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Invited to work as a senior publicity officer with organisers of the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC ‘77) in 1974, Carlos Moore heard Fela’s music in a Lagos market and fell in love with it. Though familiar with Highlife and Juju, Moore had never heard the ‘beautiful’ music until then. He became interested in the music and its maker. Journalist and writer, Lindsay Barrett, later arranged for filmmaker, Ola Balogun to take him to Fela. Thus began a friendship that even Fela’s death has not diminished. Moore, Fela’s official biographer, speaks on the relationship and Fela’s aspirations.

Tell us about your book, ‘Fela: This Bitch of a Life’.

It is about him, about his whole life. It was written in the first person because Fela himself asked me to write it. It was published for the first time 28 years ago, in 1982. It was published in French, I wrote it in French. It took six months to translate it. It was published six months afterwards in English in England. It was a bestseller in French and a best seller in English and then it went out of print about six years afterwards. A long period went by. It was the period when they contained Fela, Fela’s music was contained. They had him in jail, so people forgot about Fela.

That book went out of print, and I tried to get it back into print but the publishers were not interested. They wanted to forget Fela. The military government wanted everybody to forget this man. So I waited. It was in the contract that if the publishers did not bring it back out after five years, that I could go to court and get back the book. And that is what I did.

I bought back the book from the French and then the English version which was another contract. I got back all the rights to the book on Fela in the 1990s.

It appeared for the first time in English in America in 2009. This is the first time that Africans are going to be able to buy the book, and Nigerians. I published with Cassava Republic Press because I respect them.

How come a non-Nigerian had so much to write about Fela?

If Nigerians wanted to write about Fela, they should have written at that time. Nigerians were scared to write about Fela at that time. They weren’t approaching him, perhaps, and Fela wasn’t even trusting anybody at that time. There were two things: none of those big writers was approaching Fela at that time, and they didn’t have a relationship with him. But it so happened that I had a very strong relationship with Fela.

I don’t think in terms of Nigerians and non-Nigerians, Fela didn’t think like that. That wasn’t Fela’s mentality. Fela thought about who agreed with the Pan-African philosophy. Fela and I had a total agreement. We were fighting together. I come from Cuba, I don’t care about that. I care about Africa and Fela was about Africa.

30 years ago, nobody was interested in doing this, everybody was fleeing Fela. I came to work with FESTAC and the FESTAC authorities told me that I cannot be associating with that man. He is subversive, he is against the government, he is a hooligan. They wrote me and I still have the documents. They told me if I continue the association, I would have to choose between that association and the FESTAC. My answer was: the choice is already made.

My politics are exactly the politics that Fela was fighting for, and I said that to the highest authorities. The Inspector General of Police then, M.D. Yusufu called me, and I sat down with him and I explained to him my relationship with Fela and he understood me. Yusufu said to me: I respect you, I respect your choice. And when the heads of the festival brought it down to a real confrontation, I left FESTAC and continued my relationship with Fela.

When I started relating with Fela in 1974, 1975, I said to him what you are saying should be in a book because this is important. He said no, he didn’t want anything about a book. We were discussing with each other about how we could bring the whole continent together, how we could eliminate the borders, how we could have a federation. How we could break up these artificial countries. Because this thing called Nigeria, Ghana, Benin, Cameroun, it means nothing. It was done by the French, the Portugese, the Spanish and the other colonial powers.

It doesn’t work. It has never worked and it can’t work. It is dysfunctional. That is what we agreed on. That is why when Biafra tried to break away, I supported Biafra. Fela supported Biafra. A number of us supported Biafra, against the people who were talking about keeping Nigeria one. I never wanted to keep Nigeria one because Nigeria is an invention of the British. That’s what Fela knew and we agreed on this. What we wanted to do was to break up all of these countries, these so called states. They are not nations.

Nigeria is not a nation. Nigeria is a conglomerate of nations pieced together by the British and forced to live in this arrangement. We knew that this was not a nation; that what we needed was regional federation. Like Nkrumah had said, we must have regional federation. That was the Pan-African dream. That is what Nkrumah, Lulumba, Biko, Sankara, all of these people fought for. That is why when Sankara took power, he called Fela. He is the only head of state who called Fela and sat and discussed with him because he understood what Fela wanted was exactly that, a Pan-African union. I am not interested in Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroun and Senegal. Those are colonial arrangements which are dysfunctional. That is what brought people like me and Fela together. We were more than political allies. We trusted each other so much that we were brothers.

Ten years after our relationship, I was in Europe working. I got a phone call in the early morning. I had woken up around two or three in the morning and the phone call was from Lagos. And all of a sudden, I was told that Fela was telling me to get on the plane, come quickly, that he needed the book written. I said which book? He said the book on him. I got on the plane, came here. By that time, the brutalities committed on him were just unspeakable. It was impossible for a human being to have been through that much.

Fela was at that time in a state of total depression. His mother had been dead for four years. And he told me that his mother said, call your brother, Carlos Moore. He is the one who should write the book now. Fela thought he was going to be killed, and Fela was talking about killing himselfe. It’s in the book; that is how the book ends. I was very concerned because this was serious. So, Fela is the one who called me to write the book. He was calling a man who believed in the same dream that he believed.

