As parts of Lagos recorded heavy rainfall on Monday morning, little did Nigerians, nay the world knew that the last rain for the Rainmaker, Majekodunmi Fasheke, popularly known as Majek Fashek, would fall in far away New York later that evening.
Majority of Lagosians woke up to the news of the reggae music legend’s passing on Tuesday during another round of heavy rainfall, reminiscent of 1978 when thunderstorms heralded the death of theatre icon, Duro Ladipo.
“Today had pressure calls. Well, it is true that the African No 1 Legendary ICON has gone to be with the LORD his Maker. Let’s celebrate him, his achievements, and his family. Whatever decisions made by his immediate family will be notified,” his grieving manager and publicist, Omenka Uzoma, said somewhat incoherently in an Instagram post on Tuesday morning.
Uzoma didn’t disclose the cause of death of the artist who had last year been spirited to the UK for treatment after he fell sick. Nigerians of goodwill, including billionaire Femi Otedola, had rallied round and ensured that he was treated at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in London. He was later moved to the US in January to be with his family and where he breathed his last.
Talented and irrepressible with revolutionary zeal and populist lyrics, protest musicians didn’t come better than the late Edo-State born musician. But he threw all away with substance abuse.
Majek spoke truth to power in the only way he knew: through songs – stirring lyrics with beautiful beats. None of the ills afflicting Nigeria escaped his lens as he promoted ethnic and religious harmony, fought for the oppressed and spoke out against oppression. The reggae music legend who only clocked 58 on February 7, 2020. He also offered hope and promoted Nigeria with his songs.
Right from his debut ‘Prisoner of Conscience’ album in 1988 to his last, ‘Little Patience’ (2005), Majek delighted and instructed the world with his self-styled ‘Kpangolo’ brand of reggae. The artist, who grew up in an Aladura church and was a Rasta, also had a whiff of the supernatural around him, especially with the monstrous hit, ‘Send Down the Rain’. Rain reportedly fell whenever he performed the number, and it wasn’t a surprise that that debut album fetched him six PMAN Awards the following year. They included Song of the Year, Album of the Year, and Reggae Artist of the Year.
If ‘Prisoner of Conscience’ gained him popularity in Nigeria, his sophomore, ‘So Long for Too Long’ (1991) roused Africans with its strong political content. It also fetched him global acclaim. “Arise from your sleep Africa/Arise from your sleep America/There’s work to be done Africa,” he charged his African brethren on the development of the continent.
He burnished his credentials as a pan-Africanist with 1992’s ‘Free Africa, Free Mandela’ demanding the release of the Madiba, Nelson Mandela, who was then in jail. Majek also reiterated the importance of cooperation among Africans in ‘African Unity’. “When will the African people unite/When will the African people come together/ Europeans, Americans getting stronger every day/ And there is disunity among the African people,” he soulfully wailed. He was among the voices that condemned Xenophobic attacks in South Africa in 2019.
The late 90s and early 2000s was a fertile period for the music star with a Bini mother and Yoruba father who spent his formative years in the ancient Benin City. He collaborated with some international artists including Tracy Chapman, Jimmy Cliff, Michael Jackson and Snoop Dogg. He also featured in some Nigerian movies including ‘Mark of the Beast’.
It was also the period when he started looking to the US, which he had earlier denigrated in ‘Majek in a New York’, as his next region of domination.
“..When you look to the right, you look to the left/You look down the south, up to the north/What you see is confusion, Tre, tre, tre, tatitre/When you look to the right, you look to the left/You look down the south, up to the north/What you see is destruction, Tre, tre, tre, tatitre/When you look to the right, you look to the left/You look down the south, up to the north/What you see is illusion, Tre, tre, tre, tatitre,” he noted in the number.
But he failed to heed his own warnings. Things didn’t work out as he planned. Majek started abusing substances, and his career nosedived. He tried a comeback with the smooth ‘Little Patience’, but he was too far gone. In 2015, he spent some time in a drug rehabilitation centre in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
There were rumours of his death in 2019, but his manager debunked them. News of his poor health emerged after this with Nigerians coming to his assistance. He was still convalescing in the US with his family, whom he had been estranged with for about ten years before his rain stopped pouring on Monday.
So long, inimitable Rainmaker.