Iganmu, Lagos on Thursday, November 12 and closes on Sunday, November
14. A pre-festival event takes place at the Ocean View, Lagos, on
November 11. The organisers, the Committee for Relevant Art (CORA) has
unveiled the programme of activities for the festival, as below:

Thursday, November 11

Publishers’ Forum at the Cowrie Hall, Ocean View, Eko Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos. Times: 10am to 2pm; 2pm to 5pm.

Friday, November 12

Venue: Exhibition Hall, National Theatre, Iganmu, Lagos.

9am: Opening glee by the Crown Troupe of Africa, followed by ‘My Encounter with the Book’ by Oluboludele Simoyan.

11am: Festival
Colloquium (I) – ‘Literacy and Independence’. Books for discussion: Wole
Soyinka’s ‘You Must Set Forth At Dawn’; ‘In Dependence’ by Sarah Ladipo
Manyika; ‘To Saint Patrick’ by Eghosa Imasuen’ and ‘When Citizens
Revolt’ by Ike Okonta.

1pm: Opening of Art Exhibition; plus Music, Dram, Skits and Wordslam.

3pm: Festival
Colloquium (II) – ‘A Nation of Stories’. Books for discussion: ‘Tenants
of the House’ by Wale Okediran; ‘Just Before Dawn’ by Kole Omotosho;
‘Half of a Yellow Sun’ by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie; and ‘In My Father’s
Country’ by Adewale Maja-Pearce.

Saturday, November 13

Venue: Exhibition Hall, National Theatre, Iganmu, Lagos.

10am: Children’s
Programme – Talking Books With Cate’ – You Too Can Write!’ Books for
discussion: ‘The Land of Kalamandahoo’ by Ruby Igwe and ‘The Missing
Clock’ by Mai Nasara.

11am: Town Talk –
‘Can A Book Make You Rich?’ Books for discussion: ‘The Outlier’ by
Malcolm Gladwell; ‘Minding Your Business’ by Leke Alder; and ’17 Secrets
of High Flying Students’ by Fela Durotoye.

2pm: Writers Angst: Four young authors discuss the pains and joys of writing.

3pm: Lagos 2060 – Panel discussion around Lagos and the 2060 Project by DADA Books.

4pm-7pm: Festival
Birthday Bash. Music by Fatai Rolling Dollar as LABAF celebrates the
following: Uzor Maxim Uzoatu at 50, Patrick Doyle at 50, Taiwo Obe at
50, Dele Momodu at 50, Odia Ofeimun at 60, Eddie Aderinokun at 70, Segun
Olusola at 75, Fred Agbeyegbe at 75 – Mabel Segun and Chinua Achebe at
80.

Sunday, November 14

Venue: Exhibition Hall, National Theatre, Iganmu, Lagos.

Daytime: CORA
Stampede on ‘Folklore in Literature, Drama and Film’. Panel discussion
on the absence of folkloric influences in the Literature and Film of
our time. Books for discussion: ‘The Adventures of a Sugarcane Man’
(Femi Osofisan’s adaptation of Fagunwa’s ‘Ireke Onibudo’); ‘Praying
Mantis’ by Andre Brink; ‘The Hidden Star’ by K. Sello Duiker; and ‘Allah
Is Not Obliged’ by Ahmadou Korouma.

Daytime: Kiddies Segment – presentation of works from the Children’s Creativity Workshop; The Green Party – Fun! Fun! Fun!

6pm: Drama Performance (Venue: Terra Kulture, Tiamiyu Savage,
Victoria Island, Lagos). Festival Play: ‘The Killing Swamp’ by Onukaba
Adinoyi Ojo.

Curator of the
African collection of the Museum fur Volkerkunde (Ethnology)
Wien-Kunsthistorisches Museum in Austria, Barbara Plankensteiner has
again successfully collaborated with the Nigerian National Commission
for Museums and Monuments to stage an exhibition – African Lace: A
history of Trade, Creativity and Fashion in Nigeria. The exhibition
opened in Vienna, Austria on October 22, 2010.