Kalakuta was not a place reserved. Everybody was in Kalakuta, different nationalities. I came prepared and we started recording. We recorded for many, many days. He poured out his life to me. That is when I discovered a side of Fela that I didn’t even know existed. Because up till then we had talked about politics, but he didn’t tell me about his life, that he had been beaten so much as a child by his mother. His father beat him so badly for so many years. He was traumatised by the beatings. And it made him a rebellious person. He was rebellious against authority.

What I did with all of those recordings – I went back to Europe, I transcribed them, I put them in order and selected and I wrote out the story. I wrote out the story line, and then took his words and integrated it with mine, because it was the only way I could tell the story. So, I came back and said: Fela, it doesn’t work if I say, Fela did and Fela said so and so. I can only say the story as ‘I’ from the beginning to end.

The publishers said no, we won’t touch it. They said no we want Fela’s biography but we won’t touch that, because you wrote it. So I came back and said Fela, they won’t touch it unless you authorise it. So he had to sign letters and say: ‘I authorised Carlos Moore. This is my authorised biography. I authorised him to speak as me’. That is what Fela did. He had that much confidence in me.

Why haven’t you attempted to publish it in Nigeria before now?

How can I attempt to publish it in Nigeria if Nigerians are not asking me, if the government doesn’t even allow me to come back into the country? At that time, it was a military dictatorship, Babangida and all of those fellows were in power. Do you think that book would have come out under Babangida, under Abacha? There was only one time when that book could have been published. That was when there was a coup de tat in 1976, and Muritala Mohammed came into power.

Muritala’s people called me and I came. That was when I could have published, but they killed him, they got him out of power. They were the first government who were going to try to do something. I’m not saying they were anything great, but they were saying, ok, the corruption must stop, that things must start working, that the poor people must have something. But they killed them. I can only publish if a publisher approaches me and tells me, I want to publish the book. And this happened only when two years ago, Cassava Republic approached me.

Do you think the dream of a united Africa is achievable?

If it is not achieved, Africa is finished, there is no Africa. I don’t know how it is going to be achieved because what these people have done is that they have destroyed practically all of our countries. From the North to the South, from the East to the West, they have destroyed and made life unbearable for all of us. What is the situation in Nigeria? You can repeat that by 53 times. 53 African countries show you the same profile. The elites that have been ruling our countries have just been lining their pockets, selling our resources, giving it to the outside, fronting to the outside. Do you know who these elites are?

They are the direct descendants of the slave traders, the people who sold all of us to the other side for money. They are doing the same thing, selling the resources of this country just as they sold us. That is what they are doing. It is the same elites, the same predator elites who don’t care about the ordinary people. They will sell you today, in fact they are selling you, they are selling your birth right. Every time a child cannot go to school because there is no infrastructure, they are selling him. They are condemning entire generations to being irrelevant, to being hungry and poor. These elites have been destroying the continent. They are not interested in one Africa.

I am saying if we don’t have that one Africa, one continental African government defending the interest of one Africa, Africa has no future because even the Europeans have understood that. Aren’t the Europeans bounding up in one single European government? What does that mean? Look at the Asians, aren’t they trying to get one Asian government. Look at their countries, they are enemy countries. Japan is the enemy of China, Japan is the enemy of Korea, China is the enemy of the Phillipines, the Phillipines is the enemy of Indonesia. They have these historic enmities lasting over a thousand years. You don’t have these enmities in Africa. These are enmities created since independence. You had viable states before. It was possible. You had wide empires, Ghana, Mali, kingdoms which were far and extensive and were functioning.

Why can’t we function today? Look at South Africa, less than 30 years after apartheid, it is chaos again. Look at Zimbabwe, the fight in Zimbabwe went on for 20 years and the very guy who was the most prominent guy is the worst dictator. Look at Uganda, with [Yoweri] Museveni. The fight in Uganda to get rid of the dictatorship and Idi Amin has led to another dictatorship. Look at the Congo, in eight years of fighting in Congo in the civil war, six million people have been killed.

Nothing can stop that if you don’t have one central government, with one army, one administration, which can stop the fighting. If there is fighting in the north, have an African army intervene and stop the fighting. Now if there is fighting somewhere, we have to call the United Nations to stop it. Of course it doesn’t make sense.

Unlike the 2009 Grand Award Night in Abuja where no writer won the $50,000 Nigeria Prize for Literature, a worthy winner, the late Esiaba Irobi, emerged at the 2010 edition held at Eko Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos, on October 9.

‘Cemetery Road’ by the late academic, dramatist, and poet was deservedly adjudged the best ahead of Ahmed Yerima’s ‘Little Drops…’ and Onukaba Adinoyi-Ojo’s ‘The Killing Swamps’. Perhaps, still smarting from the barrage of criticisms directed at him last year when the unenviable task of reading the report of the judges fell on him, Ayo Banjo, a member of the Literature Committee, deferred the task to Dapo Adelugba, chair, panel of judges this time around.

Life, love and death

But Adelugba, rather dramatically, wouldn’t execute it alone either. He asked other members of the panel: Mary Kolawole, John Ilah, Kalu Uka, and Tanimu Abubakar to join him on stage while he read the report in which special praise was reserved for Irobi’s ‘Cemetery Road’.

