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You would think
that Lagos would have become jazz central par excellence by now, being
a city whose very soul personifies the boundless freedom of the musical
form, that expresses the wild and often crazily beautiful and just
crazily crazy, abstractions and juxtapositions of contemporary life so
succinctly. But we start where we can and typically Nigerian, we catch
up very quickly once we do.

The Lagos Jazz
Series that debuted last week had that feeling of being where it ought
to be, of having instantly achieved the right fit. Part of it of course
was setting. Until you have lived in cold climes you cannot truly
appreciate the beauty of warm, welcoming balmy nights. When you have to
battle with infrastructure till you yearn for a state of grace, you
learn to appreciate artistry that has been honed on dedication and
practice to a state of effortlessness.

That was the
signature of Somi, the sinuous and sultry singer in voice and
appearance of Ugandan and Rwandan parentage. Her phrasing was
reminiscent of Miriam Makeba, Cassandra Wilson, Sibongile Khumalo and
Sade, but she was also very strongly her individual self. Her lyrics
had the clear stamp of someone who was telling her own story and in an
unmistakably African genre. Somi has a well-modulated voice and can
make it do exactly what she wants: a sign of control and maturity and a
promise of greater things to come in one still so young.

Somi opened the
evening on Saturday, November 6, singing against the night sky of the
Federal Palace Hotel back garden with the nights of Lagos twinkling in
the background. She was backed by her four-piece band and followed by
Aremu in full throttle with the Vision Band.

You could hear the
strong gospel strains in Aremu’s sax as he treated the crowd to full
bore Fuji style Nigerian “jazz”, toasting members of the audience and
teasing them out of their seats to offer a spot-lit rendition of how
low they could go, partying down Naija style. It was loud and it was
dramatic, nuance was thrown to the wind: showmanship beat out style.

Is that Nigerian
jazz? It had a sense of highlife and dance rhythms interspersed with
talking drums, a trio of backing horns rounded up with a chorus of
three women and one man all in good voice on that night and well
capable of holding an audience on their own even though theirs was to
provide a canvas for their maestro.

The night was
anchored by the jazz group from New York led by Morrie Louden on
acoustic bass, who thrilled the crowd with their energy, artistry and
versatility. Louden was accompanied by Mike Eckroth on piano and
keyboards with two other players on drums and box, and sax. This was a
tight disciplined group of artisans married to their sound, which had a
wholesome many-cultured appeal to it, anchored by an almost primal
force. Louden’s quartet had the audience oohing and gasping with their
virtuoso solos on the Friday opening round midnight at Moorhouse
Hotel’s restaurant in Ikoyi. The rain gods had shaken their heads,
forcing the venue to move from poolside. So it was a close intimate
atmosphere that surrounded the sound and drew South African guitarist
Jimmy Dludlu to a hair raising pearl of a jam session where the sounds
just melded together seamlessly.

And so let it be that in the jazz series to come artistry that has
been honed on dedication and practice to a state of effortlessness will
be the signal element.

Echoing the words
of Ayo Sadare, the moderator at the MUSON Jazz night, it has been a
season of Jazz. The much anticipated MUSON Jazz festival, which finally
took place on November 6, the three-day Lagos Jazz series, which ended
on November 7 of same, and the smooth FM Jazz concert two days ago, are
obvious indications.

The all-star
line-up of Olujazz, Pure and Simple, Imole, Mike Osadolo,
Biodun&Batik, Herbert Kunle Ajayi, Ayinke Martins and Lekan
Babalola, lit up the Shell Hall of the Onikan-based arts centre with
stirring performances during the MUSON Jazz Festival.

The event was well
attended and by the time the first act had come up, the hall was almost
fully seated. Olujazz heralded the concert with a performance of Asa’s
‘Eye Adaba’ and his mood matched his act as he came down from the stage
to mingle with the crowd, the spotlight tailing him.

The atmosphere
generated some excitement, as there was a kaleidoscope of lights and
other effects on the stage and around the hall. Olujazz also performed
singer Tuface’s latest single, ‘Only Me’.