In 2007,
Plankensteiner collaborated with the NCMM and the Oba of Benin to
curate the exhibition, ‘Benin – Kings and Rituals: Court Arts from
Nigeria’; which toured Europe and America for over a year.

Austro-Nigerian fabric

The African Lace
exhibition has been made possible by the support of the Austrian
Embroidery Industry. As exaggeratedly stated in the exhibition book,
“African lace denotes brightly coloured industrially embroidered
textiles that define the image of Nigeria worldwide.” Factually though,
“the specific designs manufactured for the West African market go back
to the early 1960s when commercial relations with the newly independent
state of Nigeria began. Since then, African lace has become extremely
popular in Nigeria and the resulting clothes have been adopted as
traditional dress.”

At the peak there
were many hundreds of embroidery companies in the Vorarlberg area of
Austria. In 2009 despite the global economic crisis 205 companies with
400 machines are in production. 98 percent of their production is for
export; the largest share going to Nigeria. The trade balance in lace
between Austria and Nigeria overwhelmingly favours Austria which has
benefitted to the tune of billions of US dollars while a handful of
Nigerian textile merchants have become stupendously rich. The trade
continues to provide good employment opportunities in both countries.
Austro-Nigerian factories were set up in Nigeria and the few that still
function use old machines and punch-card patterns. Korean and Chinese
lace, though inferior, now flood Nigeria as they are much cheaper.

Lace culture

The history of
lace as a fashion fabric in Nigeria is well explored in the exhibition
book. Earlier imported fabrics like Madras/George and Ankara (with
origins in India and Indonesia) came more than a half-century before
lace which was first used nation-wide as hemming for underwear,
curtains and for blouses in the Niger Delta and Eastern Nigeria before
its massive and definitive incursion into Yoruba culture and Western
Nigeria as the ultimate fabric of chic, opulence, affluence and class.
Lace has endured many social scandals, stigma and upheavals due to
trade bans. It has gone from ridicule as “rich man’s nakedness” to
scorn as the cheap (compared to aso oke) gaudy fabric of the
not-too-classy brash nouveau riche and, distaste; when armed robber
Babatunde Isola Folorunsho was executed in his very expensive wonyosi
lace. Ebenezer Obey, a beneficiary of the lace culture, issued a
special song in defence of lace.

Designing lace

That lace has
become a deliberate fabric of choice to announce and celebrate upward
social mobility all across Nigeria is well reflected in other
non-Yoruba tribal costumes like the utibom/jumper of the Niger Delta
and Eastern Nigeria, now sewn with lace. As part of the exhibition top
Nigerian designers Ituen Basi, Vivid Imagination, Frank Osodi and
Tiffany Amber were given lace materials to fashion out their
contemporary creative styles. The results are simply amazing for daring
and ingenuity.

As part of the
preparatory research, collections of lace attires dating back from the
1970s to the present were assembled for both the Museum of Ethnology in
Vienna and the National Museum in Lagos. These are amply and
beautifully presented in the exhibition book. There is a photograph of
Zik of Africa in a lace outfit in 1979. The viewer is also treated to a
collection of special commemorative lace designs with emblems and
symbols of the ’73 All-Africa Games, Rolls Royce, Mercedes Benz,
Peugeot, Wonyosi and more recently Atiku Abubakar!

Exhibition book

The 260-page
exhibition book is a treasure. The front and back covers are designed
with lace embroidery patterns with a cover photograph of Modupe A.
Obebe, reputedly one of the biggest-ever lace dealers, in her
special-lace and damask splendour.

It is edited by
Barbara Plankensteiner and Nath Mayo Adediran, a Director of the NCMM.
There is a Preface by Sabine Haag, Director General of the Austrian
Kunsthistorisches Museum; and another by Yusuf Abdallah Usman, Director
General of the NCCM. Foreword is by Christian Feest, Director, Museum
of Ethnology Vienna who makes the valid observation that, “At present,
an exhibition like African Lace may still be regarded as rather unusual
for an ethnographic museum.”

