At times like today when all the news makes me gloomy and anxious for my adopted country, it is important to seek the positives. Right now, as we suffer from economic epilepsy, security dyspepsia and political dementia, it can be tough to be upbeat when talking to overseas friends and contacts.
Consistently the brightest stars we do have in our darkening skies are in the world of the arts. Nollywood and our developing film and video industries are already seen as a strong voice for Naija. True, to non-Nigerians the subject matter can tend to the arcane but the quality of writing, filming, editing and producing has been improving significantly. Our actors make up with intensity and gusto for any other flaws. Music is also a major source of inspiration. “Fela, the Musical” is still on tour and enthralling audiences globally and Femi and Seun continue to pack major venues throughout the world. Despite D’Banj’s public financial woes, our AfroPop and other younger musical genres are gaining real credibility. Our current female writers Chimamanda Adichie, Sefi Atta and Lola Shoneyin are making waves internationally and reflect the brightest of talent.
I was delighted, last week, to witness the Globe Theatre production of Hamlet at the Muson starring our own Ladi Emeruwa as the eponymous hero. I am of a British generation brought up to enjoy Shakespeare and I must have seen the play a dozen times live or on film and I thought that Ladi’s was a laudable performance, technically and emotionally. Shakespeare’s verse can be tough and younger or less experienced actors can sometimes miss their breathing or timing. (I saw the British comic Lenny Henry’s Othello and he was engaging and powerful but still missed his breathing at times). Ladi spoke fast as the production was clearly destined to be timed at two and a half hours rather than the three plus which might have stretched a younger audience’s concentration, but his intonation was outstanding. The ensemble was strong, the production imaginative and it was a great evening that led me to bemoan, “Why o why do we not have more?” Shakespeare’s themes are universal and with family, magic, religion and political violence as directly relevant to African culture, they have inspired this continent’s playwrights from Soyinka to Fugard.
Anyway, to stay on message, our actors like Emeruwa, Ejiofor, Kae-Kazim and so on are also making waves internationally and representing this nation in an affirmative sense. All of these cultural ambassadors provide positive examples of Nigerian talent.
So, I have been particularly interested to see the development of one of the newer stars in the firmament. Born in 1998, so just 27, Onyeka Nwelue has already just published his third book, ‘Hip Hop Is Only For Children’. His first, a novel entitled ‘Abyssinian Boy’, is about the problems afflicting a mixed-race child of a South Indian Tamil Brahmin and his Igbo Christian wife. He wrote it during a six-month spell in India when still in his late teens. The book, published here in 2009 and in India in 2011, received considerable critical acclaim, winning the TM Aluko Prize for First Book and coming second for the Ibrahim Tahir Prize for Fiction from the Abuja Writers’ Forum. His second book, ‘Burnt’, is a narrative verse which has been translated into Spanish and with which he toured Europe. Nwelue lives mostly in Mexico where he originally went to teach at Instituto d’Amicis, but has now settled, though he does stay frequently in Paris where he seems to mix predominantly with the musical rather than the literary community. At least, according to his new book.
‘Hip Hop Is Only For Children’ (published by Hattus, Paris) is an informal analysis of the phenomenal success of Nigerian Hip Hop and ‘Afrobeats’ and is bound to upset a few people in the industry. Critical of why Nigerians should shun African mutual influences and adopt a watered-down American culture, Nwelue points a finger at the behaviour of some of our young stars. His research includes interviews, arguments, tours and close-up experiences with Whizkid, MC Galaxy, Davido, Jesse Jagz and many more of this generation. He is scathing of those whom he seems to think lose their musical and moral compass as soon as they become successful. In fact, upsetting people is a part of his vocabulary. He courts controversy as a way of inciting debate. He feeds off it and uses argument to generate energy.
This doesn’t seem to have done him any harm, as he has just been officially confirmed professor of African Studies at the University of Manipur in India. Yet, I don’t see him as an academic. I see him more as a literary hustler, or from his Igbo roots, a trader in creative youth culture. This is borne out by his answer to my question, at his age what does he teach? That he teaches “how entrepreneurship in the African creative industry can aid economic growth” and defines this as “translating original ideas into money-making creative ventures”. Good.
As we pass through these turbulent times and wonder where the hope and inspiration will come from, we can look to our creative and artistic community to lead the way. We should do all we can to support them.
Keith Richards