The following
performance from the duo of Pure and Simple was less energetic. They
are not newcomers to the MUSON Jazz Festival, having performed at last
year’s edition.

Pure and Simple’s
first guitar rendition gave off just a touch of master guitarist Victor
Uwaifo’s style at the beginning. There was also a Highlife feel to some
of their pieces, which were becoming too numerous for the time slot
allotted to them. The compere, who teased the duo for taking up too
much time, introduced a comic turn by a comedian, Jeffrey, who sent the
audience reeling with his fake British accent.

Sadare advocated
the support and promotion of Jazz music. “There are about 40 Jazz bands
in Lagos State.” he pointed out. “We need to promote them,” he added.

The group, Imole,
was next up. Decked in native attires, they perform with the guitar and
also the talking drum. The drum was the captivating instrument in this
performance and also their singing in the Yoruba language. Stage effect
at this point was sublime, and echoed the feel of the song and rhythmic
performance, which one could not help swaying to.

The dreadlocked
Mike Osadolo gave a frenzied performance on guitar. He rendered
Makossa-like tunes. We also got something bluesy and romantic in his
acts, most of which were accompanied by strong guitar gymnastics.

Osadolo did the
popular opening tune for the now rested 80’s soap ‘The New Masquerade’.
He performed it in a contemporary style and expanded the possibilities
of the song with the guitar; and the audience rewarded him with
resounding applause.

The first
performance by the group, Biodun & Batik, took one back to the
1940’s Harlem of Dizzy Gillespie, BB King, Charlie Parker, and Ray
Charles. They worked with the sax, trumpet, drum, and piano with
desterity.

Band leader Biodun,
a lecturer at the Lagos State University (LASU), also performed some
pieces, ‘Blues Match’ from his new CD. On the night and in the CD,
Biodun rendered Jazz standards featuring works by legendary African
American trumpeter, Dizzy Gillespie, and Charlie Parker, among many
others.

Herbert Kunle
Ajayi’s performance on the Sax matched his elderly bearing. His pieces
had religious titles, but he was experimental enough to infuse a
Latino/Salsa flabour inot his last piece, ‘Sanctified Hands’.

Everyone was
waiting for the main acts, which the organisers had wisely saved for
the last. “The full dosage is eight, and don’t leave without sampling
all,” Compere, Sadare, said.

However, some of
the attendees were not so patient and they began to leave. By the time
Ayinke Martins came on, the hall was half empty, leaving a few
faithfuls determined to wait it out.

“We’ve chosen a
very African sketch for you, to celebrate Nigeria”, said Martins as she
launched into her set. She sang in Yoruba and English about the
seemingly commonplace butterfly and expressed her desire to be as free
as one.

She sang some love
songs and then did one piece, ‘Iresa’, her oriki, in her dialect. “You
cannot do anything Afro Jazz without remembering the late Fela”,
Martins said, as she introduced to the audience Fela’s lead
keyboardist, Duro Ikujenyo, who came on stage to play the keyboard very
briefly as a tribute to the Afrobeat legend.

As her lingering
performances continued, the crowd continued to dwindle. The much
anticipated Lekan Babalola, whom the compere introduced as a master
drummer, soon came up with his numerous band members, dragging along
various musical equipment and, surprisingly, a pulpit.

The air was thick
with excitement and he did not disappoint, as he lead the performance
accompanied with a female singer who sang a popular Yoruba Christian
song, ‘Ma Joba Lo Oluwa’. It was a total package on the one hand, and
then a glimpse of Lekan Babalola’s repertoire on the other.

The MUSON Jazz festival was a delight, more so with the display of
musical talent, lending credence to fact that Jazz music in the country
will continue to grow and make impact both locally and internationally.

Western thinkers
often treat African issues with condescension and a patronising
attitude. I am exhilarated to report that I just watched a rare
exception in Fela! On Broadway. Dear reader, run, don’t walk, to go see
Fela! On Broadway. It would be a great tragedy to die without watching
that show. Okay, I am being melodramatic, but you get my point.

