#18. WHERE IS CHRISTOPHER OKIGBO'S VOICE?
WHERE IS CHRISTOPHER OKIGBO’S VOICE?
Photo credit: Internet Archives
Poet and Doctoral candidate (in Pharmacy o!) Moyo Orimoloye sent me the link to Christopher Okigbo’s voice shelved in the online archive of the British Library. For context, Christopher Okigbo was a poet and contemporary of Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka. In some quarters, he is described as the fourth element of the literary quartet. A native of present-day Anambra state, he was killed on the war front during the Biafran war. A violent end to his prodigious talent and a quick fix for the plagiarism claim that plagues his rather slim body of work. It was particularly refreshing to hear Okigbo speak about his practice as a poet in an affected Igbo accent. He was visiting London and seemed to be having a good time during this interview, blending shamanism with modernism in what appeared to be a top-of-the-cuff razzle-dazzle moment which bewildered his interviewer. Imagine my bewilderment when I found that the British Library had taken this interview away from public consumption. Hidden behind a wall that privileges research-only use. Very on brand for the British Library and other esteemed Western institutions that take archiving seriously. Is it not disgraceful that you must visit the British Library website to listen to a great poet from your country? Perhaps we should start a campaign: the where-is-Christopher-Okigbo’s-voice-campaign to liberate Okigbo’s voice from the British Library’s wall.
MOHBAD v. MARLIANS
Photo credit: Spotify
When a signed musician is at loggerheads with his record label, the world is usually silent, complacent, even aloof. Call it the passerby effect, but the Afrobeats industry has handed the allegations of assault against the person of Mohbad with levity.
It is not (or should not be) a trade hazard for a musician to break out of the stranglehold of his record labels with war wounds. Think Brymo, Kiss Daniel (he had to retire this version of his name and now Mohbad. Thankfully, Mohbad is not doing badly.
His parting song with the Marlian Records ‘Peace’ carries a dizzy dysphoria suffused with tongue-in-cheek humour and incantatory verses. Mohbad coasts behind the beat, side-stepping harmonised end ad-libs. The dominant mood is that of grief, loss, and abandonment.
A pitiable man mourns his lover who left him with cigarettes purchased in the informal retail arrangement of one stick at a time, consumed at the site of the purchase at Nigeria’s equivalent of the corner shop, aboki.
This clear lyric depicts a stark reality that Afrobeats is often accused of not achieving. This brings my focus to Mohbad, who followed ‘Peace’ with a more effective single, ‘Ask About Me’, after he parted ways with Naira Marley and Marlian Records.
Like its precursor, ‘Ask About Me’ (produced by the duo Niphykeys and Nektunez) also follows this kind of delivery. Mohbad is not-so-subtle with his threats. He chants incantations on the ubiquity of death. He also marked Lagos as his territory. The tune is a masterclass on snide remarks and jabs. It is a clear middle finger to Naira Marley, but neatly done—and Mohbad has all of my blessings(pun intended).
I pray that his talent and hard work continue to flourish.
Asa at the Royal Albert Hall 2.0
Photo credit: Seun O.
She breezed through a 30-song-long set in about two hours in glitter shoes and a sequined shirt dress. What a showoff! It was a tight band with a big sound. Asa kept changing her string instruments to showcase her plucking skills. She also called attention to her vocal talents, her compositional and dancing skills. She even twerked! She had a good time and played a great show, pranced through her illustrious five-album studded career. She premiered an acoustic tune, ‘Odo’, a nod to Ghanaian Hip-life, perhaps vestiges of her tribute mode from her last album. Her stans sang along, and some stood up and danced in the sufficiently packed room.
For me, it was a pleasure yet again to see a master at the height of her powers...