Amongst others, Adelugba said the dialogue of the play, which had won the World Drama Trust Award for playwriting in 1992, crackles and that the play advances the frontiers of drama. He added that ‘Cemetery Road’, which Irobi submitted for the competition, opened to Nigerians in the Diaspora for the first time since its inception in 2004, “is about living, loving, and dying for the things we hold dear.”

Done with the report, Adelugba still wouldn’t announce the winner. He requested Banjo to do it. Banjo, emeritus professor of English and former vice chancellor of the University of Ibadan, then announced the victory of Irobi, to applause from the literati. Osondu, Irobi’s brother who collected the prize on his behalf, couldn’t hide his joy as he left his seat and walked towards the end of the hall trance-like, holding his head in his hands in disbelief.

The announcement was the highpoint of the evening. The fact that an accomplished dramatist and scholar who, sadly, wasn’t around to savour his victory after succumbing to death in Berlin, Germany, on May 3, 2010, won the prize, proved to be a very moving conclusion. That, and the fact that the award gala did not end in a fiasco like last year, warmed the hearts of many at the event where 28 eminent Nigerians were inducted into the Nigerian hall of fame for science and letters.

Welcoming guests earlier, deputy managing director of Nigeria LNG Limited, Basheer Koko, disclosed that the 2010 Grand Award Night was special to the NLNG because “it is coming at a time when the country is celebrating 50 years of nationhood.” He added that it is also unique because “for the first time in the history of our nation, 28 distinguished Nigerians selected by the Nigerian Academy of Science and the Nigerian Academy of Letters will be inducted into the halls of fame for science and letters.”

Time to say ‘yes’

The managing director of the company, Chima Ibeneche, who delivered the keynote address titled ‘Time to Say Yes to Nigeria’, admitted that he never dreamt he would ever give it. He said he chose the title because “our nay-saying is at the root of our non-performance and the stunted growth of our nation after 50 years of independence.”

He said though Nigerians complain about the state of affairs in the country, there are several things including a good climate, surviving a civil war, improved telecommunications, and achievers who have conquered the world amongst others, to be grateful for.

On why no money was included in the package for the honourees, Ibeneche said, “The reason is to instil in us all, especially in younger Nigerians, an appreciation of excellence as its own reward and the pursuit of excellence as an end in itself. These are values that have defined scholarship and excellence for countless centuries. These are values that will save Nigeria from self- destruction.”

Ibeneche condemned the entrenched tribalism in the country and called for a change of attitude.

“Compatriots, I urge you to avert your eyes from the current pettiness and see what Nigeria can be. With strong institutions, we can mitigate inadequacies arising from our heterogeneous existence, with fairness we shall have little need for cults and private armies, by insisting on rule of law and greater corporate governance, we can bring about respect for life and dignity of the human person. By renewing our infrastructure, we shall release the energy of our youth and promote greater productivity. By saying ‘Yes’ to the rights of the individual citizen irrespective of origin, we can turn our diversity to a source of strength.”

He also charged Nigerians not to blame only the executive for Nigeria’s woes, noting that the National Assembly is culpable by failing in a number of its responsibilities.

“They have failed by not forcing onto the agenda the issues that are important to Nigerians. They have seemed more concerned for their remuneration than for the welfare of their constituents.”

The laureates

A performance by Beeta Universal, which appears to be an offshoot of Segun Adefila’s Crown Troupe of Africa, preceded the induction ceremony of the honourees. Ben Elugbe, president, Nigerian Academy of Letters, inducted the 14 laureates comprising the late Abubakar Imam, Ladi Kwali, Christopher Okigbo, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, Ben Enwonwu, Fela Sowande, and Kenneth Dike into the Nigerian Hall of Fame for Letters. The still living Jacob F. Ade Ajayi, Ayo Bamgbose, J.P.Clark, Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Emmanuel Obiechina, and Michael Echeruo were also inducted.

President, Nigerian Academy of Science, Oye Ibidapo-Obe, inducted the 14 scientists. They include Adenike Abiose, Feyisola Sylvester Adegoke, Oladipo Akinkugbe, Gordian Ezekwe, Adeoye Lambo, Samuel Layinka Manuwa, and Chike Obi. Others were Ifedayo Oladapo, Sanya Onabamiro, Kayode Osuntokun, Victor Oyenuga, Umaru Shehu, and Olikoye Ransome-Kuti.

Abdullahi Muku, acting director general, National Gallery of Arts, disclosed that the Aina Onabolu Gallery of Modern Art at the National Theatre, Iganmu, has been renovated to house the citations, plaques, and photographs of the honourees.

The special guest of honour, actor Sam Loco-Efe, who was ushered into the hall and stage with Victor Uwaifo’s ‘Joromi’, a favourite of his, made the audience laugh with a short speech laced with high falutin rhymes.

Winner of the Nigeria Prize for Science, Akaehomen Ibhadode, a professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Benin, also got his prize.

The New Afrika Shrine, Agidingbi, Lagos, is rarely busy on Monday mornings but it was on October 11, as it hosted the kick-off event for the 2010 Felabration. The week-long celebration of the late Fela Anikulapo-Kuti with ‘Viva Africa’ as its theme, started with a debate titled ‘Music as a Weapon’.