I attended the
play prepared to be miserable. I just knew there were many things that
would go wrong. As I went up to New York by train, I kept whining to
myself: “Why, O, why are foreigners doing a musical on Fela? This is
not going to work.” I stepped into the Eugene O’Neill Theatre,
optimistic that I would have to down several drinks just to make it to
curtain call. Wrong.

This was one fine
production, assembled with care, respect, and compassion. Fela would
have been proud of this show. I regret that once again, foreigners have
spent the time and resources to do what we ought to be doing for
ourselves.

This is a
must-see tour de force, thanks to the brains behind the show – Bill T.
Jones, Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter, Will Smith, and Jada Pinkett Smith.

When you step
into the theatre, the first thing that strikes you is the amount of
research and attention to detail that went into this production. The
set itself is tastefully done, and worth the price of admission. It
feels evocatively like a modern museum that tugs at one’s library of
memories. Characters in Nigeria’s checkered history appear and you
smile. This is a musical play deploying the historical accuracy of
heavy-duty research to create joyous faction.

There is a full
convergence of great artistic talent painstakingly assembled to
showcase the universality of music. It was my eternal luck that Patti
LaBelle performed that night as Fela’s mother. She was sheer poetry.
And Kevin Mambo as Fela was inspired. When he grabs the saxophone to
paw the air, a force grabs you to dance with reckless abandon.

Defiant to the
end, these children of the privileged gallantly mimic the song and
dance of the truly dispossessed. Just like Fela did. This is a brainy,
brawny, sizzling show, a great script creatively improvised. Everything
is here: Farce. Courage. Laughter. Sadness. Tragedy. Joy. Brutality.
The audience loved it when Fela showed up in a general’s uniform
strutting and preening through ‘Zombie’. This was creative
improvisation at its best. I must say that Fela’s attitude was
exquisitely captured that night.

It is true that
the real Kalakuta Republic shrine was grittier and more riotous, with
Fela’s girls in makeshift sets dancing the night away and all sorts of
mischief taking place in the shadows. Only the laws of the City of New
York prevented the highly creative producers and directors from totally
recreating the shrine. I saw enough to stir my all senses.

And Fela’s girls:
You should see their ‘gele’- head gears- lord have mercy. The girls
pounced on stage like hungry lionesses, fitted in skimpy outfits and
almost convinced me they had no bones in their lithe bodies, what with
the awesome dances they put on display. This was the best of Fela’s
shrine on display: waists swiveling 360 degrees, touts and thugs trash
talking, showing off moves, muscles, virility, and attitude. In dark
corners, Fela’s wives writhed in the shadows, shining a light into the
darkness with glorious waist power.

Back home in the
antiseptic clinic that houses my life in America’s suburbia, Fela won’t
let me go. As I wander the arid fields, Abami Eda, offspring of Esu,
follows me, arranging horns sobbing in formation, lining up the
oracle’s cowries. Now listen! I dey sing! I dey dance! I dey paint!
Without me you nor go happy at all! Uniform na cloth, na tailor dey sew
am! Word! Tell them, Abami Eda!

His lunacy is
carefully scripted mayhem. His is the voice of the privileged
conducting the people’s orchestra. Hear the call of the master and
listen for the response of the dispossessed in the horns arranging
orgasmic rumbles North on Georgia Avenue, as I drive behind this bus
emitting mystic smells of Lagos. Ah, I miss Lagos. And Fela lives: “Now
listen! I dey sing! I dey dance! I dey paint! Without me you nor go
happy at all! Uniform na cloth, na tailor dey sew am!” Word. Tell them,
Abami Eda!

Fela! On Broadway
reminded me of the awesome power of Fela’s words; there is power
everywhere, even in the desolation wrought by thugs in uniform. Out of
the ruins of Kalakuta Republic, there is Fela rising in song, horns
braying, billowing loud marijuana smoke and attitude.

Silently, like
lionesses, his girls creep into you. Fela enters, monarch of the
dispossessed. Poetry. A triumphant song onto the lords of justice!
Anarchy barely controlled. Horns! The audience squeals with delight!
Fela orders his subjects: “Everybody, say, Yeah! Yeah!” And the
audience roars: “Yeah! Yeah!”

I am going back to New York to dance with Fela again. And Patti Labelle!

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.