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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.

The 2010 MUSON
Festival continued with the showcasing of a classical concert on
October 31 at the Agip Recital Hall of the MUSON Centre, Onikan, Lagos.
The concert, which was supported by the Consulate General of Italy,
began at 6pm.

This year’s MUSON
Festival is themed ‘Nigeria at 50’. Organisers said one of the
objectives of the festival is to promote inter-cultural relations with
other nationalities and this was exhibited at the concert as a decent
turnout of Nigerians and foreigners trooped in to see opera
performances in Italian, English, Yoruba and Igbo.

Billed to perform
were; Italian-born Anna Corvino, a Soprano, Maria Asseeva an excellent
Piano recitalist and accompanist, Joseph Oparamanuike also known as Mr.
Tenor and another Tenor, Guchi Egbunine. Both Corvino and Asseeva are
renowned international performers.

Asseeva, a resident
tutor at the MUSON Centre, has recorded a compact disc featuring works
of Frederic Chopin while Corvino has given concerts and performed as a
soloist at festivals in places like Rome, Naples and Israel.

Oparamanuike and
Egbunine have been trained by professionals and have also performed
locally and internationally. Oparamanuike is a voice teacher at the
MUSON School of music in addition to being a member of the MUSON choir.

Concerto

The stage was
draped in white, red, green and gold with a grand Piano at the centre.
The anchor walked in and introduced the Italian Consul to the audience.
Then the first performer and indeed the major performer in the concert,
Anna Corvino was introduced.

She sauntered in
dressed in a glittering black affair that was altogether melancholy and
stunning. Accompanied on the piano by Asseeva, Corvino’s performances
reflected emotion, along with gestures, and then that voice that
sometimes pierced and then soothed, even though we did not understand
what she was singing about.

Her only English
performance was done in the second act. This piece was ‘Memory ‘from
the popular Broadway musical ‘Cat’ Andrew Lloyd Webber; and it was not
too difficult to tell that this was a performance in English in spite
of Corvino’s Italian-accented voice.

Those unfamiliar
with opera but with a passable knowledge of what it is about, will
recognise some names like Frederic Chopin, Guiseppe Verdi, Wolfgang
Mozart and Charles Gounod. These are world famous composers who created
some of the pieces performed by Corvino and her fellow performers.

Corvino and Asseeva
ended the first act with Gounod’s ‘Je Veux Vivre’ From Romeo and
Juliette; but not before Asseeva rendered a solo recital on the piano.
The piece titled ‘Egun Variations’ by composer Ayo Bankole could also
be called ‘Romancing the Piano’. It revealed the performer’s bond with
the piano.

Diverse emotions
were on display here as she hit the notes, and then suspense as the
audience listened with bated breath for the conclusion. When it came
unexpectedly, they responded with resounding applause.

Oparamanuike and
Egbunine also gave brilliant performances and the audience responded to
them with cheers of approval and applause. It was not hard to see why.
Oparamanuike smartly dressed in a suit ensemble and a bow tie, gave a
rendition of Kenny Oretimehin’s ‘Omi’ (Water) in Yoruba. His rich and
steady tenor sang about the indispensability of water to human
existence.

Guchi Egbunine
whose performance was reserved for the second act, rendered an Igbo
piece by O’Ndubisi, ‘Anyi Ncha bu Ofunne’ – and the brief but melodious
‘La donna e Mobile’ from Guiseppe Verdi’s Rigoletto.

Integrating culture

Anna Corvino who
had changed into a black-grey strappy gown that set off the shimmer on
her skin, later came on stage on behalf of the Italian consul to give
the vote of thanks.

‘Sorry for my
English’, she said to the audience and then proceeded to read from the
sheet. ‘The essence of this concert is to impact the Italian culture to
music and to integrate different cultures together’, she read.

The trio then
performed a duet which was the last piece of the concert, another one
from Guiseppe Verdi titled ‘Libiam ne’ Lieti calici’. After which they
gave a toast and then invited the pianist, Maria Asseeva to the stage
for pictures and to bask in the audience’s applause.

As the programme
ended, guests trooped to the foyer of the Agip recital hall to mingle
and to get autographs or maybe a snapshot or two with the performers.
The performers made it easy for them by being accessible as they also
mingled with the guests and obliged every request. It was at this
moment that Next caught up with Joseph Oparamanuike.

When asked if he
had to learn Italian to be able to perform an Italian opera piece, he
replied to the affirmative saying, ‘Yes, I have a private tutor. It’s
important to get the proper pronunciation of the words and you cannot
achieve that if you do not learn the language.’

Oparamanuike graciously introduced Next to Kenny Oretimehin or S.K.
Ore; the composer of ‘Omi’, one of the pieces he performed. Oretimehin,
a composer with MUSON, says he writes and composes mostly indigenous
pieces especially in Yoruba. On the need to infuse more indigenous
content in the classical concert to attract a larger audience, he
promised that the Choral Concert coming up on November 7 would have
more local content.

It was the 24th
edition but there was really nothing new. Well, save one or two
innovations. There is the characteristic late commencement of the
opening ceremony, the last minute rush to put finishing touches to
venues and stands by states; and adjusting and re-adjusting the
schedule because things didn’t start promptly in the first instance.
The story of the nation’s festival of unity, the National Festival of
Arts and Culture (NAFEST) in recent memory hasn’t changed: sloppy
organisation.