Professor of Law, Yemi Osibajo; political scientist, Carlos Moore; South African poet, Lesogo Rampolokeng; academics, Dipo Fashina and Sola Olorunyomi were the guest speakers while human rights activist, Femi Falana, moderated.

The Kuti clan was well represented, with Yemisi Ransome-Kuti; Sofia and Bose (wives of the late Olikoye and Beko), Fela’s children, Femi and Yeni in attendance. The illustrious family, noted Falana in his introductory remarks, comprised, “some of the greatest Nigerians in terms of fighting for the independence of this country.” He added about Fela, popularly known as Abami Eda, “If there is one cultural ambassador that Nigeria has produced, it is Fela Kuti.”

Bridge builder

The first speaker, Rampolokeng, discarded his prepared paper and spoke extemporaneously. He disclosed that he is of the 1976 generation, the year of the Soweto uprising from which two popular South African freedom songs emerged. Rampolokeng said he didn’t like poetry or literature when he started writing but that he later realised that poetry is music. He described Fela as a master musician and instrumentalist, and in tribute to him, read three of his poems titled ‘The Fela Sermon’, ‘Wailers of the World’ and ‘Bantu Ghost’.

Osibajo, a former Attorney General of Lagos State, began with an acknowledgement of the late musician some call Omo Iya Aje. “Fela, through his music, created a bridge across tribes; across classes. A bridge that was built on the collective anger of the people consistently traumatised by the ruling class. Fela’s protest against military dictatorship was founded on his own encounters with military injustice. Fela’s characterisation of our neo-colonial forces is apt in many respects. Fela’s self appointed role was to speak the truth rudely and tauntingly and at great personal risk. His defined and unionist stance against the fierce brutality of the state, especially under military rule, encouraged many. Fela left no doubt that he wanted his songs to anger the ordinary man enough to propel him into action.”

Speaking on Fela’s beginnings, the self confessed pastor and born again Christian, who laced his lecture with various numbers by Abami Eda, said Fela didn’t start out as a protest musician as seen in his early experiments with jazz and highlife music. Osibajo added that the musician’s initial political ambivalence was curious, given the antecedents of his parents; he began to like politics because his mother, Funmilayo, flogged him less due to political engagements which took her away from home. The speaker observed that Fela’s political ambivalence continued until a trip to the US in 1969, after which he began to sing political songs.

Osibajo added that though music is a veritable weapon of enlightenment, “Fela’s music cannot and will not change Nigeria” if we don’t change our attitude. “So long as we maintain a stance of ‘No Agreement’, then there is hope for Nigeria.” He advised that protest music must not stop.

Gentle introvert

Former president, Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities (ASUU), Dipo Fashina, recalled his first encounter with Fela as a young school man. He said that though Fela fought against government, “inside him he was a gentle introvert. He had more than music and protest.” He called for Fela to be studied “as a social constructor who would have loved to construct a movement.” Fashina, popularly called Jingo by students of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, where he teaches Philosophy, added that Fela scholars need to go beyond the surface to interrogate the influences that formed his consciousness.

The music, he further noted, can be discussed from many angles. “His idioms are worth studying and his choice of musical instruments political.” The political tone, he added, “wasn’t there at the beginning. The audience he had when he started was different from the one he had when he ended. His messages are more complex than we thought.” Abami Eda, Jingo further noted, was a Pan-Africanist, though anti-imperialism and class struggle are often suppressed in the study of his music.

Fela and his late activist brother, Beko, he disclosed, wanted to construct a movement people can use to liberate themselves but had limitations. “We have to create a political movement that will address the issues of the masses, the issues of culture, the issues of how to play our role in the liberation of the world. These lives must not be wasted; we must build a political movement.”

Continuous interrogation

Fela scholar and academic, Sola Olorunyomi of the Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan, also spoke extemporaneously instead of presenting his paper titled ‘A Fela-sophy on Kalakuta Republic and African Citizenship’. The author of ‘Afrobeat! Fela and the Imagined Continent’ and six forthcoming works on the legend, told the audience that the way to ensure Afrobeat’s relevance is to continuously interrogate and institutionalise it in schools. Afrobeat, he noted, is not just music but encompasses performance, politics and choreography amongst others.

He charged legatees of Fela not to allow Afrobeat die because, “there is no vision that cannot die if you allow it so we need to recalibrate.” While noting that Femi is actively working on the Afrobeat scene, Olorunyomi expressed fears that inheritors of Afrobeat music may not be children of Blacks but those in the West. He concluded with Olu Oguibe’s poem, ‘The Voice’.

We miss you

Carlos Moore, author of ‘Fela: This Bitch of a Life’ who is on a book tour of Nigeria, also gave a passionate speech cum performance. Like the others, he abandoned his paper and spoke from the heart. He disclosed that he wrote the biography because Fela asked him to. Moore disclosed Fela’s dejection after his several face offs with the authorities when he arrived to write the biography. “Fela said I’m tired, I want to go, I want to die, I want to commit suicide,” Moore said. He added that Fela was not a superman but a mortal “who felt fear like all of us but he decided not to keep quiet about it.”