It is an alluring
book that makes a very good case for the intricate artistic creativity
of embroidered textile, lace, as shown in full-page close-up
photographs that highlight design detail and colour combinations. What
these photographs highlight is contemporary art that has resulted in
close collaboration between Austrian embroidery-pattern designers and
the colour aesthetics of the end-users; Nigerian women in this case.
Two similar successful collaborations come to mind; collaborations that
have been artistically and financially rewarding for both parties. Dame
Mercy Alagoa a well-travelled worldwide buyer for Kingsway Stores as
from the fifties and expert on textiles, recently remarked that intense
research into the colour preferences of Niger Delta women was carried
out before the production of ‘Indorica’ Madras/George fabrics that were
targeted for that market. A master Ghanaian artist and professor also
recalled that in his student days as a textile designer, his Swiss boss
used to take their designs to Mokola Market, Accra, to seek the design
and colour- approval of the market women dealers and users of Ankara
textiles.

Theories of lace

Some of the essays
in the book: ‘Lace in Nigerian Fashion and Popular Culture, An
Introduction’ by Adediran; ‘A Short History of the European Textile
Trade with West Africa by Plankensteiner’; ‘The Art of Dressing Well,
Lace Culture and Fashion Icons in Nigeria’ by Peju Layiwola; ‘Lace
Fashion as Heteroglossia in the Nigerian Yoruba Cultural Imagination’
by Sola Olorunyomi; Party Culture in Nigeria, Interview with Dele
Momodu; Eko for Show, Society Wedding photographs by Adolphus Opara.

Some of the essays
are unnecessarily academic and deliberately oblique. Thankfully, the
exhibits themselves and the many accompanying excellent photographs in
African Lace will tell the whole story, simply, to a much-needed wider
non-academic audience!

The African Lace exhibition is at the Vienna Museum fur Volkerkunde
until February 14, 2011. It will move to the National Museum, Lagos,
from March 21 to June 17, 2011 and then to the National Museum, Ibadan,
from July 27 to October 30, 2011.

NIGERIA @ 50

halfcentury-old baby
with a greying head

puking and thrashing
in a creaking cradle

cornered and quartered
by butcher-rulers

crying
unheard

bleeding
unseen

searching
searching

for a whole
that is much more than

a mere amalgamation
of its parts

America. We
celebrated the changing of the seasons with a barbecue. The kids love
things that come off the grill. We had hamburgers, chicken, hot dogs
and steak. I cooked the steak the way my American foster parents taught
me; introduce the meat to the fire enough to race the blood juices in
the steaks to medium rare glory. And like their American forefathers
and foremothers I fed my children bloody strips of meat hot off the
grill.

They loved it, the little carnivores, Oh yes and the corn and
the plantain. They loved the corn but were indifferent to the
plantains, big bananas they called them. Change is hard. In America. We
live in a land where people with strong opinions stuck deep in the
rigid ways of the land devise engineering experiments that dream of
mixing the rich, vibrant colours of our humanity into a cloying palette
of meaninglessness. The result deceives and lulls the senses away from
where the real communities are. Subversively people are forming
neighbourhoods a la carte. Here in America, I don’t know my physical
neighbours and I don’t care. If I need a cup of salt I will order it
online. Long live the Internet! The spirit lives on my monitor screen.

There is a yard
sale down the road, past the blonde kid manning the lemonade stand.
They sell used languages and broken cultures and my people come in
broken trucks to buy tee shirts and dying books that will go to die in
Africa. Buy one get a free hot dog. And some lemonade. I bought shadows
of our former language and the owner of the hot dog stand gave me a hot
dog some ketchup and some mustard and I said Hola! America wishes to
sell Africa’s carcass to my grandchildren.