The official
opening ceremony of the 2010 edition themed ‘Cultural Industries and
Economic Empowerment’ held on November 2 inside the Uyo Township
Stadium in Akwa Ibom State started, almost three hours late. Scheduled
for noon, the anchors occupied early arrivals by calling different
troupes to entertain them around 1.25pm. The show eventually got
underway around 2.40pm when the state governor, his deputy and the
Minister of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation arrived.

The audience and
contingents from the 23 states which participated in the march past,
meanwhile, had no option than to content themselves watching the
entertainers and exchanging banters under tents provided on the marshy
ground made worse by an earlier light rain. Though the general
organisation was a tad sloppy, credit must be given to oragnisers for
making the effort to make waterlogged entrances to the stadium
accessible by getting a tractor to fill the areas with sand. But rather
than get to brass tacks immediately, members of the local organising
committe and the management team of NAFEST, all staff of the National
Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC), were first presented to the
dignitaries and crowd. The march past subsequently began with each of
the states showcasing material and immaterial aspects of its culture
through its dressing, dances and music during the parade.

Papa Ajasco

While some like Edo
State had only about four people representing them because of the late
arrival of the main contingent after the opening, others like Kaduna
had up to 554 people. Akwa Ibom, rescuer of this year’s NAFEST after
Delta which had earlier been granted the hosting right demurred, also
had a large contingent. Interestingly, Delta threw shame to the wind
and featured in the parade.

Abiodun Ayoyinka,
aka Papa Ajasco, who marched with the Lagos State contingent, was
hailed by the crowd while Nasarawa State also had a unique procession.
The 300-people contingent included guilds like carvers, hunters,
tanners and solid minerals in its ranks. Apart from the states,
cultural associations, local governments and Ijo Vudu, a Canadian
group, also featured in the march past.The uniformed Real Brass Band of
the Akwa Ibom State Government which later ended the ceremony with some
local and foreign songs wasn’t left out of the display.

The speeches

The Minister of
Tourism, Culture and National Orientation, Abubakar Sadiq Mohammed
touched on the relevance of culture and tourism as sources of revenue
in a speech at the occassion. He noted that “culture and tourism are
the emerging products that have great prospect of leading the global
economy in a near future.” Mohammed also commended organisers for
including a special project in this year’s programme to tally with the
theme. The special project focussed on audio-visual documentation and
physical exhibition of the unique aspects of the nation’s cultural
industries. Each State had its own presentation.

The president,
Goodluck Jonathan, whom Akpabio represented, also highligthed the
importance of tourism and culture to the nation’s economic development.
He said, “Much as we have the problem of youth unemployment, rural and
urban poverty in our land, which government policies gave been put in
place to tackle over the years, time is now ripe for the public and
private sector to explore the great prospects that abound in our
cultural industries in alleviating poverty and diversifying our revenue
base.”

The theme, he said,
was chosen to ensure that culture is used as an alternative to
diversify Nigeria’s mono cultural economy with a view to creating
wealth to empower the youth. He promised that the Federal Government
will continue to support NAFEST and other festivals as “an initiative
that will project the new role of culture in our national development.”

The colloquium

Like the ceremonial
part of the festival, the intellectual side, the colloquium also
started over two hours late at the auditorium inside the Indongesit
Nkanga State Secretariat, Uyo on Wednesday, November 3. It however
turned out to be a worthwhile session after the ceremonials had been
dispensed with. Chair, governing board of the NCAC, Ebenezer Babatope;
chair, senate committee on tourism, culture and national orientation,
Bako Gassol and chief executive of the NCAC, Mwajim Maidugu, all
justified its inclusion in the festival.

The Executive
Director, programmes of the NTA, Bello Sule, delivered the lead paper
titled ‘Cultural Industries and Economic Empowerment: The Role of
Documentation in Promoting Cultural Industries Products’ after Babatope
had presented a ‘Compendium of NAFEST Colloquium 2004-2009’. He
explained the role radio, film and television play in documenting
products of the country’s cultural industries and their merits and
demerits. He highlighted abundant archival materials and growth in the
number of professionals in radio, TV and film as two gains from
documenting products from Nigeria’s culture industry. The
disadvantages, according to Bello, include negative portrayal of
Nigeria’s cultural values and practices and obliteration of cultural
practices.Sule didn’t fail to touch on the modes of storing the
audio-visual documents and the problems with the modes including
celluloid, tape and compact disc.

Academic, Ben
Ekanem of the Department of Fine and Industrial Arts, University of
Uyo, who spoke on ‘Finishing, Packaging and Presentation of Nigeria’s
Cultural Products in a Global Village’ identified eight of such
tangible and intangible products. They are antiquities, art and craft,
performing art, Nigerian cuisine, traditional medicine, cultural
festivals and events, celebrities and places. To ensure that products
from Nigeria are well packaged and presented to a global audience,
Ekanem suggested training at all levels and workshops for art and craft
makers which curriculum must include finishing, packaging and
presentation. He said Nigerian fabrics can be promoted through fashion
shows and internet promotions while artists should benefit from
residency programmes by government. The lecturer recommended a hall of
fame to promote Nigerian celebrities.

An official of the
Nigerian Export Promotion Council also spoke briefly on the role of the
agency and how producers of cultural products can benefit from it.
Apart from the poor timekeeping and organisation, there was also
shortage of materials containing information about the festival
activities. Journalists didn’t get the brochure until Wednesday
evening, a day after the official opening.

Competitive and non-competitive activities including traditional
wrestling, food fair, traditional music, crafts and expo exhibition,
creative design and the special projects comprising DVD screenings
events were also held during this year’s NAFEST which ended yesterday.

‘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”.

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.