The Cuban now resident in Brazil further noted that had Fela been alive, he would not have joined in the 50th Independence celebrations. “Fela will be mourning 50 years of fear, 50 years of dictatorship, 50 years of mourning, 50 years of poverty, 50 years of hypocrisy, 50 years of manipulation and 50 years of oppression.” Fela, he added, knew that everything that came after Independence was “99.9 per cent wrong and that Independence was another form of indirect rule.”

He said the authorities tried to demoralise the Afrobeat legend because they knew he had a message they didn’t want him to spread but that Fela knew his music was not entertainment. “He introduced a form of music that broke with the customary, he introduced socially relevant music.”

Moore also disclosed that it wasn’t always plain sailing between him and Fela. “I had 1000 fights with him,” he said before dramatically launching into a conversation with Fela on the stage. Addressing him as if he was right in front of him, Moore started highlighting Fela’s mistakes. He told him he was wrong to have believed that AIDS is not a dangerous disease and the late Idi Amin of Uganda wasn’t a dictator. “Fela, you were right when you said the only way for Africans to become Africans again is to unite. We miss you. Goddamn it, we miss you,” he ended emotionally.

The cause of Fela’s death and Pan-Africanist inclinations were further highlighted during the interaction. Reacting to a commentator who alleged that Fela didn’t die of AIDS, Falana said Nigerians must be grateful to the Kuti family for disclosing the cause of Fela’s death -complications arising from AIDS. He noted that only the Kuti family and Nelson Mandela, who disclosed that his son died of AIDS, have been courageous enough to admit the truth about the scourge in Africa. Falana said the disclosure opened the eyes of Nigerians to the reality of AIDS.

Giving the vote of thanks, Femi condemned the maladministration and decaying infrastructure in Nigeria. He said Europeans and Americans should apologise to Africans for about 500 years of slavery. The ‘Bang Bang Bang’ crooner also canvassed a historical re-orientation of Africans. He said people should stop saying colonial masters but colonial dealers and that ancestors should be honoured. “We need to appreciate the efforts of our forefathers and foremothers. Fela is just one of them that will come and go. The sin will be if we don’t let our children continue to know about Fela.”

‘Roforofo Fight – Painting to Fela’s Music’, an exhibition of drawing and sketches by Victor Ehikhamenor, opened on Tuesday, October 12, at the Life House, Victoria Island, Lagos. Art enthusiasts and Fela aficionados were on hand to see and enjoy this relatively new concept of painting. The exhibition was organised to coincide with activities marking Felabration, an annual celebration of the life and times of the late Afrobeat legend.

With Fela’s songs playing softly in the background, guests were taken on a tour of some of his ideologies as were portrayed in the works. All the paintings bore title names of Fela’s songs, with the artist also on hand to shed light on some of his works.

The Concept

“Roforofo Fight is one of Fela’s songs, and it basically describes people having a mud fight, not minding what they are wearing. In painting this work, I just took a go at it, so it was more like a Roforofo fight. Most of the paintings were done in semi darkness, so if you look at them, you will see that [they] were done in muted colours, although I use vibrant colours a lot in my works,” Ehikhamenor explained.

He added that although he is a huge Fela fan, this was actually the first time he would be consciously painting whilst listening to his music.

“His songs helped me capture the theme and ride on the wave of what he was thinking when he was composing the lyrics. It is kind of my own interpretation of Fela’s songs, with a little bent; and that has also helped to awaken my socio-political consciousness. My artworks are not just painting for art sake, but to make a statement.”

The works

A total of 18 paintings were on display. They include ‘Fire Dance’, ‘Unknown Soldier,’ ‘Movement of the People’, ‘Army Arrangement,’ and ‘International Thief Thief’..

Employing a heavily mixed medium as a basis for the works, Ehikhamenor made it easy for guests to have a better understanding of the story behind each work. In ‘Expensive Shit’ for instance, he mixed a lot of materials together to create an impression of dried excrement. He also placed a 50 kobo note on it, reflected the era of the song, when it was ‘big money’.

On the piece, ‘Lady’, Ehikhamenor, had this to say: “This was, for me, looking at two types of African ladies: the ones that are always doing ‘Iyanga’ saying, ‘don’t talk to me, I can’t oh’ – even when she’s married she tells you, ‘I can’t cook’. So, [Fela] was comparing the bourgeois woman and the typical African woman, and that was what I tried to achieve with this piece.”

The viewers

Having been exposed to Fela’s music in his teens, the artist showered eulogies on the late Abami Eda.

“I began listening to Fela since secondary school between ages 15-20 years of age. Initially, I did not like him because he will just keep playing the instrumentals. Not until I got into the university, when we celebrated his birthday, did I understand what he was saying. After I got involved in activism at school, I realised that the socio-political situation of the country was not normal. Then I became aware.”

For guests like Oluchi Ogwuegbu, who was thrilled by the concept behind the works, the declining level of art appreciation in the country still poses a huge challenge. “You tend to find the same set of people at exhibitions, book readings, and much more. Then you begin to wonder about other percentage of youth who would rather go watch a Dbanj perform on stage than come to see works of art,” she said.

Yvonne Ekwere, a TV personality, also shared her views of the exhibition. “I am amazed to see that [Ehikhamenor] has placed Obasanjo’s picture side by side Abiola; it goes to show that he is brave and innovative. I particularly like the ‘International Thief Thief’ painting because it tells the story of our present dispensation,” she said.

