Petite Oyiza Adaba
is a bundle of energy. Though it isn’t a good time for a chat because
she is making sure all goes well with the Seun Kuti’s monthly show she
helps to coordinate at Terra Kulture, Victoria Island, she is all
charm. “Don’t be angry please, it’s not a good time but we will talk.
Let me quickly show them where to put that,” she says and dashes off.
The host of ‘Messengers’, a TV series on African art and artists all
over the world showing on Africa Magic and the Africa Independent
Television (AIT) returns minutes later with more apologies.
Love of her life
She launches into
the beginning of the series, “‘Messengers’ is the love of my life, it
came to me when I was in the States. There was a need for a platform
for African artists; it just didn’t exist. Yes, they played in
different little clubs and had exhibitions here and there but there was
nowhere we could we go and learn more about them outside of their
websites.”
‘Messengers’ focus
on all art forms because Adaba feels, “We need to give the artists a
platform to showcase their works. And the angle from which we came into
it was also to incorporate some tourism aspects. We try to film against
some historical backdrops. For example, we filmed at the Apollo Theatre
in New York, we‘ve filmed at the confluence in Lokoja, we’ve filmed at
the Lekki Conservatory to highlight very nice spots on the continent.”
Apart from its art
and tourism slant, ‘Messengers’, produced by Adaba’s Africa-Related
Limited with offices in Lagos and New York, also tilts towards
education. The Theatre Arts graduate loves presenting the “easy going”
programme because it “has its own flair; we are free doing it, we are
not in the studio. We can be on a mountain top; we could be crossing a
river.”
She is happy with
the two seasons already produced but is “more excited about the
upcoming season- season three. We are also trying to work on some
partnership, production wise, to step up our game because it’s not
really where I want it to be right now.”
Adaba’s desire for
the show which has featured Chinua Achebe, artist El Anatsui, Wyclef
Jean amongst others is for “it to be syndicated on all networks. We
want to be able to film in different parts of the continent. The reason
we are not able to do it right now is because we don’t have sponsors.”
Not a piece of cake
Like most
entrepreneurs, Adaba is discovering that doing business in Nigeria is
not for the faint hearted. She discloses, “2009 was a difficult year
for a lot of businesses and people because the bank reforms affected a
lot of businesses. We did get sponsorship in the first season that
thankfully saw us through. The second season was a little challenging.”
Adaba adds that beyond that, “It’s the quality of what we see on TV
that worries me, the quality of what corporations and companies choose
to put their money into. That’s what is disturbing because you go with
a genuine product that definitely will sell, that will boost their
image, but you find that advertisers choose to put their money in
franchises that don’t even make any sense in Nigeria.”
Adaba relates her
experience further. “Proposals are not even looked at; I don’t know how
many proposals I have dropped. You want to talk to people that are
interested and that think like you because we have a vision for this
and it’s not small. We enjoy what we are doing; we did it despite the
fact that we didn’t have lots of money. That shows commitment. Stepping
up the level of production, getting production partners that would come
on board with us and hopefully being able to syndicate it to more
stations just so we could drive up our popularity is our goal now.
There are so many copycats out there; I wish we were more original.
Somebody starts something and others latch on. Come on, give it a
twist. Pretend as if you’ve never seen the other one.”
Star struck
Oyiza, who has
three other siblings in the media and is daughter of broadcaster Tom
Adaba, doesn’t usually get awed interviewing subjects. She, however,
did in 2008 with Chinua Achebe during the 50th anniversary of ‘Things
Fall Apart’. “He insisted on talking to a Nigerian station so it was
myself, a Camerounian lady and two other Nigerians that went to
interview him. He said he had only 45 minutes but he ended spending two
and half hours. It was such a great time. I don’t get star struck but
when you know you are sitting in front of …that really generated so
much respect in me for him all over again. I enjoyed that interview and
I asked a question I didn’t know was a no go area. It was a question
about why he turned down the national honour by Obasanjo, he was still
a little raw at that time but I still asked it anyway and he answered.
That interview was very inspiring, I learnt a lot from it and I’m so
excited that he has another book out.”
Working with Seun
“Seun is a very
unique person. I think we met in New York on his first visit and coming
back to Nigeria, we reconnected. I love his father and I wanted to see
the music at a different place in Nigeria because Afrobeat is
originally Nigerian. So, it’s up to us, and that’s what we do, we
protect ours and I work with Seun on different levels. There are plans
to get him to different parts of the country where he is not really
seen or known but people might have heard about him or picked up his CD
but it would be a great opportunity to work on taking him around
Nigeria. He tours the world already but what about home? That’s our way
of upholding what’s authentically ours and that’s Afrobeat.”
‘Messengers’ shows on Africa Magic’s DSTV 114 every Thursday by 8.30pm
Leave a Reply