Welcome to the new world,
say hello to Babylon, the ultimate blender, mixing little bits of truth
with gallons of lies, mixing skin colours to produce virtual vitiligo,
mixing sexes and sexuality to produce nothing. America, take our
children, these rejects from the indifferent gods of the land of my
ancestors. They stumble through the land of their birth, these brand
new warriors, pants at their knees, knees rubbed raw from worshipping
the gods of the dollar. They speak in the funny accents of the
masquerades that raided my father’s yam barns in his sleep and they
mock me, scandalise me behind misty veils of nuances and insincere
platitudes. And we ask you, father, we ask you mother: What have you
done? See what you made us do? Did you not say: Go to America, they
will like you over there? America has snatched our offspring from us
and like a hungry hyena, made away with our jewels dangling merrily in
her steel jaws. Here in America, we see our children, they don’t see
us.

What the eyes see confuses and aggravates our anxieties. Looking
away in sorrow, I shudder at the past, hug my son and hold him close.
He is only eleven years old. I remember my chores as an eleven-year old
boy – splitting firewood, getting water from streams, going to the
market, baby-sitting fellow babies, and maneuvering my way around
adults sporting dark, dark issues. Oh Nigeria. It was not always
suffering.

There was some smiling – through the tears. Oh Nigeria. You
should see my little son, he is every inch the spitting incarnation of
our ancestors; every cell of his, every muscle, every attitude, that
face. Oh that face, may our enemies never catch up with him at that
junction that houses ethnic cleansers, he would not stand a chance of
survival. But hear him speak; watch him eat; he is an American, no ifs,
no buts about it. Goddamn it, he is an American.

What have we done? My
friend, she lives in Nigeria, her daughter goes to school here in the
United States. The other day, as she listened to her daughter speak in
her new “perfect American accent” she broke out in grateful song to her
Lord Jesus Christ, she clapped, hooted and hollered with joy, her
daughter’s vocal cords had been liberated from the tyranny of that
“igbo-made” accent that followed her like an unwanted guest from
Nigeria. She will throw a big owambe party to celebrate the blessed
event – the graduation from the shame of our being. I shall invite you
to the party. We are living witnesses perhaps to our own irrelevance
because we are not managing change well.

It is our turn perhaps to be
hunted, captured, skinned alive, kept alive long enough to supervise
the annihilation of what stands, what once stood, for us. For, even as
the world browns, we have ensured that this is still not our world.
First, we will let them bake us into willing caricatures, and then they
will kill us off. Have a glass of lemonade. And a hot dog. Do you want
fries to go with your hot dog? Here, have some mustard; it gives your
hot dog some taste. Welcome to our America.

‘Champions of Our
Time’, a movie by hotly tipped director, Mak Kusare, has won the Best
Nigerian Feature award at the just concluded Abuja International Film
Festival (AIFF). A film about class and disability, ‘Champions of Our
Time’ tells the story of two brainy girls who dream of entering
international quiz competitions.

Another big winner
in Abuja was American film, ‘Making the Crooked Straight’, which took
home the prize in the Best Foreign Documentary category. A 30-minute
documentary by Susan Cohn Rockefeller, the film is about the inspiring
vision of Rick Hodes, a medical doctor who works among destitute
people, mostly children, in Ethiopia. ‘Making the Crooked Straight’
also bagged the coveted Golden Jury Award.

The Best Foreign
Feature at AIFF went to China, for ‘Light Rail No. 3’. The Best Short
feature prize went to ‘No Jersey, No Match’ by Daniel Ademinokan, a
Nigerian filmmaker.

The Abuja Film
Festival honour is the latest accolade for Kusare’s movie, ‘Champions
of Our Time’, which also beat 22 other features to win the ‘Golden
Mboni Award for Best Children Film in Kenya earlier this year. Jurists
at the Lola Kenya Screen Audiovisual Media Festival had said of the
120-minute film, “[‘Champions of Our Time’] is based on a universal
theme that is experienced all over the world. The cast is well chosen
and we find the film educative, informative and captivating.” A
graduate of the National Film Institute, Jos, Kusare won three awards
for his debut film, ‘Ninety Degrees’ in 2006.