With the demands of a regular job as NEXT’s creative director, a smiling Ehikhamenor, assured that, “In spite of my job, it is fun for me to go back to the studio and do what I like. We have a new generation of collectors, so there is a new audience who I want to showcase my work to.”

‘Roforofo Fight – Painting to Fela’s Music’ is at Life House, Victoria Island, Lagos, until October 24.

It was an outing of elders but the young were there to watch. It was quite a crowd at Terra Kulture, Victoria Island, Lagos, on Thursday, September 30 when `An Evening with The Masters`, a one-week exhibition featuring three eminent Nigerian artists and Ghanaian, Ablade Glover, opened.

The multi-talented Abayomi Barber (who didn’t make the opening because of a family wedding); initiator of the Harmattan workshops, Bruce Onobrakpeya; and former president, Society of Nigerian Artists (SNA), Kolade Oshinowo, were the three Nigerians in the exhibition.

About 40 works of the artists, some made as recently as 2010, were shown at the exhibition, the opening ceremony of which was graced by guests including Erelu Abiola Dosunmu, Azu Nwagbogu and others.

Disclosing the idea behind the exhibition, its organiser and founder of Terra Kulture, Bolanle Austen-Peters, explained that it was the outfit`s way of celebrating the progress of Nigerian art since Independence. “We think that the best way we can showcase what we have achieved in this area is to put together a couple of masters to showcase their works for our Independence anniversary.” She added that the quartet were selected because of their availability and exhibition space at the centre.

On the inclusion of the renowned Ghanaian art educator and painter, Austen- Peters disclosed that it was based on the excellent relationship Terra Kulture has with Glover. “He used to mentor artists for us. We used to have an exchange programme with the Ford Foundation and we used him as our base in Ghana. We`ve forged a very strong relationship at the very inception of Terra Kulture about seven years ago. That`s why – and we thought we should widen [the exhibition], not just Nigeria.”

Glad to be back

It was a great return to Nigeria, however, for the soft spoken Ghanaian whom people kept approaching to greet and chat with. Though he disclosed that he shudders whenever the word `master` is used for him, Glover expressed gladness over his inclusion.

“It’s good, I met two friends I know already, Bruce Onobrakpeya and Kolade Oshinowo. They are long friends, I met Oshinowo in 1979 and Bruce in the early 80s. We`ve been connecting for some time. Since 1979, I haven`t seen [Oshinowo]. It`s a celebration. It is good to meet these artists I have known over the years.”

Laudable initiative

Oshinowo, former deputy Rector, Yaba College of Technology, also welcomed the exhibition. “I think we need to have more of this so that the younger ones at least will not only see the works, they will have the opportunity of meeting the artists. I think it`s a thing that is a bit lacking. I meet people and they say, ah thank God. I`ve read about you, now I`m seeing you physically so I think it`s a good thing that Terra Kulture has done in celebrating Nigeria at 50, they decided to showcase those they regard as masters.”

Oshinowo, who wouldn`t agree he is a master, said, “I`m still working, I`m still learning and the road is far. For any artist the road is far, you never quite get there. So long as you have the good health to work, you discover that you have a lot to say and if you look at artists over the ages, they work until they drop. Picasso worked until he dropped, all of them. And it`s not about money because these are very rich people, but because they believed they still had something to say which they had not said, so they will continue to produce works.”

The artist who will like government to provide a purpose-built gallery in Abuja for artists, also expressed happiness at seeing Glover whom he invited to Nigeria in 1979 as secretary of the SNA. “We wanted international flavour; we thought we should be exhibiting artists from outside of Nigeria and we invited him. We had crisis with Ghana but he was still able to come and that was his foray into the Nigerian art scene and I don`t think that he has regreted it. I think he has made more money from Nigeria than anywhere else. But he is a hardworking artist.”

50-year cycle

The duo, perhaps, were not as happy as Onobrakpeya whose old and recent works were included. He said of the works: “These are a few of the many experiments that have come out of me within the last 50 years. One work of mine inspires another one and so the continous growth. There were works that were done in 1980 here and there are others that were done few years ago. There is one that is painted just last year so it’s continous coming back 50 years back.

The artist also recalled the 1960 exhibition some say gave him his break.”50 years ago, as young artists, we showed our works in Bonny Camp. That was the trade fair then where they showed artworks. Now we are showing these works here, so really what we have done is that a cycle of 50 years has been completed and we are hoping that all of us, particularly you will see the next cycle of 50 years.”

Americans talk about everything at every opportunity. They talk during meals and sex. I once had an apartment below a young American couple who liked to make love and talk at the same time. Loudly. I was miserable whenever I had to leave the apartment to go to work, so entertaining.

Nigerians are simple people; the British taught us to keep mum during sex. That is what the missionary position is for. I don’t know why the British call it the missionary position; they should simply call it the (only) position since it is the (only) position they know about. Maybe the Americans invented the missionary position. They have names for everything because they talk a lot. The British are famously tight-lipped about everything. The story is told about the British couple enjoying their annual one round of sex in the missionary position when the woman began to squirm with enjoyment. The man is said to have stopped work and curtly declared: “Dear, you should not enjoy this!”

