Date: 18 October 2019
Location: Freedom Park, Lagos
It was Day 4 of the just-concluded Felabration at the Freedom Park, Lagos venue. When I realised that it was 0130h morning of 19 October 2019 and I was still dancing and screaming my delight with nary a care in the world, I knew that me and Felabration 2019 “don jam wear trouser plus gele!” My o my! Was that night/early morning something!!! Serious stuff. I didn’t get home till 3am. I am sure my neighbours were like this our ‘Mama’. Where is she jamming from at this very godly hour? (the respect genetically engineered white hair gives you even when you are not old is something else). Back to the story.
Wow. A night to remember. The night started with our Muyiwa Kayode’s Umuntu jamming on the food court stage. Muyiwa didn’t even realise Lagos Jazz Society Paparazzi were in the house filming him as he strummed and stroked that guitar with his eyes closed – he was in guitar heaven producing music that some cherubs must have surely been salsaing to! Then we moved with our chairs to the hangman’s stage (you didn’t realise that this open air huge stage was where they used to hang prisoners before? Now you know!) for Lufemi. Afrobeat. Deep sound. Powerful drums. Solid vocals from this member of Dede’s band. My dancing machine went into second gear. After that, there was no going back.
Aduke, was PHENOMENAL. The vocals. The sheer presence. The costumes. The dancers. Each performance was better than the last which was better than good. Now third gear. By then I knew my plans to get home by 11pm were totally ruined. We went from one act to the next. Emeka Keazor and his West African Highlife Collective headlining 92+ year-old Chief Tony ‘Akatakpo’ Odili on percussion. Hmmmm! Some of us are not yet 50 and we are not as sprightly as this man who is twice our age and has played with the legends of Nigerian music such as Rex Lawson. You name it, he’s done it!
And then, our very own Momma G! Gloria Ibru & the G-Notes rocked the stage with her unique blend of highlife, gyration, Bini-Delta beats (that’s what I call it) and afrobeat sound. My favourite moments were watching an 80+ year-old great grandmother & a 2-year old both get up and dance happily to Gloria’s rhythm. And when Elvina Ibru came on to sing ‘Suffering & Smiling!’ I went into fourth gear. And then comes DABYNA.
By this time, I had entered fifth gear and stayed there till the end. Dabyna killed the show.
Some people think rock has no place in a Felabration concert. The crowd proved them wrong. While before Dabyna came on, much of the audience was doing that whole Naija – ‘I am too cool/shy/dignified to go dance out in front of the stage where everyone can see me’ thing we like to do especially when our best artistes are performing and pouring their hearts out, Dabyna’s dexterous and prolific string and stage craft got us up front head-banging and twisting and shouting. Yes indeed. Nigerians dancing rock. Our Caucasian siblings in the crowd also got to their feet. I had to laugh when I saw the same two-year old from Gloria Ibru’s performance instinctively jumping and waving her arms to the rhythmically alluring fast-paced chords from Dabyna’s magical fingers. And when Dabyna was challenged by some of our elders in the crowd to do Fela rock-style…hmmm! (I was like you guys don’t know what you are messing with) and he immediately threw out Fela’s classic song – Lady! We went wild. His female drummer, Osas, was ON POINT! as she deftly responded with her steels and sticks to every rhythmic challenge he threw at her. Yeah. Girls Rock. Tell us something we didn’t know before. Dabyna finally killed us screaming girls and guys (they, with envy) when he got a girl on stage, wrapped his guitar round her and proceeded to ‘jazz’ her with his fingers and rhythm (after wisely ascertaining that she was neither married nor accompanied by her boyfriend). I laughed. By the time he started playing his strings with her slipper, the crowd went into a frenzy. We the girls wishing our guys would be 10percent as romantic and the guys hating-loving him. One of them called him a thief, as in if you come with your girlfriend to his show, he will steal her away right under your nose. Of course, we ladies rose staunchly to his defence. His boyish good looks and those skilled fingers of course having nothing to do with our advocacy.
Oh yeah. Did I mention Ssue, the band from Ghana? She had some of the best dance moves and her clear powerful vocals were intense. I heard afrobeat, soul, Ghanaian hip life/highlife and afropop. And when they did a bit of their traditional dance from Northern Ghana, my respect for this first-time-in-Nigeria band went higher. Nigerian musicians would do well to showcase more of our traditional dances and instruments.
As we inched closer to wrap up time, O”yemi Sagay came on next. Never heard of her before that night. But this lady can sing. I noticed Lufemi coordinating the horns section from the sidelines and I realised these are Dede protégé(e)s. And that is Dede’s band. And his dancers, as good as they can be.
By this time, it was well-past midnight and yours truly had lost track of time. I was having too much fun to even remember I still had to get home. Then enter the one and only Dede Mabiaku himself. Seriously, by the time he delivered his opening tribute to Abami Eda Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, I was ready to take my bag and my dancing feet (which had now been at it for the fifth hours) and just sit down and soak up the essence of Fela’s music, philosophy so perfectly distilled through, or should I say, invoked by, Dede as he started on ‘Teacher Don’t Teach Me Nonsense’. I sat back and just let it all sink in. The deep and powerful message. The drums. The horns. The keyboardists. The seductive and beautiful dancers (although I am yet to understand what the constant and highly sexualized rump-shaking and twisting have to do with the political and serious business of truth, justice and speaking up for the masses. However, Jahman [Anikulapo] explained that this was all part of the Fela persona/brand and was one of the reasons why some critics felt that Fela did not portray women positively).
Watching these brilliant dancers and singers representative of the women that were such a huge part of Fela’s life made me realise the instrumental and inspirational role they must have played in his life, his art and the quiet strength they must have been as they supported his music, art, life and expression. Much of this role was/has been downplayed and much of it highly sexualized – and I wondered if these amazing women even understood their power and influence and whether they were ever given due recognition, each of these women, as individuals in their own right.
It got me thinking on how many people in our highly patriarchal society objectify women and set them up as props/accessories to the success of the one dominant, strong, male figure whereas without them, he would not be standing as firmly. I thought this should be further examined. And consciously went back to just enjoying the night, and the sheer, magical gift of Fela and Dede and all the amazing artists who had displayed God’s immense and generous gifts of dance, music, beauty, dazzle, courage this night and through Fela’s music and legacy which God has been using to teach about the rights and wrongs woven through the fabric of society. Truth. Justice. Standing for right. Even at a great cost to one self. (I know some will wonder how God can be involved in this discourse given the other aspects of the music – the women, the weed, the rebellion etc and I say: God will work through different people to pass on some of His truths).
We left Felabration Day 4 well past 2am. But it was worth every hour, ache and the recovery time on Saturday (we middle-aged people take longer to recover from dancing the night away).
Congratulations to the Kuti family, the Felabration team, Freedom Park and thank you for reminding us year on year through Felabration that the journey to true freedom starts with being true first to yourself and then to those around you. ‘You shall know the truth and it shall set you free.’
May we take the fight for truth, justice and peace which Fela sought throughout his life to even greater heights and may our land be truly free one day. Amen.
Happy Felabration Week.
*This review was originally written for the Lagos Jazz Society.