Held at the
Silverbird Cinema, Abuja, from October 26 to 29, AIFF was supported by
the Federal Ministry of Information and Communication, the Nigerian
Film Corporation, the Nigerian Television Authority and the National
Film and Video Censors Board, among others. Members of the diplomatic
missions of nine countries, attended the festival’s events.

What they said

Now in its seventh
year, the 2010 festival had as its theme, “Celebrating Nigeria at 50
Through Cinema.” In attendance were many stakeholders in the movie
industry, including marketers, directors, producers and performers.
Speaking at the opening ceremony on October 26, festival director
Fidelis Duker enunciated on the theme of the AIFF 2010 and the need to
celebrate the success of cinema in Nigeria over the last 50 years. He
also used the occasion to highlight some of the challenges facing the
festival, especially in terms of institutional funding. Duker however
vowed that the festival will go from strength to strength.

The MD of the
Nigerian Film Corporation (NFC) Afolabi Adesanya who represented the
Minister of Information and Communication, noted that Nigerian cinema
has been a valuable tool for the projection, promotion and preservation
of the country’s cultural heritage and political development since
independence. “There is a need to remind us of the impact and
contributions of cinema to the growth and development of our great
nation,” he said.

What happened

Some 30 films of
various genres were screened during the festival. In addition to
seminars and workshops, panel discussions about the film industry in
Nigeria, were another major focus of AIFF. These were intended to
highlight and allow film practitioners to confer on matters crucial to
the growth of the motion picture industry. On the two panels were
veteran filmmakers Dele Osawe and Eddie Ugbomah, Solomon MacAuley; the
DG of the National Film and video censors board, Emeka Mba and the
president of the Directors’ Guild Ejike Asiegbu, amongst others. The
panel discussions were on the topics, ‘Cinema in Nigeria – 50 Years
After Independence’ and ‘Structuring the Nigerian Film Industry for
Growth’.

Panelists conversed
on sponsorship, funding and Government cooperation. They also touched
on the need for a vibrant relationship between the industry and
Government agencies like the NFC. Concerns were also raised about the
problem of piracy, which continues to plague the industry; and the
seeming inability of government bodies to create an enabling
environment for the sector to grow.

At the festival,
which is known to attract audiences and entries from all over the
world, there were participants from countries including: Taiwan, USA,
Germany, China, Romania, Spain, Turkey, Poland, Hungary, Brazil, Iran
and Columbia. Movie categories that were screened included: short and
long films, feature films, documentaries and animations amongst others.
Among the many Nollywood figures in attendance, were: Jeta Amata, Nse
Ikpe Etim, Eddie Igboma, and Uche McAuley.

The assistant director, corporate affairs, Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilisation (CBAAC), Taiwo Oladokun, has been awarded the 2010 University of London post-doctoral fellowship in African Studies.

Oladokun, holder of a PhD in Media Arts from the Theatre Arts Department, University of Ibadan, has already taken up the fellowship at London University’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), where will conduct his research there over the next three months.

During his stay at SOAS, Oladokun will complete his research on ‘Mainstreaming Ifa Worship through Television in South- Western Nigeria’.

The Leventis Foundation and Centre of African Studies of the University of London are funding the fellowship which supports Nigerian academics to explore fields in African Studies.

In addition to attending seminars and presenting papers, Oladokun also becomes an associate member of the Centre of African Studies during the 2010/2011 academic year.

His membership is expected to incorporate him into the academic community of Africanists in the University during the course of his study.

Founder of Abuja
Metropolitan Music Society (AMEMUSO) and wife of the German Ambassador
to Nigeria, Maria Cecilia Toledo De Schmillen, has said the group is
committed to developing the artistic talents of Nigerian youth.

To this end the
society has disclosed plans to build in the capital city a
state-of-the-art music and performing arts complex. In an interview
with NEXT, De Schimillen talks about the group’s plans to upgrade arts
infrastructure in Abuja.

The building

What we done until
now is to get a plot of land and have the choir in place but what we
don’t have is the building itself. I guess we will take around three to
four years to complete it. The project itself is very interesting.