I love watching American TV food channels. They talk to food as if they are making love to it. They close their eyes as the food meets their palate and they make sensual noises as if they are climaxing and then the storytelling begins. By the time they are finished talking, the food is cold. Americans love to talk about their houses. If they like your house, they will talk about it all day.

If a Nigerian likes your house, you will not hear about if from the green-eyed monster. Bad belle jealousy will not let her say anything nice about your house. She will keep quiet, even if it kills her. Meanwhile, she will start memorising everything she likes in your house. The next time you visit her house, you will think you accidentally stepped into your own house. She would have faithfully reproduced everything in your house down to the bathroom towels. You will of course not say a word, even though you are dying to tell her how much you appreciate her perfidy. You are a Nigerian.

I have been loitering around Americans for many decades and I have mastered everything about them, down to their accent. So, let me offer a few tips for acculturating in Babylon.

Say you have a dinner date with an American lady at her house. This is an opportunity to show that you are not an ajepako half-human; you know – those pretend-people who brush their teeth with twigs and hold cutlery like mass murderers. Before you leave your house, brush your teeth vigorously with toothpaste, and buy breath mints because you are going to be talking. If she offers you breath mints, my brother please take it.

She will offer you wine. This is not palmwine. You can tell that it is not because unlike great palmwine, it tastes like pond water. She will offer you the wine and watch you intently like a white anthropologist watching a mountain gorilla. Do not simply swallow, make a face, and keep quiet. Worse, do not sip a large quantity and spit on her white carpet in honour of your wretched ancestors. Sip a little, close your eyes as if you are suffering from great sex, and then say something absolutely inane like: “This is a great well aged red. Fruity, bold, with a hint of nuttiness. Sensual, like you. You have great taste in wine!” Man, she will like that, an African who knows wine; you are getting some (sex!) tonight!

You are getting close to the bedroom for the ultimate test. But first, the food is coming. If the lady has cooked a meal for you, this is a good sign. She must really like you. Please do not wolf the food down like a ravenous subsistence farmer eager to go back to his yam tendrils. Be inquisitive. Ask questions.

Sometimes, the American, eager to impress you, will do some research about Nigerian food and cook you egusi. You are going to be miserable all night, but this is nice of her. Ask questions that show you really care: “Wow! This is sooo nice! Was it your idea to put chunks of carrots in the egusi sauce?” Please do not call it “soup”, bush man! If the rice is half-cooked, compliment her on her creativity. “I like the texture of the rice. The almonds and the peanuts give the rice a robust nutty feel.” Abeg do not say groundnuts! Drink some more red wine. You will need it.

If she offers you sex, whatever you do, don’t duplicate the only one sex scene in Chinua Achebe’s ‘Things Fall Apart’. It lasted one minute and ended with the memorable line: “Even in those days, Okonkwo was a man of few words.” If you behave like Okonkwo, you are not coming back to her bedroom, unless to clean it. Make love for at least two minutes. And talk a lot of nonsense. Please. Oya go for it, tiger.

Art lecturer and critic, Kunle Filani, admits to being “struck” by the closeness of Mavua Lessor’s works to those of renowned Ghanaian painter, Ablade Glover. Despite this, the lecturer agrees that Lessor has grown into his own on his journey of self-assertion, as evident in his latest exhibition, ‘Bond Across’.

The sixth solo by the artist renowned for his use of impasto, a technique that gives paintings a thick, almost three dimensional texture, ‘Bonds Across’ opened at Terra Kulture, Tiamiyu Savage, Victoria Island, Lagos, on October 9. It featured 63 works from the Auchi Polytechnic alumnus.

The body of works, according to Lessor, ponders on art as a connector of humanity.

“I spread [them] out and tried to find a connection between the works and how they relate to life. I saw this universal appeal that goes across all human occupation. It doesn’t matter what vocation you have; we all go through the same experiences, so that inspired the title.

“Part of the success of art is about experimenting. When you use a particular medium for a long time, boredom sets in, so you begin to look for new media to use. It’s not about the audience now, it’s about self-satisfaction. That is why it is important to start looking for new medium to work with,” Lessor says.

The painter, who also believes that using a new medium does not change one’s style, sheds more light on his experimentations.

“I tried materials like enamel, which artists don’t normally use, which is something interesting in my works. There is also a new technique I apply in some of my works called drip crease, where I allow the colours to drip down the canvas. As time goes on, I hope to perfect this new style.”

Lessor uses his paint brush to discuss the challenges of living in a city like Lagos, in works like ‘25 Litres’, which depicts the long queues seen at filling stations during fuel scarcity. He also addresses the lack of water in some parts of the city, with ‘Water Vendor’; and the daily struggle for survival (‘Scavengers’ and ‘Battling Poverty’).

The renewal projects being undertaken by the Lagos State government are not left out in his painterly exercise, as seen in works like ‘Before Fashola’, where he gives the viewer the old Oshodi. The Fashola administration’s drive to further develop the city is depicted in ‘Mega City’.

Lessor documents the everyday life of Lagosians and peculiarities of the city with pieces like the ‘Everyday’ series, ‘Highest Bidder’, and ‘Human Habitat’. ‘The Sun Waters and the Settlers’ that depicts the high population through scenic views of the city’s skylines and rooftops, is also included.

The artist becomes a social advocate in ‘Abusing the Girl Child’, ‘Educating the Girl Child’, and ‘Abuse of Innocence’.

Images from his memory of places visited or desires to visit, come to play in oil paintings, namely ‘Yellow Stone’ and ‘Memories of Arizona’. Some other works have themes that centre on motherhood, leadership, and beauty.

Born in Warri, Delta State, in 1960, Lessor obtained a Higher National Diploma in Painting from Auchi Polytechnic in 1986. He had his first solo exhibition in 1998 and has been having exhibitions biannually since.

The 2009 movie, ‘The Reader’ never aired on cinema screens in Nigeria. ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ was initially not aired, but soon made it to Nigerian screens when it became too difficult to ignore as a worldwide hit. About the same time, I was watching those movies at Odeon Cinemas, outside the country. I can guarantee that Nigerians would have missed an excellent film had ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ passed us by. I’m sure that ‘The Reader’ was even better than Slumdog, but it was ‘Slumdog’ that won more awards. What I can guarantee though is that Nigerians missed out on an excellent movie in ‘The Reader’. It was that good!

Fast forward to summer 2010, and as a film lover, I had gone to the Lagos cinemas, Genesis and Silverbird, to entertain myself. The most prominent movies I have been served with in the last few months are ‘The A-Team’, ‘Grown Ups’, ‘The Karate Kid’, ‘The Last Airbender’, ‘Ije’ and ‘Salt’. There are some others that I refused to watch such as ‘Toy Story 3′. Taking a look at Odeon’s website, there is a lot more choice. Which leads me to wonder what the problem is. Could it be that our cinema operators don’t get to pay for the rights to show these movies?

Small range

If that is the case, then I really don’t have a problem with them showing us a smaller selection of movies than what audiences in the UK enjoy. Two reasons; first, we do not have a serious movie going culture here yet, regardless of what people may say.

The truth is that most people in this country still see cinema-going as a big Sunday event, and prefer to buy their movies from the Alaba Brothers at the road sides. Going to the movies is still largely seen as something for young people, and anyone of my father or my uncles would more than likely balk at the thought of going to the movies. Again, movies are a good avenue for people to mix, but in a highly stratified society like ours…

The second reason why I don’t mind the smaller selection of movies is that I know for a fact that Odeon, again as an example, is a huge chain with millions of pounds behind them. They can afford to take the potential losses that would occur if they invest in showing a movie that tanks at the Box Office. I can only imagine how much was lost by such chains when they showed the Bennifa movie, ‘Gigli’. It is understandable to some extent that the Silverbird Group as an example would not have the kind of disposable cash that they must have lost on ‘Kajola’, for example.

However, given these constraints, especially that of cost, it behoves the movie selectors to make the best possible choice of movies. For instance, I think that Salt was a bad movie. But the sheer expectation that greeted its release means that it could not be ignored as a movie, and had to be shown. Then again, a lot of people who watched it in the cinema thought that it was a fine film. So, that difference of opinion is more than enough to justify its selection. However, one movie that annoyed just about everyone that saw it, was ‘The A-Team.’ Sitting in the theatre watching it, I actually noticed my IQ drop a few percentage points. That movie was DAFT!

Stereotypes

A few years ago, a Caucasian friend of mine, on listening to my taste in music, asked how I felt when people automatically assumed that I loved rap music because I am black. A poignant question, considering that my preferred music types are soft rock, opera, and Igbo Christian tunes. It is the same problem that faces our cinema culture.

You see, I began this by talking about the fact that Kate Winslet’s movie ‘The Reader’ was not aired in Nigerian cinemas. Same way, I was also informed that the cinema this way never showed ‘Vicky Cristina Barcelona’ and ‘Milk’. These were solid movies, all of them. But yet, the same cinemas had no problems showing ‘The Dark Knight’ (I have no issues with that great movie), ‘Iron Man’, ‘Get Smart’ (?), ‘Speed Racer’ and ‘Wanted’. Now, ‘Wanted’ was one silly movie, let’s not even begin to talk about ‘Get Smart’ (very ironic, considering the title)!

What I have a problem with is our own movie selectors type-casting us. Nigerians are not a set of people who only love octane action dramas that are high on blowing up cars and one person beating up 30 bigger people, or surviving multiple plane crashes. There is a significant number of us who want to go to the movies and take something away from the experience whilst being entertained at the same time.

Agents’ selection

I did a little bit of digging. A Silverbird source who didn’t want to be named, explained that the cinema does not get the movies directly from Hollywood studios, but through an agent, and they have to take what is given to them. My source further explained that the studios and their licenced agents have conducted market surveys for the kind of movies supposedly preferred by people in different parts of the world, and it is based on those surveys that they push certain kinds of movies in our direction. The source cited ‘No Country For Old Men’ as an example: while it did extremely well in Europe and America, it was a loss for movie theatres in this part of the world.

But personally, I wouldn’t judge on just that one experience because I see people buying serious stuff from hawkers on the streets. Which is why I disagree not a little, and think there’s a bit of stereotyping at play here; but they pull the financial strings and make the important decisions, which is a little painful for me.

So far, all the reviews I have read about Ben Affleck’s ‘The Town’ are very positive; and the movie has topped $15million at the box office. But there is no mention of it being shown in our cinemas.