We will bring
people from abroad to train a group that will be training others,
starting with the kids. After a few years, Nigeria would have trained a
pool of singers and musicians to International [standards]. If you look
at it like it will take a long time, you will never start. My dream is
that AMEMUSO as a society, even when I am not here, will work in
collaboration with the European Cultural Centre so there will be input
from abroad. We are looking to having a real performing arts centre in
the federal capital of Nigeria which cost about N5 billion.

Participation and membership of the society will be at no cost at all. If you have talent, come we will develop it.

Abundant Talent

I am here working
so hard because I believe the talent is immense. It is just
unbelievable. As an opera singer, singing all over the world, I think
the quality and capacity of Nigerians in the music industry is immense.
The problem here is that you do not have music schools. Nigerians learn
very fast but if you do not have music school and international
instructors, then you do not develop talents.

That is why our
music school will also be for kids. It takes decades to build a
professional. When young people here come for AMEMUSO audition, I see
incredible talents but wasted years. They were not guided and directed
early in life so they spend their years in other professions. But if
they were to be in Europe or America and had the chance to learn and
develop their talents, they would been great singers – not just opera
but jazz or other aspects of music. If it is talent here, I can say yes
it is available, if it is ability I will also yes, everything is yes
without a moment of hesitation but what are they doing with it?

Nigeria is not
exploring and exploiting fully its potential in music. You have to open
the door so that people can see you. It is like diamond hidden a
closet. Expose your cultures abroad – from opera to Fela Kuti music,
expand the spectrum.

How it started

As a Chilean opera
singer performing in Europe, I would have never thought to come to
Nigeria. The reason I am here is because I am the wife of German
Ambassador. I have been working on cultural projects many years
parallel to my career as a singer. In Chile, I started with a similar
project to Opera Abuja and AMEMUSO as well. It was very beautiful
combining non-traditional elements, combining things that are
completely different, that normally happen in countries like Europe and
South America.

I got to know my
husband through the project. When they told us to come to Nigeria, I
thought I was dead as a singer. What will I find in Nigeria? I asked.
But when we came here, during our national day, I sang the national
anthem of Nigeria and Germany.

A couple of
Nigerians listened to that and after approached me saying they wanted
me to help a group and that is what I like so much. I went to see them
and it was a church group and we decided to work. From that group we
decide to make a concert and thought about creating a society that can
do a festival, and have children choir also. Some Nigerians were
involved and we tried to make it happen.

From that group
emerged Opera Abuja and we are already on the 4th edition of the
festival, an international event where people from all the world
witness.

Teaching Nigerians to write music

After the second
Opera Abuja we thought of getting a piece of land for setting up a
music school which will also have a theatre, because there is only one
in Nigeria – like that in Lagos (Muson Centre). No other place in
Nigeria has a theatre and a concert hall. Things are getting in line
and the next Opera Abuja will be a conclusion of a lot of things in
that regard. We will do a fund-raiser to raise money for building this
incredible music or Art Performing Complex. We need to start. We will
also teach Nigerians how to write music. We sing but we do not have the
knowledge about writing and storing our songs over time. A lot of us
rely on storing the melody in our brain. Time, talent and commitment
are what are required to develop the cultural pedigree of a nation.

Opera Abuja 2010 holds at the Congress Hall of the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja on November 15.

Organisers have announced the postponement of the ‘One Nite Stand’ concert that was to feature Ebenezer Obey and King Sunny Ade.

In a statement
released to the press, Taiwo Obe of Grand Faaji Entertainment,
promoters of the once-in-a-lifetime gig between the two Juju music
greats, cited “unexpected circumstances” as the reason behind the
postponement. The no-show will come as a huge disappointment for many,
as Obey and KSA were due to take the stage at the Expo Hall of Eko
Hotels and Suites in Lagos tonight.

Widely believed in
their heyday to have been bitter rivals, Obey and Sunny’s abortive
joint concert would have been a welcome show of brotherhood for their
teeming fans across generations. Billed as a celebration of Nigeria at
50, the show had among its sponsors the Federal Ministry of Information
and Culture, the Ogun and Ondo State governments, as well as many
corporate organisations.

At a Lagos press
conference on October 19, the two musicians had spoken of their
preparedness for the concert, dismissing talk of past rivalry. Apart
from the prospect of seeing them perform together with one band, ‘One
Nite Stand’ also offered the rare opportunity of seeing Obey, now an
evangelist, sing his old hits, many of them classics of Yoruba music.

Anticipation had
built to fever pitch for the concert in the past few weeks. A NEXT
editorial, published November 5, praised the musical duo, who were set
to make history together: “Thanks to Obey and Sunny, Juju music has
survived the onslaught of other genres like Fuji and Hip-Hop to remain
relevant in a changing world.”

Organisers have promised that a new date will be announced in due
course, but Obey and Sunny’s fans will now be wondering if the ‘concert
of dreams’ will ever hold.

‘A river that
forgets its source soon dries up’. This proverb could pass for the
central idea in Bisi Adigun’s play ‘Home Sweet Home’, which was
launched at the Agip Hall of the Muson Centre, Lagos, on October 30.
The play, centered around five friends, dwells on the workings of home
and exile in the lives of migrants.

The 6pm time
scheduled for the show to begin was adhered to and the actors began to
troop onto the stage decked in green overalls with matching caps.
Viewers also begin to stroll into the hall while those familiar with
one another exchanged greetings with some air-kissing among the elite.

At the sound of the
drums, the light goes out and everyone settles in. The actors sing and
do various dance steps to the accompaniment of the drum. They do some
synchronizing and then some free styling. It is amusing to watch
dignified personalities of the tube like Norbert Young and Tina Mba
letting go of their inhibitions and capering about on the stage.

The singing and
dancing session ends and the actors proceed to undress on the stage
taking off their green outfits, after which the once lighthearted Tina
Mba suddenly metamorphoses into a dour-looking Immigration officer who
endorses the boys’ entrance into England.

The setting is
Aso-rock, a miniature watering-hole in London. It’s a reunion cum 50th
birthday drinks party. Talkative Dapo, or Daps, played by Toyin
Oshinaike, is the birthday boy and he is accompanied by his friends:
the rotund, dismal and short-tempered Tayo (Olawale Obadeyi), the
indecisive and sensitive Peter (Kayode Idris) and the diplomatic Seyi
(Kris Ubani-Roberts).

They order beers
with the exception of Tayo who prefers a bottle of Malta Guinness and
they make fun of him to no end about it. Especially since it is because
he has a drinking problem which has made him turn his Jamaican wife
Francesca into a punching bag.

All kinds of
banter that would be expected among a group of friends who have known
each other for donkey years is displayed by these middle-aged men who
are still holding on to relics of a memorable youth.

They toast to a
happy birthday and a happy reunion as they wait for one more person,
who is expected to join them to complete the circle of friendship. They
argue about the differences between drinking, heavy drinking and
alcoholism, infusing their conversations with Yoruba and showing that
they still have a firm grasp of their roots even though they have been
away from home for some 25 years.

Visiting home

They turn to engage
Dapo when the issue of home arises. Tayo has been to Nigeria only once
in 20years. One of them boasts that he goes home to attend burials and
weddings and Dapo retorts that burials and weddings are obligations not
visits.

Ever one to
impress, Dapo believes that a visit to Nigeria from London must be
planned from start to finish. His plans are usually elaborate, he says.
He saves a thousand pounds and buys some designer outfits. When he
lands Nigeria, he goes from plane to Airport Hotel to Ile-Ife, in a car
hire of course.

He goes on a
rendezvous of the University; Moremi Hall and Mozambique Hall to boot.
He meets a few old friends and throws around some money; before heading
back to London after some days of fun. Tayo thinks it is all pretence;
pretending to be successful when in fact they are not. its been some
twenty odd years since they left Nigeria for England, hoping to work
and save a few pounds and then return.

They were fresh
from the University then. Twenty five years on, and they are still far
behind that dream. Dapo abruptly cuts in that he is going back to
Nigeria as soon as his investments mature. Tayo laughs again.

Peter, who is wont
to burst into rapturous singing of any kind depending on the prevailing
mood, is a security man in London, so also is the unmarried Dapo.
Peter, who came to London on a holiday visa, does not think he has
saved enough money to return. When he first arrived he was
overqualified for any job, so he had to downgrade his qualifications to
get a job as a porter with MacDonald’s.

Seyi who is a
cabbie says Nigeria has changed since the 1980’s when they left. “They
say Oshodi-Oke has disappeared,” Peter adds. Dapo thinks they should
all take advantage of the change. “They say Jonathan needs people with
Midas touch to help achieve his dreams”, he points out. “Well good luck
to him”, replies Peter offhandedly.

As they wait, they
wonder if their friend Juwon whom they are waiting for, will show up.
Juwon, played by Norbert Young, is half Nigerian and half Ghanaian. He
is their rich and successful friend on whom mother luck has smiled
since he arrived London. Among his friends, he is the only one who
seems to have had a fruitful sojourn in England. He is a business man,
who prefers hiring Pakistanis over Nigerians.

Like his friends,
the audience is left wondering if Juwon will really show up as he has
become this inaccessible businessman. When he eventually shows up, they
are excited.

Home vs Exile

There is a subtle
argument about which is best, home or exile. Juwon thinks that the new
Nigeria is a prime source for business opportunities. Seyi prefers the
familiar, namely London and his council flat. Dapo thinks London is no
place to raise children. They reminisce about their days as students at
the Obafemi Awolowo University and all the pranks they used to play.

Then comes the
unraveling of the mystery surrounding Poju’s death. He is like the
ghost haunting the group. Poju was a friend of the group and his death
was a big blow to all of them. Up until the revelation the audience is
kept in suspense as to the cause of his death and the circumstances
leading up to the tragedy.

Dapo’s false
bravado gives way to tears. “So what we never made it big, we are still
alive! Get me out of this shithole country, Pete,” wails Dapo. His
outburst represents the ambivalence and frustrations they all feel
towards a country where they never quite feel at home, and a home which
does not really care about them.

The play actually
ends on this ambivalent note. Dapo says to the others “Let’s go home”.
Peter asks, “Home where? Home sweet home”. We are left to deduce for
ourselves what choices these characters will make.

Acting and
characterisation shine through the play as each character is uniquely
portrayed. Their strengths, frailties and fears are laid bare
remarkably within two hours. There is an impressive use of suspense at
various points in the play, and also a good use of stage space.

There is enough
humour, wit and sarcasm in the production to diffuse some of the
tension which the theme is likely to evoke. The actors’ costumes aid
the element of verisimilitude in the play as we get the picture of
Nigerians living in London.

The overall feel of
the play is reminiscent of African American Playwright Je’Caryous
Johnson’s ‘Whatever She Wants’, featuring Vivica A. Fox and Boris
Kodjoe; and it would probably be great if the writer toed Johnson’s
line by recording the performance on DVD. Though ‘Home Sweet Home’ was
a bit long and began to drag at some point in the second act, it was an
impressive show.

The writer of the
play, Bisi Adigun, a 1990 graduate of Drama from the Obafemi Awolowo
University wrote the play out of an understanding of what it means to
be an ‘inside-outsider’, and the unfortunate brain drain problem facing
Nigeria.

Adigun who left
Nigeria for the UK in 1993 and then migrated to Ireland in 1996, says
that the play was influenced by an Irish emigrant play titled ‘The
Kings of Kilburn High Road’. In fact the first production of the play
was in 2006 at the Dublin Fringe theatre festival in Ireland

In a chat with NEXT, Adigun said that he had been abroad for a
reasonable period of time. “The play is really about letting people
realise what the other side is about”, he told NEXT. Reiterating the
fact that the play was also about celebrating Nigeria at 50, Adigun
pointed out that “in spite of all our challenges as a nation, we can
celebrate life”.